30 years since its release, it's very easy to see why and how Myst captivated so many back then and continues to do so even now.
You've heard of pen-and-paper RPGs, yet for entirely different reasons, this surely qualifies as a pen-and-paper puzzle game. There's no handholding, no onboarding, and very little in the way of tutorials on how the puzzles work. You're just dropped off on the island of Myst, and away you go. It's up to you to keep track of patterns, codes, and clues along your journey and piece together what and where they might fit in.
As for the how and why of your present circumstances, those answers are presented as you play in a pretty succinct and natural way by revisiting certain pieces of information along the way and putting together context clues from your environment. The lore behind the island and the story of Myst is simple yet surprisingly compelling, showing how too much power can corrupt the just and unjust depending on how they wield it.
Nearly all of Myst's puzzles and islands are incredibly well-designed, though the tram section in the second half of the Selentic Age is definitely the most boring and uninteresting of the bunch, though that's only because the rest of the roster is superb by comparison.
I suppose where Myst loses its appeal a bit is how the last part of the game works. It essentially involves a scavenger hunt in every region you've visited thus far for specific items (provided you haven't picked any of them up on your journey already), and only then can you achieve the various endings, with the true ending requiring even more busywork.
With no quick and easy way to return to the previous sections, the tedium lets the air out quite a bit as you're forced to retrace your steps. Admittedly, I ended up using the incredibly useful hint guide from UHS-Hints to skip some steps and get to the true ending otherwise the trek to the finale would have soured my opinion on this game far more.
Regardless, Myst, even in this nifty VR-Ready next-gen remake, still holds up as a classic of the adventure and puzzle genres and regardless of how many feel about the changes and visual aesthetic of this version, I am certainly grateful that it exists so I can play it using a controller with my current setup :)
7.5/10
You've heard of pen-and-paper RPGs, yet for entirely different reasons, this surely qualifies as a pen-and-paper puzzle game. There's no handholding, no onboarding, and very little in the way of tutorials on how the puzzles work. You're just dropped off on the island of Myst, and away you go. It's up to you to keep track of patterns, codes, and clues along your journey and piece together what and where they might fit in.
As for the how and why of your present circumstances, those answers are presented as you play in a pretty succinct and natural way by revisiting certain pieces of information along the way and putting together context clues from your environment. The lore behind the island and the story of Myst is simple yet surprisingly compelling, showing how too much power can corrupt the just and unjust depending on how they wield it.
Nearly all of Myst's puzzles and islands are incredibly well-designed, though the tram section in the second half of the Selentic Age is definitely the most boring and uninteresting of the bunch, though that's only because the rest of the roster is superb by comparison.
I suppose where Myst loses its appeal a bit is how the last part of the game works. It essentially involves a scavenger hunt in every region you've visited thus far for specific items (provided you haven't picked any of them up on your journey already), and only then can you achieve the various endings, with the true ending requiring even more busywork.
With no quick and easy way to return to the previous sections, the tedium lets the air out quite a bit as you're forced to retrace your steps. Admittedly, I ended up using the incredibly useful hint guide from UHS-Hints to skip some steps and get to the true ending otherwise the trek to the finale would have soured my opinion on this game far more.
Regardless, Myst, even in this nifty VR-Ready next-gen remake, still holds up as a classic of the adventure and puzzle genres and regardless of how many feel about the changes and visual aesthetic of this version, I am certainly grateful that it exists so I can play it using a controller with my current setup :)
7.5/10