Myst IV: Revelation

A deeply flawed and frustrating follow-up to Exile. Recently considered a replay but recalled the tedious, inorganic and infuriating puzzles and decided against it. Beautiful environments and an unexpected (and awesome) appearance by Peter Gabriel are the highlights, but I hate to admit the overall puzzle design and certain game mechanics overshadow the positive. Presto Studios should have been at the helm for this one.

Tylko jako retro ciekawostka narracyjno-przygodowa sprzed ponad dwóch dekad.

I can't in good conscience recommend this. Man I really wanted to like it. And it does have some cool ideas and set pieces. But the timing puzzles are beyond aggravating because the hit detection is so finicky. And the levels are confusing to navigate and have nothing to do with each other except for all of them having a bs climactic puzzle, which is a darn shame because they are gorgeous! It also borrows overmuch from previous games in the series. My playtime for this was slightly longer than my playtime for Riven, but not because it's large like Riven, it's just that mazelike and slow. I didn't have to draw a map for any of the previous games just to make sense of how the screens are connected. You know as an aside it really is curious what an artifact of the y2k era these save-the-rainforest type narrative motifs are. It feels kind of trite now.

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Myst was amazing. Riven was great. Exile was alright. Revelation is horrible. Puzzles tied to your framerate, that are frustrating enough already and just horrible design all around. The story is interesting, but the rest of the game really drags it down. I'm very reluctant to play the remaining two games.

Art design, nailed it Sound design, nailed it Story, sorta ok Gameplay design, failed it

Can't finish this game due to the jumping mouse bug. Light puzzle in Serenia is impossible to finish because the mouse makes sudden jumps ruining it. Yes changing a setting to 125hz does help for the rest of the game does help, but for this specific puzzle it's still to much jumping. From al Myst games I've replayed this far this is the one that aged the worse, despite being the second youngest. Going to quit this game, watch the ending on youtube and start part V in the hopes that one aged better.

Though not as bad a father as Ghen was to him, Atrus is a bad father, but he is trying to do better. Yeesha seems to be turning out okay, and maybe one of the sons is repentant.