All images in this review are property of Ubi Soft Entertainment™

Review by Bert Jamin
With special thanks to Cess Campbell

© November 2004 Bert Jamin (www.gamesover.com)
This review may not be sold and may not be used for any commercial purposes. Neither is it permitted to publish this review in any way without the written permission of the author Bert Jamin (www.gamesover.com) and his E-mail address (gamesover@planet.nl) are mentioned unchanged. For the most up to date reviews and walkthroughs always visit www.gamesover.com. If you have any suggestions to improve this review, let me know by sending me an email: gamesover@planet.nl.

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Tomahna
Spire
Serenia I
Haven
Serenia II

 

The Story

Myst Revelation is the sequel to the adventures Myst and Riven. Anyone who has played these adventures knows that Sirrus and Achenar, the sons of Atrus and Catherine, have been banned to the Prison Ages of Spire and Haven. This is because of the disasters both sons caused about twenty years ago by destroying many of the Ages Atrus built. That's why Atrus purposely destroyed the linking books from those Prison Ages. Since then, Sirrus and Achenar have been unable to return to the family residence in Tomahna. That is...!?!?

 

Since then, Atrus and Catherine have been living peacefully with their little daughter Yeesha in wonderful Tomahna. Over the last few years, however, Catherine wants to see her two sons more and more often and for this reason, Atrus has built linking chambers to those Prison Ages. Along whit that he has of course taken the necessary precautionary measures to be certain that any visits consist  of one-way traffic only. Until recently Atrus had no intention to set both of his sons free. The risk of repetition of the disasters that took place in Myst and Riven caused by both brothers, was simply much too high for Atrus.

 

 Catherine however disagreed. In her opinion, the two sons should have come to their senses over the years. The resentment between Atrus and Catherine about this has been growing over the last months. This resulted in Catherine's departure for one of those Prison Ages, leaving Atrus and Yeesha behind in Tomahna. So the story begins with Atrus asking for your help as an unbiased friend of the family to give an objective opinion about the fate of Sirrus' and Achenar's future. Almost immediately after your arrival in Tomahna, several things go very wrong. Two unexplained explosions take place which lead to a new and tense adventure.

 

The explosions leave you behind in Tomahna with Yeesha. At least that's what you think. But, even though Atrus has expressly requested that you keep an eye on Yeesha, you can't find her anywhere. The only solution is for you to go to the Prison Ages before it is too late for Yeesha.

 

 

 While visiting the Prison Ages you'll learn that Sirrus and Achenar invented the most incredible things to set themselves free. In the 20 years of imprisonment they really came up with the most ingenious ideas to escape from their Prison Age. They also built the most marvelous and ingenious devices and instruments to accomplish this end. They not only used their little sister Yeesha to acquire their freedom but one of them also made a plan for the assassination of his own father and mother.

 

Your goal is to find out which of the two brothers speak the truth and which of them is lying. The only way to do this is to travel to the Prison Ages and see what they have been up to. Be prepared for many surprises. You'll also find out that both brothers, despiteAtrus' precautions, have found a way to escape from their Prison Ages and to go to a new world, called Serenia. But before going there both brothers decide to pay a little visit to Tomahna. In Serenia they combine their strengths to set themselves free once and for all and to set a trap for their father. Your goal is to prevent them from succeeding in those plans.

 

One of the two brothers has even gone as far as to take the spirit of his little sister Yeesha. You must determine which of the two brothers you can believe and how to retrieve the spirit of the other brother out of Yeesha's spirit so that living in Tomahna will become normal again. Un fortunately it could take many years before things are back to normal. Because the events that are taking place, are far too serious and emotional.

 

This is, in short. the story of Myst 4, Revelation. Of course I could tell you more about it, but that would give away too much of this beautiful story. I will tell you that your visits to the different Prison Ages will be very impressive. It really is incredible what the brothers came up with during the twenty years of imprisonment to set themselves free. One of the best things is that you must explore the complete process upon your arrival in each Prison Age to set yourself free again. You'll also discover the horrible truth about the plans of the two brothers.

