Myst falls into the category of great games that, with a good remake, would easily be considered classics. I found myself immediately gripped by the world, scouring the environments for any potential clue, reading personal journal entries and taking actual, physical notes with a pen and paper of what I considered to be important. When I finally came across the critical information I lacked, I often almost instantly formed a hypothesis based on it. And the game tends to earn this kind of engagement, because the puzzles are simply fantastic. Both mechanically and internally, they make perfect sense and require the player to fill in the logical leaps based on available information. It never condescends, but neither does it feel esoteric.
Beyond mechanics, the game has an undeniable 90's charm to it, with cheesy voice (over-)acting and pre-recorded live-action cutscenes. Considering how antiquated it is, it's all surprisingly engaging, and the game (rightfully) lacks any kind of shame in it's story, presentation and performances; it plays everything absolutely straight, and I adore that kind of earnestness in any creative endeavor. These story moments never overstay their welcome, in fact most can simply be ignored, but I was surprised at how compelling it became once I understood how this "universe" works internally. All of this is rounded off by some surprisingly great music, which plays at key moments in the game to cap-off puzzle development; it has a style so off-the-wall, so 90's, you likely haven't seen much anything like it since, giving Myst a truly unique identity.
I didn't love all of it, though.
Myst has all pre-rendered backgrounds which have aged about as well as you'd expect from an early-90's game. This is par for the course with point-and-click games, and it never looks ugly (in fact it's quite the contrary), but the trouble comes from two distinct but non-overlapping sources:
1) the lack of angles from which to view an area or object. I can say that at least one stage is made more difficult simply due to the static camera position, which makes basic navigation of the stage cumbersome; the lack of animation in the backgrounds also makes the consequences of your interaction with the world challenging to discern;
and
2) the non-linearity of the world. While I would normally commend a game for giving the player total agency in regards to which order they tackle the game's content, if you don't carefully consider and balance the experience properly, players can very easily get stuck, or have an inverse difficulty curve, leaving a poor (and flawed) impression of the game's consistency. In Myst there's a clear (ideal) order to play the stages. Not just according to difficulty, (I actually think the easiest stage should be second) but also according to available information. The hardest puzzle in the game can be brute-force'd, but the critical information necessary to understand what the puzzle is even asking is found in another level.
I would normally have no problem with this. But I also would normally have the ability to backtrack and visit another stage should I get stuck. This is a major problem for Myst, because there's no way to escape the stage you're on, except for solving the puzzle. This isn't just a mechanical choice, either; there's a lore explanation that prevents backtracking, and it seriously hurts the game's progression. Luckily, this sort of thing can be fixed by having a friend tell you, "Hey, do [X] stage last. Trust me."
Myst has some fatal flaws that hold it back from greatness, but if you're trying to scratch the puzzle-solving itch of Outer Wilds, or just have a weekend to spare, there are worse ways to pass the time than this.
Edit: After having played the two remakes, I have concluded the best way to enjoy Myst is through the 2014 realMyst: Masterpiece Edition version. I don't love every change they made, but it's probably the best way to enjoy the game now.
Beyond mechanics, the game has an undeniable 90's charm to it, with cheesy voice (over-)acting and pre-recorded live-action cutscenes. Considering how antiquated it is, it's all surprisingly engaging, and the game (rightfully) lacks any kind of shame in it's story, presentation and performances; it plays everything absolutely straight, and I adore that kind of earnestness in any creative endeavor. These story moments never overstay their welcome, in fact most can simply be ignored, but I was surprised at how compelling it became once I understood how this "universe" works internally. All of this is rounded off by some surprisingly great music, which plays at key moments in the game to cap-off puzzle development; it has a style so off-the-wall, so 90's, you likely haven't seen much anything like it since, giving Myst a truly unique identity.
I didn't love all of it, though.
Myst has all pre-rendered backgrounds which have aged about as well as you'd expect from an early-90's game. This is par for the course with point-and-click games, and it never looks ugly (in fact it's quite the contrary), but the trouble comes from two distinct but non-overlapping sources:
1) the lack of angles from which to view an area or object. I can say that at least one stage is made more difficult simply due to the static camera position, which makes basic navigation of the stage cumbersome; the lack of animation in the backgrounds also makes the consequences of your interaction with the world challenging to discern;
and
2) the non-linearity of the world. While I would normally commend a game for giving the player total agency in regards to which order they tackle the game's content, if you don't carefully consider and balance the experience properly, players can very easily get stuck, or have an inverse difficulty curve, leaving a poor (and flawed) impression of the game's consistency. In Myst there's a clear (ideal) order to play the stages. Not just according to difficulty, (I actually think the easiest stage should be second) but also according to available information. The hardest puzzle in the game can be brute-force'd, but the critical information necessary to understand what the puzzle is even asking is found in another level.
I would normally have no problem with this. But I also would normally have the ability to backtrack and visit another stage should I get stuck. This is a major problem for Myst, because there's no way to escape the stage you're on, except for solving the puzzle. This isn't just a mechanical choice, either; there's a lore explanation that prevents backtracking, and it seriously hurts the game's progression. Luckily, this sort of thing can be fixed by having a friend tell you, "Hey, do [X] stage last. Trust me."
Myst has some fatal flaws that hold it back from greatness, but if you're trying to scratch the puzzle-solving itch of Outer Wilds, or just have a weekend to spare, there are worse ways to pass the time than this.
Edit: After having played the two remakes, I have concluded the best way to enjoy Myst is through the 2014 realMyst: Masterpiece Edition version. I don't love every change they made, but it's probably the best way to enjoy the game now.