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"I realized the moment I fell into the fissure that the book would not be destroyed as I had planned. It continued falling into that that starry expanse, of which I had only a fleeting glimpse. I have tried to speculate where it might have landed, but I must admit that such conjecture is futile. Still questions about whose hands might one day hold my Myst book are unsettling to me. I know my apprehensions might never be allayed, and so I close, realizing that perhaps the ending has not yet been written."
A book falls in front of you. Did it fall from the sky? How strange.
You open the book and on the first page you see a moving picture, that moves not by mechanizations but by magic.
You reach out to the page, tentatively, and touch the page's moving picture. As you do, you hear a sound come over you (Hear) and are transported to an island with numerous structures and artifices on it. There you begin a journey of discovery.
You start this game with minimal knowledge about anything going on, and I mean that. You get a flyby of the island with the above knowledge, aaaannnnd that's pretty much it.
I love this game (could you tell?) and I go through it in story points, on the next line.
The Docks:
You face, what I will now call, North on a wooden dock. The why is not known to you, nor how a ship ended up sunk next to it. Up ahead, a rather large set of gears sits on a hill. What could be their purpose? If you happen to have the forethought to look left you see a rectangle set into the side of the mountain.
What this setting is, is a beautiful opening for the game. You are given little hints as to what you can or can't click on. Not to mention the sound of the water hitting the side of the dock along with other auditory clues, like the wind, bring the world of Myst to you, and making it real.
The Gears:
A stone staircase lined with lights and railing that turns west then branches to two ways: the west, a dirt path, then east, up another set of stone railed stairs. Up the stairs a large set of rusted gears sit next to one another but not interlocked. One sits vertical half burred in rock platform, while the other is horizontal laying next to the other. You can only wonder at the reason for this spaces existence
The gears are a wonder, in that they make you curious as to just what is their function. They provide a mystery to solve at the start and their location is viewable from your starting location on the map. What makes them a real oddity is the way the space is laid out seems to sagest that these have more of a function then what is present, but you can't do anything here, and I mean nothing. You can look at them, you can go back, and you can click on every part of the screen for fifteen minutes in a vain attempt to derive a purpose of THESE BLASED THINGS! YOU JUST SIT THERE, TELL ME YOUR SECRETS YOU METALLIC HELL SPAWNS!..................but no, nothing. To the west is a dirt path with wooden stairs and if you had a keen eyes you would see a light rectangular bit of something. Clicking reveals your first bit of story:
Imaging Room:
Shhhhhhhhhh. This is a secret to everybody.(Come on, I have to preserve some myst-ery.)
In here you find a message from Atrus:
Oh.....oh dear......what have I stumbled upon?
If you've visited the rest of the island before coming here, the island has peaceful sounds (like an island should) but after this, the island feels vary... 'lonely', as all the "Ages" do. Sometimes you find evidence that there was someone there only to find that they left a long time ago, sometimes very violently. There are no bodes, but you can tell something went down.
The Brothers:
Over west of the note you'll find an Atrium and then the Library. In the Library you'll find red and blue books. This is where you meet Sirrus and Achenar, both of them weave a tail of how they got trapped in the books. This is the meat of the game, as you need to speak to one or both of these people for most of the game.
After this part you'll have to find out more on your own, but hopefully I've wetted your appetites enough to get this on your own.
Overall:
For the time it was made, it was a very well made and on a low budget of around $1M-$500k (according to wikipedia) and considering most games around that time cost $20M-$30M that was bare-bones. The sound is the best part of this and bring you into this world I would highly recommend this to anyone looking to explore the pioneers of game history. If the graphics are to dated Cyan has re-released Myst as a full 3D experience in RealMyst.
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