If you want a one-line review: this is basically "Black Mesa" from the world of adventure remakes. Everything you remember and love is there, all the more frustrating parts are smoothed out. If you want more good news: - If you were dissapointed by slightly cartoony 3D models in the MYST remake, good news! The character models are much better looking in this one! Yes, it's not original's FMV, but that would look weird here if we're honest. - Yes, there are some slight changes to a few paths and (most notably) puzzles. In my opinion, they are mostly done to (a) make it a bit harder to get lost early on and get frustrated, and (b) in a few cases make the layout a bit more logical (e.g., the throne room on temple island is in a more reasonable place now, in my opinion). - THAT ONE PUZZLE EVERYONE HATED has been reworked marvelously! All the cool stuff about it is still there, it is still as complex as ever, but the annoying parts are largely smoothed out. It is much harder to get stuck on it from, say, having one small mistake on mapping the grid, grr. - Not to spoil anything, but there are also 2 noteable additions that fans of the original probably dreamt of for almost 30 years. You'll know when you get there ;) - Oh, and major QOL improvement - There is a camera now with note system! Don't have to rely on pen and paper! Some small drawbacks (or divisive things): - The puzzle with animal stones is completely different. The new one is really cool and probably makes more in-world sense, but it might be a more divisive change. I would also love to have seen the remade version of that puzzle. - Hopefully will be fixed - I had a few rendering glithces with the camera - sometimes the screenshots were distorted, so check your shots before moving on! - Would love to have a "skip" functionality for long rides - they get a bit old. - The journals are still written in cursive, which is frustrating to read from the computer screen (font accessibility setting would be nice)
If you've played Myst before, it's another good, more beautiful than ever, version. 2 biggest praises I can give to this apart from graphics are: - VR integration (because Myst series begs for it) - accessibility options (finally, you don't have to suffer through piano puzzle if you don't have good pitch recognition). Some things you might not love: - no point-and click movement (allthough it'll probably be added) - CGI caracters, that are not looking too amazing (but I get it - can't exactly use old fmv in terrible resolution in a 4K VR game) - No Rime in the end, if you really care Other than that, it's exactly what it promises. But it's the original Myst. This game is a bit outdated by modern standards, and is mostly interesting from the historical standpoint. It sequel, Riven, is not outdated at all though! So even though I already own like 4 copies of original Myst, I've purchased this on release day and leaving this review as a request: polease, please do the same for Riven! That wil be amazing!
If you're on this store page and love adventure games, you know that this one is a must-play. However, on a new machine, you still might need to jump through multiple hoops to play it comfortably. Please, GOG, update your version to come packaged with ResidualVM, just like you do with Myst 3 - it'll be the necessary step in preservation of this incredible piece of art.
