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| 24 FEB 2005 at 10:09pm |
Pastor DisasterJourneyman
Posts : 1056
Joined: 14 DEC 2004
Status : Online | As much as I would love to write a review of Myst IV: Revelation, I am encountering a major dilemma. Some very insightful people with a lot of spare time on their hands have already written some phenomenal reviews of it at this site—not just in the main “Reviews” section but in this forum as well. So what do I do? I loved the game and could rave about all the incredible aspects to it that made it well worth the money spent (both on the game itself and on a new computer & video card to run it), and the time spent to complete it (which turned my beloved into a “Myst widow” for a week). But all I would accomplish by that is to duplicate, mostly in an inferior way, the insights of the reviews already posted.
Instead, I decided to post a few rants about some of the downsides, most of which, I think, have not been stated before. Don’t get me wrong—I would buy this game again in a heartbeat, if for no other reason than the breathtaking visuals! These are only my nitpicky disappointments in an otherwise phenomenal game. So consider this less of a review of Myst IV and more of a contribution to the opinions being collected here regarding the game.
WARNING: I won’t give away any puzzle solutions, but there will be some spoilers.
Rant #1: Mapping
Years ago I bought one of the Spyro the Dragon games for my Playstation. I like buying “E”-rated games because I can play them in front of my kids without scarring them for life (I already do plenty of other things to scar them for life). It had a cool feature to it that I thought was rather clever: the Automap. When you entered a new location, the game automatically mapped out any area you actually looked at (so for wider spaces, it was worth taking a moment to spin around 360 degrees). Little did I realize how rare this feature is. The only other time I have seen it is on my old Descent II game. Why can’t adventure games at least offer this as an option?? Fine, don’t give us the whole map up front, but at least save us the effort of having to painstakingly draw diagrams for every world we land in! There were two worlds (you know which ones) that I had to sketch out a map of—and boy, was it annoying. First of all, I can’t draw. Okay, if every path went at right angles, maybe I could do it. But when you have paths looping around and curving oh-so-slightly, it means I have to estimate the angle. I mentioned somewhere else on this forum drawing a map for one of the worlds, only to discover I had drawn the same path twice, and at a right angle to itself. Second, I never pick the starting point on the paper correctly. Invariably at some point I run off one edge of the paper only to have an entire half of the page left blank. Grr! Okay, so maybe I’m being a baby about this. Still, the least they could do is offer it as an option if they’re going to have worlds where every node looks virtually identical.
Rant #2: Dream
Some of you may suspect that my beef with the “Dream” world is theological. Not really—I recognize that Myst is FICTION, so I don’t consider new age ancestor veneration to be an attack on my theology. I just found it to be slow and rather silly. I have heard similar complaints about some of the theology/philosophy in Uru, but I have not played that one. It just seemed to be a substantial deviation from the first three Myst games. And by the way, have you ever noticed that in these sorts of settings, the “wise” people always fall into one of three categories? They are always either (a) women; (b) old men; or (c) racial minorities, preferably Asian or Native American, but African or Hispanic will do in a pinch. I guess middle-aged white guys must be legendary for not achieving “guru” status (with the exception, perhaps, of Dilbert).
Continued...
Dyslexics wonder why there isn't a word that means the same thing as "cinnamon."
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| 24 FEB 2005 at 10:10pm |
Pastor DisasterJourneyman
Posts : 1056
Joined: 14 DEC 2004
Status : Online | Rant #3: Acting
Now here I just have to say the reviewers are wrong. The acting universally stinks! Okay, when compared to other adventure games (e.g., Myst III), sure it is a lot better. But compare it to even mediocre acting in the movies. What’s the problem—put a person in front of a camera with a green-screen behind them, and suddenly they can’t act? I wanted to slap the serenity out of the gurus. Yeesha was amazingly unemotional at all times, even when her life was being threatened. Atrus…well, maybe I just grew up too Lutheran, but Atrus gave me WAY too much eye contact in conversation. Achenar wasn’t quite as over-the-top as Saavedro (sp?) was in Myst III, but he still didn’t convince me. Sirrus—now Sirrus I bought. Unfortunately, he acts visibly in what, all of three short scenes? I thought the bunny-monkeys in Haven were more believable than most of the humans.
Rant #4: Puzzle difficulty
Okay, okay. I am a self-confessed walkthrough-junkie. I admit it: if a puzzle takes me more than a day to figure out, I’m unabashedly surfing the web looking for a solution. But even I have standards for what makes a good puzzle. The bottom line is, after I am given the solution my response should be, “Ohhh, okay, I see it now.” That was my one complaint about Alkis’s incredible Other Worlds game: the action of taking a bath was, even in hindsight, not a reasonable step to take. But that pales in comparison to the now legendary spider-chair puzzle. Boy, did I ever cheat on that one! But even in hindsight, I still have not figured out why the “harmonics” worked the way they did! Maybe on my second time through, I’ll figure it out. But that was just shamefully difficult—at least for me. And if it wasn’t hard for you, I don’t want to hear it, Poindexter.
