Question:
Now, the question can finally be asked: Wich is, by your personal opinion, the best Myst game? Comments are welcome!

Choices:
Myst
Riven
Exile
Revelation
End of Ages

 

What about Uru?

My answer would have to be "the next one". If I have to choose frome the list I'd pick Myst IV Revelation. The graphics were wonderful.

There are two reasosn why I didn't put uru:
1. I don't know how to put more then 5 options in a pool.
2. I don't consider uru as a Myst game, for many reasons.

quote:

Originally posted by Wih-am:
2. I don't consider uru as a Myst game, for many reasons.

Well, it does contain: Linking to different ages, D'ni prophecies and more. So, you're right: it's not a Myst game, it's probably is more than one given the historical depth there is.

I count Uru as a D'ni game, but not a Myst game in the strictest sense of having to resolve an immediate and pressing problem, usually related to Atrus having bungled something rather badly (though Revelation and EoA both revolve more around Yeesha getting into trouble).

I also find it personally impossible to compare Uru to the rest of the Myst games because of the sheer volume of time and emotion I had invested in the concept and execution of Uru Live. It's a feeling that, despite the quality of the rest of the games, I cannot duplicate elsewhere. Roaming the City streets is a truly painful experience for me, not just because of the knowledge of what happened to the D'ni themselves, but also because of what I and many other fellow explorers went through over the course of about three years. Knowing what Uru could have been is truly exciting and remembering the experiences I had both alone and with other people is heart-warming, yet knowing what it has become of it is incredibly heart-breaking, even almost 2 years after the fact.

I really can't pick an ultimate favorite from the Myst series "proper" either, because I've been involved with the games for so long and have replayed and hyper-analyzed each one so often that they've all become a blend of good and bad analyses coupled with very enjoyable experiences while playing. I suppose if I were forced to rank them, though, I'd list them thus:

Riven/Revelation
EoA/Myst
Exile

quote:

If I have to choose frome the list I'd pick Myst IV Revelation. The graphics were wonderful.

If you'd have asked me shortly after I started playing Revelation, my answer would have been the same as yours. It was amazing! But the beautiful imagery was more than offset for me by the difficulty of the puzzles. And it wasn't just because I'm slow on the uptake; I couldn't complete a couple of them even after consulting the walkthroughs.

For what it's worth, when I spoke with a couple members of the Cyan team recently, I asked if they'd played Revelation. Both had played, but neither had finished. They also got bogged down in the game and set it aside. Ha... I felt better after that.

For what it's worth, when I spoke with a couple members of the Cyan team recently, I asked if they'd played Revelation. Both had played, but neither had finished. They also got bogged down in the game and set it aside. Ha... I felt better after that.

As you said whatever it is worth...well I guess that is worth more to you than it is to me! I guess everyone seeks justification in their own right. I personally loved REVELATION and put it up there with RIVEN. Not that I am seeking justification here for my view but I think on a very small level the poll's results offer some interesting tid bits thus far. By the way Mowog...what was your view on this (besides REVELATION not being a favorite of yours)?

I've shared & expressed this numerous times before but I feel RIVEN is the absolute best of the series!

I also agree that URU should not be considered a part of the "MYST" games. Quick question by the way (maybe to ask CYAN members Mowog or whomever else)... after just reading Alahmnat's post and many others on URU...I have a few more theories/thoughts as to why URU was not included in the final "Making Of" DVD (included in the MYST V limited edition) however I continue to wonder why -wanting as many FACTS on this as possible- that it wasn't included. I'll see what types of responses I get and who knows maybe start another thread on this.

I sure did smarty pants...which is another reason why I didn't like MYST V all that much (too reminiscent of URU - which I have explained at length in other threads). By the way...I was talking about URU not being included in the series (as it was mentioned here) in case you didn't notice - it wasn't about including/not including MYST V.
BUt seeing how you brought it up...My deepest feelings are to not even include MYST V because it's not like the majority of MYST games either however the fact is... it's called MYST V and has a number so there is really no way out of that one for me other than denial/personal choice.

Any comment about the other issue I brought up though or are you just looking to cause a few waves?

Whatever nanouk.

...take a look from the start and follow the topic as it moves forward...seems to be more than just my fellings being shared here...just seems you like pay attention more to mine than others.

I'll be happy to indulge/discuss your perception of bullying in a PM.

But for here & now in the forum...I've been trying to stick to the topic at hand which is more than I can say for you at the moment...so it'd be nice if you did the same....not doing so seems to resemble "bullying" in its own right as well.

