4/5 for the VR version and 2.5/5 for the console version.

Myst has always been an extraordinary touchstone of interactive worlds, architecture and intricately layered puzzle design. This remake faithfully translates all the ingenious qualities and dazzling environments into the present day without skimping on its core design philosophies (namely no hints or inventories - just you and the world). In VR, Myst is spectacular, the first of the myriad of ports to actually justify itself and improve even upon the original. Naturally interacting with objects in the world makes the game easier, but that loss in difficulty is more than made up for by its incredible immersion. If it weren't for Alyx, it'd be a strong contender for my favourite VR experience.

However, on console and to a lesser extent the 2D PC version, the Myst remake is overly finicky and loses the original's quiet magic through distracting controls. The hitboxes on objects are just too small, even for a mouse, resulting in a nightmarish controller experience. The choice to go into fixed camera modes for certain puzzles feels obnoxious given how these perspectives often mask critical information or make objects far harder to even use, let alone solve. One early example falls victim to the new lighting system where sunlight actually masks important numbers when viewed from the forced perspective, an issue that never arises in VR where you can always move freely. Unfortunately, whilst the magic of Myst is still there, it winds up a lesser experience to both its VR mode and even the original game. That VR version though!

Myst's reputation, as far as I understood it, was as landmark in dense, obtuse, inscrutable puzzle gameplay. The sort of thing you couldn't get away with making today because gamers demanded things that were more accessible and fast-paced even in puzzle games. And the first impression this remake made validated that for me completely. You immediately find a dozen of what are obviously puzzles, but only one of which is amenable to a trial-and-error solution on its own terms. It seems like there must be some tremendous leaps of logic the game must expect you to make to get a foothold into these puzzles. I felt that way, stuck on everything at once, hoping that the one I did solve would somehow give me a clue to at least one more that would continue to chain off through the rest, wondering how long I would bang my head against this before looking up a hint, until I discovered that in my exploration of the island, I had failed to realize I could activate an elevator that brought me to a room that contained the literal solution to every single one of the beginning puzzles, just written on the wall. The puzzles look so hard because they were never solvable in the first place. They don't work on inscrutable logic, they're just combination locks. At that point my expectations for the game plummeted, and it more less met them.

Having played a decent number of modern puzzle games (Talos Principle and The Witness stand out as the most specific points of reference for Myst), it's hard to justify calling Myst a puzzle game at all. Its "puzzles" are only a step or two above the sort of puzzles you'd find in a Resident Evil game. They're video game puzzles: series of actions that require you to move around a map and interact with certain items (often just all or part of a lock combination) in order to access the next area.

They seem relatively difficult largely because they have a much higher level of friction between the logic of the puzzle and its execution than would be necessary in a game with other mechanics. There is no journal, so you have to write down your own notes. There's a rail-car labyrinth, for some godforsaken reason. I just bungled through on process of elimination myself, but looking up the intended "solution" to this, it's absolutely mindboggling they thought someone might have ever figured this out without information apparently only available in a different part of the game you may or may not have visited yet. If you did know the solution, though, it would still be an incredibly tedious process to input it. There's a timer in one level that requires you to spend 30 seconds or so round trip every time you want to make a guess on the puzzle. The first puzzle I solved requires you to go reset two separate breaker boxes every time you fail.

I was thinking before I went in that it would be nice to play a game that wasn't scared of a player who could think, wasn't afraid to ask the player to think. But Myst is terrified the player will realize there's nothing here to think about. It's constantly throwing red herrings and obstacles in your path and nesting its mechanisms together in a desperate shell game to take your eyes off the fact that there are no real puzzles here.

What I didn't realize about Myst is that, on top of being a puzzle game, it's a keenly '90s fantasy story, relegated to text and environmental storytelling due to technical limitations. On that score it's nothing particularly special; I didn't think the environmental storytelling was particularly effective and the mystery it's meant to convey is a bit inept. And while the remake looks great, the emptiness of all the environments feels more out of place than it might have in the original graphics. You could imagine a game that was mostly about this network of fantasy worlds and shows elements of the actual stories mentioned in the books, with some distinct set of mechanics (whether action, platforming, rpg, adventure game, etc) and the "puzzles" there to pace and structure them. As it is, the fiction of Myst only highlights the inadequacy and emptiness of everything else. The remake is very polished but the experience feels like a basically unfinished game.

Beaten: Aug 26 2021
Time: 4 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X

Well, with the new remake of Myst coming out on gamepass, I figured it was time to finally give it a try! I've always loved every screenshot I've seen of the original, all this very clinical early-3D architecture that felt cold and artificial, but still somehow inviting. I was worried this remake would go too far in modernizing that look honestly, as it's one of the main draws of the game for me, but I'm surprised to say that it didn't really? Sure it's not identical, it's a remake after all, but that strange texture the original art had is definitely still here (as far as I can tell haha).

