![]() ![]() The platform and visuals might change, but the locations, puzzles, and story are the same. There are sequels to Myst, but these aren't them. Myst opens with you materializing on the dock of the titular Myst island. Immediately, the mysterious whimsy of this place is on display. Ahead of you is an enormous gear, and to your right a half-submerged sailing ship. Exploring the rest of the small island reveals more strange monuments and eventually portals in the form of books to four other worlds called Ages.Īlong the way, you learn about the former inhabitants of the island and the deadly, family plot that ensnared them all. ![]() While the game's story is key to its final conundrum, the puzzles and fantastical locales are the real draw. In each Age, you must find red or blue pages ripped from magical books and return to Myst island. Your path is often barred by puzzles in the form of complex contraptions. To move forward, you must open audio locks, ride elevators, and navigate an underwater roller-coaster maze in a golden submarine-among other challenges. While Myst sometimes gets pigeonholed as edutainment, solving these puzzles takes only patience and experimentation. ![]() This game isn't interested in teaching you math or state capitals. The game's morals about colonialist exploitation are mostly skin deep, but underneath Myst is very much a work in conversation with itself. The game's creators, brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, play the roles of the two murderous brothers Achenar and Sirrus in the game. Their father Atrus (Rand, doing double duty), a godlike figure who literally wrote Myst and the other Ages into being with words in books, touches on the responsibility and consequences of creating art. This key conceit of Myst-that magical books transport you literally to the worlds they contain-echoes the game itself as well as the Hypercard engine that underpinned the original Myst. Some of the details have changed (it's Unreal not Hypercard that makes this Myst tick), but the ideas the game plays with are still powerful. It still makes you think about more than just puzzles. (Virtually) Entering MystĪ lot of buzz around the original Myst centered on the technical sophistication of its graphics. With virtual reality, Myst regains that magical quality. The visual design is nearly identical to the Quest game but that's not to say if you've seen one you've seen them all where the Quest was streamlined for that platform's limited capabilities, this one sees dramatic improvements to textures and lighting. If the Quest Myst is a sketch, this Myst is a Rembrandt. This was Myst as I had hoped to experience it. I was stunned as soon as the game loaded up on the Valve Index VR headset I used, and stood dazzled on the dock of Myst island. ![]()
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March 2023
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