I couldn't figure out this game, at all. I just wandered around, nothing clicked, loaded, no clues, nothing. I don't even know what the object is/was, that IBM Aptiva something with Windows 95 was a great machine! Compton's Encyclopedia was fabulous
What a tasteful vertical crop/composite for vertical. This is a really nicely put together frame for mobile portrait. It's too bad the audio is cutting out, but this might be a really old digital video upload that had compression issues or something.
Honestly I think there's a lot to be said for building a world and then letting the user figure it out. Sure they might get lost, or even miss something important, but you lose a good chunk of the experience if you just straight up explain how everything works (and you can obviously mitigate those issues to an extent too).
Myst is very coherent and streamlined compared to its many, many clones. I vaguely recall an Eastern European first person adventure game from a few years later that was equally gorgeous to look at and byzantine in regards to its puzzle design.
Hmm, you might have been referring to Achenar to begin with. I meant to say he played Atrus (Pool message guy, creator of Myst island) as well as his bearded son Achenar.
I fondly remember being selected to play this off a projector in middle school, while the unlucky majority of students had to be in study hall. Thought that graphics could not get any better!
To complete the tasks and win you need to find the one white page and bring it to the green book. Bringing either the blue or red pages to those books will get you trapped in what ever coloured book you complete first.
There has been a good amount since and around the same time. It's hard to remember off the top of my head. But I played a could fantasy style ones a few years after it came.
Monument Valley is kind of close. Solutions aren’t quite so hard to find but it’s a beautiful game with a simple story that has no shooting. Just figuring out how to unlock the path to the next puzzle.
There's a series of games called "The Room" that scratch the itch of figuring out complex 3D mechanisms in a setting that feels like a lost Myst world. The story is a bit lacking but if you love those videos of old furniture with dozens of hidden compartments, this game series will satisfy that mechnical puzzle desire
Portal and its sequel are both fantastic puzzle games based around physics. "Portal preserve the conservation of momentum. Or in layman's tetms, speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out."
Downvotes gotta be from people mixing this up with Outer Worlds. Wilds is definitely inspired by Myst. Full of puzzles, lore, and exploration while applying knowledge you learn throughout the game.
It's a bit different but "A Story About My Uncle" is story-rich, puzzle heavy, and involves exploring a cool fantasy world. I also recommend "Memorrha", "Riven" and "Obduction" for the same reasons. "Shivers" and "Scratches" are ancient but check all those boxes too. There's a ton of puzzle heavy exploration games with minimal story like "The Room", "Safecracker." I filled two notebooks with notes in order to finish the 3 "REM" games, by far the most complex puzzle/exploration game I've seen.
None, if you ask me. It's very hard to get the atmosphere right and some games like Quern overdo the puzzles and start getting tedious. Not even Cyan is able to recreate what they accomplished since then. Riven was their masterwork and it never was as good again.
Shadowgate, deja vu, Uninvited, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, just to use NES as an example. These all felt very similar tome, though there's many others. Basically text adventure-style games with graphics.
7th Guest hasn't aged very well...unlike Myst/Riven the puzzles aren't diegetic (functional things integrated into the setting). It's like buying a book of brain teasers and locking a cutscene behind each one, rather than solving something physical in-universe that literally opens a gate, which was locked that way for a reason, etc.
I’m not sure what the requirements for being a mystlike are, but if you want to walk around in a no-violence setting, solving puzzles: Antichamber is amazing and feels like walking through a world made by MC Escher. Also Manifold Garden, which lets you experience infinity, is pretty cool.
Cyan is still making Myst style puzzle games! They've put out two in the last few years- Obduction (which I played and loved) and Firmament (which I haven't played yet, but looks beautiful).
Firmament was unfortunately not great. It was supposed to be a VR game but that didn't work very well, but I'm hopeful they'll fix that. What's worse is that they used AI to write lore entries and other stuff, which was one of the best parts of Cyan games. It was always fun to discover the lore and stories... but even AI assisted stuff feels so impersonal. Obduction was great though. They did a full remake of Myst recently too that was very good.
Check out "The Return of the Obra Dinn" if you haven't already. You're trying to piece together what happened to the crew of a ghost ship by figuring out who each person on the ship was and their fate. It's stylistically very different from Myst but in terms of sheer head-scratching puzzles, it can't be beat.
I needed to look up a guide for the chinese dudes. Even after reading the guide I had no clue how I should've figured that one out. Still enjoyed the whole experience.
