Quick Look: realMyst: Masterpiece Edition

A little cranky in these quick looks today, Jeff?

What's with the audio? Sounds like they're sitting in a live stream position, with the varying levels of microphone audio. It's not bad, just different.

Yep, that's Myst. Let's keep this game where it belongs, as a fond memory way way back in my mind.

I have never wanted to scream at my computer as much as I have while watching this video. I mean, it's not their fault - they just haven't put in the requisite stumbling around until you figure things out. Those books in the library are super important.

My favorite Myst is 4. Then they mucked it up with 5.

3D characters and teleport stones ruined it for me.

Fun Fact: The big sword that falls over at the end of Riven was made by Adam Savage from Mythbusters. Today it hangs in the reception area at Cyan.

Never felt like Myst was "not a real game", just that it was a big bummer for me when I finally played it after all the hype. It was just... blah. A bunch of screens with almost nothing to interact with in a satisfying way.

The real problem wasn't the game itself so much at the time but how it led to a huge pile of other imitators, static pre-rendered image adventure games that basically supplanted all the great Lucasarts-style adventures I loved so much. Instead of fun dialogue with interesting characters and neat item-based puzzles, all these games were flipping switches and levers in well-rendered (for the time) but otherwise lifeless screens.

Breaking Brad: Myst

I had no idea that this even existed and I'm actually pretty excited to see it in HD

Myst always reminded me of the parody release, Pyst. Where all the stuff on the island was junk.

I would *love* to see Breaking Brad: Myst. Hell, go crazy and do Riven too. That would be so much fun to watch as a guy that never got very far in either game but loves both in theory.

With John Goodman, notably. :D The "game" was awful and about 15 minutes long, but I love that they got John Goodman.

Loved Myst and Myst III back in the day. The whole island is one big puzzle. The atmosphere is cool, and the idea for the plot is neat.

Never liked Myst. And no one I knew who was into games in the 90's liked Myst. Only computer illiterates with Macs liked Myst.

I'd give anything for an update to Riven. Easily the best out of all the Myst games.

Next Breaking Brad.

Myst was pretty great back in 1995 where every game was like this. What Myst brought wasnt new gameplay, it was just the same text adventure game play i had been playing, but with graphics, thats what was cool about it.

Back in 1993, Myst was the most successful attempt at creating a game that immersed and brought you into its world. It had amazing audio production and realistic graphics, without relying too much on actors in front of a green screen.

Those games defined my childhood so I'm naturally a little nostalgic for them but even so, I don't think it can really be denied how much of a milestone it was for the medium.

As for the MMO, Uru, it was a grand (and terribly risky) experiment that ended up costing Cyan a lot, almost driving them to bankruptcy. Uru was a bit ahead of its time - I imagine that with today's distribution models, social media and whatnot the game could have managed to survive. There are certainly ideas there worth examining for developers that would like to buck the current trend and create a different sort of user-driven, sustainable MMO game.

Is this what The Witness is going to be like? Kind of? Sort of? Maybe?

no thanks

thought the puzzles were pretty mediocre, at best

I hated Myst back in the day and this doesn't look like it will change my mind.

@rodiard: not really -- the witness will guide the player a lot more with that line puzzle mechanic Jonathon. Myst doesn't direct you.

Cyan actually just recently Kickstarted a new point and click game called Obduction!

Fun fact: Myst was the very first game page I went in and edited when Giant Bomb launched (in beta?). I really love the whole series.

My RealMyst experience.

The funny thing about the original RealMyst back in 2001 or when it was, was that real-time 3D graphics back then didn't look as good as the pre-rendered stuff from the 1993 original. So, while you could walk around, the look and atmosphere was nowhere near as great as in the original, but this looks like it manages pretty well. It doesn't look fantastic by today's standards, but it is a noticeable upgrade compared to both the 1993 and 2001 originals.

Like Brad, Myst wasn't a game I ever managed to finish though, I was incredibly fascinated by it, walked around for a few hours and thinking I'll have to get back to that puzzle every time I encountered one, but I'll pick this up just for the hell of it, I guess.

@thecheese33: There is a fan made remake of Riven under the working title of The Starry Expanse Project and Cyan is actually helping out and supporting it. It just moved from Unity to UDK. @drewbert

With The Starry Expanse and Obduction on the horizon there will be not shortage of Myst and Myst-like games for a while.

Drew was really great in this QL too!

Atlantis: The Lost Tales was the first-person adventure for me. I played Riven for a long time, but it was so aimless and got boring.

Can't say I've myst this.

I'll see myself out...