 

You will also discover that no effort has been too much for them. Even with their many instructions it still will be a hell of a job to escape from the Prison Ages and save Atrus' and Yeesha's life.

 

Is it a good game?

As I mentioned, Revelation is the sequel to the earlier Myst adventures. These adventures were real classics right from the start. This means that the developers of Revelation had to do even better with this game. The question is of course, have they succeeded. Well, the answer to that question is short and clear: without any doubt! Ubisoft has succeeded in making another real classic. In my opinion, this is by far the very best game I ever played, and that says a lot.

 

Not only does the story stand like a rock but also the way in which you'll unravel the truth, is really amazing. This really is one of those adventures in which  you are sitting at the edge of your chair from the beginning to the very end and while going from one amazing thing to another. So along with the breathtaking graphics, the excellent acting and the touching music, you will agree that Ubisoft has created a new standard with Revelation. My absolute favorite actor in the previous Myst (Exile) was Saveedro but in Revelation all the actors are my favorites. In fact, the performance of Yeesha is at such a high level that you'll remember her for a very long time. And the same goes for Sirrus and Achenar. In one word: superb!  That brings me to the next question.

 

 

Is it a difficult game?

The puzzles in Revelation differ from rather easy to considerably spicy. I'm sure that even some fanatical adventure gamers will have to peak at my walkthrough for the solution to one or two (or even more?) of the most difficult puzzles. Remember my words when you have to solve the Mangree puzzle, or the puzzle where you have to lower the drawbridge by using the correct order of images on totems you've found and last but not least the puzzle where you have to open four crystal locks at the same time at the end of the game. Try these without my walkthrough and I'll bet that these puzzles will keep you off the streets for many days (just like it did for me ;o). But hey... that is what adventure games are all about, right? One thing is certain: none of the puzzles are illogical, annoying or impossible! By using your common sense you'll be able to solve most of the puzzles without any help. And for those who aren't able to solve them, the game has a built-in-hint-system!

 

 

Final conclusion

Are there any points of criticism about Revelation? Well, to be honest with you, no, I haven't found any points of criticism. I only can say: Superb job UbiSoft! Thanks a lot for the many hours of thrilling game play. My overall advice: hurry down to the store and get your own Myst Revelation A.S.A.P.!!! This game is an absolute MUST for every adventure gamer!!! I'm 100% certain that you'll enjoy Revelation as much as I did. The only complaint I can come up with is that after a lot of hours of game play it is Game's Over  ;o). This really is one of the adventures you really would like to last forever! But you will remember this game a very long time as one of the very best ever!

Bert Jamin, 1 November 2004 ( www.gamesover.com )

 

PC System Requirements:

*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release Laptop models of these cards not supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. Additional chipsets may be supported after release. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game on Ubi's support website at http://support.ubi.com.

Mac® System Requirements: *Supported Video Cards at Time of Release Laptop models of these cards not fully supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. Additional chipsets may be supported after release. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game on Ubi's support website at http://support.ubi.com.

Patch

UbiSoft published a patch for Revelation. Here's what the patch fixes:

Radeon 7000-7500 fixes random square all over spire (workaround around an ATI driver bug). FIXED
Timing of the splinter cell puzzle (spire) tweaked to be less time sensitive. FIXED
Timing of the Mangree puzzle is tweaked to be less time sensitive. FIXED
Fixes a random crash when resetting the Mangree puzzle. FIXED
Version number of the game is now displayed on the bottom left of the main menu. FIXED
Size of the save game will be lowered after taking a lot of pictures. FIXED
Workaround for the ATI driver bug that was making the game crash on the Radeon 7500 on Windows XP in the second node of the observatory and at random places. FIXED with driver catalyst 4.9 and 4.10

The patch is about 41 Mb and can be found at: http://ftp.ubi.com/us/games/mystiv/patches/M4RPatchPC_1.00_To_1.01.exe