Play it again Atrus

I hadn't played Myst in almost ten years and thought this anniversary collection would be a great way to revisit the island and also show my teenaged son that it is possible to play a fantasy game that is entirely devoid of violence, bad language and enemies.

The collection comes in a three part case. Part one is "Myst - Masterpiece Edition", part two is "Riven" and the last part is "Myst III - Exile".
Each Disk also contains interviews with Rand Miller, the creator of Myst.

Considering that this is a review of three games, it is very long, so please bear with me and grab a pot of coffee, just one cup might not do.


I will go through the parts in order in a moment, but first a few pointers on what is required to install and play the game.

In very fine print on the box I found a notice that a DVD player is required to play the game. If I wouldn't have checked for the requirements, I would have never seen it.

Yes, it is computer game, but no DVD player, no game playing.

The Collection is compatible with both MAC and Windows.

Requirements for Windows are: DVD player, Windows 98 or higher, Quicktime Player version 6.3 and Direct X 9. Installation help for the player and Direct X is included on each DVD.

Requirements for MAC are: OS 8.1 or 9.1(only Myst III is OS X native), DVD drive, Quicktime Player version 6.3.
MAC users need to copy over the files by hand, unique set-up instructions are given for each DVD.

I have Windows XP installed on my desktop and already had a Quicktime Player. So installation should have been easy. Wrong! The Quicktime Player version I have is older and instead of automatically updating it, I had to completely uninstall the older version and then reinstall the new one. Small problem, but annoying. Direct X installed without a problem. Total installation time for Windows, minus the Player problem was three minutes.

I am not familiar with MACs so I don't know how long the intallation time is for the game, but just the idea that I have to copy files by hand sounds like a lot of work for me.

Now lets play the game.

MYST MASTERPIECE EDITION:

This game tells of a man "Atrus", his wife "Catherine" who is trapped or held hostage on another island and his two sons "Sirrus" and "Achenar".

Through his books and his writings, Atrus is exposed to different worlds. Everything he writes into the books is translated into real time and appears on the islands and worlds. But something went horribly wrong. One of his sons (or both of them) have destroyed part of his library and lost valuable information. Both sons are now trapped in two books and Atrus has gone into hiding to recreate some of the information and to add to it. The place this all is happening in is called "the island of myst".

The premise of the game is simple: Solve puzzles and brain teasers on several different levels and find additional pages for the books. Free the sons (or maybe you shouldn't) and find Atrus to get the real story from him. Sounds simple? Well it's not.

The tricky part is that all of the puzzles have to be completed in a certain sequence and, since there are many levels to each puzzle, sometimes it's very hard to figure out which part goes to what puzzle and why you might have to do a step over again.

A typical example is this puzzle: Go to the library, find the book of patterns. Somewhere in the 150 pages or so you will find a pattern that needs to be punched into the wall of the fireplace. Again not easy to completed. Which pattern? Where in the fireplace do you punch in this pattern. What do you do after it's in there and where does it take you? And what happens after you get there.

Once all the puzzles are complete and you have found Atrus this part of the game is finished.

Now on to the next DVD:

"Riven"

Installation of this DVD was easy. Now that the Quicktime Player problem was solved it took only two minutes to install.

Right from the beginning this game is different. The opening credits disappear fairly fast and you are asked to enter the Settings for your computer screen. The "settings" page will walk you through the ideal sound and visual settings for your computer. I am not sure that this is necessary to play the game but it's a neat gimmick. You only need to do this once, not every time you play the game.

Riven starts where Myst left off. Once again you will visit Atrus and he will tell you that Riven is a chain of islands. His beloved Catherine is trapped on one of the islands and it is goal of the game to free her.
Atrus will also hand you a linkin book. Unfortunately your book gets stolen right at the beginning of the game. This again makes it necessary to solve all kinds of puzzles.

In Riven you will encounter real characters. After playing Myst and never seeing anyone this was a real turn-off for me. These characters are dressed strange, speak a language I can't understand and I'd rather be by myself.

After solving the puzzles in Myst, I had thought that solving them in Riven would be easier or at least equal to Myst. But I find the puzzles in Riven much harder. There are rotating rooms with doors that rotate in separate directions, mazes that you need to sketch in order to find your way back and levers that screw everything up.

Once all the puzzles are solved you will be able find Catherine, solve one more puzzle and reunite her with Atrus.

If you still have any air left you can now play the third part of Myst:

MYST III - Exile:

This game is very different from the other two. There are 3-D graphics and you can use the 360 - view to look around without having to turn in circles. What in the world took CYAN so long to make this happen.
The 3-D effect is weird at first. If someone is talking and you step back, you can actually see the whole person, not just part of it.

