Myst Masterpiece Edition

Here is a review many people will not take to heart, but I have to tell you that Myst absolutely changed my life. If it weren't for playing Myst when I was a kid (8 or 9 years old) I may have turned out to be a significantly more wretched little whelp. Why you may ask? Most kids at that time were playing games like Doom and Duke Nukem, but oh not me! I was heavily involved in exploring mysterious islands, solving puzzles, and saving a family from falling apart. The hours I spent traversing these worlds were some of the best memories of my dysfunctional childhood. The long nights of biting my nails as I placed the next red or blue page into the book is indescribable. Do yourself a favor and play one of the forgotten gems of PC past.

I have this game on disc, as part of Myst The collection. But I had issues with sound on that copy so bought one here. This version, runs alot smoother with alot less problems. Unfortunately, the screen resolution is awful here, textures appear muddy, I can barely read the text in books and frankly, that's where you obtain a large amount of the lore and story. It's a shame, as otherwise, the performance improvements and overall stability in this game is much better with the GoG version. Just a shame it's so damn ugly, for a game that is supposedly a remaster of the original.

Back when Myst was all the hype I didn't really like it all. I also didn't make it very far. I think, I only managed to visit one of the other ages and got stuck there. This time around I did far better, although I'm not quite sure why. Experience with dozens of other adventures and puzzle games I've played in the meantime, perhaps. Surprisingly, I've been able to solve all puzzles, I just had to consult a walkthrough at one point because I had overlooked a door - I blame the pixelated graphics for that! The 'story', though, is just as bad as it was the first time. The amateurish video snippets are painful to watch. And the ending was very, very disappointing. The game is also much shorter than I thought. It only took me about 8 hours to complete. Still, I don't regret to give it another go. This time around I felt almost all of the puzzles actually made sense. Only two times I had to resort to a bit of try and error. You really need patience, though. Especially in the maze... (paying attention to the sounds makes it slightly less annoying). You're also expected to make notes. Mapping is thankfully not required since the Masterpiece addition comes with maps (although I did some mapping anyway). Oh and one final tip: Moving around feels quite erratic in this game. At times it can be really hard to tell where you have to click and where you end up after clicking. I've found it really helps to turn around in a circle after every move. This way you won't miss any pathways and get a much better idea where you currently are.

If you are new to this series, save your money and buy realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, (2014) instead. Its the same game as MYST Masterpeice Edition just Much Better graphics. And The Original green-screen videos of all real actors/creators remain unchanged from the original MYST. And the environments only received a much needed upgrade and polished 3D which did the original justice. However if you decide on this MYST Masterpeice edition; understand this port did not age well. You will encounter a Very low resolution aspect ratio, poor audio, worse than the original PC, Sega Saturn or Playstion port. And a glitch here or there. This version is only for people who want to buy it for nostalgia's sake specifically for their GOG library. On a unrelated note: Avoid "Myst (2021)" like a plague. That was yet another version that replaced the real video actors, with ugly cartoon 3D models. And was version for VR players.. There is also RIVEN Remake, I think its on GOG under the same title as the original RIVEN, so be aware. And that also made the mistake of replacing the original green screen character with very ugly Low quality 3D character models. Again, Get "realMyst: Masterpiece Edition" ( it retains the original actor videos). Not MYST Masterpiece Edition (unless collecting as its a poor port). If you want to original MYST its best to find an original copy of the CD someplace else. Same goes for the Riven copy GOG as it suffers from being a very poor low qualiy port. If you get Riven remake, while the environments are a good upgrade, they Failed by added cartoon 3D models to replace the original videos as well.

Thank you for getting the original and Riven working on Windows 7 -- it's wonderful to see these old games again. The one nit I have is that the Transitions in both versions do not work. For me, this was a key piece of the "feel" of the game and it really does seem jarring when moving around locations -- the fade in/out effect of each move really was a key component to the game. Is it possible to post a fix or patch the game so these work again? Thanks again for bringing these games back.