This is a wonderful game. This was my first game I ever owned back when I was a child, so I have a nostalgic bias. To the review; this game from the get-go is aesthetically 200% better. It looks like any indie FPS you can buy nowadays minus a tutorial and immediate plot. I put countless hours into this game as a child and never beat it. That was back before there was internet walkthroughs and developers who thought that you (the gamer) barely passed the second grade. I recommend this game to anyone who wants an relaxing, in-depth story told to them through puzzles, journal entries, and a non-hostile environment.

Good things to say about this game:
-Beautiful
-Flashlight feature is helpful
-Easy conversion from classic point-'n'-click to real-time first person.
-Story remains intact if not more immerse
-More brainpower and problem-solving required than any game on the modern market

Bad things to say about this game:
-Suffers from massive framerate drops in real time first person. I drop from 60+ FPS to around 15-20 frequently; it's not a hardware issue either, it's a frame cap.
-First person controls are different and take some getting use to (Letting off WASD brings up a cursor)
-Not a casual adventure game; requires hours upon hours to reveal the entire story, get through each puzzle (if you're new to the game), and navigate each area.

This is a time-consuming masterpiece. Mozart is to the Classical genre of music, as Myst is to Adventure games. Very few games deserve such artistic praise, this ranks number 1 on my list.

As I've read the other reviews of this game, I've noticed that this is a "nostalgia game" for most people. I, however, have just played it for the first time (RealMyst Masterpiece, not the original). It has a lot of good points, but I gotta tell ya, there were some major gameplay issues that had me tearing my hair out at times. I'm sure some of that comes from trying to optimize an old game for new systems, but I was hoping for better. Still, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I played it.

GOOD POINTS (as determined by a newbie to the series):
- Like everyone else has said, it's visually beautiful and imaginative.
- Soundtrack is lovely and very atmospheric.
- It was nice to know through the in-game "Hints" menu (which, yes, I had to check, for reasons described below) that this was a non-hostile environment! No waiting for something evil to jump out at me from the shadows, even though there are a few ominous things to see/hear. But nothing explicit - still family-friendly, I would say.
- The puzzles are truly creative, and that kept me interested. Every Age has a specific "theme" or "conceit" for how its puzzles work, but knowing the "theme" don't make 'em easy! As someone who grew up playing online Flash room escape games (and some point-and-click adventure games like The Neverhood), I was really impressed with the varied methods you had to use to solve them. Pro tip: don't try playing with the sound off. Ask me how I found that out. (Plus you'll miss the music and audio messages!)
- The story (which is why I play games) was tantalizing and left me wanting more.
- Having 2 options for navigation controls was handy.
- The day/night cycles for each age were cool and added to the immersive aspect.
- The flashlight was a HUGE help! I mean, you could probably get by without it, but I found it indispensable. I hate not knowing if I'm missing something because I'm in a dark area!
- The live acting wasn't half bad.
- Unfortunately, after finishing it, there isn't really anything "to do" in the different Ages, but I liked that you're able to go back and explore more if you want.

THINGS I DISLIKED:
- Oh. My. Gosh. The "clicking" mechanics absolutely drove me UP THE WALL! I usually had to click on a certain supposed-to-be-clickable area in 20 different places before it would work. And the "sweet spots," when I finally found them, were inconsistent.
- The other "clicking" problem was that I frequently would stop being able to click on anything all of a sudden. I'd try to click a button that I'd pressed a hundred times and nothing would happen, and then I'd discover I couldn't click anything else either (though the game didn't freeze). I usually had to reload a save, which was frustrating, although on rare occasions the problem went away after I visited the game menu and waited a few minutes. Still, VERY exasperating. I was never able to tell, the first time I tried to click on a new object, if it was truly clickable or if I was having another glitch. I had to resort to the Hints frequently just because of that.
- Sometimes I would get "stuck" navigationally: I wouldn't be able to leave/move away from a particular position or vantage point, though there was nothing obstructing me. Sometimes I could fix it by reloading, but sometimes I had to work my way back from an earlier save :/ I particularly had this problem while facing the battery in the Stoneship Age and while facing the ceiling above the elevator in the Mechanical Age.
- The game did crash on me - once, I think.
- There are certain times when you're supposed to be able to hear an audio message, but the music never muted or decreased its volume, so I could rarely hear what was said. I had to look up the transcripts online. Subtitles would've been a huge help.
- I had an issue with the red/blue pages where I could collect them both in each Age, but could only give away the one that I had collected last. This meant that I didn't get to hear some of the audio messages from the brothers.
- You kind of have to do the Selenitic Age first, though the game doesn't require you to (and I didn't). Certain puzzles in other Ages are extremely hard to beat without having been introduced to a particular puzzle from the Selenitic.
- Having only five available save-game slots was annoying to someone who's used to infinite saves :D Also, some of the saves actually took me back a little ways before where the save-point actually was - I couldn't really save while a puzzle was in progress.

