what does everyone think the hardest game in the series was?

Question:
what does everyone think the hardest game in the series was?

Choices:
Myst
Riven
Exile
Revelation
End of Ages

 

This message has been edited. Last edited by: darkcity2005,

Uru?

i was gonna say that but it would only let me put 5.

hmm. although i voted for revelation, im surprised that riven got no votes! I feel like it is second after revelation. Revelation was hard by the fact that it took me about 6 months to play, with some hints. I was amazed how such a game could come after Exile and Uru.

Riven did get votes. It and Revelation are the only ones with votes at the moment (3 each as I type this).

oh. yea sorry. I confused the Myst line with the Riven line. But i guess now it all makes sense to me.

I found Riven and Revelation difficult, but for different reasons. Both required some serious deductive exercises, i.e., finding all the clues you needed, then "putting two and two together" to arrive at a solution. The difference was that once you saw what you had to do, Riven simply let you do it. Revelation, on the other hand, required mastery of its interface. Getting the timing and dexterity right was really hard, in my opinion, and blunted the appeal of what was otherwise a breathtakingly beautiful game, with a great story.

I felt RIVEN was the most difficult. The funny thing is that I knew while playing REVELATION that it would have been be more difficult if I had never played RIVEN! SO - while I'm at it - I think every game I played after RIVEN became easier than it actually was (if that makes any sense)! This is another small testament for me as to why I feel RIVEN is the best.

So I would rank the difficulty this way:

RIVEN (toughest)
REVELATION
MYST (having never played it before)
URU/EXILE (pretty much a tie)
MYST V (easiest)

I didn't have any problems with REVELATION's interface & puzzle solving. Granted I had to get used to using my mouse to turn a few mangree handles the appropriate way (but isn't that the point). I look at it this way...if I was lost in the jungle and found these "instruments" to use...it would take me a few times to play with them and get the pattern down. That's all it took for me and I was good to go. Seriously though...put three objects with handles in front of you and simulate how quick you can move your hand from one to the other - also knowing that some "notes" need to be held longer than others. I don't think this was unrealistic or poorly done in the game at all (to illustrate only one example).

I think Myst 4 was the toughest, although it's difficulty was softened by the previous games. They need some fresh puzzles. When are they going to make dynamic ones properly? The crab thing in Uru was the right idea but it was perhaps the simplest possible implementation of it that I can imagine.

I voted Riven but it didn't count my vote... Well, Riven was the hardest. It was the only one I had to use a guide for.

I absolutely hated Uru. Although the puzzles in Myst 5 were rather simple versions of thier predecessors, I thought that Uru was simply unresaonable. I mean remember the desert/Garden ages? Where you had to get the butterflies or whatever into the cave to bring in life. It took me 5 attempts and each attempt took me half an hour! I thought that it was a potentially ingenious puzzle gone was to far. I also hated the electronic age. I could never get into the rotating building, i kept on going to early and falling into the abyss. Uru was simply outrageous!

At this point my vote would be URU CC. 15 minutes on my PC twidling my thumbs? But, so far the fresh start of M5 has me in a quandry, so go figure!

For me, it's Riven. That was such an obtuse game for me.

Let me state first that I loved Uru, and still do. BUT -- and this was hammered pretty thoroughly in the Uru forums when it was first released -- there were several parts that relied heavily on dexterity, and were not only difficult for that reason, but also for the fact that any failed attempt meant a lengthy panic link back to your Relto, then another long link back. The leaps to the Bahro cave entrance in Gahreesen come to mind. By its very nature, that task took multiple tries to finally complete. But every failed try sent you back to Relto, and made you link back to Gahreesen, which was the slowest-loading age in the batch. The first couple of attempts weren't so bad, but once I got to around ten or so, I was ready to hurl it. It's too bad that the game mechanics had to kill the appeal of that particular task, but that can be said of several of the puzzles in Uru and Revelation. I think that one of the reasons End of Ages was deliberately simpler is that Cyan was stinging a bit from all the criticism of Uru and Revelation, and just wanted to give us a break! My own opinion, one that I've voiced several times before, is that any task that's simple in real life should be equally simple in a simulation. Meaning, once you've figured out the solution, you should be able to just do it, rather than making all the right connections, only to be confronted with an interface that's another challenge in itself.

I finally quit Revelation, and for what it's worth, I've interviewed two Cyan insiders for The Cavern Today, and neither of them finished it either. Funny, but it does make a point.

Personally I can't believe that Myst got that many votes. I've played them all, (except for v, which I bought tonight and am getting ready to install), And I think Riven was the hardest followed by IV and then Uru. But mabey I'm just not real bright.

Hi Lordhades,

The captions are - somewhat confusingly - below the bars. The ones that got many votes are Riven and Revelation (IV). Uru wasn't included in the poll.

I'm gonna jump on the Revelation bandwagon here... I think some of the puzzles were just stupid hard . It was still a good game, and being fairly dextrous with the mouse, I didn't have much trouble with the timed puzzles once I knew what i was doing, but I must say that I leaned rather heavily on the in-game guide that time.

I'd also probably count Uru as the hardest were it not for having played through the game completely at least 3 times before it was initially released, and having a whole team of other beta testers around to ask for help. I think a lot of what made the beta test more difficult at times was the fact that puzzles were still incomplete or buggy at various stages of the game's testing, so sometimes you knew how to solve the puzzle but were unable to do so because the mechanics hadn't been worked out yet. THAT is annoying .

For the record, I think PotS is also rather stupid-hard. Great scenery, royally evil puzzles.

quote:

Originally posted by Vogelaar:
Hi Lordhades,

The captions are - somewhat confusingly - below the bars. The ones that got many votes are Riven and Revelation (IV). Uru wasn't included in the poll.

Ahh...... I see it now. Ok, that makes more sense. Thanks.
P.S.- and yes, IV was rough too.....

Uru was definatly the hardest Myst game and also the least enjoyable. I personally strongly disliked it and don't really consider it to be a proper Myst game.
Of the proper Myst games, probably Riven but it was also the most satisfying to finish and possibly my favourite in the series. Revelation was pretty difficult in places and the first mangree puzzle (matching the mangree's noise with the 'horns' (or whatever they were)) was ridiculous. I cannot comprehend anyone solving that other than by pure fluke or with the aid of the help menu.chinaboatman@hotmail.com

An addendum, having just read the rest of the posts. Uru was difficult (and frustrating) because there was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing between ages.You were never sure if you had missed something or if there was nothing else to do. You should be able to complete an Age in a single visit in any Myst game.
It was also difficult because of all of the running and jumping about. Myst should be puzzle and logic based, not action oriented. That was a big mistake.
Revelation was difficult because the designers assumed everyone has crystal clear hearing and perfect clarity when it comes to defining pitch, tone etc.Again, the mangrees thing was absurd.