Myst: Overrated?

[Lord Nepenthean]

Okay, I was glad to hear that I'm not the only one at this board that thinks Gran Turismo was overrated.  Now, is it just me, or does Myst fall into this category too?

The game came out on about ninety different platforms.  It came out for so many consoles and sold so well on all of them that they even released the thing on Virtual Boy, R-Zone, and Odyssey^2 (just kidding).  Anyway, it sold really, really well, and spawned several sequels.

I tried and tried to like it, but it just seemed incredibly dull to me.  It's not the genre I dislike - there are plenty of great point-and-click adventure games I like (particularly old 2D Sierra games) - but rather the game I dislike.  Myst is just boring as hell.  I don't understand why anyone would like it.  Thirty minutes into the game and I can't force myself to play any longer.  I've played that first thirty minutes probably thirty times, but each time I put it in, I have to stop myself shortly afterwards.

Am I alone here?

[Arrrhalomynn]

Nope. I never could get over the slowness of it. click, slowly move, click again, slowly move. It gets on my nerves. The game is just about solving puzzles. For me it would have been fine if they would have put all the puzzles in a list to select.

Of course the grahpics looked awesome for the time it was released, but even that's dated now.

[thx1138]

I played it on the PS1, it was crap. Compared to say Broken Sword.

Very, very dull indeed.

[2D-Forever]

I can beat the original PC Myst in less than six minutes.  Most of that time comes from copying down the puzzle on pg. 125 of the puzzle book in the library.  Play a game for hours just to find the six minute solution. Great fun!...(sigh) I loathe that game.  None of the sequals are any better.  Maybe I'm just a demanding gamer, but theres this thing called "enjoyment" If the game doesn't have it, then I don't want it.

[thx1138]

I once spent a long time cracking a puzzle on 7th guest. I thoroughly enjoyed doing it though. 7th Guest was pretty cutting edge at the time though.

[Sureshot]

Yeah I remember it was pretty damn boring and therefore indeed overrated.  If anyone's read the book 'The Medium Of The Videogame', you'll know how annoying it is that the main author references Myst & Riven every other sentence

They suck!

[deadducks]

Myst is my most hated game and i have played power rangers for sega cd

[Lord Nepenthean]

Have you played Shaq-Fu or American Gladiators, though?

[T]

Back in the day I had a lot more patience and time

I bought the 3DO version of Myst

For some reason it caught my imagination and I couldn't
stop playing.  I wanted to see the next puzzle

anyway, I beat it without any help from friends or guide books

I guess I don't think it was overrated

[Arrrhalomynn]

Hey T (had to refrain myself from calling you mister )
Welcome to the boards. Please introduce yourself in the introduction topic and feel free to post anywhere you like.

[danvx6]

I think myst was definitely overrated.  The stoy was really cool but it just WASN'T FUN. It was the most annoying, slow, repetitve game ever. ESPECIALLY THAT GODDAMN SUBAMRINE LEVEL WITH THE TRACKS!

[Izret101]

I think Myst was ok but it was very tedius and i got about 2 hours into it before deciding it was a waste of time when i could be playing anything else. And i have played Shaq-Fu but have you beaten it with EVERY character???

[Lord Nepenthean]

And i have played Shaq-Fu but have you beaten it with EVERY character???

PLEASE, God, tell me he didn't do it!!!!!!

[Izret101]

God doesnt exist in the Universe of the Shaq-Fu. I definately got my dollar out of that game the sword guy sucks the little kid suck shaq sucks the old guy sucked but he did have the cool green energy stuff the huge guy in the boneyard was ok though. Probably worse than that is when i was much youngert for about 15 minutes i tried to get over the huge pit in E.T. for atari by jumping more vigourously over it... sadly... it didnt work

[Mike Leon]

Ok. Here's the deal with Myst. At least I think I have it figured out. See, working in video game stores, I have noticed that the vast majority of stupid stupid people make their video game purchase decisions based entirely on a game's packaging. I see people pay $50 for PS2 games everyday for reasons like, "It has [Insert title of Disney character] on it;" or "This looks like it has a guy fighting monsters, and my kids like those kinds of games." (I've been known to rant for hours about why this is a stupid reason to buy a game. Shaq Fu has a guy fighting monsters, but so does Link to the Past. Sadly, most moms would buy which ever one was cheaper.)

And that's how Myst sold. People looked at the stills on the box and said "Wow, it looks real!" Not even ever realizing that the whole game was essentially just a slide show of the pictures on the box.

It's all about advertizing and photographs. If people had seen television ads for Myst, which actually showed the gameplay in motion, they would have seen that it was just a slide show, and never would have paid for it.