I played a game like this about a space lab where everyone was killed by alien monsters. I had to go around and hack into peoples emails to find specs for tech, then take the specs to a production area and build it. It was almost just like my job. Almost.
Surprised no one has mentioned it's sequel, Riven. Was a nightmare to complete, some of its puzzles were based around colours, which being colourblind, I couldn't solve
I do believe they've confirmed a Riven remake. I wonder if they'll include accessibility options for it that'll help mitigate the issues you experienced.
I loved riven so much. The interconnectedness of the level design was incredible. I loved just wandering around for hours even if I wasn't solving anything. That would be brutal with the colorblind issue though, hope you were able to get through with a guide and see the rest!
Completely agree, beautifully made game. And the music was brilliant. Ha, thanks! Remember using a walkthrough for the colour puzzles. Was years ago though, I'll have to revisit.
I have never known ANYONE who has even heard of the books! Thank you! I have read them over and over again, the third is a bit weak, but still good- the forst two have stuck with me for decades, whenever I'm stuck, or having trouble, I think 'what do you see, Atrus?', and I remember to step back and consider the whole
They had books!? Myst was the first real game I owned. I still have the original discs for all of the sequels. Now you are telling me there are books I somehow overlooked!?
Books were outstanding. I’ve been wanting to find digital audiobooks of them for years. I love Myst but the story just took on a life of its own through the books that the rest of the games never did for me.
Oh yeah! Starts with Atrus and then works backwards through time. Very good books. I just recently read them again after 15 years or so since the first time and they were wonderful
Fishy820
Spent so many hours on this Game and the Art Work and Music added so much to it.
BeautifulSound
I couldn't figure out this game, at all. I just wandered around, nothing clicked, loaded, no clues, nothing. I don't even know what the object is/was, that IBM Aptiva something with Windows 95 was a great machine! Compton's Encyclopedia was fabulous
brokehackfourlane
Marathon!
Dontdeprivemeofmydelusion
I really love this game. Could not get enough of it. Still love the theme. Play Exit and escape room games all the time that reminds me of this.
ryo0hki
Noone remembers pist?
MagmaCarta
What the fuck does this lever do I've been here for three hours!?!?!
newsguycraigevans
LukeSiwikDesign
literally the whole gameplay
Deeldee
Aasgeier
The first game I bought from my own money. The German translation was much better than the original version.
nifTTY
What a tasteful vertical crop/composite for vertical. This is a really nicely put together frame for mobile portrait. It's too bad the audio is cutting out, but this might be a really old digital video upload that had compression issues or something.
illtakeasideofkittenswiththat
What does this fucking lever do?!?!
newsguycraigevans
Don't mess with that! It controls the comms to the submersible.
deject3000
Crazy that they used Marathon as their example for a shooter game 💯
rareunicornmeat
I only had the demo, some of those dark hallways nightmare inducing for me, but it was somewhat satisfying to 'beat' the game.
TheoryOfSteve
Love me some classic Marathon. Durandal is my co-pilot
AngryGroundhog
Right!?
Meltemi
thecallcamefrominsidethehouse
Lol that was me and the original Zork.
AnAverageBoxEnthusiast
yes
ThePastmaster
Accurate.
UpvoteTotem
This was my experience. Couldn't find walk throughs. It was unique and intriguing, but so frustrating
SilverFish0
Gives blue pages
Akurei00
Do not believe *static* my brother's lies *static* bring me *static* RED pages!
Lantis02
I was looking for this. +1
katimius
have you tried opening the 364th book on the 623rd shelf and opening it to page 7854589?
SugaryBonemeal
Obviously the first thing I tried, duh
BleedingQuasar
This.
Youhavinagiraffe
Not gonna lie I think the fondness people have for adventure games of this era (especially Myst) was mostly stockholm syndrome
SimiKusoni
Honestly I think there's a lot to be said for building a world and then letting the user figure it out. Sure they might get lost, or even miss something important, but you lose a good chunk of the experience if you just straight up explain how everything works (and you can obviously mitigate those issues to an extent too).
ArmedandOverclocked
my fondness stems from the visuals being damned good for the time. I never could figure out wtf to do, but man it sure looked good.
ImAGrower
Seriously. I would get stuck for hours as a kid. Then next load yo somehow figure it out super quick and then stuck again.
DeliciousMeatCurtains
It’s like a lot of logical problems. Walk away and let your subconscious mind figure it out, then come back refreshed.
timelessclassical
only game ive ever played where ive needed a notepad and a pen
DdCno1
Myst is very coherent and streamlined compared to its many, many clones. I vaguely recall an Eastern European first person adventure game from a few years later that was equally gorgeous to look at and byzantine in regards to its puzzle design.
