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Presence Examples From Canda's National Post newspaper Gamers prepare to sacrifice hundreds of hours to the magic of Myst Marc Saltzman National Post MYST IV: REVELATION Windows and Macintosh The latest incarnation in the multi-million-unit-selling Myst franchise is not only the most life-like adventure in the series to date, but it's arguably the closest thing we've seen to virtual reality in a computer game. The environments in Myst IV: Revelation, which took more than three years to create at Ubisoft's Montreal studios, are so lifelike that you'll want to touch the water, trees and rocks. In fact, you can. Resembling a small hand, the mouse cursor lets users interact with the world, such as by drawing a letter "s" in the water or grasping a drawer handle and pulling back on the mouse to open it. Look up in the sky and the sun's rays pierce through drifting clouds. More than 70 minutes of full-motion video, including actors who walk and talk with you, add nicely to the realism. This is certainly a departure from the 11-year-old Myst, a game that, while popular, was condemned by some critics as an interactive coffee table book. It felt lifeless because of the static images gamers had to clicthrough, not to mention there was no one to interact with. No such problems here. For the uninitiated, the Myst games are best described as a point-and-click adventure played from a first-person perspective, where players must use the mouse to navigate around a surreal island and through various "ages," all the while solving tough brainteasers in order to accomplish the game's goals. Puzzles vary from pulling the right levers and gears to reading notes and applying the correct clues to manipulating an object. The tough puzzles remain in Myst IV, but now players can adjust the level of hints (or take none at all) so no player should get stuck on the journey (after all, there's a reason why the original Myst hint book sold more than a million copies). Also designed to help gamers along is a new "amulet" feature in the game. Players can find objects that offer clues to solving the riddles, including audio or video clips. Players can also use a camera to take photos of objects, diagrams or book text for future reference. Descriptive text can be added to each snapshot, if so desired. This journal becomes an integral part of the adventure. Even still, trying to electromagnetically charge the "Rockship" to reach its docking station in the Spire Age proved near impossible. And this was only a couple of hours into the game. The story surrounds the two evil brothers introduced in the first title, Sirrus and Achenar, who remain trapped in separate prison worlds for committing unforgivable crimes. Their father, Atrus (played by Myst co-creator Rand Miller) suspects their involvement in the disappearance of Atrus's young daughter, and you're asked to travel to various worlds to solve this mystery. Myst IV isn't as linear as previous editions, now player decisions can affect the storyline, outcome and ending. The game's music is as impressive as its visuals. Pop singer Peter Gabriel has teamed up with composer Jack Wall to provide a beautiful ambient soundtrack. Myst IV Revelation ships on two DVDs, therefore a Windows or Mac computer with a DVD-ROM drive is required to play the game. And get this -- the full install requires a whopping eight gigabytes of hard drive space on your computer, while the partial install is 3.5 gigs. (8GB is huge. By comparison, Madden NFL 2005 is 2GB, Full Spectrum Warrior is 1.7GB and Chessmaster 10th Edition is 570MB.) A third disc containing 2001's Myst III: Exile is also included in the box as a bonus. Incredible production values notwithstanding, gamers who do not have the patience to solve tough conundrums shouldn't invest in this adventure game. But for fans of the Myst series or those who prefer a slower-paced journey with challenging puzzles, you won't find a better PC game this year. Rating Three1/2 (out of four) |