Not at all. Myst gave you everything you needed to find everything else without outright holding your hand. Constellations looking like some Earth-type person/animal/thing is prevalent in most cultures.

Myst is rad. It brings back so many memories.

Also, I need that Beastie Boys hypercard! I only have Ill Communication on vinyl, I'm guessing that's a CD extra?

Any love for the CD Rom game Lost Eden? I was kinda young at the time, and had been out of PC gaming for some time, Lost Eden blew my fricken mind. So atmospheric, and the soundtrack was great, as was the art direction. At least I thought so at the time.

Oh god I must've started this game about five times and spent hours roaming about without solving anything. So frustrating but I still want to bloody finish this game.

I think i have a 8x12in page filled with notes for Riven.

Also, with Myst.... fuck the Spaceship age! I spent so much time on that stupid underground track ugh....

Man, yeah, watching this QL and the Lightning Returns one back-to-back left me feeling kinda down. I totally know these are not his types of games, but Myst was one of those important, formative games for me, and hearing him ripping into it wore on me after a while. The gameplay style may do nothing for him (or Brad?) but it blew my mind as a kid and and still does. I enjoy it when they make fun of all types of games, whether the hilarity comes from the game being straight-up broken and terrible, or for their total unfamiliarity with the genre. But when they go into a game clearly having no interest in it and expecting to hate it, and then spend the QL just hating on it and showing how uninteresting they find it, I dunno....that's not entertaining or informative. If it was somehow possible to ignore a game while actively playing it, I feel like that's what they were doing in these QLs today. Eh, never mind. I don't think a negative QL will dissuade the people really interested in either game.

They missed a real good opportunity for a pun here. Shoulda called it Mysterpiece

I remember getting Myst and Myth so mixed up when they came out.

Myst was my very first PC game I ever bought for my Macintosh Performa back in the day. I absolutely adored it as I grew up with it and I was at that perfect age. I even played and finished every single Myst related game from Riven to Uru (although you can't really "finish" Uru, since it was the failed MMO). It's good to see some people still like Myst. For me, it's still in my top 5 video games of all time.

Is there anything that can be done about the screen tearing? It drives me nuts.

100% down with Brad and Drew on a Breaking Brad: Mysterpiece Edition. Even though the 17 year old misremembered facts were driving me crazy.

Yeah, I think all of us got through that one on trial and error.

Funny enough, did you know there's actually sound cues to tell you which way to go? Supposedly, different tones that play between the FMVs indicate different directions. I don't know anyone who actually realized this back in the day.

Never played this, and now I actually might. Isn't this basically the Dark Souls of adventure games?

The tram ride at the beginning of Riven was a mindblowing experience for me. I think I prefer the plot and aesthetics of Riven to Myst. The whole thing seemed warmer and less dreary.

So breaking drew: myst confirmed?

I heartily recommend that Brad and Drew try to play through, together, without a walkthrough. Having another person by your side is key to the whole experience, in my opinion. I grew up with the Myst games, and played them with my brother. We'd see things the other didn't, remember text from books and pages that the other overlooked, think of trying certain button combinations, etc. If you're all on your own, I could see the original Myst being a bit of a chore, but if you have a friend or family member who will play by your side, pointing things out and suggesting solutions…man…Myst is one of the best co-op games of all time. Yes, I realize that's mostly the nostalgia talking, but hey, what can you do. =P

I remember trying to play Myst as a kid and being really really confused. Thats about it. But that island totally looked familiar!

I'm sure if i was older at the time i'd have liked it alot more.

This was really hard to watch.

But after the robots revolt and we narrowly defeat them, we will outlaw intelligent machines and then have to cultivate the human intellect to make up the difference. I suggest calling them Mentats.

I don't care what anyone says. I love the entire Myst series. I still log onto Myst Online (Uru) every once in a while. While the original Myst can be dry if you focus only on the puzzles rather than the lore and story that's hidden in many of the journals, the rest of the series is amazing, and Myst made it possible.

@drewbert: I'm so glad someone on the crew likes Myst. It built a sense of adventure in child me that I don't know has ever been recreated. Also, Myst 3 is awesome, and the story is really depressing. Also, Brad Dourif playing a sad character is pretty unheard of.

@pekoe212 said:

I agree, it was kind of a bummer. But at least he tried to stay engaged in the latter half and sometimes that's all one can ask for if Jeff doesn't like something. I had a great time with Myst as a kid and even played Riven and Exile, but they weren't for everyone. I just wonder why they do Quick Looks of games when they actively dislike the game and aren't invested enough to even try to find any good in them. At least Brad and Drew were interested, not sure why Jeff was there to begin with.

I see what you did there.