In short, it's a great game, and it's fun to get to experience the great-granddaddy of all the point-and-click games I grew up with. That said, you definitely need to approach it with the knowledge that it's still an old game, despite its remastering. It has plenty of major bugs, but it's still good. I liked it enough that if they remade Riven and etc. I'd probably play them.

I remember watching my dad play this game growing up and it mesmerized me. Now playing it, there is just as much wonder combined with nostalgia. I miss my dad, and every puzzle i solved made me think "see dad, I can do it too!"

This is the updated version of Myst, complete with updated graphics, Steam achievements, a built-in hint guide and a bonus area.

If you want to play Myst as it originally was, warts and all, then get Myst: Masterpiece Edition, which is actually the Scumm VM version of Myst, so it's effectively a museum piece.

If you aren't sure which version of Myst to get, get realMyst: Masterpiece Edition (i.e. this version), because it's got more features, improved controls and graphics, Steam achievements and a bonus area.


The original Myst was an innovative puzzle game from 1993.
For several years it was the best-selling PC Game, up until 2002 when that record was broken.

Myst is a first person 3D puzzle adventure game.
There are no enemies, no violence, no time limit, no death, and no gameover conditions until the very end.
You may carry only one item at a time.

There's quite a lot of freedom in the order in which you can do things and solve the puzzles.
There's very little hand-holding, and it can be quite tricky to make progress at times.
You should try your best to explore everywhere, and you would be well-advised to have a pencil and paper handy.


The most I can tell you about the game's objective without spoiling the challenge is that the objective of the game is to collect certain objects (red and blue pages) from certain places (the ages of Myst) and return them to a central area (the library).

If you're happy to have a few spoilers, here's a better description of the game's objective, but still without spoiling any plot twists...
You must solve various puzzles to locate special books that will take you to other worlds called ages. When you're inside an age, you must solve various puzzles in order to find the books that will take you back to Myst, and find the hidden red and blue pages in the process.


If you buy this game and enjoy it, play Riven next.
If you enjoy that, the 25th Anniversary Collection, contains all of the remaining games in the series.
Be warned that some are better than others, and people will readily argue about which ones they like and dislike.

Port review: 9/28/2018 Cyan recently remastered all the Myst games to run on modern computers, so if you'vbe been having trouble getting this or any other Myst game to run, try installing the new version. RealMyst, Riven, and Exile have all played perfectly for me, no glitches, crashing, or lost saves.

Game review: Myst. If you've never played it, this is probably the best place to start. A recreation of the original game into true 3d, RealMyst will give you the Myst experience without the prerendered frame navigation which newer players may find difficult/frustrating.

To be honest, I never cared for puzzle games. I found them boring, frustrating, and not fun. My brother played the Myst games as they came out and kept trying to get me to start them, but I refused. I actually never touched a Myst game until about 2012; at a family reunion, my brother was trying to explain puzzle games to a family member and fired up Myst to show them the first 15 minutes. We wandered around the island, found the note, then found and watched the message in the viewer.

I stood the strain for about two weeks, then went to my brother and asked for the game disks. I simply had to know what happened. I quickly fell in love with the series; the writing is phenomenal and I actually enjoy the exploration and puzzle solving. I still don't care for other puzzle games I've tried, but I replay the Myst games because they're just so rich and compelling.

If you've played other puzzle games but are new to Myst, keep in mind this is a story-based puzzle game. You will need to explore everything, touch everything, and read every scrap of paper you can find. The solutions to the puzzles are all there, but they may be hidden in different places or buried in the text of books on a shelf. To solve Myst you will need to thoroughly explore every map and I recommend keeping a paper journal to write/draw clues in.