That surprised me a little bit, but seeing as this was made by Cyan, the original devs of Myst, I'm not completely surprised. What I was surprised by was how manageable the puzzles were? I'm not gonna say I never used a guide, if I hadn't I would've easily added 4 hours to my playtime and liked the game a whole lot less, but still, they didn't seem too bad? Maybe I'm just used to much more obtuse point and clicks, whether they be adventure puzzlers like Beneath a Steel Sky (which is INFURIATING) or games more similar to Myst, such as Tong Nou (which I would've cursed to hell without a guide). But this game? I managed to figure out solidly half of the puzzles with guide, and just needed a hint on all the rest of them. I never had to look up a solution, and that is RARE for me and puzzle games.

I'm not really sure there's much else to talk about here. At it's core Myst is a puzzle game with gorgeous art, and that's all here in this remake, and I loved everything on that front. There's the story, which consists of short, kiiiiiiinda poorly voice-acted but in a fun way movies, and a fair amount of Lore about the history of the island, and all that stuff is fine. Not amazing, not fantastic, but certainly not overtly bad or anything. It doesn't get in the way, and it does it's job. There's a goal, a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's figuring out what the hell even happened here before you got there.

But yeah, I had a really good and relatively frustration-free time with Myst, and that's more than I tend to get out of even the best 90s puzzle adventure games. I'll probably play the original version sometime now, just to see the original art, and maybe even get into the whole series! RIVEN HERE I COME

Myst is a great game, but this remake is too concerned with fixing what wasn't broken instead of what was (and still is). Being built for VR is a neat idea for the game, but if you don't play in VR, everything is much more cumbersome that it was in the original; actions aren't as quick as they should be, and there isn't enough visual adjustment for environments that were only ever conceptualized for viewing from one angle. Whatever visual clarity comes from playing with an adjustable camera is offset by the sluggishness of moving through the world and interacting with the environment. As flawed as the original is, I still think it's the better way to experience the game.

Even though I played the remake of the game with all its modern enhancements, the core gameplay of Myst is relatively the same from its original form. Which is crazy considering how old this game is and how much it did right then and how much it still does right today. The overall world design is absolutely fascinating with each age looking visually interesting and unique from any other world in any other game. I won't say it's a PERFECT game though, mostly due to the fact that the story can get kind of cheesy as well as the fact that the DAMN CLOCK TOWER PUZZLE SUCKS BALLS but other than that this game is actually REALLY dang good. I see why this game is so well-regarded now, and it's absolutely something you've gotta check out whether it's the original or any of its remakes/ports.

i respect what this game is doing a lot - it doesn't hold your hand at all, and gives you a bit of freedom when deciding what order to solve the puzzles. the setting and presentation are excellent, and most of the puzzles are fun and well-designed (i got extremely lucky with the train puzzle and didn't suffer through it the same way many others did). i don't have the benefit of nostalgia with this game, so after playing it in 2021, i mostly just feel "whelmed" with this game - it neither disappointed me nor blew me away. it was just fine. and sometimes that's all a game needs to be :)

As a VR game, I think it was pretty neat but as a 2D game, I think it would be pretty boring and I'd give it a lower score. The environments were very immersive and beautiful to walk around in and explore and for the first couple of hours, I was captivated in VR. Beautiful landscapes and it has an interesting story that I didn't really understand until the end lol. It also sets up a lot of possibilities for future games which I guess is why there are like 8 sequels.

There are a few stupid puzzles that were really frustrating and annoying and also some audio puzzles that were stupid. I think that people are just really nostalgic over playing this game on their dad's PC in the 90s (#1 Selling Game on PC until Sims 1 came out). Which is fine but like playing it in 2022 it's just a pretty decent and short puzzle game.

I played Myst for the first time in the 90s on an old Mac PC. And then I went 20+ years before playing it again. The game is one that I remember as a mind-blowing game, one of the greats. Riven, the sequel, also stood out. So I was excited to get to try it out again, in an improved graphical environment and full movement.

What I found was a masterpiece of a game, albeit one with some deep flaws. The game throws you in, and doesn't hold your hands, and trusts you to figure it out. And you absolutely can do that. But it's also a game where it is very, very easy to miss things and miss clues. And some of the puzzles have aged poorly. The audio puzzles were always tricky, and while Contextual Subtitles make them trivial, they also make it possible when audio sounds the same. The worst puzzle remains the one to enter the Mechanical Age, turning 3-numbers. Second worst remains the Selinitic Age spaceship. Some of the puzzles are just incredibly difficult and that is the biggest flaw - they are so hard and there is no way to find out. I don't know how I solved some of them as a kid.

Despite those flaws, I love the game, the story, and the immersion. And running on a high-end gaming PC, the graphics of the game are flawless. The game is absolutely stunning looking, and I imagine in VR is even moreso. This is a truly huge improvement of a classic game, one that brings it into the modern age. And it is a great way to revisit my nostalgia from years gone by.