The MYST series

[Domino]

Well, i've been playing MYST 3: Exile on my PS2, and i'm wondering if anybody would consider this an adventure game, since you're pretty much pointing and clicking in a make believe world solving puzzles.

Also, how many people really liked this series despite its almost impossible puzzles.

I have to say it feels like an adventure game, and i'm enjoying every minute of it. But i'm always looking to a strategy guide because i am having the hardest time figuring out the obscure puzzles the game presents.

I'm hoping this is in the right forum, because i think it's adventure game related, otherwise, please move it to the gen forum.

I would like to hear any input on the MYST games.

Shawn

[DGMacphee]

I only played the first one.

The puzzles were okay, though the game itself didn't feel very interactive.

And the ending was shit.

[Anarcho]

I've tried to play the original a slew of times, but have never really gotten anywhere.  The graphics and sound were great, but i just couldn't get a rise out of pulling levers just to see if something happens.  Is it an adventure game?  Kinda depends on your definition, but i would say so.  It's just a certain kind of adventure game, one that i personally don't like.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I never played Myst, but I've played my share of puzzle-based adventures, like Shivers, Reah and Black Dahlia (which is not really puzzle-based, to be honest - only about 80% of it is a puzzle. This was sarcasm. Those puzzles spoil the game immensely.).

My belief is that they ARE adventure games in the sense that they allow you to be a character in a story. Furthermore, they ARE puzzles, which most people have for a long time associated with the genre. The fault lies in whenever the puzzles destroy the beauty of the game by being either too many, or, in the case of puzzle-only games, unfair. Shivers, for instance, was a gem - it had its tough puzzles and its simple puzzles, all of them fair, all of them interesting - the game actually made you WANT to finish them and go on! In other cases, however, lie Reah, bad acting and unfair puzzles make you just want to turn the other way.

Are these adventure games? In a sense, yes, and they are probably the ones that require the most work, since it's much harder to develop good original puzzles and keep the player. Like Shivers manages.

Personally, I hate them. Give me Syberia, Gabriel Knight or Phantasmagoria any time.

PS -

And the ending was shit.

I know there was a special edition made of Myst I, it's called "Real Myst Interactive 3d Edition". I've heard it's kind of a "Director's cut", with a different ending. Never played either meself, just passing it along. You may find info about it on Google, or Altavista.

Or E-Mule.  :

[Evil]

Damn that game. I spend $30 on the cheat book and still never finished it.

[Las Naranjas]

Myst, wandering around pretty locations with little interaction and no character interaction.

Syberia - Wandering around pretty locations with no interactivity and little character interactions.

I guess there is a difference.

[Ali]

Will no one stand up and be counted?

Who will defend MYST?


A figure moves in the shadows...

Ali will defend MYST!


And after all that silliness: The MYST games definitely are adventure games, and great adventure games at that. I played all three with my girlfriend, they're so thoughtful and atmospheric - it's like going on holiday. You just have to get into the world. Once you come to understand the history of the locations all the puzzles start to make sense, though this is more true for the first games.

[SSH]

I enjoyed Myst, but Riven I didn't: it just took too long to wander around pulling levers, etc. Similarly to Ali, I play games with my wife and so Adventure games are about the only games you can do that with: anything real-time is out. We enjoyed Myst both but got stuck with Riven too quickly (although admittedly, we do get stuck quite easily, like with that sign in GF). We've got Exile, but not played it yet.

Myst has a great story concept, I thought. Kinda like Neverending story. And I loved the libraries of books: gave a great atmosphere.

The things that are wrong with Myst and more so with Riven are not down to its first-personness, as Naranjas illustrated by pointing out similar problems with Syberia. Syberia had some redeeming features, too, such as use of the mobile phone.

[Evil]

Myst is a good game. It just gives other adventures a bad name. People that play Myst either love it or hate it. Those who hate Myst think that the other adventures are just like it and automaticly hate them too. The people that love it think that the other adventure games are just like it and get disapointed and hate them all. Its one big downfall! Nobody wins but the evil producers of Myst!

[m0ds]

Games set in empty places void of much character or characters never really appeal/appealed to me. Makes you feel more of a loner than you already are  : I played some of Myst, didn't really enjoy it - but in the same way that fantasy storylines don't really tickle my fancy either. As a game, it seemed pretty good. Any game with an island is cool. But it was nothing more than "cool". Riven looked interesting, but I didn't buy Myst so there was no chance I'd wanted to buy Riven.

I always consider "Lost Eden" to be a more succesful "Myst" style game.

[Sluggo]

Myst was ok, for an introductory game. The real story comes in Riven and Exile. I was totally clueless after I finished Myst, but playing the other games made the whole world more interesting and complete.

There really is a thin line between the Myst series being adventure or strategy. I would put it more in the strategy category myself, but it has elements from both, making it a sort of hybrid I guess.

Well anyway, I guess my point is that you shouldn't judge the series on the first one because the other two are far more expansive, with a whole history you could get into (if you bought the hint books. It's kind of strange that there are a lot of things you can't learn from playing the game itself. They developed all these back stories that you can only read in supplementary handbooks and stuff like that.)