Myst drops you into the story with nothing to go on - you start on an island, not knowing where you are or why you're there. The answers are all around you, but you have to explore, read, and solve puzzles to find them. Myst is the first and simplest of the Myst games, but that doesn't mean it's an easy game. Keep in mind the puzzles all have solutions hidden in-game and you should never have to brute-force a puzzle. Myst is a slower-paced game of exploration and discovery; take your time finding your way around the various worlds, piecing together the story of what happened and who you should trust.

“I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written.” - Atrus

And thank the great Guildmasters of The Art because this series went on to produce many other excellent games, Riven being the height of exceptionalism.

In a time before the internet I played this game and I remember being so frustrated at points. Rather than Google, we had friends who would hang out together and connect their brain processing power to try and find solutions to the puzzles. There really was nothing like this in the history of computers. This hypercard, photoreal, puzzle game with live action cutscenes and fully immersive worlds. It was jawdropping back then. If you are new to the game it may lack the punch it had from 30 years ago but it is still an incredible game today and while I understand the graphics weren’t up to a lot of people’s expectations in this remastered edition, I found the game to be very much at home as a first person free roamer on the Unity Engine. If you are a puzzle lover you will soon understand why the game is referenced so much and you will see how modern puzzle games have adapted the levels, environments, puzzles etc for use today in games like The Witness, Quern, The Room and ASA.

+ Story. Before we can even take control of the character we are given a little cutscene of a man falling through space. He vanishes and a book falls to the ground in this black void. We have so many questions and we haven’t even had a chance to move around. The only option we have is to open the book in front of us and inside is something so magical that it can’t be understood. We place our hand on the moving image on the paper and are transported to that exact location. Here we begin our journey. Myst has so much to give story wise that it spawned 3 books and hopefully a TV show in 2022. There is an entire book written about all the events that led to Atrus jumping into the fissure that we see at the start of Myst. And the story in the game isn’t just all laid out for you, it is slowly pieced together from what you discover as you journey through the different Ages.

+ Deceptive simplicity. At its core, Myst is a game that you can speed run. Once you have your notebook with puzzle hints and solutions that you have written down along the way (yes its one of those games) it will be very easy for you to go back through any Age and mop up your missed achievements, if you are into that kind of stuff. This doesn’t mean that the puzzles are easy. It just means that they are totally logical and once you understand the solution, you might be doing a bit of forehead slapping.

+ The world. When you hit the Channelwood Age in Myst, you will see where games like The Witness drew inspiration for its treetop area. The same goes for Aporia: Beyond the Valley. Channelwood is a great example of where the point and click part of the game is much better served by freeroaming. It makes this whole level much easier on the eyes, brain and sanity. But honestly, this whole world is just magical. Physics and engineering shouldn’t work this way but yet it has a very grounded and real feel to it.

+ Welcome to the machine. An iconic part of the Myst games, more so later on in the series though, are the weird contraptions that you have zero tutorial on how to use and the puzzle you need to solve is a) how do I switch this on? And b) what do I do with this now that it’s switched on? Leading finally to c) what does this even do?! I will never get tired of these kinds of puzzles, which is why games like The Room and Quern are so intriguing. (The developers may have took it a little bit too far though in later sequels).

+ Robyn Miller. Yeah Rand is awesome, his portrayal of Atrus is great and makes it hard to believe he also played Achenar but let’s not forget Sirrus, played by Robyn Miller. Robyn also wrote and recorded the whole Myst score. At first they weren’t going to include music but they changed their minds. And of course I’m not saying that music wouldn’t exist in puzzle games today but they definitely set the trend for these types of games and walking sims.

- controls. The mouse will clip off-screen on freeroam mode and will click on your destop. It is sometimes finnicky to get your hand cursor onto an object in this mode too.

- Rime. I’m sorry but this age adds nothing to the game. I get it. You felt like maybe you owed us some new puzzles or a new environment but this new Age was so badly thought out that it just made the game worse and will definitely make the game more confusing for new players. After you have got all your different endings you are free to stay on Myst and that’s how the original ended. But rather than an ending and then free range a la Skyrim or whatever, you get this new age now. Which you solve and are waiting for the punchline before you realise……”oh……oh that’s it…..hmmmm.” My advice to you is upon solving the crystals you immediately install and play Riven.

There is no doubt Myst is the Grand-daddy of a whole genre and I really loved playing the realMYST edition. So many puzzles were like muscle memory and I found myself doing things that I didn’t exactly know why I was doing them until a few minutes later. A seriously iconic game that has not lost its edge over time. If you have endured my gushing fanboying so far then I think this game might be for you.

