REALMYST:

In 2000 I bought and finished playing Cyan software's RealMyst. I was a fan of Myst and Riven, and I thought it was great to be able to finally wander the island of Myst freely so bought RealMyst. Overall everything worked great. I was especially impressed with the water and sky, although whoever designed the levels/ages could have done a better job clipping the water around the land. To see an example of this, look at the Channelwood picture below. It was captured at the foot of the rocks that hold the windmill. See how pieces of the waves are poking up through the rock? I also had problems moving in a few areas, such as the doorway to the Imager on Myst's dock, other doors, corners, and especially ladders throughout the game. From my experiences with designing levels for 3-D games, such as this, I know that you can (and should) re-design any models that restrict movement. For some reason, they either failed to notice the movement problems or just decided not to try to fix them. I was also baffled with a doorway in the new age, Rime. There is a door on the inside of a small building (in Rime picture #1 below) that leads to a tunnel. If you look at the wall the door is on from the outside of the building, however, you can see nearly the entire wall! So the door must lead to a new dimension. Otherwise it would just open up to the outside. These complaints are only petty, however, and don't really distract from game play. Overall, I loved the new game. If this is an indication of what to expect in the future, then I'll definitely be pre-ordering Myst III: Exile. JUL 01 UPDATE: I did and I loved it.

One big problem I had was that the game didn't work out of the box! Unlike the problems I mentioned above, this problem is inexcusable. I had to make my own patch from the Stoneship age test they released just to be able to play! If you have this problem, download my RealMystPatch.zip (890K) and follow the instructions in the included text file. Finally, if you look at the CD's .AVI files, you'll notice they included an Easter Egg in the game. I haven't found out how to activate it, however.

Here are a few screenshots of the game. Three of them are of the new age, Rime. Enjoy, and visit www.realmyst.com for information and to find out how to buy it if you're interested.

	Wood1: This image shows how the water in Channelwood can travel through solid stone. It was captured at the bottom of the rock with the water tank and windmill.
	Myst1: A gravesite that you didn't see in the original game.
	Myst2: Here's the rocket on Myst Island which links you to Selenic Age, but do you notice anything different from the original Myst? I would swear they had planned this out before releasing the original in 1993!
	Rime1: This is the view you get right after linking to Rime Age. The illuminated building has a door on the inside that apparently leads to another dimension (see text above). Brrrr, this place is cold!
	Rime2: I believe the walkway is some sort of observation point, but I'm not sure what its purpose is. One of the towers in the background water appears in the screenshot below as well.
	Rime3: Here you can see what appears to be electrical current flowing between the towers out in the water. When this current flows, you'll see a light show that resembles the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis on Earth.