Rant #5: Ending
What is it with Myst and the inability to end a game well? Either it’s way too anticlimactic (Myst) or it’s full of heavy-handed platitudes about life (Riven and Revelation). Come on! Give me a good, high-visual action sequence to wrap it up with. Oh, and Yeesha, how about a fricking thank-you, you little punk?!
Rant #6: Logical errors
I already mentioned in another thread the continuity error regarding Achenar’s voice. In Myst, he’s a psycho-giggly tenor. Now all of a sudden he’s a gruff, barbaric baritone. In the first, he reminded me of the freaky Nazi archaeologist from Raiders of the Lost Ark (“I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!” “Hehehe…yesss, I know you will.”). In Myst IV, he reminds me more of Lou Ferrigno in The Incredible Hulk. Which is he, a twisted Dr. Jekyll or a reformed Mr. Hyde? The other logical error I found was regarding Spire. Think this over: a world consisting of nothing but a mountaintop (or at least that was all that was accessible to Sirrus and us), said mountaintop consisting of nothing but rock, crystal, apparently some metals or metallic structures, and an electrically charged atmosphere. Setting aside the more complex question of how Sirrus, having no foundry, was able to construct all of the machinery surrounding the spider chair, magnet ship, etc., I have a simpler question to ask. For ten years he was there all alone, right? What the heck did he eat?
Okay, that’s it. I got it out of my system. Now I can go back and PLAY IT AGAIN!! This time I’m turning on the “depth of focus” option and playing around with that. Tomahna, here I come!
Dyslexics wonder why there isn't a word that means the same thing as "cinnamon."
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| 8 MAR 2005 at 5:47pm |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Ooh, two variations of the same review - but one without spoilers! If only every reviewer was as nice as you.
Mapping
It would have been nice to have an auto-mapping feature. And not just that, but one that remains on-screen as you move around, so you can see where you are in relation to the world you are in! The much-criticized King's Quest: Mask of Eternity does have this in place. Makes moving around SO much easier. But it makes me obsessed w/ uncovering every part of the map.
Dream
So, let me see if I have this straight: you have a problem with women and minorities (who are typically under-represented everywhere else while white men get all the glory) being placed in such a high position of power?
I'll just stop right there.
Acting
For the most part, I agree with you. I don't mind Atrus's acting. It's nice to be considered a friend ... err, in the game, of course. I'm Miss Popularity in real life, doncha know. You complain about Achenar, but I didn't like the different Catherine they had.
Puzzles
No comment, as I can never figure out most ofo the puzzles in the Myst games anyway and just buy the strategy guides. I had a little better luck with Exile, but later on one of my sketches was wrong, so I just gave up.
Ending
"Thanks for solving my family's problems once again. I'm the only one here right now and I have to stare at this picture. You're free to leave on your own at any time." :-X
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 8 MAR 2005 at 7:34pm |
Pastor DisasterJourneyman
Posts : 1056
Joined: 14 DEC 2004
Status : Online | Originally Posted By Susan (8 MAR 2005 5:47pm)
So, let me see if I have this straight: you have a problem with women and minorities (who are typically under-represented everywhere else while white men get all the glory) being placed in such a high position of power?
[smiley=laughing.gif] Mea culpa! I abase myself! Have mercy on me, a sinner!
I just think a "dumpy, white, middle-aged, male guru" would be a cool character. I don't want to take anything away from the other gurus, I just want the guru community to quit being so racist, ageist, sexist and, what, physique-ist? I want guru colleges to quit discriminating against my kind. I want guru recruiters to consider me based on the content of my guruness, not the color of my skin! I want that little pudgy white boy who wants nothing more than to be a guru to get his dream come true, and not have to lose a lot of weight or wait until he's over 100 years old to get there!
Dyslexics wonder why there isn't a word that means the same thing as "cinnamon."
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| 8 MAR 2005 at 8:06pm |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | I think I know what's going on here.
You want to be a guru.
Complaining about it won't help. It requires lots and lots of spa- err, insightful posts.
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 8 MAR 2005 at 10:18pm |
Pastor DisasterJourneyman
Posts : 1056
Joined: 14 DEC 2004
Status : Online | Ah, you have found my secret desire! I'm pretty pleased with being a Schattenjaeger, but so far I have yet to see any Schatts that need jaeging. I want to be a guru!
Dyslexics wonder why there isn't a word that means the same thing as "cinnamon."
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