But what about Riven? Where are Riven’s updates? The remasters? The realRIVEN? Is there a Riven TV show too? This might be an unpopular opinion but Riven is Star-Fissure groundshakingly better than Myst. Don’t get me wrong….. I LOVE Myst. So imagine my utter joy playing Riven. The rest of the franchise is downhill from these two games but are still playable.

Please check out Ars Technica on how Myst broke CD ROM to become the ‘killer app’

And why not pick up a Myst tie? [www.zazzle.com]

A beautiful recreation of a timeless classic, realMyst: Masterpiece Edition brings a piece of gaming history to modern times. While the graphics and sounds are completely revamped to match modern-day standards, the gameplay stays true to its original and does not fail to deliver the nostalgic Myst-feeling.

It is, admittingly, a rather peculiar game, a slow paced and thoughtful puzzler in a surrealistic setting. Its puzzles can be overwhelming at times, especially for those unfamiliar with the genre, but they always have a logical (sometimes surprisingly straightforward) solution that makes you feel really smart if you solve them on your own. But even for those non-hardcore adventure gamers among you, the game offers a built in (optional) hint system that gives you little advices without spoiling too much.

There are only few negative points that should be mentioned; The controls and movement feel a bit wonky at times and you might occasionally get stuck on objects on the ground (nothing game-breaking though), however Cyan is working on a fix for that at the point of this review. The in-game cinematics still have the low resolution from previous renditions of Myst, which seems a bit out of place considering the otherwise beautiful graphics. And the missing inventory (you can only pick up and carry one item at a time) is a rather annoying remnant from the original Myst game, often requiring an unnecessary amount of backtracking.

In summary, realMyst: Masterpiece Edition is a game that wants you to immerse yourself, absorb the scenery and use your logical thinking. If you are a fan of the Myst series to begin with, this is almost a must-have, but any other adventure fan might take a look at this as well, to get a chance to enjoy a game that wrote history in a new and stunning visual design.

The absolute best version of Myst ever released. With intuative free roaming controls and updated graphics (complete with day/night cycle!) this game really is a masterpiece. The puzzles are still logical and interesting, and the updated graphics and sound make exploring the ages of Myst more enjoyable than ever before.

I first played Myst in late 1993. It was so much different than every other video game that I found it totally sublime. You couldn't die, you couldn't kill anything, you couldn't really do it wrong at all. It was, for the time, shockingly beautiful. Everyone noticed the graphics; and it certainly sold everyone on the power of CD-ROM drives. But the sound design and interface were equally amazing. The soundtrack was beautiful and melancholy, sometimes suggesting mystery, at other moments, almost foreboding. For a little kid, the puzzles were bedeviling. My neighbor and I made ample use of the journal included with the original software, recording strange astrological symbols, electrical readings, and every little detail we thought might help us figure things out.

Cyan eventually ported the game to PC, but it was never quite as good. The videos weren't as seamless, the sound design, which was so carefully atttenuated and multi-layered on the Mac, was jittery and full-volume on the PC version. Eventually, I figured out most of the puzzles and kind of lost interest.

Today, the original Myst is basically unplayable on a modern OS without the help of SCUMMVM.

Cyan has offered two remakes of Myst. RealMyst was ok, but glitchy and not the greatest looking. RealMyst Masterpiece is a revelation. It's not the same as the original--the lighting, geometry, and gameplay are all different. And I'd definitely encourage anyone to use SCUMMVM and play the originals too. But this--this is incredibly beautiful and immersive. While I love the point-and-click interface on the original better than the point-and-click here, the free roaming is just irrestistible. I've long since solved all the puzzles, read all the books, and played with every little gadget. Nowadays, i fire up realMyst Masterpiece to go spend time in Channelwood and Stoneship--to go back to my favorite, most hauntingly beautiful environments and enjoy wandering through them in full 3D.

Genuinely, I'd encourage anyone to play this game. For newbies, you'll find a gorgeous world and a clever set of puzzles imbricated in a clever story. For those who played the original, you get to have a bit of nostalgia AND a dose of modern dazzle. Seriously, watching the waves crest as the sun crosses the sky over the old Myst island dock? That's such a treat!

My dad played this game back when it first came out. I was a little girl and would sit on his lap and watch him. I never understood what was going on. I'm 29 now and I bought it and I LOVE IT. I've read the books so the lore is absolutely amazing. Its challenging and interesting. I highly recommend this game.