0570
That could be 'Atlantis'
LamarTrillington
Is the bearded developer also the "Who ARE you?" guy who was trapped in the book?
marsilies
Yes, they didn't have much funds to hire actors, so both brothers play characters in the game.
Onlyhereforthelaughs
AND he also played one of his crazy sons, Achenar. His brother played the other son, Sirrus.
Onlyhereforthelaughs
Hmm, you might have been referring to Achenar to begin with. I meant to say he played Atrus (Pool message guy, creator of Myst island) as well as his bearded son Achenar.
TheTripleLindy
I love these games!
Higure
"CD-ROM game" wow, that made me feel old.
CogentMoment
MYST III on xbox was so good.
LordKitchenersValet
Love ALL the Myst games, esp Uru. Just finished replaying Obduction, and I'm getting a computer ready for Firmament.
Enterwittyandfunnyandexpletivedeletednamehere
I loved the game, but I had nowhere near the attention span to solve the puzzles
MrHappySmiles
I think I played a little bit of myst 2, and it always stuck with me.. like I need to go back and finish it..
belongsinamuseum
I fondly remember being selected to play this off a projector in middle school, while the unlucky majority of students had to be in study hall. Thought that graphics could not get any better!
ShoopDeDoop
Excellent game. They released a phone version on iPhone.
SnailCactus
also a FPS-style thing where you can run around the levels with a gamepad. pretty cool.
GoodEarthBetweenMyToes
Ah, shit. There goes my weekend.
putcleverusernamehere
Too cool. Just downloaded it.
Broonstar
Myst Eternal?
sandmannet
Good thing they didn’t release the phone version for a toaster.
OverpricedCrayon
How do you pixel hunt on a smart phone?
NotTheUserYoureLookingFor
Looks like they have a few different ones
theworldcouldbeflat
Is it a spoiler if i suggest you avoid the coloured pages
SarahDancePainter
But that’s the whole point of the game!
theworldcouldbeflat
To complete the tasks and win you need to find the one white page and bring it to the green book. Bringing either the blue or red pages to those books will get you trapped in what ever coloured book you complete first.
SarahDancePainter
1 spoilers 2 I know 3 different endings
pocketflan
Gross no thanks I prefer playing on my top of the line ‘93 Compaq Presario
ruferto
and andriod, and well. all the other things
OohReilly
IPhone owners don't know that android exists
ruferto
true, true
Inarticulated
Don't you mean.. yPhone..?
OohReilly
I guess you're not a.... fandroid?
PourMeAPuppersPlease
HashMaster9k
ScottyDoesDev
Also a VR version on steam!
Inarticulated
Vyrtual Realyty
Mammothmadness
I found this two years ago in a Goodwill all-sorts box. It sits on the bookshelf of cool shit forever now. $2
princesscruises
I loved the Myst and Riven games <3 Siberia was a good series too,,, and Safecracker
Acquisitor
BLUE.. PAGESSSS...!
AfterTheRainComesTheRainbow
I played the hell outta that game, never needed a walkthrough. Now? I can't figure half of the puzzles out and need help xD
tanebot
Oh SIRRUS! ACHENAR!
tanebot
https://youtu.be/t6PWvJc8srk
willpostanything
imOutOf Cyan!
Whatevyou
Are there any games today that are comparable? Myst was incredible, would love to find a similar puzzler.
ImAGrower
There has been a good amount since and around the same time. It's hard to remember off the top of my head. But I played a could fantasy style ones a few years after it came.
pwsatkinson
Monument Valley is kind of close. Solutions aren’t quite so hard to find but it’s a beautiful game with a simple story that has no shooting. Just figuring out how to unlock the path to the next puzzle.
Saturniidae
There's a series of games called "The Room" that scratch the itch of figuring out complex 3D mechanisms in a setting that feels like a lost Myst world. The story is a bit lacking but if you love those videos of old furniture with dozens of hidden compartments, this game series will satisfy that mechnical puzzle desire
Frederf
Talos Principles, puzzles yes but also ethereal spooky existential vibes
DdCno1
It's perhaps the best example. Absolutely incredible in VR, by the way.
wizard07ksu9000
Portal and its sequel are both fantastic puzzle games based around physics. "Portal preserve the conservation of momentum. Or in layman's tetms, speedy thing go in, speedy thing come out."
TheBestSpiderQueen
Quern on steam
InsaneDeman
Was just thinking this.
