My review is essentially, this took me months to finish. Not because it is extremely hard, but because I'd often think "I should play some more Myst IV, finish it off" ... and then go play something else instead. I feel like I _should_ like this. The story is much more ambitious and present than in the previous Myst games, the puzzles are generally pretty good, and there's plenty of trademark Myst imagination. Even the need to read huge amounts of text to understand what's going on has been addressed by adding voiceover. But it all feels like less than the sum of it's parts.
I picked this up thinking it was more of a puzzle game than it is, but I still enjoyed myself. This puzzles are generally easy, but I was actually happy with that as a change from some of my other recent games. The setting is not the most imaginative take I've seen on a mental world, but it's still quite creative; and the story surprised me with some of its decisions.
I have been playing through the Myst series for the first time this year, in release order. Myst, Riven, and Exile all had their problems, ways that they showed their age; but I still overall enjoyed them. Not this one, though. First, this calims to be playable on Mac, but this was not my experience. Yes, it technically ran, but 8 FPS is not what I consider acceptable. I at least had the option to switch to a different machine but we're already off to a bad start. Next, we get a sharp reminder of early 2000s control schemes. A bad reminder; satisfying and comfortable controls have been the standard for so long, I forgot this was not always true. Part of the problem is that Uru thinks it is a third-person game, defaulting to that and often switching back to show off their character animation. I found the first-person camera less awful and spent most of my time playing that way; but the first-person controls were bad even by the standards of 2003. The sound mixing is pretty bad, too. I eventually had to manually adjust the volume settings, putting non-dialogue down at 50%, in order to be able to hear key speeches over background. I'm not quite sure why I bothered, though, as I found the writing pretty awful. And finally, we have the puzzles. Now, it's pretty much a given for a game from this era that there will be nonsense puzzles. That's not what I'm complaining about; that's what guides and walkthroughs are for. No, I'm complaining about the pseudo-physics puzzles, like where you have to put physics objects on floor plates. Except, you can't pick things up; you have to walk into them and hope they bounce off in the right direction. This is just AWFUL. I'm running out of space, so let me finish with one complaint. I literally couldn't finish this game. There is a jump needed in one section, where every time I tried, I clipped through the floor. Retrying takes up to a minute to get back in place. Just unacceptable; look elsewhere.
I've been playing the Myst series, in order, for the first time ever this year. My first impressions of Exiles, after playing Myst and Riven, where extremely positive. "I can move my mouse... and the camera follows it!" This small element of modernity was so refreshing after the fixed perspectives of its predecessors. The price is that the graphics are much more artificial than those of Riven, but I felt this was a small issue. We still don't have free movement, but it's something. Sadly, those positive impressions would not remain for the entire game. The big problem I have is with the narrative. Now, this is a puzzle adventure game. We progress by solving puzzles which the games' designer put there for us to do. But, why are we solving these puzzles in-universe? Exiles decides that the reason is that the game's villain has set us these puzzles, expecting we will solve them. That's really weak, and also better suited for a comedic game (like Portal) rather than something with dramatic pretensions. I also was underwhelmed by the acting in the game. I was surprised when I got to the end credits and saw that Brad Dourif was the main actor, as I had failed to recognise him by appearance, voice, and most distressingly performance. I generally like his work, but it just didn't feel like his best here. As far as gameplay goes, this discards the open setting and intense difficulty of Riven, in favour of the smaller self-contained areas and more reasonable difficulty of Myst. I was able to beat most of the game without a guide, and the most common reason for needing help tended to be interface issues. Most annoying is the way that certain levers only need a mouse click to use, while others need you to click and drag, and there's no obvious sign of which is which from the visuals. Despite my complaints, I did still enjoy Exiles overall. It's not Riven, but it's still good enough.
If there is one problem I have with Riven, it's its movement scheme. The world is pre-rendered, so you don't have free movement, and this feels clunky. Sometimes you can miss things because you can't turn the camera where you want, or you don't notice that a path exists that woud be easy to spot if you could just turn. Worse, often I would click on something to interact with it, and either because I misclicked or because it wasn't interactable, I'd inadvertently move to a new location, which is frustrating. I haven't played the remake yet, but this would seem a big reason to get it instead. If there is a second problem, it's the puzzles. They are HARD. Admittedly, this can be part of the appeal. Too many modern games hold your hand too much, and that's not an issue here. When you solve something, you can rightly feel smart and proud. But you'll almost certainly need a guide. At least the game is fair; I don't think you can make it unwinnable, so you're free to try your ideas. In principle, everything can be solved. The difficulty is that at the beginning and for some time after, you get no guidance as to short or medium term goals. For the first hour of my playthrough, I was able to make progress not because I knew what I was doing, but because I was clicking on what was interactible and seeing what happened. When I relented and looked up a walkthrough, it was in no small part because I wanted an idea of what I should be trying to accomplish. Despite these issues, I enjoyed myself with Riven, playing it for the first time in 2024. The story is slow to start but quite deep. The world is richly realised and imaginative. It takes the small hints of worldbuilding from Myst and adds layers and complexity to them all. And there's some impressive acting, especially from the main antagonist. I'm glad I took the chance and pushed through the early issues.
I simply cannot recommend this. The idea isn't necessarily without merit, replacing conventional platformer controls with a system based on shape shifting, but the execution is severely lacking. Movement never felt natural, and taking damage or dying felt less like my fault than because I was spending half my effort fighting the controls. Or because of random glitches, where I'd be killed because I suddenly got stuck in a wall or would be launched in the opposite direction to the one I was holding. Apart from gameplay, there's not else to recommend either. The art design is bland and I frequently felt lost because of how similar everything looks. The music is fine but nothing special. The story... is there, but I have no idea where it was going. Admittedly, I didn't finish the game, so maybe the story ends really strongly. But I think I have a good reason for quitting. I was somewhere in the second half of the game, fighting a boss, when it glitched and the boss disappeared. I'd already had a lot of glitches in this play session and was very frustrated, so I quit to the menu and tried to reload my game. Only, I somehow accidentally deleted it; no warning or confirmation pop up. Several hours gone, and I have no desire to go through that again.
I think this achieves it's goal. If you've never played Myst before, this is the way to do it. It takes the mood and atmosphere of the original and recreates them in a modern presentation.
This is a pretty good version of the original. I think transplanting to a proper 3D world really helps. It doesn't have the graphical quality of the more recent remake, but is closer to the original in design. I would have to recommend the newer version if you haven't played Myst before, but I have a soft spot for this one.
I'm glad this exists for reasons of game preservation. However, I think the Myst experience is done better in the full 3D world remakes. The limited number of pre-rendered screens gives everything a certain unreality, making it harder to get immersed (and easier to get lost).
Sunless Seas has a wealth of stories. I'm a hundred hours in and still finding new events; there are still things hinted at that I haven't found; there are still possible endings I'm looking for. The gameplay is less involved, but hardly lacking. Ship combat is simple but effective; and there's plenty of options for changing your ship's equipment. Knowing when to fight and when to flee is important. Resource management is an important aspect of the game; I reckon there are seven different "life bars" that will kill you if they empty. Trading is a minor aspect of the game, but still useful on occasion. If there is one big criticism I have, it's that it is often unclear what you are supposed to do. Plus, while the game keeps track of some goals and objectives for the different side quests, others lack details. Be prepared to either take a lot of notes, or make heavy use of the wiki.
