I just bought realMYST for the bargain price of ~?4. I'm wondering if one can "solve" an age without doing something in the other ages or if I have to traverse the different ages back and forth to be able to solve the puzzles. Can anyone answer that without giving away any solutions to the puzzles (no spoilers) ?

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I'm guessing that I'm suppose to find one red page and one blue page and merge them with the books in the library on Myst.

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Well I found two pages in the "tree age" so I guess I found out the answer on my own. :max:

Does anyone know how to increase mouse sensitivity in this game?

Finished the game. I'm a little surprised. I had anticipated a really difficult adventure, but most of the puzzles were easily solved if you just thought them through. I only encountered two puzzles that I found somewhat far fetched.

If you have the US version of realMYST, there's a patch you can download that will add a whole bunch of options such as mouse sensitivity, size of the 'dead zone' in the centre (ie- how far you can move your mouse before the view changes) and other stuff.

Unfortunately, the patch won't work on the EU release. Guess which I have (hint- I'm British) :angry:

It may not be all that hard, but, as one of the recurring themes of the series would suggest, it's not reaching the destination that's important, it's enjoying the journey. After all, the worlds are gorgeous- why rush through?

True, I'm gonna go for Riven next and this time I'll take my time.

I actually found realMyst, Myst Masterpiece, Riven, Exile, Revelations for a mere ?30. I'm gonna be Mysting a lot more before I'm finished :D

I can't believe I haven't played these games before. I love adventure games and I've missed these...

Yah, great series. I am not the brightest guy when it comes to puzzles. I remember renting the original Myst when it came out for PSX..and me and my friend stayed up all night one night and finished it. What a blast.

I tried it for 10 minutes when I was 8/9... maybe 10.. didnt get far. At one of may parent's friend's houses..

Excellent, excellent games. I've played Myst, Riven, and Exile. I love Riven, but I must say Exile is the best. SO beautiful. I had a dream about Riven once. Heh, you absolutely get lost in the games. Myst didn't have that magic feel really, it was just not "up there" to achieve what it wanted with technology limits. Never played RealMyst, so I assume that's MUCH better. Riven's awesome. You smell the salt of the ocean, you feel the rust on the metal bars as you drag your hand across them, you get sand stuck between your fingertips....Its so lovely an experience.

I have both realMyst and Myst Masterpiece edition and MM pales in comparison with real Myst. It's amazing how they mamanged to make the world seem to real. I was sad to see realMyst to the end. I also like that the added an age (Rime) to link it to Riven better than the original.

I agree, I was stuck on one puzzle for 4 months before I finally figured it out and finished it, I was actually sad to see it end. One of the best games i have ever played.

I cried when Riven and Exile ended.

Riven... well I didn't really understand riven too well (I always forgot to read the books) and I was pretty much clueless about what was going on. When I met Ghen I was like "ah, excellent! Finally, somebody who doesn't run away from me... why am I in a cage?"
Riven relied too much on heavy reading in order to understand the plot, while in Exile they found a perfect balance. In exile the story progressed through monologues narrated by Atrus and Saaverdo while the books and scrolls gave the player further insight into Saaverdo. The ending was really nice too, really cinematic, not to mention that there were serveral endings... while in Exile I believe there was a bad ending and a really short ending which, I suppose, is a good ending.
Myst IV was loads of fun but I haven't finished it, I had to start 5 times over, and now that I have to redo it all again I really don't want to (pity there aren't any saves up for download anywhere) I really don't want to redo all the silly puzzles in Tomahna over again... I wish I could find a save where I am automatically standing in front of the two linkingbooks.

Just made a "full install" of Riven on my computer.... oooooo this is going to be GOOD :D
The sound and music is GREAT!

It should be. The (only) thing that really drove me away from Riven was the fact that you had to change CD's every five minutes :not_ok:
It really was a beautifull game, though. I found it even more fascinating then Myst, and Myst had already enchanted me.

That's why I made the "full install". I HATE disc swapping...

*edit*

Been playing for a couple of hours and it ROCKS! A shame it's low resolution by todays standards, but hey the sound/music is awesome and after a while you forget about the resolution and start admiring the graphics instead. :ok:

The best thing is, when I'm done with this one I have Exile and Revelation left :D

Heavy reading? I've yet to find a single book (apart from the journal Atrus gave me).

There are quite a few large books and journals scattered throughout the game if memory serves me right.
Atrus's journal is no breeze either, they should have given it with the game as a booklet instead of having players stare at the screen all the way through (my eyes!)

Then I can't have gotten too far into the game yet. I'm not sure what to think of the game's openendedness. I seem to wandering around exploring and finding clues... solving stuff here and there, but I'm still kind of lost. I don't have a solid goal apart from the "capture Gehn" and "rescue Catherine" thing. I didn't find the journal that heavy a read. Actually I would welcome a book right about now to fill in some gaps. I've mainly put two and two together from the various pictures and sightings I've encountered on my way. Still nothing is certain, just theories.

