Myst Masterpiece Edition

Yes, I'm dating myself as a late 40's adventure gamer, but so what? Like Zork (and maybe the Ultima series) before it, Myst was a seminal game to me and set the bar for others that followed. What an amazing experience to be able to play it again on this platform some 25 years later!

Sure, the summary says it works on Windows 7, 64-bit. And it certainly seems to--except that it won't save where you actually were in the game. But an even bigger problem comes when your computer crashes. I ran it as Windows XP as an administrator, just like everyone suggested. More money down the drain.

Owning a CD copy of the original version of Myst, I was at a bit of a loss on how to manage to play it on modern hardware (Windows 10). Because I got the CD copy for a bargain ($6 for Myst, Riven, and Exile all in one box!), I was able to spare some cash and get the Masterpiece edition here on GOG. Unfortunately, even with GOG's tinkering with the game to enable it to run on modern systems, the Masterpiece edition still suffers from crashes when interacting with menu items (enabling Zip Mode, getting hints, etc). However, all hope is not lost! By downloading ScummVM (which you may already have, as it comes packaged with a number of other GOG games, though you may need to download a development version), Myst Masterpiece Edition is fully playable on modern systems! You lose out on Zip Mode and the hint system, but considering I couldn't get those to work anyway it wasn't much of a loss. As for the actual game, I don't think there's anything I can say about it that hasn't already been said. The graphics may appear dated to some, because they are, but everything else about Myst has aged greatly. The puzzles, the environments, the sound... even the Ages have aged well! There are plenty of reviews on GOG and the rest of the internet that sing this game's praises, so I didn't feel the need to parrot what everyone else has already said. This review was much more about the technical side of things and helping people play the game they paid for if they have issues.

This, to me, is the quintessential computer game. You could not experience an adventure like this through any other entertainment medium. If you are willing to forget that you are playing a game and do not analyze it from the usual player perspective but instead really imagine that you are a person who got "stranded" on this mysterious island... Well, few games will compare to the adventure you'll experience in this game. The only other requirement you need is patience. You can absolutely beat this game without a walkthrough, just take your time, read everything there is to read, and just focus. Don't think about this game as a collection of challenges, don't think about beating the game, just be there on Myst island and you'll be in the right mindset to beat the game. Also, if you are a Linux user, do not worry about this game not having the Linux seal of approval from GOG. I am a complete Linux newbie and I just finished the game on PopOS using ScummVM, and it worked perfectly. Not a single crash or any sort of issue, just make sure you get the ScummVM launcher and load it up from there manually.

Myst is an interesting game, especially in light of the effect it had on the games industry when it was released. At the time there was literally no other game like it, and it tended to polarize gamers who either loved it or derided it as not even really being a game, but just a slideshow that you clicked on. In my opinion, some of the "copycat" games that built on the style of Myst were better games (but a lot of them were really bad), but I also never played Riven or any other sequel so I can't speak to those. The thing I liked most about Myst was the imagination put into its environments. There's almost a light steampunk vibe to the design of the various areas, and I really liked the sense of atmosphere given to each area... there is very little explanation for why these strange structures are here, they just are. I thought that minimalist style worked really well for Myst, but unfortunately it also left the player with little in the way of direction. There is an area in the game where the player can receive hints about how to proceed, but the player never needs to find these hints and on my first playthrough I didn't, so I was basically wandering around at random, poking randomly at things with no idea of what I was supposed to be doing until I checked a walkthrough. The puzzles themselves are also rather strange, which fits with the style of the environments but also makes them tough to solve on one's own. To be fair, I was younger at the time and might have had more luck figuring things out on my own if I played it for the first time today. But overall I think it's far more interesting as a milestone in gaming history than as a game in itself. It's probably worth checking out at GOG's price if you've never tried it before.