The story starts out with Catherine and Atrus. They now have a new addition to the family - a baby girl. The goal of the game is to free the islands from the villain. He is so villainous that he does not even have a name at first.
Once again you have to use your puzzle solving skills to reach the end.

Now that I am past the installation requirements and story lines, let's begin the actual review.

All three games are excellent if you like fantasy. The fact that I am in my forties and still love these games just as much as my thirteen year old son, should tell you that Myst really is something for the whole family.

I have a few issues with some parts of the game. My attention span is very short when it comes to Computergames. Having grown up with Nintendo and being used to all the Mario and Donkey Kong games, I expect something to happen the minute I push a button, pull a lever or manipulate something.

This is not the case in Myst and Riven. Once you do something it makes something else happen - sometimes. But it is up to you to find out what happens and where it happens. In Myst for example you have to activate three of the panels with icons on it. First you have to find out which three, then the order in which you activate them and then you have to run all over the island to find out what it is they activated.

In Riven this gets even worse. The puzzles are harder to solve and they seem not to serve any purpose whatsoever. Only after you have completed more puzzles, will you find out why you had to do a certain thing before that.

In Myst III the puzzles become much more challenging, but because of the neat graphics things become much clearer. It is patently obvious why one thing has to happen before another can be completed.

In other games I have played I always could see myself. I especially liked Donkey Kong for the Nintendo 64, because I could rotate the camera behind me and see what's coming up. This is not possible in the Myst games. While the graphics are great in all of them and the 360-degree view in Myst III help a lot, I can still not see my own character. Instead there is a pointer shaped like a hand.

This means that in Myst and Riven you have to click on where you want to go, and can cover only very short distances. In Myst III you can cover a long distance faster. Everytime you need to turn around, you have to go past the point of where you want to turn left or right, turn around and then go back. It is also not possible to just turn anywhere,you have to stay on the prescribed paths.

There are two big drawbacks in Myst. They also happen in Riven but much less so. Everything is sooooooooo slow. You activate something and then it takes forever before a door opens, you can approach something and so on. One example is the spaceship in Myst. You can go to the keyboard, but cannot play the keys right away, it takes a few seconds for them to activate. Then, once you turn around to go to the sliders, it takes up to ten seconds before you can actually move a slider.

I had thought that this was something just my computer did, but I have talked to other people that had the same problem.

The other thing that is big on my annoyance list is that in Myst you cannot do two things at the same time. You can go into a world, pick up a blue page for one of the books, but then you have to go back into the same world to pick up the red one. One of the walkthroughs recommends that you pick up both pages, but why they would do that is beyond me. You have to go back and pick up the other one again anyway.

All these are small problems,but they add up.

Still with all these annoying little things, this collection of games is perfect if you want to revisit Myst or want to play it for the first time.

Each of the three games is complete in itself, but it is still fun to play them in order.
Each of the three DVDs also contains interviews with Rand Miller, the creator of these games. I have not yet watched these and so cannot make a comment on them. I will update once I watch the interviews.

Of the three Riven was my least favorite. The puzzles are too hard to solve, there seems to be no point in solving any of them and the graphics are half animated and half real time. It's just a weird game and I was glad when it was over.

Myst is my favorite, maybe because I have played it before and it's a classic. Myst III runs a close second. The graphics are superb and the puzzles are challenging enough for me to work with my son. This means added family time and that's the best thing.

The total solving time can last from several hours to several weeks. I played two to three hours a night, but I cheated a little and used a walk-through page for Riven. It still took me two weeks to finish all of the games.

Update: I got so wrapped up in describing story lines and some of the awesome graphics that I totally forgot to talk about the music and sound effects.

All three games offer a variety of background music, music that directly relates to each world you are in and overall sound effects that emphasize each individual scene. Standing on a hilltop by the ocean you will hear water and wind and these sound effects are quite natural.

What bother me somewhat is that in Myst, when you operate sliders or levers, the sound effects are somewhat delayed. It seems I have to operate the lever or slider first and then hear the sound after I am done. I am not certain if this happens only on my computer or is a general problem.

The voices of all characters are very natural (well maybe with the exception of Achenar, but he is somewhat crazy) and easy to understand. In Riven you have also a chance to set your speakers up for optimal sound. If you haven't invested in a good pair of speakers for your computer, I recommend you do so. I run a pair of Bose speakers of mine and it makes me feel like I am in the Game not just playing it.

I find the intro music for all games a little too Hollywood Productionish. Sound like a whole symphony orchestra got involved playing just a few notes. But that's just a minor annoyance and can be ignored.

The music for Riven and Myst III is very closely matched. You will know absolutely that you are playing the sequel to the game.

Overall I think that Myst was the starter game and that the music and sound effects have evolved in Riven and Myst III. Compared to most computer games I am familiar with the sound effects are more than adequate and the music is of good quality.

Again, sorry for the oversight, hope I have improved this review.