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Well anyway, I guess my point is that you shouldn't judge the series on the first one

You can and you should IF the game was made as a standalone, and not as part of a series. Gabriel Knight should be played as a standalone, and other GKs can't be taken into consideration when playing it. On the other hand, Zelenhgorm (the only example I can think of right now) is one that CAN'T, because it's explicirtelly the first of X episodes.

[R'ri]

Myst was an interesting game.  Ti'ana (Atrus's mother) or his wife Catherine (i can't remember which) wrote the age of Myst.  It would seem inspired by earthy object for it's interesting items and archetecture.  Other ages in Myst are not like that.  Character interaction was minimal because Sirris and Achenar killed everyone who inhabited the age of (in English) Channelwood.  In Riven, the people see you coming and hide because Ghen has them scared shitless of him.  It's only natural they'd hide from you as an outsider thinking you might be Ghen.  Ja'nanin (in Myst 3) was a world for Atrus to teach his sons how to interact with the delicacy of ages in general, and after three lesson ages, they are rewarded with an age that is inhabited with people called Naryan.  "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst" was online for a time so character interaction was awesome.  You get to see the world of the D'ni (finally!!!) and you meet Atrus's daughter in the future (the game takes place in our time, where the Atrus stories take place probably hundreds of years ago).  His daughter, Yeesha, has found out how to write time travel, which no one has ever written...

As you can clearly see, the game's popularity is all story based, and everything about the story that remains in question has had it's tracks covered by Cyan's story department.  They actually had a huge story going, and wrote three books after the release of Myst or Riven (can't remember which).  In Myst 4 you actually see what happens to Sirris and Achenar (if you remember the red and blue books are destoryed at the end of Myst).  So before judging the game, learn what drives it:  story.

And uh...it's an adventure/puzzle game.

[Mr_Frisby]

Games set in empty places void of much character or characters never really appeal/appealed to me. Makes you feel more of a loner than you already are Ã, :

This is soo true but for me it works in the positive - I really enjoy that feeling (Hey, I'm wierd I know).

Anyway on the topic - If you are in a game and you feel like your having an adventure then I rekon it's an adventure game. Text style adventure games are all about random events and trial and errors so whats the difference ? (don't let the graphics fool you Myst is just an big empty text type game with some extra shiney do-dahs)

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Correction, my dear Frisby - Myst is the logical next evolutionary step after text adventures, meaning "let's-use-graphics-to-add-new-puzzles-previously-impossible-while-using-the-same-structure".

But then, we're talking about Zork-ish game, right? Text adventures have progressed as much as graphical adventures, so it might be an unfair comparison.

At any rate, I've recently played Myst for the first time - oh, sorry, I played "realMYST Interactive 3D Edition". And THEN I played the original. I'd just like to tell you, those that don't know, that realMYST is how the game was meant to be played, I'm sure. Fullest game immersion I've ever seen, besides the beauty of the thing. I felt like I was really there. I don't think I ever felt like that. ANd it lasted for the whole game! I even stopped myself using hints (which I usually do, to my shame, therefore ruining my two "newest" acquisitions, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and Lands Of Lore - THrone of Chaos) by thinking, "If you WERE in this age, you'd have no hints and you'd be trapped forever until you solved the thing". As a result, it was actually an easy game - allowing me to think as though I were really there was really the secret.

Which, BTW; is what distinguishes Myst from all the other clones.

[Hollister Man]

One FPA (First Person Adventure) that I never saw mentioned was The Journeyman Project.  I never got 1 to work correctly on any computer, though I still have it.  3 I loved, but never succeeded at winning.  What did anyone think of these (a bit off topic, I know)

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I only have 3, but it don't run on XP, forshame.

Yes, it was a great game. I always wanted to get the 1st two, but was never able to find them. And it had one of my favourite sidekicks ever!

[PyroMonkey]

I liked MYST a good bit. It was good, the origional had graphics pretty far ahead of its time. I would like to see a good AGS remake/fangame, myself.

[Hollister Man]

Another game, similar in execution, was The 7th Guest.  This was the first to have pre-rendered room transitions, I believe.  That game still scares the snot out of me!

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

The difference between games like 7th guest/Shivers and Myst is that the former are almost exclusively built upon puzzles. Now, I only played Myst 1, but that one was built upon the story. The puzzles were almost matter-of-fact, while the other games similar to the style I mentioned were of the get-in-the-room-solve-that-puzzle-get-out-for-more.

At least, this is my opinion.

And yes, Shivers had a pretty good deal of story, but it was not story-oriented. And I maintain that Myst is, because the entire game consists of you making up your own story, more so than in other games. With no set background except for the one you go around discovering, the puzzles don't really feel like puzzles anymore, and you're creating your own version of Myst. I remember I couldn't figure out how to get in Channelwood, and just let the boiler run counter-clockwise, and just stood there, looking at the tree going down, thinking about it, when all of a sudden I thought - what if UP's not the way, but DOWN? And I stood there, and watched it go down, and smacked myself on the head and... well, you get the point. What I mean is, it felt as though I was there, not as though I'd solved a puzzle. Which is untrue in thoe other games.

PS - Unrelated - I never could play 7th guest because the actors' voices were too low, I couldn't hear them over the music. Go figure.