Gameplay review of Myst

(Canon game report)
By Po Shen (2718)



Myst is a game that leads many 90’s games toward a whole new direction either the CG (computer graphic) or the mode of setting, and it also creates a new way of game play which affects the most of games developing in the future.
At the beginning, I am facing a problem right after I started to play the game that is I don’t know where to start from. That may sounds funny, but that was actually what happened when I was first playing this game, therefore, I try to search all kind of possibilities that could keep me going such as pulling lifers, click on the map or adjusting anything that moves. Then, many surprises just pop up right in front of me which really makes me feel interesting, and last me for playing this game till the very end.
Most of the clues are from the library, and we just need to follow the clue to the actual stages that we are going to encounter a extremely different scenario such as stone age, world of music, mechanic age and so on…………
In this report I will brief introduce what kind of impacts that this game brings to me, how to play this game and why this game can be a canon game?

My impression of “Myst”

“Fans of Myst”, we can see these words all over the discussion section in many website, despite all the revolutionary setting that Myst has been achieved, but there are still many things are well designed for player to enjoy. However, before I getting start to play this game, I have heard many peoples’ feeling for Myst such as fancy background scenes, cool animations, fits in all kinds of platforms, thoughtful missions, exciting hints towards to the game and well planed plots.
In my opinion, Myst is a game that makes players playing the game getting influence alone their mysterious sounds, therefore, it somehow affects my emotions when I am going to meet a new mission, different scene even when I couldn’t find a way to continue, but these background sound effect always accompanies me go through all these obstacles, on the other hand, the control panel of the game play is also very logical and handy (it doesn’t make me dizzy like some other 3 dimensional games dose).
For example, we can simply click on the direction that we are about going towards, and instead of walking all the way to the destination we actually can skip the processing of walking, therefore, just few clicks on the place that we want to go (as well for all the other machineries that we want to operate during the game), and we can reach the location we need just like doing a fast forward.
We may also check the map at any time we want, therefore, this design brings player an advantage that never get lost at this such huge maze.
Players can easily use camera to memory things that maybe a clue leads us to next level which is a smart way to make a note instead of writing it down by our own hands.
Whereas, there is one more thing that makes me feeling worth to play the game this is the story outline. Basically, this story is about a stranger who went trapped in this myst island, and having an adventure started with meeting two brothers trapped inside of books begging him to collect papers to save them out. In addition to save them, stranger needs also to find out who is the really murderer killed their father to decide who should get the last page according to release him. During the whole adventure, player will be sent to 5 different ages by using the “linking book”, and each age had their own story that is also worth to know which let the player can understand the place even deeper, therefore, till almost the end of the game; player eventually going to make a decision of who should get to come out Sirrus, Achenar or theirs father- Atrus………..

How to play

Then, there are five ages to complete in this game, eventually; I only got three of them done, and the description of each stage will show as following:
First of all, we need to get started with investigating every location on the island which will make our life easier during the future exploring.
To get into the Stone Age, player needs to first go to the map in the library, and adjusts the red line towards the sank ship. According to this move, the watch tower will show three sets of number are hints of three star signs by using the mechanism in the astrology room, and we just need to simply press “snake board”, “leaf board” and “bug board”, therefore, the sank ship will float on the surface of water to bring to the stone age.
Once we had arrived the Stone Age, we will need to get into the light tower, and try to go up to the second floor (by using the machine that makes water flooding or dry up), therefore, we can search for 3 pieces paper(and a book) that can lead us back to Myst Island.

Musical world, there is a number hidden in the library which gives a value of 59, and we can use this value to start up the power from the generator, on this point, the air ship will be available.
In the air ship there’re two machines that connects Myst Island and the musical world; first, play the piano (Shown as below):









Adjust the machine from left to right- push up 7times, 19times, 22times, 12times and 6times, and then we are in the musical world.
This stage, player is required to find a way out from a maze, before we can go to the next age.

Finally, to go to mechanical age, we have to get a serial number which is 2:40 2, 2, 1, and that is going to bring us to the mechanical age by decode the machine from the clock tower. (Shown as below):












Why “Myst”

At last but not least, the reason why Myst can become a “canon game”, in my opinion, that should conclude to two points:
1. The design of mechanism- according to many games now days such as “Tomb Raider” or “Prince of Persia”, they all have some similarity not only they all are adventure games, but also the mechanical systems.
As long as player had played these games, and we know we cannot go through the stage without find out where is the switch to discover next secret, therefore, even though many this type of game had added on action to make the scene more abundant and vivid, but “Myst” is the game which first invents of using a set of mechanism to attract players to explore the game.
For instance, I use to play a scene that I need to cross a bridge in Tomb Raider, and what was confuse me is where the valve is, because I was require to active three switches which able to let me pass it, whereas, “Myst” also has many familiar plots that interest me, and keeping me play this particular game.

2. A very first game that fully uses CG (computer graphic) technology as every detail in the game which is “Myst”.
It was a totally surprise ever since the “Myst” was released, and I cannot stop wonder how the designer of this game can come up with such a idea that can last this game for 10 years also influencing the mode of many three dimensional game till now.
For other example, most of the players were use to play two dimensional games such as “Super Mario” which means the character can just go back and forth in the whole game. In my point of view, the release of “ Myst” is a sign of “rule breaking” that obviously creates a entire new field which has no one yet been discovered; Instead of making character go for limited angle, “Myst” allows player to control wider range that two dimensional can never be achieve, on the other word we say, since “Myst” was released, and the game industry was also walking towards a whole new age.

3. "Myst" also is the first virtual world simulating game that has a sales record of one million copies( the record was broke untill "Sims" series was republished), on the other hand, "Myst" was the very first game that was designed base from the realty, and also etablished a record of the best selling game in compare to all the other types of game. in my opinion, ever since "Myst" had released, it had already brought video game to a brand new age in the game industry.









Conclusion

In conclusion, story is one of the most fascinating part in this game for me, because there are different stories from each age to find out, therefore, the story part of this game really gets me, and it also makes me have the motivation to keep me going.
In overall, when I first play “Myst” it reminds me many game I had played before, and that’s also is the reason why I like this game so much; it requires me to have a sober mind and a large amount of brain storming which gives me a chance to train my logical way of thinking, and also helps me to organize thing in the right order even forwards to the reality. “Myst” is one of the games that I play with no regret.

Reference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImDHj3ixX8k&feature=related