After the disappointment of the Uru series, I had wondered if the Myst franchise would ever approach its former glory, and now it clearly has taken a major step in the right direction. With fantastic visual and audio elements (setting a new standard), an engrossing story, an intuitive interface, and amazing overall polish, Myst IV Revelation has all the makings of a real winner. However, the tortuous difficulty posed by many of the puzzles, even for those with considerable logical abilities, detracts from the mainstream appeal of this offering. Far more cerebral than the average computer game, this will clearly not suit everyone; but for those who enjoy the ultimate cranial challenge this may be heaven. Despite the deficiencies, I am very sad the enticing virtual journey represented in this offering is finally over.

Myst IV is still Myst. It still contains brain-damaging amounts of puzzles, all of which are designed to make you cry if you don't have a large beefy brain. Heck, some of 'em may make you sob even if you do have a big beefy brain. The basic gameplay hasn't changed, but it's been refined to near perfection, and now that they have that out of the way, they're starting to focus on telling stories within that framework, which is something I greatly approve of. This isn't for everyone, but people who haven't played Myst since the original will be surprised at how familiar it all feels while being better in every way. If they can just get the puzzles to a consistent quality, I'll start calling in those people who hate the series to show them what they're missing.

From a story perspective I thought that we could have learned more about the bad guy and his motivation but he too is only a minor character. Perhaps that was deliberate to maintain the mystery. I would also have appreciated learning a bit more about Ren's background and her relationship with Hacker and Ted within the game.