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Myst - the big deal?

D

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Lately, I've been seeing lots of love for Myst going around. Mostly in the latest issue of Gamer's Quarter (or is it issue #3), there's a loving article about the game series. Admittedly I took that article with a grain of salt - the writer thinks Star Ocean 2 is one of the worst games ever made. But, when it came out, I remember people mocking it for being all flash and barely any substance - an extremely thin narrative, barely any interaction, and confusing and nonsensical puzzles (something that killed the adventure genre for me and in general). Remembered playing a bit at a friend's, got to the organ tuning puzzle, and then got so frustrated I'm like forget this crap. And most everybody tended to agree...

So, with this whole reactionary trend of minimalism in games - small inventories, bare-bones narrative, surreal and nearly deserted worlds (Ico, SOTC), does it make the games of Myst any more legitimate? Is it worth it to go back and play these games?
 
It's like playing Wolfenstein 3D I guess. Games have evolved, your standards have risen. It's nostalgia talking, but when they came out, they sure rocked the gaming world. :)
 
I love Myst. I guess it's not all that playable nowadays(maybe REALMyst is, dunno, never tried one), but back when I got it(late '95) it was a really incredible experience for me. I truly felt transported to those worlds. Oh well. :P I had high hopes for Uru, too bad Cyan had to scale it down from their original plans.
 
So, with this whole reactionary trend of minimalism in games - small inventories, bare-bones narrative, surreal and nearly deserted worlds (Ico, SOTC), does it make the games of Myst any more legitimate?
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Myst caught on like it did because it offered something no game previous to it did. As you touched upon there. When games, even adventure games set in fantasy worlds, were based on familiar and recognizable places and settings, MYST had a entirely new world, with original settings, music, and art(no matter what you think of the game, you would have admitted that it was a stunner back in 94). It created a strong and unique atmosphere in a game, back when atmoshpere was reserved for describing the grimy arcades people went to bust people up at Mortal Kombat 2. And its high-fallutin asperations helped it catch on with the populace at large, who signed up for the great art and got a game to go with it.

That it managed to become the best-selling PC game of all time(freakin Sims), popularized the spread of CD-ROM drives, and inspired knockoff's that continue to this day, is nothing to sneeze at either. Adventure games had nonsensical puzzles long before MYST did, it just put a new spin and a fresh coat of very pretty paint on the genre. I still dig MYST, and its importance to gaming cannot be understated.
 
HyperZone<3 said:
Myst caught on like it did because it offered something no game previous to it did. As you touched upon there. When games, even adventure games set in fantasy worlds, were based on familiar and recognizable places and settings, MYST had a entirely new world, with original settings, music, and art(no matter what you think of the game, you would have admitted that it was a stunner back in 94). It created a strong and unique atmosphere in a game, back when atmoshpere was reserved for describing the grimy arcades people went to bust people up at Mortal Kombat 2. And its high-fallutin asperations helped it catch on with the populace at large, who signed up for the great art and got a game to go with it.
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That's a great answer. I remember buying it when it came out and I was fascinated by it, even though it ran in a window and had admittedly wonky puzzles. I remember taking notes and stuff and getting excited to reach the new areas. There was really nothing that looked liked it, and even though it now seems dated and ridiculous at the time it was pretty damn cool IMO.
 
Kobold said:
It's like playing Wolfenstein 3D I guess. Games have evolved, your standards have risen. It's nostalgia talking, but when they came out, they sure rocked the gaming world. :)
Click to expand...

Except I could still play Wolfenstein 3D and Myst always blew.
 
Myst is one of the best PC adventure games you can ever play.

Riven is better than Myst.

Exile is..... ok.

Revelations fucking owns.

End of Ages is a fine ending and a damn fine game.

now admittedly the technology behind myst is pretty damn old. they released the remastered version, which always kind of burned me because the video technology wasn't THAT much better for the Masterpiece edition than it was originally. It burns me even more because the masterpiece edition was originally released on DVD, yet had nowhere near DVD quality video/graphics.

Riven really takes everything that was great about Myst and makes it even better. You actually felt like you were in a living breathing world, and yes despite the fact that everything was pretty much static images. About the only problem with Riven was it was ridiculously hard.

Exile... eh, I never really got into exile. It was decent enough, but definitely the low point of the series.

Revelations is just beautiful, and is a game that will remain beautiful forever. everything from the graphics to acting to well... EVERYTHING was excellent in the game.

End of Ages I haven't gotten through yet, and is not as good as Revelations or Riven, but is quite good, also absolutely gorgeous, and up to where I am is a really great story that will hopefully wrap up the saga.

