Myst

"This is not an adventure"

Okay, this is Myst. Alright? Myst. It had godly graphics, an uncreative story, zero characters, and no gameplay. The main idea of the story is... you're you (the guy sitting at the keyboard), and you get trapped in the dimension known as Myst. What's your objective? Good question. I beat the game and have yet to figure it out.

Story - A story's made of 3 parts; a begining, a middle, and an end. Myst has a begining in the instruction manual, but there's no mid point, climax, or real ending. Adventure games (such as The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango) usually have great stories, characters, and endings; Myst doesn't live up to those standards. Story gets a 1/10

Graphics - The graphics look better than real life. Seriously. If I could change life's graphics, it'd easily be changed to Myst. The graphics look very realistic, and you rarely get choppy animation because nothing moves. You actually feel like you're really in the world of Myst. Graphics get a 9/10 because they look realistic, but there's no animation; keeping it from a 10/10

Gameplay - Here's how the game works. You start off on a dock and click to the left, right, back, or forward to indicate the direction you wish to follow. You don't actually walk that way; the screen fades out and back in to the place you walked. To solve puzzles, you try to find a pattern in switches to open a secret door. These puzzles can take hours at a time to complete and are very annoying. You can not quit one puzzle to try another; unlike in most graphic adventures. Myst isn't an adventure; it's an interactive slideshow. Gameplay gets a 1/10.

Sound - It has sound effects for when you flip a switch that sound semi realistic... and the burning fire was alright. The music isn't really to be rated. Sound gets 5/10.

Challenge - It's more of a game that requires you to be lucky than skilled. It takes hours to find the solution to a puzzle, and you find the solution by randomly pressing switches. I believe games should require more strategy than luck, but that's just me. Challenge gets a 1/10.

Replay value - I bow to you if you can play this through once. There's no humor (as in Monkey Island) and no action (as in Full Throttle), and the puzzles are boring the first time... the second time is obsiously 10 times easier, but also 10 times more boring. Replay gets a 1/10

Buy or rent? Neither. This game deserves to be thrown away. It's sad that the CDs that could have been used for quality games like StarCraft and EverQuest were used for this game.

Overall - I'm giving it a 2 because of the graphics and realistic sounds... there's nothing else it has, though.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/01, Updated 06/18/01