Myst review

Myst opportunity

Review written by
Matt Lynch

September 18th, 2014

Myst is very sadly forgotten nowadays. What was once the best selling PC game of all time is now a forgotten nostalgic memory in the minds of many. With its stunning graphics and tricky puzzles, it was a game with a great, mysterious personality and a wonderful atmosphere. In fact, Myst's sequel, Riven, is my favourite video game of all time, and Myst comes very close. Which is why it hurts so much to say what I have to say here. Myst on 3DS is the worst port of the original I have ever played.

Imagine, if you will, your favourite video game, ever. No matter what it is, and its flaws, you will always come back to it fondly. It will always be an enjoyable experience.

Now imagine it with grainy, fuzzy graphics. Not too bad, right? Still the same great game.

Now imagine it with missing cut-scenes. A bit of an issue, yes.

What about bad sound effects? Twitchy, nonsensical controls? Almost unplayable broken levels? Suddenly the same game you love seems.. Bad. Terrible. Awful. These are all words I would use to describe Myst on 3DS. In fact, even from the 3DS menu, you can tell this will be a terrible port. Instead of having an individually modeled little 3D icon and a piece of in-game music, we get a box. On one side, a picture of the book of Myst. On the other, the render of Myst island. No music, just a sound effect that sounds nothing like anything that should be anywhere near a Myst game. I regretted my purchase as soon as I highlighted the game.

The plot revolves around a Stranger, the unnamed protagonist who comes across a strange book filled with moving, swooping landscapes of wondrous lands. Upon touching the picture, he finds himself spirited away to the small island of Myst. From there, you must solve puzzles and unravel the mysteries of the books, all the while solving the riddle of what happened on that island to begin with.

Of course, this is badly explained in the 3DS version. The opening cut-scene plays faster than normal, but the audio is at the same speed. This cuts off half the audio when the sped up cut-scene finishes, and you're left staring at the Myst book wondering exactly what just happened. Obviously, this is rather a glaring issue, and the fact that it wasn't fixed beforehand is a foreshadowing of things to come.

The gameplay is simple, and admittedly, dated. It's a point and click adventure game. You click through different screens to navigate the island and the Ages of Myst, different levels that can be accessed through books. You can interact with objects and items in order to solve puzzles, and many of them needed a lot of out of the box thinking. Myst 3DS' puzzles are the same as the original game's, however the difference is that they just don't work here.

One of Myst 3DS' major flaws is the screens themselves. Myst used pre-rendered graphics, and everything was framed and placed in a specific, non-confusing way. The game felt coherent because each screen was built so well. You never got disoriented much in Myst (save for a few irritating areas, but they were few and far between.) However, in Myst 3DS, the game uses screengrabs from the realtime 3D remake, RealMyst. This means that each screen has been recaptured, and many screens aren't centred. They wobble from screen to screen, and this can really disorient you. Add to the fact that this means some screens are missing altogether (mainly a few close-ups of interactive puzzle items) and navigation just isn't any fun whatsoever. It's fiddly and fickle and it never works the way it should. Some hitboxes for clicking are almost pixel-perfect, and movement itself is an effort and a half. Instead of, say, clicking with the touchscreen, you move the Circle Pad and then hit A to 'click'. This would be ok if the cursor didn't center itself when you let go of the Circle Pad. Yes, it's the kind of movement where the mouse moves further away the further you push the stick. And it's imprecise and incredibly difficult to get used to.

The tricky controls and the confusingly-shot screens multiply the frustration. Sometimes you'll click to go to one area, only to be taken to another. It's disorienting and frustrating, and it means newcomers to the game will have no idea what to do. Even more so than usual, at least.

The top screen displays the gameplay, what little there is. Unsurprisingly, there's no 3D whatsoever, even though many hinted at the addition of 3D effects in the 3DS version, it culminated to nothing. The touch screen has a few buttons on it, a map that is literally at an unreadably low-resolution, a menu to save and load, a typewriter to write down notes (though with no way of drawing diagrams, you're screwed; Myst is the kind of game you'll want to take notes of while playing) and a magnifying glass that zooms in on certain things. Personally, I barely used any of the buttons below, except to save and load. It feels like a wasted effort and it's just clunky.

I have played Myst many times, and likewise I have beaten it many times. But I won't lie, I could barely even finish some of the levels in Myst 3DS. It feels almost unfinished and it's just a devastatingly awful port to play. As a fan of Myst I feel almost offended. I dread to think of how a newcomer would feel of the game if they only had this version to go on. If you're looking for a portable version of Myst, I beg of you to look somewhere else. It just isn't worth the time or the money. You can get Myst on everything nowadays (and on mobiles, too) and they're much better ports than Myst 3DS could ever hope to be. There are only so many times I can call Myst 3DS bad before I sound like a broken record. The bottom line is don't bother. It's one of the worst games I've played on 3DS so far, and it's hurtful to see Myst treated this way.

Do yourself a favour, and just don't waste your time.