thoughts on games: an afternoon with the MYST remake
Spent my whole afternoon and well into the evening yesterday playing through the MYST remake in one sitting. It was a lovely time — the original game was fundamental to me but I never finished it. I was too young to solve most puzzles so I mostly wandered around (I do remember getting into the Mechanical Age). The same thing with Riven. I came back to them every now and then, especially Myst III which I eventually finished (and loved).
Then a few of years ago I decided to play (and finish) all of them, for some reason starting with Riven. I loved Riven — it's the classic for a reason, then Myst III (this time familiar with Dourif!) again. Then the Riven remake came out and I loved that even more (seriously! go play it!). I wanted to get to MYST but there were so many versions and I kind of wanted to do the original first. Anyway since I got OLED screen and since Riven was so gorgeous, I decided on the fancy MYST remake yesterday.
It's strange how much is lost in translation with that one. It just felt off and like it didn't capture the eeriness of the island from my childhood. But maybe that's an impossible solve? The puzzles felt trivial (not that they were easy, but that they had few steps) and the interactions felt finicky and bugged (I think it started as a VR project?). I did really enjoy the new Rime age at the end and the lens puzzle. MYST really feels a little unsophisticated next to Riven but it should get kudos for the small scale project that it was and just introducing so many fascinating concepts like The Art and Linking Books, even the colonisation themes that would come into play in Riven.
My "play all the mysts" project ended when I rage-quitted MYST IV for the infamous monkey puzzle. I might still try MYST V at some point but I'd rather just go play any of the MYST-likes that now exist. The Myst series is like a favourite band: MYST is the debut that only the hardcore fans love, Riven is the classic breakthrough that is loved by all, Myst III is the overproduced but still great album of radio friendly hits, and IV and onward most of the band members had left and the front man didn't even write the songs any more.