![]() ![]() The landscapes are striking, with more verticality than any previous Cyan game. Everywhere you look is “back-of-the-box-worthy,” as they used to say in the days when you bought games from CompuServe. There’s also a brilliantly designed hub area that ranks among the most iconic structures Cyan has ever built, right up there with Myst’s library and Riven’s massive golden dome. The ghostly mentor I mentioned earlier, whose disembodied voice follows you around, says these Realms were once maintained by people who have since disappeared, leaving their steampunk infrastructure in a state of decay you’ll have to puzzle your way through. There are three “Realms” to explore in Firmament: ice-laden mountains, forested cliffs, and a coastal lagoon. But for a variety of reasons - budgetary constraints, a VR-first approach to world design, and a high-concept premise that isn’t truly revealed until the last moments of the game - Firmament left me wanting much more. It’s the most fun I’ve had solving puzzles since Portal 2 way back in 2011, and it culminates in a narrative twist worthy of M. Like its predecessors, Firmament is beautiful and mysterious, with an immersive Riven-meets- Bioshock aesthetic and clever environmental puzzles that are seamlessly grounded in the story. But suddenly I’m 13 years old again, exploring the islands of 1997’s Riven for the first time.Ĭrowdfunded by a $1.4 million Kickstarter campaign in 2019, Firmament is the new first-person puzzle adventure game from Cyan Worlds, the small indie studio behind two of the best-selling PC games in history, Myst and its sequel Riven. As an adult, video games rarely fill me with awe anymore. When I reach the top of the mountain to see what’s in the valley below, my mouth falls open. The woman tells me more, but I’m already wondering: “What is she lying about?” Outside, snow is falling on a high mountain pass, where massive steam-powered machines have been abandoned between the rocks and icefalls. We’re in a dark room that looks like a WWI bunker filled with pipes and pressure gauges. ![]() The book discusses the early history of the D'ni, something which is further expanded on in the game Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.I can’t tell if the woman is a ghost or a hologram, but she’s definitely dead. In the D'ni timeline, the Book of D'ni is set after the events of Myst and Riven, but before Myst III: Exile. These plans are cut short as a plague strikes Terahnee, destroying Terahnee as D'ni was destroyed before. Terahnee turns out to be a sister-world to D'ni, populated by a people who, like the D'ni, derive from the Ronay.Ītrus plans to move there with all the D'ni survivors, but as he makes a horrible discovery about the Terahnee culture he instead wishes to leave. ![]() After they indeed find survivors, like Tergahn and Tamon, they start planning to rebuild D'ni together, but this is put to a halt as a link to a great lost Age is found: Terahnee. They then set out to find old linking books and find D'ni survivors who eventually escaped too, during the Fall. In the Book of D'ni, Atrus, the last D'ni known to be alive, together with his wife Catherine and young helpers from an Age he wrote (Averone), finally manages to open the crumbled exit of the room in K'veer and gain access to all D'ni. The Book of D'ni is the third part of the Myst series of novels, written by the Miller brothers, creators of the Myst game. The book also covers, unlike The Book of Atrus, the life of a D'ni noble, Aitrus, from his youth up to the point where he marries Ti'ana and has a child, Gehn (Atrus's father). The first part of the book focuses on life of Atrus' grandfather Aitrus with his parents Kahlis and Tasera, and then on Aitrus' meeting with Ti'ana (Anna). Book of Ti'ana details the origins of Atrus's family. The Book of Ti'ana is the second novel of the Myst series, but chronologically comes first. The final scenes take place in Riven where he encounters Catherine. Later, Atrus' first writing and study of the Art appears. The book's main character is Atrus, following him throughout his birth and early youth with his grandmother Anna, and then through the meeting with his father Gehn. The book provides a lot of background information on the D'ni and the persons of the games. After David Wingrove's reworking of the novel it was published in 1995. However the publisher Hyperion wanted a published author to work on the book so David Wingrove re-wrote the story with the help of Richard Vander Wende, Rand and Robyn Miller. The Book of Atrus is the first book in the Myst series of novels, written by Ryan Miller in 1994. ![]()
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