Similar to Myst III: Exile, Revelation uses smooth panoramic pre-rendered graphics with integrated animation, but it adds real-time 3D effects for added realism, increasing the system requirements over previous Myst titles. Also added was a revamp to the "Zip" mode of moving around.
Myst IV is the first game for PC released exclusively on a DVD-ROM format: a multiple CD-ROM version was not made. While previous games have been released on DVD-ROM, this was usually after the release of a CD-ROM version, with the DVD-ROM reprints only made in very low numbers. In contrast, the makers of Myst IV hope that their use of the DVD will encourage other developers to choose this format, similar to how the original Myst was released exclusively on CD-ROM (at a time when most games were also released on multiple floppy disks) and encouraged other developers to utilize the format. If a CD-ROM version of the game was released, however, it would take up to twelve CDs.
Atrus (played by Rand Miller) calls the Stranger (the player) back once more to Tomahna, this time to help him decide what to do with his sons, Sirrus and Achenar. It has been twenty years since their imprisonment, and Atrus wonders if that has been long enough for them to have repented for the crimes they committed in the original Myst. After an explosion knocks the Stranger unconscious, he/she realizes that Yeesha, Atrus's daughter, has disappeared. While searching for her, the Stranger uncovers the two prison books, Spire and Haven, in which Sirrus and Achenar were imprisoned twenty years ago. The Stranger explores these ages and uncovers the truth about Sirrus and Achenar, and must save Yeesha from their horrid plan that they had set in motion long ago on Serenia.
As in other Myst games, the player will travel to other worlds ('Ages'). Ages visited in Myst IV are:
Tomahna - Atrus, Catherine, and Yeesha's home.
Haven - Achenar's prison Age.
Serenia - Catherine's Age of dreams.
Spire - Sirrus's prison Age.
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