According to this announcement on the Myst Worlds Website, the most recent game in the Myst series, Myst IV: Revelation, has just gone gold. In this newest installment, the drama surrounding the “hero” of Myst, Atrus, is continued as his devious sons, Sirrus and Achenar, return. It seems as though they may have brought more mischief with them, as well. The deceptive brothers, Sirrus and Achenar were the focus of the first game, imprisoned within their prison ages, pleading with the player to release them. Those who are familiar with the Myst series are probably wise to their deceitful nature, however.

I have always loved the Myst series and I am bursting with anticipation for Revelations. I am also very relieved that they changed back to the pre-rendered style engine for Myst IV, rather than a full 3D world, such as URU. The pre-rendered worlds of Myst are some of the most beautiful, atmospheric, and detailed environments among adventure games. URU, while beautiful to be sure, could not compare to the beauty of the previous 2 games, MYST III: Exile and Riven. After briefly playing the demo I am also very impressed by the new interface and features of Myst IV. This most recent Myst sports a new camera device, which allows you to take pictures of the environment, puzzles, etc, so that you can reference them later on. This will certainly come in handy, when solving complex puzzles involving many visual clues. However, from time to time I think I’ll still use my drawing pad and conte crayons, just for the fun of it.

The navigation system has also changed significantly, sporting a 3D hand cursor, rather than a standard 2D cursor system. The hand is fairly impressive, with attractive animations and natural looking interactions with the environment. One notable interaction is allowing the player to tap objects, depending on how close they are. While that’s not something that necessarily affects gameplay to a large degree, I have to appreciate the small touches, especially when they would take a lot of work to implement.

The music used in the demo was absolutely beautiful, keeping with Myst’s tradition of world class soundtracks. For those interested in playing the demo, I recommend taking some time to just listen to the song in the main menu, it’s well worth it. The soundtracks from the previous Myst titles were all so impressive that I purchased most of them seperately. It looks like Myst IV is probably going to be on my playlist for a while, if they release the soundtrack seperately, as they have in the past.

I’m extremely excited to see where the next episode of Myst takes the series. As someone who has read some of the novels (which are incredible) and played all the games, I can honestly say that Myst is one of the most expansive and defined game worlds in existence. Myst IV is set to define that world just a bit more and I can’t wait.