Return, if you will, to the world of the prolific D’Ni author Atrus, his wife Catherine, and their children Yeesha, Sirrus and Achenar: The gaming family that puts the fun in disfunctional. (Click on the pics to embiggen.)
Catherine believes that Sirrus and Achenar have seen the error of their ways. She wants Atrus to release them. Atrus isn’t so sure that they have fully repented. He wants you, now an old friend of the family, to help him check up on his sons and see just how reformed they are. He apparently trusts your unbiased opinion. Ah, yes… and the trust among his family’s members just warms the cockles of my heart.
Unfortunately, the viewing machine Atrus hopes to use to see into the prison worlds explodes, cutting power to the lab and the living quarters. He goes off to another Age to check up on a few things and get some tools, leaving you to restore power and keep an eye on Yeesha.
Because this is a Myst game, the situation grows worse. You knew it would, right? No sooner do you have the power restored than an earthquake hits, knocking you out. When you come to, Yeesha has disappeared, and it’s up to you, oh faithful traveler, to set things right yet again. (One wonders why you keep coming back!)
In Myst IV, the third-person style of movement used in Uru is gone. Because the graphics are pre-rendered, the new game returns to the point-and-click style of movement used by the first three Myst installments.
The cursor is a hand that signals available actions. When you can move forward, it points. When there’s something interesting to look at, it whips out a magnifying glass. A flick of the fingers turns the pages of a book. It reaches out to grasp door handles and drawer pulls. It can even catch a bubble. Tapping on any surface results in a “tap tap” sound appropriate to the material the surface is made of.
In almost every scene there is some type of 3D movement. Water sparkles as it flows, clouds cast shadows as they whisp across the sun, leaves move in the wind, dust motes dance through sunbeams, stars twinkle, birds flit, insects buzz — the environment is amazingly emersive. The soundtrack, which includes music by Jack Wall and Peter Gabriel, enhances the gameplay without being intrusive.
You are going to want to spend a lot of time looking around because the graphics are simply wonderful. Take your time. In true Myst tradition, you can’t be killed and actions need not be performed in any specific order. So check things out. At each hop on your journey, the world around you is visible in full 360-degree, up-and-down splendor. If Tomahna is beautiful in the daylight, after dark it is breathtaking. Still pictures do not begin to do justice to what you will find inside this game. If Myst IV had been created in full 3D, it would blow Doom 3 all to… well… hell.
There are some 70 minutes of real time video included. It blends in almost seamlessly. And the acting, thankfully, is relatively decent.
The plot, also unobtrusive, takes you back and forth between four different Ages. In Tomahna, Atrus and the gang live in a series of domes built on the walls of canyon and connected by walkways and bridges. Your adventure starts with getting the power restored. Yeesha hangs around providing commentary and hints — until she disappears.
The prison Ages can be visited in either order without changing the results of the game.
Haven is teaming with life — much of it that can be interacted with. Try tapping a crab or one of the “frogs.” Animals, both herbivore and preditor, crash by you in the jungle, and you can hear the calls of unseen animals in the trees. Listen closely! Haven’s settings include a beach, complete with a shipwreck partially buried prow-up in the sand, and the jungle maze.
Spire, on the other hand, is a world of jagged peaks and floating rocks with stormy clouds for ceiling and floor. There seems to be very little living on Spire. Except Sirrus, that is. But it is a fascinating, if bleak, world to explore.
Serenia is a lovely world of plashing streams, stone forests and peaceful inhabitants that want nothing more than to be left alone to Dream their ancestors’ memories. A perfect place for the boys, Sirrus and Achenar, to hatch their plots.
During play, you acquire a very useful amulet. If it begins flashing while you are examining something, clicking on the amulet will start a cut-scene that gives you more background, information and clues. You can also use it to have journals read in the author’s voice, although you still have to turn the pages.
New to Myst IV are a camera, handy for taking snapshots of clues, and a journal used for taking notes and storing pictures snapped with the camera. These reduce the need to have a notepad handy. But because it’s impossible to have both the journal and a puzzle visible at the same time, I found I still needed paper. And taking a lot of pictures slows down the game, making it advantageous to delete pictures when they are no longer needed.
In all of these ages there are, of course, secrets to discover and puzzles to solve. Unlike some adventure games, the puzzles fit into the environment well. They have logical uses and take logical shape given the nature of the character that created each. Some are challenging, but none are impossible to solve. Plenty of clues are given and no necessary information is withheld.
My one beef with the puzzles regards three that don’t really fit the traditional Myst mold. The first puzzle in the game involves matching an audio frequency. Although Atrus, who is still around at that point, helps you out with hints, it’s hard to do with mouse movements and seems to take an extraordinarily long time to complete. It’s almost maddening to hear Atrus say, “Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have told you to do that.” And there are two puzzles that require turning wheels to make sounds. One of these has a time limit. It’s hard to turn the wheels exactly the right amount with a mouse, which makes it hard to beat the clock. These three puzzles rapidly stop being challenging and start being frustrating.
Also new to Myst IV is a help system that provides varying levels of maps, clues, and downright solutions, to the puzzles. When using the help system, you are warned that wimping out will change your gameplay.
There are three possible endings, two that get you killed. If you choose the “correct” final action, then the third ending is both satisfying and less hokey than that of many adventure games.
The interface is OK. I like that there are virtually no items to carry in the inventory. I don’t like the inventory being always visible. The screen has a black band at the top that’s vacant and a black band at the bottom for the inventory. It’s nice that the picture is in wide-screen format, but I’d rather have a taller screen and a pop-up inventory. But then, I suppose, the amulet would not be visible and it would be harder to know when to use it. The highest resolution available is 1024 x 768, which is OK with me, but might be of concern to those who have better monitors than mine.
Myst IV ships exclusively on two DVDs, so do not pass go unless your setup includes a DVD drive. Make sure that your computer meets at least the minimum system requirements before purchasing. Remember that these are the minimum, and your gaming experience will be richer if your system exceeds them.
Some players are reporting problems with their DVD drives, most likely caused by Macrovision’s SafeDisk copy protection software. Check on Ubi’s forums for discussion and a list of DVD drives (mostly newer DVD-RW drives) that are known to have problems running Myst IV.
On my computer, Myst IV installed and ran without a hitch. Ubi suggests updating all drivers and firmware before installing, and removing one DVD if you have two installed. But, if your DVD burner is one that has “issues,” Ubi’s only remedy appears to be to buying a cheap DVD-R drive in the hope that works.
Included in the Myst IV package is Myst III: Exile on DVD — a nice touch.
If you prefer blowing the moon away to watching clouds scud across it, or blasting little monkey-looking things to learning their language, then this is probably not the game for you. But if you have enjoyed the Myst series, this game makes a welcome and worthy addition that is more true to the original than either Riven or Exile.
Mom’s take: 
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I think you’re generally safe in the stands unless you’re a drunken fan who throws stuff at players. It’s wrong for the players to assault you for that, but security obviously couldn’t handle this game when it got out of control.
1Remark from monkeyinabox — Monday, 11/22/2004 @ 3:39 pm PST
Why you should have to worry about being “safe” at a basketball game — whether you are a playeror a fan? Basketball is not a blood sport. Throwing things at people is not OK. Hitting, pushing and shoving are not OK. This is kindergarten stuff, not something one would expect to have to teach grown men.
2Remark from Judy — Monday, 11/22/2004 @ 4:55 pm PST