On September 24, 1993, players first went to the mysterious island of Mist and swept through the eras imprisoned in books. 28 years later, Cyan once again (only on a PC this is the fifth version, and the number of ports to other devices is hard to count) invites you to go on an adventure that once turned the idea of the whole genre upside down. You can find out below how Myst feels today and whether it is worth looking at buying a reissue at all.
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The reader has no goal, only a path
Screenshot from Myst
In fact, Myst has almost no plot: a short introductory word from the mysterious Atrus says that a certain book, instead of being destroyed, fell into the hands of a random owner, which is the player. He, in turn, through the pages of the tome is transferred to another reality on the island of Mist, where he is given complete freedom of research. There are no clear tasks and goals, and the island itself is filled with mysterious mechanisms, the essence of which is to be understood by the gamer.
In retrospect, Myst began to be called the progenitor of the “walking simulator” genre, but this is not entirely true. Puzzle-solving is a central element of the game, though methodical exploration of the world at your own pace is equally important for creating a local atmosphere.
The plot becomes clear already during the game: two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar, are imprisoned in books and ask the player for help. For salvation, you need to find the missing pages in the books, scattered between the remaining eras. The problem is that both men accuse each other of killing their father, Atrus, and burning most of the library. The player will have to understand who is really to blame and figure out what happened on the island of Mist, solving riddles, moving between the worlds from the books and listening to both sides of the conflict.
New wrapper
Screenshot from Myst
The original Myst offered static screens and moving between them using the cursor. The new version recreates the island and other worlds in Unreal Engine 4 with many modern enhancements like 4K support, bump mapping and ray tracing. This is a huge step forward both in comparison with the original (which is not surprising, 28 years old is no joke to you!) And with re-releases, the last of which, realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, was released in 2014.
Surprisingly, the developers managed to retain the charm of the original while changing many aspects of the game: in some locations, the lighting has been completely replaced, in others, many new details have been added. The effect “Yes, everything is as before!” at the same time incredible: if you had a chance to play Myst only as a child, it may seem that the changes are not so radical.
This is especially evident in one of the modes. At the start, Myst offers to choose a way to play: as in 1993, or with random puzzle solutions. In the first case, almost the entire game can be flown, as they say, on muscle memory: although there are changes, they are extremely insignificant – for example, in the era of stone ships, instead of a chest with a crane, which always seemed an extremely strange invention, now there is a tank with a welded to it chest. The solution is exactly the same, but it looks a little more logical. If you have not played the game before, you should start with the classic mode.
And for “veterans” a new one is provided, with a randomizer, which changes some of the solutions to random ones. Of course, not all: the same number of switches on the island remains fixed, and for some reason they decided not to change the values in the rotating tower. Major edits are in the eras, so get ready to strain your ears again on that very trip. Those who played will understand what it is about, and let the rest remain in pleasant ignorance.
Difficulties in adaptation
Screenshot from Myst
Perhaps the most powerful and obvious change is the replacement of humans with 3D models. It looks extremely unusual, especially against the background of the fact that another game from Cyan, Obduction, came out not so long ago and at the same time used digitized actors. The decision, to put it mildly, is controversial: the original game of the actors was memorable and unusual, albeit with certain replays, but the developers, alas, did not learn how to create reliable three-dimensional people. Facial animation looks bad, and the models themselves came out much less expressive than their real prototypes. It seems that the decision can be explained by the introduction of freedom of movement, but realMyst: Masterpiece Edition did not interfere at all.
Fortunately, most of the time there are almost no people in the frame, as before, and in the rare cases when they do appear, more and more often the images are rather small. Here, by the way, lies another problem of the game: if in the original the blue and red books with the imprisoned brothers approached when viewed, then in the reprint they remain in their places. Most likely, this is due to the very nature of the port: initially, Myst was released for virtual reality helmets and only then ported to ordinary PCs.
The lack of approximation hits the atmosphere somewhat: opening the books of eras, the player sees small cutscenes inside them, but neither in the case of the volumes of the brothers, nor with the tomes of the worlds, there is no fixation on the importance of what is happening. Moreover, by clicking on the video being played, the player will simply skip the cut-scene and immediately be transferred to the corresponding world. A trifle, but unpleasant, and this must be borne in mind when passing.
Broken fingers
Screenshot from Myst
The chosen control seems to be the strangest decision of the developers. On a PC, there are no problems with it: the keyboard and mouse seem to be created for passing a new game with all its nuances, but as soon as you pick up a gamepad, the magic instantly crumbles. Difficulties begin already at the stage of cursor positioning: as expected, there is no help in hovering here, although many objects are quite small and it is not always possible to aim at them the first time. Let’s say, it’s not so difficult to get used to this, but how the navigation is implemented on static screens with puzzles is much more difficult to get used to. Logic suggests that you need to move the cursor with the left stick, but in fact, any interaction with it throws back into the mode of moving through the level.
Empirically, you can find that you can use the right stick or D-pad to move between points of interest (it allows you to jump between objects of interaction, ignoring everything else), but the convenience of such a solution leaves much to be desired. Especially since the interaction is displayed on A / X on Xbox / PS controllers, respectively. If you don’t notice that actions can be performed with the right trigger, some levers become a headache – there are not enough fingers!
Playing with the mouse, however, also has its drawbacks. In some places, the player is required to turn the adjustment wheels and other round switches, and at such moments it is not so easy to find the correct angle of rotation of the mouse, which can cause the handle to freeze in one position or start hysterically moving in a completely different direction. necessary.
The charm of antiquity
Screenshot from Myst
Yet the problems pale against the background of the merits. Myst was the best-selling game of the 1990s for a reason: it has an indescribable atmosphere of mystery borrowed from the novels of Jules Verne, interesting and logical riddles that do not require any special knowledge from the player and the use of sophisticated logic (no rubber ducks). All you need is to think logically and carefully follow the surrounding reality, carefully remembering the clues scattered around the worlds.
By the way, the new remake has one convenient simplification that makes life much easier for gamers. Previously, clues had to be written down and sketched, with a notebook and pen handy. In the updated version, a camera is built into the game, which is turned on by pressing a special button and allows you to save the desired hint or important moment in a separate menu. It should be noted that the camera is not a photo mode: it is precisely a convenient way of taking notes. However, it cannot be called universal: in many cases you have to rely on hearing, so it is better to somehow fix the clues in a different way.
The attention of the players is well rewarded: the worlds are quite different from each other and are full of small details that are extremely interesting to follow. The leisurely pace and fragmented storytelling creates a memorable adventure that many modern “walking simulators” will envy.
The only thing that remains unchanged and which the creators themselves still regret is a certain emotional lack of involvement of the player in the story. The choice between the two brothers was supposed to be a difficult moral dilemma, but the game does not cope with this – the clues about the right decision are too obvious. However, it is difficult to call this a disadvantage: nevertheless, the resulting result relies on something completely different.
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