That game left my brain absolutely riven.
These games, although I was utterly fascinated by them, I had no clue what I was doing or where I was supposed to go. I couldnt even tell if I was progressing or what. I think I was just too young for it.
Rest assured, you weren’t. These games were made back in the day before the internet got huge. When games could have legitimately hard puzzles for their own sake. There was no handholding back in the day.
Yes and no. A lot of games had hint books you could buy, either from the company or third party. Infocom used to put out hint books which could reveal things to you one clue at a time with a special marker that came with it. But then Infocom was always a very innovative company.
The German word “Mist” translates to “Shit” btw
I had more fun with PYST.
The humor was way over my head and probably hasn’t aged well, but it was fun at the time.
You can find out if it aged well if you want!
https://archive.org/details/pyst-1996
It was written by Peter Bergman of the Firesign Theater. It has its moments because of that.
Oh! I remember playing this! I will say that even back then it was very one note in its humor and lacking in depth. I was very disappointed with the shallowness of the end product.
It was about right for the age I was - that is, too young to be playing it
Was it good? Never played it and I’m thinking about getting it from GOG.com. In fact, just recommend me the best old games. The original Dungeon Keeper is probably my favourite game of all time.
I believe there is a modern spiritual successor called War for the Overworld, basically exact same game layout and mechanics with modern engine and graphics
I enjoyed it back in the day but it’s a different era’s game. You have to enjoy throwing yourself against a brick wall for a very long time until you finally crash through the door, and possibly taking notes and making diagrams or maps as you go.
I remember it being lush graphically, for the time, and very satisfying for the puzzles I did crack but I gave up before finishing it. I think it was some kind of blind maze that finally did it.
Yeah, playing it as a kid was nightmare. I had no idea what I was getting into, so it was just sitting there alongside Need for Speed and Rollercoaster Tycoon. By the time I realized I needed a note page to keep track of obscure bits of information hidden across the map, I was already in too deep to just have a properly organized note sheet. Never wound up finishing, but I remember just scrawling numbers and words connected by branching lines like some kind of schizophrenic conspiracy theory.
I literally am, right now. It’s extremely difficult but definitely good, particularly towards the end as the pace picks up. I didn’t hoard enough anti-personnel rounds to get through the final room in the Body of the Many, so am having to replay. It’s quite unforgiving like that.
Make sure to get one of the modernized version of Myst, I think they’re up to about 27 or so revisions/redos. Don’t be afraid to try clues, but in all honesty the puzzles in Myst are pretty solvable by Adventure game standards.
Riven (II) and Exile (III) are both likewise excellent, with Brad Dourif as a bonus in the third. After that, different people took over and things got awful.
