Myst

I recognise that perhaps my expectations were set a little too high. Outer Wilds is my favourite game of all time, and while I wasn't expecting exactly the same experience, from the way people talk about Myst, I thought it'd at least be somewhere close to it with lots of eureka moments and interesting lore. Unfortunately, Myst failed to deliver that for me on both fronts. I wasn't really sold on the story, especially with the way the endings seemed a little half-baked. Half the time I felt like I was falling asleep waiting for the characters to finish delivering their poorly written lines (not to mention the long awkward pauses between lines). The puzzles also aren't terribly difficult, if not a little obtuse at some points. For example, [spoiler] I did the Selenitic age before the Mechanical age, so when I was in the maze, I had no idea which sound corresponded to which cardinal direction, which made that specific section quite a chore [/spoiler]. Another part that I thought was not particularly well designed was the [spoiler] clocktower puzzle, since it is the only instance in the entire game whereby holding down an interaction did something different than simply clicking once [/spoiler]. The most difficult part for me was figuring out what to do at the start, [spoiler] because I didn't notice the letter on the rock [/spoiler], but everything after that was rather smooth sailing; the fact that I was running around for almost two hours not actually doing anything did kind of set the tone for my experience, though. The awkward controls also leave quite a bit to be desired. But this isn't to say that the game doesn't also have its merits. I did enjoy the variety in environments and I found the interactive elements to be quite intuitive (not control-wise, but in the way that you could clearly tell when something is/should be interactable), which I think is very important in a puzzle game. And even though I didn't particularly enjoy the story, I respect the effort to explain the existence of these varied locations; it would have probably been better if the story could have been more interwoven with the puzzles, rather than as mere set dressing. I also appreciated the inclusion of a few accessibility features that are often overlooked. To me, Myst is simply a product of its time. I have no doubt that it was ground-breaking when the original came out, but for me as a new player in the present day with no prior history with it, it was just an alright game that I would have been perfectly happy with never experiencing, which makes the $35 price tag a little tough to agree with. If given a choice, I'd personally only value it at ~$10, maybe $15 if you're really pushing it. It would've been fine if the game regularly went on sale, but not only are discounts fairly modest, the game has even seen a couple of price hikes, which pushed this down from a mixed-positive to a negative for me.

[h3]A good mystery, that still fails.[/h3] This one felt more like a glorified point-and-click game than a puzzle. It surely would have been more interesting 30 years ago - oh wait, this game is basically a lazy remake of a 1993 game! So that's why... Nothing is intuitive, there are far too few puzzles, and after you find them they are basically too easy to solve, warranting basically zero replay value. Everything is too slow and too far apart. Both the graphics and the gameplay feels at least 15 years too dated. Replacing the original FLV style character videos with badly voice-acted 3D animations removed the only redeeming innovative quality from the game. In hindsight I wouldn't buy the game even with a -80% discount. Buy 5 random indie games instead. [u]Recommended if:[/u] If you like to be scammed. [u]Not recommended if:[/u] If you like puzzle games, as this is not a puzzle game.

The puzzles have not aged well. If I give up later and look up the solution, my reaction should be "AH! What a fool I was for not making that connection." But with Myst, the reaction is generally "Huh. No, I'd have never figured that out. No sane person would."

This remake is very faithful to the original puzzle design, although it brings its own spin on the artistic aspect. Some of the Ages feel quite different, and I love how Seletinic and Stoneship look. Whether you're a new or returning player, it's worth taking a new trip to Myst. The original FMVs are still there as an option. Best of all, the additional Rime Age has not only been included, but redesigned and expanded with additional puzzles and story! Also check out the Riven Remake released in 2024, which also features new addition to the Myst universe. If you've like the way Outer Wilds weaves its story and puzzles together, you'll want to see how Riven was built and improved upon Myst. Only drawback for me: there is no available way yet to map controls to non-QWERTY keyboard layouts. It requires switching layout in the system settings. I would love if the game detected international layouts, or allowed me to manually remap controls!

Great puzzle game with beautiful visuals. I don't love all the updates in this newer release - I understand the reasons and some of it is genuinely helpful for quality of life, but as a player of the original and every release they've had (yes, I keep buying it every time) I do prefer the original and just enjoyed this.

大名鼎鼎的神秘岛系列开山作品的重制版。除了一如既往的引导差，本作还是很不错的，好玩

Love the new graphics of this classic gem!!! The origional Puzzle game still hard AF.