I am dumbfounded by the number of 5-star reviews. I remember Myst CDs being in a little display next to the register for $5 in my local Babbages for what seemed like a decade in the perfect spot for your clueless grandma to buy you a copy for your birthday. Ignorance of quality is the only logical explanation for someone actually liking this game. This game was many folks first exposure to a computer game more complex than solitaire and did have graphics which were impressive at the time. I can see being impressed by this game in this scenario (particularly if it was 1995ish). I mean, if you've never seen a car before, even an AMC Gremlin would seem like a wondrous thing. What I don't understand is people who are still impressed with the Gremlin when they've been exposed to Ferraris, Bentleys, Porsches, or heck, even a Mustang or a Focus. Myst was the farmville of its time. The game non-gamers played in droves and gamers couldn't figure out why. While we were playing Xcom, doom, TIE fighter, Ultima Underworld and oh so many good adventure games from lucasarts (full throttle, Monkey Island games, Sam&Max, Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, etc) and other studios, they played Myst and Riven as we shook our heads. There are so many classic adventure games that are so much better than this one, it confuses me how people would still hold this in high regard. Terrible game, terrible puzzles, terrible story. Not worth revisiting.
I happened on this game by accident. It was given to me as a present from a family member who knows nothing about games; I'm not sure where they found it. I have played a fair number of adventure games in their hey-day, but I hadn't seen much from the genre in years. I decided to give it a whirl and WOW. Beautiful art, involving story and characters, thoughtful puzzles... all without a single written or spoken word. It is truly a remarkable achievement in a genre I thought moribund. It has led me to look back through the recent past for other Adventure game gems I had missed, like Syberia and the Longest Journey. Not too bad for a game about a little robot who doesn't speak.
Planescape: Torment was a game I never gave much of a chance when it first came out all because of it's beginning. I personally despise when expansive RPGs start out in the middle of a locked area that you MUST complete before getting into the meat of the game. This is a tactic that often will make me uninstall a game and never want to play it again (Baldur's Gate 2 comes to mind). I purchased Torment in 1999 when it was first released, as I loved Baldur's Gate and it was the same engine and same folks behind it. Then I got annoyed with the intro and it sat on my shelf for years. I finally gave it another spin 5 years later and was sorry I hadn't given it a good chance when it was new. The game is absolutely outstanding. What shines most to me, although the whole of the game was great, was the story and the characters. Most everyone you meet is well scripted and you can bring along quite the assorted cast of characters on your journey. Interesting twists abound and the endings are great. If you haven't played this, get it now and thank me later. Now, I may have to give BG2 another try and see if I can keep myself from rage uninstalling when I get sick of the stupid opening dungeon AGAIN.
