Myst

"Gameplay is overrated anyway..."

One of the (few) joys about getting a new operating system with my new computer was that it came with a “slide show” feature, which lets me arrange all my photos in a special order and click through them one by one. As I played with this, scrolling through endless pictures of my darling rabbits, I was reminded of the game Myst. Myst certainly made quite a splash when it was released in 1994, becoming the first major CD-Rom hit and winning several gaming awards that year including, incredibly, “best user interface” and “best fantasy/role playing adventure program” at the Software Publishers Association symposium.

Many of the people who think Myst is one of the best games ever are also, coincidentally, graphic artists. Because without its graphics, there is not much to Myst at all. It is, basically, a decent looking slide-show with some primitive FMV sequences, exhausting puzzles and intricate layers of back-story that only the most dedicated of fans will be patient enough to sift through.

The game is in quasi-3rd-person perspective. Why the qualifier? Because in almost all 3rd person games there is still some indication that you’re looking out through the eyes of an animate being of some sort. You can often hear the grunts, cries and footfalls of your character as you move through the environment. Sometimes your hands and arms will be visible at either side of the screen when wielding an item or casting spells. In Myst there is none of that. Supposedly you are a stranger who has been mysteriously transported to an “Age” and must explore it and interact with two neurotic brothers who are trapped in the pages of books. That the brothers actually speak to you is the only indication that you are a living person who is supposed to be interacting with an environment. Other than that, you might as well be clicking through a virtual reality presentation.

Myst itself is an island with lush vegetation and several buildings that combine a 19th century industrial style with some futuristic elements. The soundtrack is ambient; subtle and highly atmospheric. However, ultimately both the audio and visuals fail to generate much of a degree of tension or excitement given the fact that there is no character interaction and no ways to die except at the very last puzzle. In other words, nothing ever feels threatening.

The plot of Myst never becomes anything other than basic; your goal is simply to travel around searching for the torn book pages to bring back to the two brothers. Finding the pages involves solving puzzles, all of which revolve around pushing buttons, turning cranks, pulling levers, etc. Some puzzles are color or sound specific. There aren’t many items to speak of, and certainly none of the staples one would expect in an RPG, such as spells, weapons, armor, or currency. These items would all have been pointless in a game like Myst however, since the Ages you explore are deserted; you will interact with no one else except the brothers and their father through the entire “journey.”

My main issue, however, was with the puzzles. Searching for pages requires you to jump through all sorts of hoops: most of which involve entering complex codes or patterns into endless control panels, and pushing buttons in the right order. A power generator must be turned on. An elevator must be activated. Valves must be opened and closed. A tower must be rotated; water levels must be lowered or raised, and on and on and on. Turning a crank in some dank cellar could have consequences down at the other end of the island. You find these things out by trial and error, or hours and hours of careful reasoning.

Fanatics of Myst and its sequels (and they do exist) are usually hyper-observant, hyper-sensitive quiet types. The types who learn Tolkien’s languages fluently and memorize the layout of Star Trek vessels. Myst requires intense concentration and patience, and the atmosphere that the Miller brothers achieve can be quite compelling at times. The ideas behind Myst are interesting and highly original, and have spawned several novels and successful sequels. However, I still fail to see how Myst can be labelled a “game.” Imagine if one were to take Myst’s extraneous puzzles, turtle-slow pacing and lack of character interaction, and combine them with 8-bit era graphics. Would it have won any “game of the year” awards? I think not.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/02, Updated 05/06/03