And all of this is getting into the series pretty damn late (last year). If you actually get far enough in Myst to start readiung some of the pages and finding out about some of the back story... Still holds up amazingly well... and had I played that back in 1994 (along with 7th Guest which I did play) I would have been just blown away by it.
 
I never got into Myst, but I loved the old Monkey Island, Lucas Arts games. These types of games would work well with Rev's remote/control. Dragon's Lair Revolution! Eek!
 
djtiesto said:
So, with this whole reactionary trend of minimalism in games - small inventories, bare-bones narrative, surreal and nearly deserted worlds (Ico, SOTC), does it make the games of Myst any more legitimate? Is it worth it to go back and play these games?
Click to expand...

I do think Myst was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Yeah, there were people who trashed it when it came out, though if you look back at a lot of the complaints they had at the time, they seem pretty silly in retrospect. Yeah, the game was about exploring a nearly deserted environment, trying to figure out what happened before you got there. So what? You could make the same complaint about, say, Planetside. Except nobody does, because everyone loves Planetside. People complained that Myst was like a slideshow, but let's face it: were other adventure games really any different? They all had worlds comprised of a series of still backdrops, the only difference was that you could see your character walk across the screen. And nobody ever bitches about old RPGs like Might and Magic are just slideshows, even though they feature environments and movement that is almost identical to Myst's. Most games of that era were slideshows by today's standards.

I think the main reason Myst had so many detractors is simply that it was popular, and there are always people that like to put down popular things, whether they deserve it or not. I happen to think Myst didn't deserve the flak it got--it was a watershed game with a unique story presented in a compelling fashion, and it's still one of my favorite games to this day.
 
myst was an INCREDIBLE experience. my dad bought a cd drive just for it a month after its release. so did a million other people.
 
borghe said:
Myst is one of the best PC adventure games you can ever play.

Riven is better than Myst.

Exile is..... ok.

Revelations fucking owns.

End of Ages is a fine ending and a damn fine game.
Click to expand...

QFT

Great summary borghe. I love Mysts and all (around 12846573023864) Myst clones.
 
I dug it when it came out. Riven was pretty neat too. Riven's puzzles were particularly cool because you had to seriously think and piece a ton of clues together.
 
I'm selling a Myst III Collector's Edition complete with everything.

B00005AC4D.01.PT08._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg


Comes with official strategy guide, soundtrack CD, Making of Myst III CD-ROM, and a pewter creature
Click to expand...
 
I've always loved Myst/sequels and am glad the general perception and appreciation of the game seems to be changing recently. It was pretty fashionable 5-10 years ago to shit on Myst for not being a quote unquote game, with controllable characters and runing and jumping and all that. I think Next Generation (graphic whores they were) were usually hard on the game. Fuck that noise. Playing Myst for the first time back when it came out was one of the greatest video game experiences I've had.
 
It was basically a logical extension of the old text adventure games (although admittedly stripped of a little action of the text-adventure genre). While other games had extended visual elements into their presentation for quite some time prior to Myst, Myst's world was so vivid and detailed for the time it was unparalelled. You really felt like the world inside the game existed (especially with good speakers :) ) I personally liked Myst because the origional put more emphasis on exploration than alot of games at the time. It really felt like an old text-adventure game come to life. Nowadays with vivdly detailed 3-d worlds and high-budget cg occupying every corner of the industry, Myst seems static and dated, but in 1994 you couldn't obtain that kind of experience using a traditional game engine.
 
I think The Flying Welshman said it best to Guybrush in The Curse of Monkey Island...

welshman.gif

"Well, sure, mist is pretty, but egad, is it dull!"
 
Back in the day, it was pretty common for any "hardcore" gamer to put Myst down, if only because it had broad appeal and was played by a lot of people who otherwise were not into games.

I loved Myst, personally. I even foudn the puzzles compelling. Not dull at all.

And the fact that much of the story is only implied is a nice touch.
 
I'll be honest, I was someone who would have derided Myst. I thought it was interactive wallpaper. A way for people with new computers to show off thier graphics, since 80% of all computers seemed to be packaged with Myst on them.

All the complaints about it have been listed here, barely there story, wierd puzzles, non character interaction. Maybe that is why people are attached to it, because it is such a unique game. Unique doesn't always mean good, imo.

I thought a game like Manhunter (NY and San Fran) was a better example of this type of game. That was a game that oozed atmosphere, had a better story and puzzles to boot. The graphics on it now are horribly dated, but at the time they were top notch.


I will also contend that the game that sold more CD-ROM drives was King's Quest, not Myst. But that is just opinion.
 
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