Myst (PC) Review

The team behind the creation of this world wisely chose to provide the blankest slate kind of protagonist ever. The so called ‘Stranger’ is not only faceless and genderless, but the player won’t even be able to tell if he or she is human, or, even better, from where did he/she came from, making it easier for you to let your imagination go wild, and, well… become the Stranger; the cosmic drifter who discovered a strange book, which, upon touching its first page, transferred them into the ‘Age’ of Myst. What’s an Age? It’s basically a miniature, “bubble” universe within the universe; a world created(?) through a mysterious, ancient Art, that enables the one using it to craft these microcosms and create a link to them via a simple-looking book. This review won’t spoil anything else, as part of the fun here is figuring out what the heck to do, and what this place is all about. Myst hates exposition, thus once on the eponymous island, you are on your own to figure out what just happened.

Initially there will be a weird lack of a goal. Myst might be a “typical” adventure, for the most part, but it’s also heavily into open-ended exploration. In fact, those expecting a title like Syberia, for example, will be disappointed, as there are no real dialogue sequences at hand to “explain” what to do. You are simply thrown into a strange world to find purpose on your very own - which leads to how engrossing this can be despite the immense feeling of solitude - or maybe exactly due to it. The island of Myst, as well as the rest of the Ages that will be visited by the Stranger, has a surreal and otherworldly aura about it. It is as if being in a dream.

This unmatched atmosphere is the result of the aforementioned feeling of loneliness, the minimal yet effective use of ambient sounds and music, and of course the visuals. Yes, you’ve read that correctly; the visuals. Sure, the days that these simple 3D vistas were considered cutting edge are long gone, yet it all looks very good, and most importantly, distinct, which is why upgrades the likes of realMyst kind of feel generic when compared to the original. It’s like taking Super Mario Bros. and remaking it by adding photorealistic textures - it might look “better,” but it just won’t be the same.

It’s hard to deny, however, that while Myst looks good, the transitioning effect that happens when clicking on a path to “walk” a bit further kind of shows the age of the title in a way that’s not exactly very graceful, meaning that everything looks similar to a slideshow. Making a “step” towards a direction instantly sends you a couple of feet forward, abruptly, just like browsing through a collection of images. For the most part this is exactly that: a slideshow where one can simply interact with most of the slides at hand. The good news? The whole interaction bit is actually very good.

…And this is the perfect place to talk about the notoriously challenging puzzles. For starters, while definitely hard, they aren’t exactly as challenging as many have made them out to be. It’s just that, like with the story itself, don’t expect things being handed to you. Fortunately, unlike how some adventure games require following some weird, out of place “path” to solve a puzzle, all you need to do here is to just pay attention for clues and take lots and lots of notes. In fact, that’s the main “difficulty” here. There’s no journal available, so be sure to have a notebook close by.

Most puzzles on offer require fiddling with a mechanical contraption in order to understand what it does, and then use it to achieve what’s needed. Imagine finding a record player or a washing machine in the middle of nowhere, with no prior knowledge of what these can do or how they work, with your only help being a found note that would say something like “40 Celsius, Program 2, 1400 Spin.” In other words, puzzles are all about logical thinking instead of trying to pull off bizarre cocktails with the items of your inventory. Just be sure to search all over the place for clues, as these won’t ever be found right next to the puzzle.

So, the basic concept is this: explore an Age, solve its puzzles, move on to next Age, solve its puzzles, and so on and forth. It’s great, it’s awesome, it’s spellbinding… but it’s not for everyone. Even amongst genre fans, some will be disappointed by the lack of interactions. Instead, what you get here are journals that help players get to know the world, its main characters, and the whole ‘Ages’ thingy. While there are characters that will talk to you, the Stranger is basically alone here, and some may find that this is not their cup of tea. The rest are likely to have a blast.