Myst IV: Revelation
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| Developer(s) | Ubisoft Montreal |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Designer(s) | Mary DeMarle, Patrick Fortier |
| Engine | ALIVE Engine |
| Release date(s) | (Win) September 10, 2004 September 28, 2004 September 29, 2004 September 30, 2004 December 15, 2004(Mac OS X) September 10, 2004 September 29, 2004(Xbox) March 28, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) PEGI: 7+ PEGI: 6+ (PT) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Xbox |
| Media | DVD-ROM |
| System requirements | PC: Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, 700 MHz Pentium III or AMD Athlon, 128 MB of RAM (256 MB for Windows XP), 32 MB video card, DirectX 9.0 compliant sound card, 4X DVD Drive, 3 GB of Hard Drive Space (8 GB recommended), 800x600 display Mac: G4 667 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB video RAM, Nvidia GeForce 2, 4, or FX, or ATI 7500–9600, DVD-drive, Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or later |
| Input | Mouse |
Myst IV: Revelation is the fourth installment in the Myst computer game series, developed and published by Ubisoft.
Similar to Myst III: Exile, Revelation uses smooth panoramic pre-rendered graphics with integrated animation, but it adds real-time 3D effects for added realism, increasing the system requirements over previous Myst titles. Also added was a revamp to the "Zip" mode of moving around.
Myst IV is the first game for PC released exclusively on a DVD-ROM format: a multiple CD-ROM version was not made. While previous games have been released on DVD-ROM, this was usually after the release of a CD-ROM version, with the DVD-ROM reprints only made in very low numbers. In contrast, the makers of Myst IV hope that their use of the DVD will encourage other developers to choose this format, similar to how the original Myst was released exclusively on CD-ROM (at a time when most games were also released on multiple floppy disks) and encouraged other developers to utilize the format. If a CD-ROM version of the game was released, however, it would take up to twelve CDs. [1]
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[edit] Storyline
Atrus (played by Rand Miller) calls the Stranger (the player) back once more to Tomahna, this time to help him decide what to do with his sons, Sirrus and Achenar. It has been twenty years since their imprisonment, and Atrus wonders if that has been long enough for them to have repented for the crimes they committed in the original Myst. After an explosion knocks the Stranger unconscious, he/she realizes that Yeesha, Atrus's daughter, has disappeared. While searching for her, the Stranger uncovers the two prison books, Spire and Haven, in which Sirrus and Achenar were imprisoned twenty years ago. The Stranger explores these ages and uncovers the truth about Sirrus and Achenar, and must save Yeesha from their horrid plan that they had set in motion long ago on Serenia.
[edit] Alternate Endings
- In the scene with the silver and amber levers, not pulling any levers allows Sirrus (in Yeesha's body) to break free and kill the Stranger and Achenar.
- Pulling the wrong lever has similar results.
[edit] Ages
As in other Myst games, the player will travel to other worlds ('Ages'). Ages visited in Myst IV are:
- Tomahna - Atrus, Catherine, and Yeesha's home, located on earth in the New Mexico desert.
- Haven - Achenar's prison Age
- Serenia - Catherine's Age of dreams
- Spire - Sirrus's prison Age
[edit] Technology
The game breaks new ground in the, according to some, slowly dying field of prerendered games. Like Myst III: Exile, the game has full 360° panoramic environments with two-dimensional panning in each location, allowing the user to look up/down and left/right at the same time.
Unlike the previous games Myst, Riven and Exile, which only occasionally displayed video animation for key objects in the game and had algorithms that slowly squished water pixels up and down, Myst IV uses its "ALIVE" engine to animate nearly everything in the game. The water animations, for example, are fully rendered for each location. The trees sway in the breeze, and the sky has moving clouds. Also, a great deal of wildlife is seen - not just birds in the sky, but creatures that walk through the environment and occasionally interact with the player, such as a frog that hops away when you "poke" it with the 3-D hand cursor.
Also, the game features a number of effects applied in realtime, such as lens flares, dynamic lighting and an optional focal blur.
The "zip" mode, featured in previous games, is much improved in Myst IV. In past games, a lightning bolt would appear, allowing the player to skip over several nodes. Now, little thumbnails appear which one can click to skip as many nodes as necessary to return instantantly to one of several previously visited locations.
The game raised the bar for sound design as well. Myst IV contains many hotspots in each location which serve as "sound hotspots" - by clicking on almost any surface in the game, the player's "hand" (mouse cursor) taps the surface, and a realistic sound effect for that material is played. A new narrative technique is also introduced in the game - that of Yeesha's amulet, a mystical shell from Serenia that shows the player memories from characters in the game. There is also a camera that can be used to photograph any location. It is also possible to type notes next to each photograph. The camera is a useful alternative to taking notes on paper in order to solve the puzzles. The original Myst game came with a journal for this purpose, and it also came with an envelope of hints; similarly, Myst IV has an in-game help system.
Finally, the game makes extensive use of live-action video sequences. In a trend started by the original Myst, the game uses live actors to play all of the game's roles, including series co-creator Rand Miller, who again plays the part of Atrus. The video is more pristine, cleaner and larger than in the predecessors. There is also a lot more video - over 70 minutes, and, similar to a handful of scenes in Myst III, the game usually allows players to look around and sometimes interact with the video while it is playing.
The game features a voice actor who plays Catherine, and also features the music and voice of Peter Gabriel.
[edit] External links
[edit] Fan sites
- MYSTerium.ch fan site with news and background information
- MYSTobsession fan site with news and background information
- DutchMYSTCommunity Dutch fan site with news and background information (Dutch spoken)
- esD'ni - Spanish fan site
- EsDniEcp v.2.0 - The Spanish MYST Enciclopedya
[edit] Notes
- ^ Miller, Jennifer and Sluganski, Randy: "Myst IV Revelation Q&A - Genevieve Lord, producer", Just Adventure, 2004
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Myst • Riven • Myst III • Myst IV • Uru / Uru Live • Myst V |
