Exploring the Cleft

I link back in and have to make that long trek back to the cleft. Uru doesn't allow saving games.

This time I go the long way around. Sure enough, there are things hidden behind the mountain: a skeleton recognizable from "Riven" as having come from a Wahrk, and the remains of the telescope Gehn built to observe the stars in the cleft.

I walk on. I've learned that I can run and jump, so I jump over some of the rocks in the area.

Yesterday's sculpture was a good one. My brain is running very slowly, classic post-sculptural syndrome, but I should be alert enough to figure this thing out.

Down in the rock cleft I amble around. They certainly didn't make it easy to get anyplace. In order to get from A to B you have to pass through Z, Q, M and W first.

At the end of one shelf there's some sort of mechanism. Pulling the lever does nothing but make a well-designed mechanical clunk. The sounds in this game are very good.

One shelf gives access to a room with a cryptic letter, apparently to Yeesha. She, or someone else, has written notes on it. None of it is comprehensible. Another shelf, gotten to through climbing and jumping, gives me entrance to another room with a handprint on the wall. This one lights up and makes a sound when I touch it.

Eventually i work my way around to the big room on the far side. There's a projector-type gadget sitting on one shelf and various other things lying around. Down some stairs is another room, in whose window I'd looked from outside. A lever in the floor releases clamps from around a shaft. That must be the windmill, but it doesn't start turning.

I go up to find out what's wrong. A lever protrudes from the windmill's vertical shaft. I give it a good shove and the windmill starts to turn, squeaking as it goes. I go back down and try the lever at the end of the shelf, and this time the machinery responds by lowering a box. I raise it again. What's this for? Water? Other stuff? I leave it behind, and then look back and just barely see a handprint on the side of it. I go back over, lower it, then climb down and touch the hand sign. It lights up. Was it bigger this time? I go to the one in the room and touch it, and it also seems bigger. Not sure, though.

Now the doors work to the big room. I go to the lower room and open its door, but nothing changes. Back in the upper room I find a circular sign on the wall that resembles the one on the projector, so I draw a picture of it and then compare.

Pushing buttons on the projector changes its symbols. I set the right combination and then press the big central button. Yeesha starts talking, and a ghostly figure appears. She walks out of my view. I'm used to the Riven style of video so it doesn't even occur to me to turn around to watch her, assuming I can't move and view at the same time. Things have changed in game land. Toward the end of her message I think about moving, and turn in time to see her disappear from near the wall.

Now, where'd that handprint come from? It wasn't there when I entered. I touch it and this time it'd definitely bigger. More of it lights up, including one finger. Aha. Four fingers, thumb, and what must be two segments in the palm. Seven segments. So I have to find three more.

Linking In

The sound is familiar, but this time it's special. "Myst" taught me what linking is. "Riven" taught me more, but I had to unlearn some of that simple pleasure to get through Myst 3. The unconcerned wandering had turned into goal-driven purpose which led to many wrong answers and getting hit in the head. Myst 4 was worse; I didn't bother to finish it.

What would I get now? Linking into "Uru" for the first time brought some hope. Cyan has historically done this kind of thing better than anyone else.

Desert. A mountain in the distance. Sparse grass, a few shrubs, some rounded rocks lying around. In the distance, birds circling and clouds over mountains. No hints, no directions, no path.

I'm pointed at the mountain. Nothing for it but to start walking. The avatar, seen from behind, strides forward reasonably smoothly, and I can hear his feet hit the dry ground. I'm more used to the "eyeball view" of the older Myst games, but the instructions recommended getting used to the third-person view. When in Rome, play as the Romans do.

I angle a bit to the right, on a whim. Topping a small rise I can see some complications in the distance; as I approach these turn into a fence, a windmill and a house trailer.

Figuring they want me to go to the trailer first, I head for the fence and windmill. The fence turns out to be built around a cleft reminiscent of that in Riven. The vertical-axis windmill isn't turning. Steps on the far side lead down into the rock-walled cleft.

I decide to check the trailer first. Approaching it, I see what looks like a piece of cloth with a stylized handprint on it. Looks like something to touch, so I do so, and am rewarded with a sound and a glowing segment of the design. Then I amble around and receive a lecture from the guy sitting in a chair, drinking something cold, listening to the radio. He says I've been called. That if I need help, to come and ask. Then he clams up. The radio plays, the wind whispers, clouds move, and eventually I do too.

Back to the cleft, and down. It reminds me of Donkey Kong, with all the ladders and rock shelves. One of the rope bridges collapses under me, dropping me a good three man-heights to the ground but the avatar doesn't even say "Oof." He's made of sterner stuff than I.

I ramble around down there, wading in the pool and finding a tree with a handprint on it. Touching this gets a little glow, but nothing else happens. Not its time, I guess.

Enough for now. It looks good. I have to get ready for the weekend's sand sculpture.

Tree Canyons

The canyon walls look like tree bark. The floor looks like basalt. Odd ruins bridge some of the canyons, and even odder rings look to be some sort of puzzle. The rings move when I push buttons.

On the side of a dais is a handprint cloth. That was easy.

On a rock shelf nearby is a strange linking page that looks as if it's made of burlap. I link out and end up on a balcony with no exit. Other balconies decorate the glowing stone walls of this place. I decide to call it Shrine World.

I linked back to the island in the clouds. Is this Relto? The instructions mention such a place.

Island in the Sky

Where is this place? A tall rock in the sky. It's a long way down.

Four odd short posts, and a small building with a mountain behind it. Inside the building two bookshelves built into the walls, and a lever to control the blinds. Not much to do in here but read books, and they're full of philosophic stuff. Can't make head nor tail of it. So, back outside.

Hmmm. The posts have handprints on them. Looks like an invitation to me. I touch one and it slides open, and there's a linking book inside. I wonder if the others work the same, so I touch them and get all four open. Oh, boy, four places to go!

I pick one at random and link out.

In the Cleft

In this area I won some and lost some. I bumbled around and figured out the windmill, so got the power to the doors. I found the handprint on the trailer, the one in the room, and the one on the water lift. Then I figured out how to play the recording from Yeesha, so found the one she put ont he wall in that room.

The others threw me. You have to realize I'd done a sand sculpture the day before so my brain was running slowly. I missed all the obvious Myst clues, and didn't check. But I remembered that guy by the trailer saying that if I needed help, I could ask him.

I don't like walkthroughs and hints, but in this case it was an invitation. So, I went. He said something about the Riven ruins, which I'd already examined. The next time he mentioned the Wahrk skeleton. I'd already checked that, but I ran over to the other side of the mountain and took another look. Yep. I just missed it. Dork. Two more to find and a brain devoid of ideas.

I went back to Zandi. "Have you looked at the sign where you came in?" What sign? I ran over to the link-in point and sure enough there was a sign. Can you imagine? Basic Myst idea: look everywhere. I just started walking forward. On the back of the sign, of course, was another handprint cloth.

The final hint from Zandi talked about doors opening and closing. Of course. Another basic mistake. I found the last handprint on the outside of the door to the upper room.

Finally. Went over to the tree, touched its print and the door opened. Went down, found the linking book, touched it and the game blew up. I had to reinstall it. Then, of course, I had to play through the cleft again. The next time I linked out it worked, and I arrived in Relto.