#Myst iv revelation achenar good series

You can follow Art as Games on Twitter or friend me at username Art as Games on Steam. Thank you for reading! My next review will be posted in a few days. Hopefully it will be re-released to the mainstream someday, but for now, it remains a great example of video game art done well. Pirated versions are probably floating around out there, but this game can’t be found on Steam, GOG, Desura, or any of the other usual sources. Unfortunately, Myst IV: Revelation is not available as a digital download. It began with a confrontation against Atrus’s villainous sons, and our second encounter 20 in-game years later feels like the grand culmination of what we also saw in Riven and Exile. Even a walkthrough from the Internet cannot break this game’s mystical appeal. Its narrative is not without faults, but it feels like a fitting conclusion to the other Myst narratives we’ve seen thus far. Its gorgeous visuals create an immersive world, complimented by a beautiful soundtrack from Peter Gabriel and a host of believable sights and sounds. If the core of Revelation‘s game design has this many problems, why present it? Well, Revelation is an excellent example of… art as games. Revelation’s experiments with esoteric magic were not well-received by some fans, but we found them to be pretty in line with all the other experiments with esoteric magic we’ve seen thus far. It seems that Atrus was right to be skeptical that his sons had reformed. Atrus has gone missing, and Yeesha’s life hangs in the balance. Only by exploring their prison Ages can you learn enough about them to discern their next move. When you come to, they’ve kidnapped Yeesha and spirited her away to parts unknown. The story kicks off in earnest when the evil brothers break out of their prisons. Atrus has kept them imprisoned in their own Ages for the last 20 years. Remember Sirrus and Achenar, Atrus’s wayward sons? The dudes who tried to convince us to forsake Atrus in the first Myst, and who were directly responsible for the destruction of Saavedro’s home in Exile? Well, as it turns out, they’re not actually dead. It would take more than some stiffly choreographed fighting to detract from Revelation‘s main narrative. It’s like each actor went into the scene thinking “okay, I’m fighting. The acting is well-captured in Revelation but unintentionally comical, as with this over-played fight scene. It’s an impressive feat of video gaming and makes for an immersive world. These animations and sounds were also taken into account when rendering Myst IV‘s environments. Everything from the shifting of leaves to the flutter of a bird’s wings is there to complete the scene. Revelation‘s are bursting with movement and sound. Exile‘s environments added a bit more detail, but not a whole lot. They still felt immersive because of the music, but you’d otherwise feel like you were moving around in a picture.

Myst‘s environments were almost completely static. The primary difference between Myst IV‘s environments and those of its predecessors is the work that went into adding environmental effects. I can’t imagine how much of a nightmare it was to engineer hundreds of scenes like this, but it pays off splendidly. You can cast your gaze around the scene, and each point you can look at has been rendered to accommodate exploration. For a game that came out in 2004, Myst IV’s visuals are stunning.īecause Myst IV‘s visuals are pre-rendered, its graphics are competitive with games that came out even last year. Once again, things begin with the Stranger being summoned to Atrus’s home of Tomahna.This time it is Atrus’s daughter, Yeesha, who shows you around and acquaints you with the basic mechanics of the game. The Myst narrative seems to favor ten-year increments, because just as Exile took place a decade after Riven, Revelation starts off 10 years after the Stranger’s exploits in Exile. It went so far as to hire artists who specialized in point-and-click games to preserve Myst‘s aesthetic, and how many Triple-A studios go that far out of their way these days? In the days before starting up Uplay and casting aside its scruples, Ubisoft was a champion of indie projects. Its development was handled by our old friend Ubisoft, whose villainies I have railed against many times since taking up blogging. Myst IV: Revelation was the second Myst game in a row to be developed outside of Cyan Worlds. Revelation was a game that stirred controversy among many core fans, but it was critically acclaimed and a great deal of the fanbase still appreciated its achievements.

#Myst iv revelation achenar good series

For a series that has inspired millions of gamers worldwide, it feels weird to cover the whole thing in just a few weeks. It’s hard to believe, but we’re on the second-to-last Myst game already. Save everything that Atrus loves from the machinations of his villainous sons.