It was developed by Cyan, Inc. and published by Broderbund. Originally it released in 1993 for Mac. As time went on other ports of the game were released. PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Windows saw notable ports of the game.

As for the game itself, it’s all about the insanity of two brothers. The mind-games that you, the player, must sort through.

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More About MYST

Myst is a first person game. Players interact with specific objects on screen by clicking on the item, or dragging it around. Certain items like journal pages can be picked up and carried to particular locations.

Movement in the game relies on the player clicking on locations shown on the screen. There are plenty of areas to explore, and a keen eye is required to solve some of the puzzles. More on that later…

The game also features a journal. This is a necessary component to the game. You’ll be collecting the pages that belong inside of it. This is a double edged sword. You can only carry a single page at a time. If you drop a page, it reverts back to its original location. When you find them, be sure to place them where they belong.

Little Details Matter

You’ll be tasked with visiting the “Ages” mentioned above, The “Ages” you’ll visit are small sub worlds, self-contained and with their own puzzles to solve. Each of the Ages have their own name and theme to go with it. The Ages are: Selenitic, Stoneship, Mechanical, and Channelwood. Some of the clues, items and information discovered in one of the “Ages” might be required to solve puzzles in a different one. This is why details matter.

Rushing through a puzzle too quickly may leave you stumped later. In the videos above Kreshenne runs into this issue a few times.

Unique Aspects of MYST

Myst uses each in-game environment to the utmost advantage to tell the story it presents. Like many games of its era, the game relies largely on text based story telling. There are some “cut-scenes” if you can truly call them that, as well.

What made Myst so popular for its time was the unusual ways it provided the backstory. The entire game is riddled with mystery waiting to be unraveled. At first, you’ll have very little backstory. Nothing is particularly clear, and there is no hand-holding in sight.

You won’t have any obvious goals or objectives in front of you. As a player, it will all be left up to you. There are no enemies in the game, and no combat. The game is a slow burn, and the player can solve the puzzles at their own pace.

For more opinions about this game, might I suggest you look at the Myst review written by Jason Smith over at Adventure Gamers, or that you check out the one by Christopher Livingston on PC Gamer website.

In my personal opinion though, the two brothers that made the island are crazy people. Frankly, I’ve said too much about them with that single statement. The rest is up to you. If you haven’t played Myst or watched a play-through, you really should.