The first of five reviews detailing my thoughts on games that defined my early childhood.
Developer: Cyan Inc.
Publisher: Brøderbund
Version(s) Reviewed: Myst Masterpiece Edition, and realMyst Masterpiece Edition for PC
Price: $5.99
Released: September 24th, 1993
Myst was the first "real" game I ever played. Before Myst the only games I used to play were Bejeweled and Breakout on my dad's palm pilot. But Myst really opened the flood gates for me and looking back really defined what I would look for in games for years to come. However, a lot of modern critics have declared that Myst is an outdated piece of history best left forgotten. After recently coming back to it I can understand why critics often call it outdated, but I will not say in a million years that it deserves to be forgotten. So let me tell you why Myst is something you should at least give a chance.
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| The Mechanical Age is one of many area you can explore in Myst. |
In Myst, you play as a nameless stranger that ends up on a mysterious island after reading a book describing the location and touching the moving picture at the very end of the book. That is literally all the context you are given at the beginning of the game and you are expected to piece together as you progress through the game. The main goal the player has is to explore the island and figure out what is going on solving puzzles along the way. I really don't want to dive any deeper into the story than that because part of the fun of Myst is figuring out what is going on. I will say that the story is interestingly told and still holds up well today in spite of it's rather minimalist presentation. My only complaint with the story is that the true ending is just blatant sequel bait.
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| The Channelwood Age is another area you can explore in Myst. |
What doesn't hold up as well is several of the game's puzzle designs. The central flow of the game has you solving a puzzle on the main island so you can go to another area of the game. Then finding one of two pages in that area and heading back to the main island. Unlike modern puzzle games like Portal and The Swapper which focus on a single puzzle mechanic and teach players the logic behind them and slowly increase the difficultly, Myst's puzzles each have a unique logic to them and range form easy to extremely hard to solve then others. Perhaps some of the most infamous puzzles are the ones that involve sound which one area of the game focuses on exclusively. I was unable to solve this area as a kid and had trouble with it as an adult. However, most of the puzzles aren't that hard to figure out and there is a library on the main island where you can read about all the areas in the game to help you if you get stuck.
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| See these books? You are going to be reading some of them to figure out Myst's many puzzles. |
Graphically, Myst hasn't aged well either with muddy textures and jagged polygons that are unappealing to the eye. The art style on the other hand holds up just fine and each area has its own unique look and feel. The sound is a bit compressed by modern standards, but other then that sound effects and music are good. The live action cutscenes may come across as jarring for younger gamers though they are thankfully well acted and are not hokey enough to hurt the atmosphere of the game. There is also a full 3D remake of Myst called realMyst Masterpiece Edition that also features a new area that connects Myst to it's sequel Riven, but be warned this version of the game is very buggy and prone to crashing.
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| realMyst looks good, but is very unstable. |
Myst is a game that is very near and dear to my heart, but I am also very aware that it is not a game for everyone. If you are someone that likes hardcore action and cathartic challenge in your games Myst is not for you. Myst is a slow, pondering experience that is not always a intuitive experience. But I do feel that if you have the time and patience you should at least check it out. Myst is a game that helped pioneer environmental storytelling in video games and it is worth playing through just to put into perceptive how far interactive storytelling has come.
*Images are taken from official sources and fall under Free Use in Copyright Law.
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