Aasgeier
I liked it at first, but the story get pretty dumb in the end and I hate that you have to do the same puzzles over and over in different difficulties.
tituscicero
Quern is fantastic. Absolutely recommend.
ProbablyPostsPrettyPictures
Quern is the best Myst game including every Myst game. I was delighted by it.
alchemist12345
Obduction was great IMO.
StormCrowMith
Portals? Lots of puzzles
FlyingButtPliers
https://store.steampowered.com/app/40700/Machinarium/ I ♥ Machinarium. Similar mouse click single story vibes. Not as mysterious, but cute, fun and simple.
Ababacar
Outer Wilds
lacunae8
I still haven't beat outer wilds but my friend told me it's so worth it to do so
knotgrate
Downvotes gotta be from people mixing this up with Outer Worlds. Wilds is definitely inspired by Myst. Full of puzzles, lore, and exploration while applying knowledge you learn throughout the game.
whatnameisntalreadytaken
The witness if you want an island with nothing but puzzles
zer0vector
Good but unfortunately they're pretty much all the same puzzle
ThrowAwayAcct0000
I found this game so frustrating because it didn't seem to have an overall plot.
Millwr1ght
Or the better sequel, the Looker
Whatevyou
Thank you! I have played The Witness, it was pretty good. I will look into this for sure.
Arisal
This is my favorite modern myst like game. Absolutely loved every minute of it.
EmptyHouseBurglar
Agreed. And the multiple and totally missable epiphany reveals. The layers. Very much enjoyed.
GreaseMonkeyOfLove
And it had video clips from Connections!
nangke
The Room series is light on lore, but the atmosphere/tone of those games feels similar, plus I enjoyed all the mechanical puzzle-solving stuff
BiffMaGriff
The room "puzzles" are only puzzles if opening a door is a puzzle.
AllieRiot
It's a bit different but "A Story About My Uncle" is story-rich, puzzle heavy, and involves exploring a cool fantasy world. I also recommend "Memorrha", "Riven" and "Obduction" for the same reasons. "Shivers" and "Scratches" are ancient but check all those boxes too. There's a ton of puzzle heavy exploration games with minimal story like "The Room", "Safecracker." I filled two notebooks with notes in order to finish the 3 "REM" games, by far the most complex puzzle/exploration game I've seen.
Aasgeier
None, if you ask me. It's very hard to get the atmosphere right and some games like Quern overdo the puzzles and start getting tedious. Not even Cyan is able to recreate what they accomplished since then. Riven was their masterwork and it never was as good again.
SilverFish0
Sam and max
tomb818
There's a whole set of their games..all on STEAM. RIVEN, EXILES, URU & 1-2 versions of Myst
dragonflyy69
If you don't mind games from the same time (and harder to run on modern systems but still possible) The Journeyman Project series is amazing. https://www.gog.com/en/games?query=journeyman&order=desc:score
lacunae8
You might also like The Bridge, based on Escher art, and The Turing Test. They're aren't quite as fantastic as MYST but they're fun puzzle games
chumpacabra
Scratches
AllieRiot
YES I love that game
TheNaykid
Outer Wilds
Muszkatela
different vibe, but supraland has the best puzzles I've ever seen in any game
Soldon
Like a lot of games now they released a modern version of it a year or two ago. It's great.
rbudrick
Shadowgate, deja vu, Uninvited, Princess Tomato in the Salad Kingdom, just to use NES as an example. These all felt very similar tome, though there's many others. Basically text adventure-style games with graphics.
verityauger
The 7th guest is awesome!
unclesporky
7th Guest hasn't aged very well...unlike Myst/Riven the puzzles aren't diegetic (functional things integrated into the setting). It's like buying a book of brain teasers and locking a cutscene behind each one, rather than solving something physical in-universe that literally opens a gate, which was locked that way for a reason, etc.
DannyTheManny189
They’re making a VR version. Hopefully it’ll be a good modernization of that game
cbog
I’m not sure what the requirements for being a mystlike are, but if you want to walk around in a no-violence setting, solving puzzles: Antichamber is amazing and feels like walking through a world made by MC Escher. Also Manifold Garden, which lets you experience infinity, is pretty cool.