BREAK IT UP GUYS! BACK ON TOPIC!
I have stated many times before, and i agree with you neo, that Revelation and Riven were the best games in the series. But i think that we also need to remember the original Myst. It did start it all regardless of probably poor graphics and size in comparison to some of today's games. In response to your question about Uru, I think that since the main point was UruLive, it was not meant to be considered as part of the series. It was more of a basis for some new ideas. I really regret the closing of UruLive, I was just getting into it! But, since its not coming back, i see how Uru, and especially the expansion packs, did not include the story of Atrus except for Yeesha losely fitting in. That's why I also agree that Myst 5 isn't really like Myst games either. In fact, I feel like it was almost identical to Uru. The standard four ages to visit, each opening a peice of the tablet. I think that for a finale game that followed Revelation, developers could have done a much better job in making this game.

Hey LEOMAG!

Yes...you bring up an excellent point about remembering the original MYST. I also feel that because it was the spark/original genius/catalyst of everything we came to experience in this series... it is most certainly worthy of being considered the best! Unfortunately when it comes to a poll/voting for which one you like the best...it seems like the original while worthy in its own right...gets lost in the mix. Glad you reminded me!

Peace

Hey simmer down there nanouk why don't you lay off the guy.

RIVEN was the bestand I think the original MYST deserves a lot of credit even if it wasn't as much fun as RIVEN or or some of the others. Good call LEOMAG and neo

You know it's funny, but this poll and the forum attitude indicate to me that I was right in my nay-saying all along. In order for Myst to feel real enough, immersive enough and atmospheric enough to express the emotions the game needs you have two options. Either you pre-render it with 3D elements ala Revelation or you use what is currently high-end 3D graphics. Of course, the latter option is impossible for now, so you must use pre-rendering and Myst V didn't.

I also suspect that the added visual detail with the high resolution pre-rendered content inspires the story writers to add even more interesting details. I suspect that the whale you see at the start of Riven is an example of this, and interestingly enough, this is one of the images of Riven that has stayed with me the strongest. I would need to hear from the developers of Riven and Revelation to confirm this though.

Anyways, I entirely agree with this poll with my order of Myst preference.

If you want to see a "live" Laki check here...click here
or two in the same picture...click here

As a person who discovered Myst when it was almost new, I find it hard to compare it directly to the others because it was so groundbreaking. I'm not sure people who got started with, say, Exile, would quite see the thrill Myst gave to people in those days when most of us had never even seen a decently rendered 3d image or fallen into such a visually rich world alive with sounds and evocative music.

However, the thing that indelibly marks Riven as my favorite is the fact that it represented the collective best effort that Rand AND Robyn Miller together could produce at that time with all of their creative energy fresh from their Myst success -- and with the added production sophistication brought in by Richard Vander Wende (not to mention quite a few other talented people).

Most of the other games have high production values, in fact in technical terms you could say they just kept getting better, but in my mind just lacked some intangible thing that I found so fascinating about the original Cyan works. It would have been interesting to see how Riven might have turned out if produced using today's real-time technology, but those ray-traced renderings were beautiful. Too bad it couldn't have at least been re-released using the original renderings without all of the compression artifacts. Sad to think that those original assets are just sitting somewhere on a shelf...

You know I find it interesting sometimes. I look at next-gen games like Gothic 3, Gears of War, UT2007 and others, and every now and then I see a scene and I go, "That could be Myst" or I guess, "That could have been Myst." 3D graphics is just getting to the level to reproduce the Myst universe correctly, and it's a shame Myst won't be there to see it. Even though I lament about the endless sequals in the gaming world, Myst games are an exception. I think because of the open ended universe, it never really had sequals, but rather extensions. Anyways, I'm really tired, and I probably don't make any sense right now, lol.

I have to say Riven.... I know it is no where near as advanced graphically as some of the others, but it was for it's time. Now I'm not trying to say I'm overly smart or anything, because that definitly not the case. I'm as average as most, but I found Riven to be my favorite partly because it was so hard. Also, when it finally did come together,(without the help of any walkthrough), it was like a slap in the face. Like, "OH... well there ya go! How did I not see that." I thought I was overexamining everything on that game only to find out that I wasn't. In fact, at one point, you enter some sort of classroom with 26 runes placed about the ceiling. A buddy and myself actually tried to decipher the d'ni alphabet from those... (mabey that WAS going a bit far. Anyway, my favorite would have to be the one that stuck with me the longest, and that was definitly Riven.

I'm not surprised you never managed to finish deciphering the letters on the walls... there's supposed to be 36 symbols around the room, but they're in D'ni alphabetical order, there's 10 more letters in D'ni than in English (almost all of which are dedicated to vowels, yay specific vowels!), and one of the letters is printed twice .

Not to say it hasn't been deciphered through other means elsewhere...