Myst - Final Rating

Written by Vetinari

It's time to input some ratings.

So, we arrived at the end of Myst, and we are left to explore the five worlds contained in this game at our leisure. But is that something that we would want to do? Let's find out with the final rating.

Puzzles and Solvability

For being described as a puzzle game, in Myst there are not that very many real puzzles.

Is this a puzzle? Nah.

Maybe I am spoiled by more recent games such as The Past Within or The Samsara Room (both excellent escape room-type games, I recommend them) where every nook and cranny is jam-packed with enigmas and/or hints, but the puzzles in Myst seem very few and far between. Apart from Myst Island that acts as a sort of hub for travelling between the various worlds, each other age has maybe three or four puzzles in total.

It also relies too much on doing things that have no obvious immediate feedback and then letting the player check all the various screens to discover what could have happened.

I pressed this. Now what?

Some of the puzzles were frustrating (like the damned rotating fortress), but all in all they were on the easy-ish side. Most of them just relied on finding the correct code or number to be fed into some combination lock, and very few relied on reasoning on the part of the player. The ones that did however needed some sound reasoning (like the ones we found in the Selenitic age - get it? because they used sounds?) and so they keep the score up a little. My score: 5.

Interface and Inventory

The interface is simple but okay-ish.

Does this mean "look up" or is it just the default mouse pointer? (It is the default).

The main problem with it is that it is too simple. Most of the time it is not clear if a point is clickable or not, since the default "hand" mouse pointer does not change with every interactive objects, so maybe a point on the screen could be interacted with, but you wouldn't know unless you clicked on it.

The other serious problem is the inconsistency in how the point of view rotates when clicking on the screen edges (or even just when advancing from one view node to another). One time you maybe rotate 90°, but some other times you do a 180° and find yourself facing backwards. Other times you advance, but are also rotated 45° to one side. This caused problems mostly in Channelwood, but it is awkward even in the other ages, most of all because if you were really travelling through these worlds on foot in real life, you would not have these kind of issues such as "in which direction I am facing right now?" at all. So, for how much the graphics strive to create a realistic world, the interface sinks it.

Another "100% an interface problem" issue is the lack of an inventory, which is somehow infuriating.

If only I had another hand!

I could understand the impossibility to carry more than one object if all of them were to be used near where they are taken, or at least in the same age (which, for the most part, is true). But then there are the blue and red pages which are the only reason for which you are going to visit these various other worlds, and which if you want to get back to Myst island involve a lot of backtracking.

From what I understood it seems that this minimalistic/limited approach was somehow forced by the HyperCard software which was used to develop Myst, since it was not a really good fit to develop an adventure game. It actually was more similar to a database application (like Access) than a presentation software (like PowerPoint).

All of these problems were in fact solved by the other Myst successors which borrowed the skeleton of the interface and improved on it (e.g. adding a real inventory). My score: 4.

Story and Setting

I have yet to see another adventure game where the story is so much front-ended as the one in Myst.

Can we just get the abridged version?

The plot of Myst can be summarized as follows:

A guy called Atrus creates some parallel worlds within books. He travels through them with his family, using Myst island as a sort of library/headquarters. But his two sons Achenar and Sirrus, greedy for riches and power, betray him, destroying most of these worlds and imprisoning him into a book by tearing out one of its pages. Unfortunately for them, Atrus had set-up a trap in two of the library books to trap them as well. Then the player, stumbling by chance on Myst island, manages to find the missing pages and free Atrus.

As you can see, 99% of the plot development happens before the start of the game proper. The actionability which can be attributed to the player is very much limited to solving some puzzles and watching some videos.

Nothing to see here.

Sound and Graphics

Ooh boy, are the graphics in this game good.

This is just the beginning. (Well, near the beginning anyway).

The graphical part is very good, bordering on excellent at times. The transitions and the various videos (especially the flyovers when entering a new book) are smooth and detailed, and the cinematography is also high quality.