ILikeToCallItLostWages
The Soujourn on PC
AllieRiot
First one in this thread I haven't seen! Thanks for the rec, it looks AWESOME
madsander
Pyst is what I played.
nangke
There was also a Myst parody titled Mylk
queercherry
Cyan is still making Myst style puzzle games! They've put out two in the last few years- Obduction (which I played and loved) and Firmament (which I haven't played yet, but looks beautiful).
stouffer
Dotty McDot face
iosej
Obduction was amazing!
tituscicero
Firmament was unfortunately not great. It was supposed to be a VR game but that didn't work very well, but I'm hopeful they'll fix that. What's worse is that they used AI to write lore entries and other stuff, which was one of the best parts of Cyan games. It was always fun to discover the lore and stories... but even AI assisted stuff feels so impersonal. Obduction was great though. They did a full remake of Myst recently too that was very good.
ShowALK
They made a very clear statement on the usage of AI. It was AI assisted, but the writers still had all the control and everything had to fit.
Aasgeier
They have lost their charm, I think. Maybe it's the free movement, but I thought neither of them wer on par to the old Myst games.
imbribery
Check out "The Return of the Obra Dinn" if you haven't already. You're trying to piece together what happened to the crew of a ghost ship by figuring out who each person on the ship was and their fate. It's stylistically very different from Myst but in terms of sheer head-scratching puzzles, it can't be beat.
JacquesKass
Oh shit I played Obra Dinn for like 20 hours over 2 days, it was amazing.
hippocampus
I needed to look up a guide for the chinese dudes. Even after reading the guide I had no clue how I should've figured that one out. Still enjoyed the whole experience.
ObviousPidgeon
I played a game like this about a space lab where everyone was killed by alien monsters. I had to go around and hack into peoples emails to find specs for tech, then take the specs to a production area and build it. It was almost just like my job. Almost.
namelessone
I live Obra Dinn and I prefer it to Mystlikes but I don't think it's that comparable.
AllieRiot
Have you played any of the REM series? The most puzzle-heavy games i have ever played hands down.
Whatevyou
I have not but thank you! Good info that I will try out.
PourMeAPuppersPlease
Surprised no one has mentioned it's sequel, Riven. Was a nightmare to complete, some of its puzzles were based around colours, which being colourblind, I couldn't solve
ShowALK
I do believe they've confirmed a Riven remake. I wonder if they'll include accessibility options for it that'll help mitigate the issues you experienced.
mthrndr01
I'm... probably not technically tone deaf, but whatever the hell I am makes sound puzzles absolutely infuriating. I feel you.
iosej
I loved riven so much. The interconnectedness of the level design was incredible. I loved just wandering around for hours even if I wasn't solving anything. That would be brutal with the colorblind issue though, hope you were able to get through with a guide and see the rest!
PourMeAPuppersPlease
Completely agree, beautifully made game. And the music was brilliant. Ha, thanks! Remember using a walkthrough for the colour puzzles. Was years ago though, I'll have to revisit.
kickahippie
Whats a cd-rom?
Onlyhereforthelaughs
It's a Cis-Dominated Romulan.
SilverFish0
Compact disc read only media
SilverFish0
Took a regular disk and compressed it down
YeahNoForSure
It’s kind of like a floppy disk, but less floppy.
kickahippie
So like a hard disk?
YeahNoForSure
No, not exactly. Think LaserDisc, but smol.
kickahippie
They can make a disc out of lazers? Now that I gotta see
SpockIsMyHomeboy
Loved this game so much. The Myst Trilogy books are still some of my all time favorites.
katimius
yes! those books were awesome! they filled in all the blanks for the game.
Onlyhereforthelaughs
YUUUUUS!
Raeilgunne
I loved those books, never even got to play the games.
appleporpoise
Yes! The books themselves and the drawings are beautiful too.
IrateWolfe
I have never known ANYONE who has even heard of the books! Thank you! I have read them over and over again, the third is a bit weak, but still good- the forst two have stuck with me for decades, whenever I'm stuck, or having trouble, I think 'what do you see, Atrus?', and I remember to step back and consider the whole
Ihadtoditchmyotherusernamebecauseofyou
They had books!? Myst was the first real game I owned. I still have the original discs for all of the sequels. Now you are telling me there are books I somehow overlooked!?
ruferto
i liked the books better than the games tbh
onespookyboi
Books were outstanding. I’ve been wanting to find digital audiobooks of them for years. I love Myst but the story just took on a life of its own through the books that the rest of the games never did for me.
iosej
Oh yeah! Starts with Atrus and then works backwards through time. Very good books. I just recently read them again after 15 years or so since the first time and they were wonderful
Rathan5
The Book of Atrus, the Book of Ti’ana, and the Book of D’ni, if memory serves. I didn’t like the second one as much as the first and the third
InnocentIntentionsTurnedBad
I have two but I believe all three. I need to find those books!