The 3D rendering of realMyst is reminiscent of Ultima IX: Ascension's style (large and colorful graphics). Many puzzles don't make sense when solved out of sequence, and a slow-paced orderly approach is not only recommended, but also necessary. Simply wandering the island won't help you solve anything without paying special attention to the clues and stringing them together to build a complete picture of the labyrinth-like tale.
Clues are uncovered at a slow pace and leads must be followed and puzzles solved to gather more clues. The difficulty of solving Myst's many tough mysteries is legendary - suffice it to say, a mystery is much better experienced than explained and realMyst is a case in point.Īs in the original, figuring out the switches and interactive elements of the game takes a significant time investment. Two specific books offer video sequences of two brothers, each playing a jumbled message that's hard to hear, but with distinct clues. Clues are cryptic, and the story requires considerable reading of journals and books found on the island and other locations to help focus the search for what's going on. Too bad the designers didn't use this opportunity to make some improvements to the endings of the original game.įor players new to the game, the storyline is incredibly vague at the beginning and is fleshed out through exploration of a complex, deceptive world. The music is less intriguing with repeated clock themes and the graphics are dark. While the veteran Myst player acquires access to a new age and new stories in the book located in the library, Rime isn't nearly as spectacular as the original four. The new age, Rime, has no effect on the ending of the game, seems unnaturally lumped into the adventure, and serves little purpose other than as a come-on to entice purchase of the new version.
From the beginning movie to the letters and books found on the isle of Myst, the storyline and locales are unchanged, though scenery appears larger due to utilization of higher resolution. The features, puzzles and every other detail of the original Myst remain intact, with the exception of a newly added bonus age.
Eighteen US bucks.The wondrous world of Myst gets a cosmetic upgrade to take advantage of faster and more powerful computers in realMyst.
This post is just an excuse to post the shiny screenshots, and I've done that, so you're on your own now. Scary, right? So maybe I should shut up about what everybody wants.)Īnyhow. From the mainstream point of view, I'm a hardcore gamer.
(Mind you, I'm a terrible judge of what's popular. But is there anybody left in the universe who wants node-and-hotspot navigation, except as a workaround for clumsy 3D UI? If it's really unbearable, you can switch back to original-Myst-style node-and-hotspot navigation. I didn't have this problem with the iPad version. I flail trying to look around, and then I navigate tight corridors like a long barge rowed by short mammoths. Something about the mode-switch - right button versus walking - is hard to get used to. Maybe I'm over-familiar with the Uru control setup, but this feels really awkward. (As well as the flashlight beam.) Click and drag on things in the usual Myst style. (It took me a good long time to figure out that you don't have to hold down the right button while you walk.) When you're standing still, the mouse moves the cursor around instead. It's WASD keyboard control, with mouse-look active if you hold down the right button or if you're walking. I'm somewhat less happy with the interface. (The interior of the Mechanical fortress gets a bit draggy, as others on Cyan's forum have noted.) Performance was pretty good for me at the default settings. I kind of hope your flashlight just flickers and dies in that Age.) (No, I haven't yet checked to see how the flashlight interacts with Stoneship's illuminate-the-dark-tunnel puzzle. I don't know whether they added the flashlight because the night-phase is so dark, or if they deliberately dropped the ambient lighting to make the flashlight more fun. All the Ages (I think) have a day-night shift, which cycles in real time as you play. Most blatantly, it has a lot more sun/moon/clouds environmental shifting. The new RealMyst has nicer textures, a bit more model detail, and some lighting effects such as bloom and dynamic shadows. (Apropos of this - Starry Expanse, the ongoing fan remake of Riven, just announced that it would be switching to Unreal.)Īnyhow. Cyan's upcoming game Obduction is planned to be Unreal Engine 4, so there was some speculation that RealMyst would be ported to Unreal, but nope.)
(To settle one issue for good - this app still uses the Unit圓D engine. I don't have the original (2000-ish) RealMyst around to take comparison screenshots, but you can internets it. As you can see, this "Masterpiece Edition" is very shiny.