Wish I could fly out in the blue...

On the other side, the music is decent but nothing to write home about, contrary to what some other commenters might say (sorry MorpheusKitami). I could easily give it an 8 overall and leave it at that.

But! The sound compartment also comprises the sound effects, and these are really really well implemented. Not only that, but actually many of the sounds are integral to the gameplay. In fact some of the puzzles (and the most interesting ones, at that) rely on sound cues to provide hints, if they are not outright needed to solve them at all, which is something that is really not very common in adventure games, even nowadays. I have to give it a further point in this category just because of that. So total of 8+1, 9! My score: 9.

Environment and Atmosphere

There is surely a lot of empty space in this game.

Are we there yet?

To get from one interactive point to another you could probably travel through seven or eight other screens with nothing in it, just some interesting panorama.

But on the other side, this feeling of emptiness and abandoned places creates a sort of Zorkian atmosphere which is quite unsettling and pretty fascinating, and which probably could account for much of the game success, in that you can just wander around, take in the sights and don't worry about anything else.

I cannot however go without thinking that this is a little bit of a cop out, since by having so many abandoned places you really do not need any other character to interact with.

Also most of the things we find in these other ages are from Sirrus or Achenar, and f**k those two guys.

The other sore point, and my main gripe with this actually, is that all of the various Ages are not nearly different enough from one another.

While reading Atrus' journal in the libraries, I expected to find worlds pretty visually distinct from each other: a volcano, a fortress with grey sky up above, and so on.

Instead all of these so-called "ages" could for all we know be part of the same archipelago as Myst island, and even not too far apart either. They are after all rocky islands in the middle of the ocean, with just some very small difference from one another.

The only Age which is different enough is Channelwood, which, surprise surprise, is also the only one which does not take place on an island!

Less islands please.

Summing up, the atmosphere of this game does not live up to its full potential, and ends up as middle-of-the-road somewhat. My score: 5.

Dialog and Acting

Are there dialogues in this game, or only monologues?

Atrus tried somewhat, but it was still clumsy.

We certainly had some lines delivered at us, but it was not really a good simulation of a two-way conversation. Also, the fact that the two Miller brothers doubled as all of the characters in the videos (Rand Miller played Atrus and Achenar, while Robyn Miller played Sirrus) betrays some limitations both in the game budget and in the acting capabilities and range shown. All in all however they do a tolerable job, even if way over-the-top in how Achenar and Sirrus are portrayed.

The other problem with the dialogues in the game is that by having as a lead a featureless adventure game protagonist, you cannot have many meaningful word exchanges and so this category suffers accordingly. This kind of protagonist is for sure a throwback to the original text adventure games (see "Zorkian atmosphere" above), but it certainly doesn't help in having good plot exposition and/or character development.

AFGNCAAP at their finest.

I would have to check what Reiko gave The 7th Guest in this category to have a good baseline for this. Hmmm... 3? That's harsh. Let's be a little more understanding, shall we? My score: 4.

Totalling the scores, we get (5+4+4+9+5+4)/0.6 = 52 points!

For such a well-regarded game, this seems a little bit on the lower side, but apart from Sound & Graphics the other categories are really not very strong. 52 is the same as many other middle-of-the-pack adventures, such as the first Quest for Glory, Shadow of the Comet and Nippon Safes Inc.

In the end, ratings aside, I enjoyed playing Myst, and look forward to covering its sequel Riven for the blog when we get around to it in 2045.

The rating guesses from the commenters were all over the place, going from the “unreasonably low guess” of 75 by MorpheusKitami, to the actual unreasonably low guess of 1 by Leo Vellés. And all in all the average rating from all the guesses is 54, which is actually not very far off from the real Final Rating! So, good job everyone! But in the end the one who guessed closer is Radiant with 50.

CAP Distribution

100 CAPs to Vetinari

• Blogger Award - 100 CAPs - For blogging and playing Myst for our enjoyment