The end of an Era. Sad to see it go.
Myst of course, is the series that brought adventure gaming back into the main stream. While none of the subsequent chapters ever did as much for the genre as the first Myst game, we must still give Myst its due. It is quite possible that there would be no adventure games at all on the PC if Myst had not been so popular. I still believe there is place in the world for the thinking man’s adventure (though I would prefer more human interaction) that is free from the tyranny of end game conditions (such as protagonist death). I am sad to see the series die. I’ll use this review (as I already have) as a small, sad eulogy for the entire series.
Now to the game: the last installment of Myst I found particularly difficult. There was too much pixel hunting, and not enough cleverness in the puzzles. One hallmark of all the other games is wickedly clever environment puzzles that tease the brain but seamless to the surroundings. This game to lacked that seamless integration. Oh the puzzles are hard (almost too hard and arbitrary in nature, at times). But for some reason they did not seem as intrinsically and environmentally sensible as they have been in the other games. Perhaps I am expecting too much. Also where has the full motion video gone when a particularly difficult puzzle is solved? The Myst world seems to have gone backwards in technology.
The characters are good, but not great. The sneaky, wheedling Esher is his own worst enemy. For example, in his “home” world he apologizes profusely about how he has treated the Bharo (a race of monkey’s with strange powers). To tell you the truth, if the guy had never said that I would have no idea what he was talking about. There was no evidence of cruelty, no unusual Bharo behavior that would make you think they had been mistreated. Again, compared to the other Myst games, where the cruelty to animals or people was done subtly and in such a way as to make you hate the perpetrators of the crime, this was done badly. There was no evidence of cruelty toward these creatures, except the blithering of the apologist Esher. For someone supposed to be so underhanded and manipulative, this seemed like a strange mistake in his character. And Yeesha – it was pretty much impossible to guess, even based on her journals and viewer entries whether or not she was a refugee from past insanity, or still a few bricks shy from a full load. Even the essential nature of the Bharo was never made clear to me. Are these kind creatures that are under unfair enslavement? How would they behave in larger numbers? I just didn’t feel like I had enough information about either the Bharo or Yeesha in the end to make the final Myst choice (though I could guess by the heavy-handed approach of Esher that he was a baddie).
So, all in all, I liked playing the game. The puzzles were hard. The characters were “good enough” to keep my interest. However, it seemed like the creators of Myst were uninterested in the game to make it as deep as it could have been. So, I appreciate what they have done, and applaud them for making a final ending to the series. I am also glad that they will not be continuing on in the Myst world, as it appears that the “makers” interest in things D’ni has waned, and so has the quality of the game.