A fine fine game :ok:

Yeah that's one thing about Riven quite a few people dislike, the player is left without a clue as to what exactly he is supposed to do, and the possibility to explore pretty much the entire gameworld without restrictions doesn't help much either.
Myst III is more direct since the player is actually told what he is supposed to do (solve the training ages which have been destroyed by the villain. And the clues to a puzzle in each age can be found either in that age or in the Hub Age (where the game actually starts)

Myst IV starts out with Atrus actually giving you instructions and the rest becomes more or less obvious after that.

I wonder what Myst V will be like, the graphics are fantastic.

Yeah Myst V looks real good. I really prefer the 3D engine of realMyst compared to the slides of Myst Masterpiece. And Myst V has a 3D engine if I'm not mistaken.

I think it does.
Here is a short movie about the environment in Myst V.

After getting further into Riven I can now say that I prefer the game's openendedness to that of Myst. It's really satifying when all the pieces come together and I for one felt proud of myself when I figured out some of the "bigger" puzzles of the game.

I remember Myst, the one I have on CD you can go into this library where there are a bunch of burnt books. Funny thing is you can read most of them. What, were they rescued like people or something?

Play and see. I won't give away any of the plot. :max:

Revelation was pretty good too.

Up till now my favourite Myst game is still Exile.
By the way, doesn't anybody here have a savegame of Myst IV with all the starter puzzles in Tomahna completed?

Just finished it. There were only two things that held me up. One concerned the closing of a certain door and the other concerned getting on top of the main dome...

But the other puzzles were "doable" if one only paid attention to details and sounds. Riven has definately gotten a steady place on my top ten list of best adventure games ever! :ok:

Play and see. I won't give away any of the plot. :max: [/b][/quote]
I meant were they saved from a burning building from a future of ash. I have already played completely through this one :ok:

SLIGHT SPOILER FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T PLAYED MYST:

Is that the library on Myst itself? I can't remember any other... In that case:
The books were destroyed as the worlds they described were destroyed by greed.

Soon I'll sink my teeth into Exile :D

Just borrowed Riven again.
Of course I'm in way over my head; I'm terrible at adventures. :ph34r:

Just take your time. Riven isn't a game you should rush through. Explore, notice, listen, watch and take notes. If you do that the pieces will fall into place... I'm very impressed with the puzzles in Riven, it's apparent that the developers have thought them through. They're not like the all too common "use A on B puzzles".

That's the Myst series for you.
It took me a year before I finally solved a puzzle in Myst III.
I had long given up on the game and even the hints in a small walkthrough didn't help me. I had not played the game in arounda year when suddenly I got an idea.
I turned on the Xbox (I got the game for my birthday together with an xbox) and solved the puzzle, a week later I finished the game (I spent all the time playing it)
It's one of the reasons myst III is my favourite Myst game.

Riven was the second computergame I played on my own computer.

There is Myst for the XBox? I thought it was only for PC/MAC.

No it came out for various systems, like Riven and Myst came out for the Playstation.

The PC ones are all better though.

I just ordered the soundtrack to Riven. It will make great background music when programming. :D

*bump*
I'm currently playing through Exile. The "training ground" backstory feels more like a lame excuse for pointless puzzles by the developers than anything else. I mean really, just look at the puzzles of Amateria...

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I REALLY prefer it when the puzzles are built into the storyline. Riven handled this far better than Exile. Even though the storyline in Exile explains it, it still feels like the developers were to lazy to make it believable.

I disagree, playing Exile on a big screen made everything far more cinematic... plus the extras were neat aswell.

Yeah, the puzzles in Exile don't really have a point, but then again what was the point of all those inane puzzles in Riven every few steps?
I think the storyline in Exile is far better than that of Riven, since Riven spelled everything out from the beginning, leaving the player just an objective (two objectives) and a whole bunch of puzzles in between. Exile's story develops over time and, unlike Ghen, one can't see Saavedro as a standard mad powerhungry vengeful criminal.
I still maintain that the ending in Myst III was one of the best game endings ever.

I was stuck in Amateria for about a year, I gave up at the "ball rolling through forcefields" puzzle, mainly because I always lost my way around the pagoda setting things up. But the other worlds were loads of fun. Amateria was also the msot boring and dead looking world, which probably is another reason I disliked playing there so much.

I've got the CD aswell, it's nice enough but I can't listen to it for more than a few minutes, it gets a bit too boring... I prefer Jack Wall's soundtracks (Myst III, Myst IV, Jade Empire)

Has anybody played the demo of Myst V... I don't know about you but it was quite a disappointment for me. The character you see in the beginning was so very static looking and unemotional, and the graphics wasn't what they had led us to believe in their screenshots.

Now i'm not usually a person to call out for better graphics in a game (heck the game I'm addicted to right now is Thief II) but the Myst series is known for its sublime graphics. Playing a Myst game should be like walking through an art gallery, and... well i jsut don't get that feeling when playing Myst V... I think even Uru was better.

The cinematics were never that good to begin with. LOL

Of course you might not agree.
I found the only way to play Myst was on the PC, the developers also had some strange reason to change features in the console ports, they're very small, but someone who's played the PC ones might be weirded out.

It's more on preference, I can't stand navigating without a mouse on Myst, those slider puzzles are made all the worse by having to inch around with the control, instead of a exact control scheme.

I never had any problems playing Exile that I can remember, the controls were very intuitive.

I think they were very good, you really see how much work went into them when you look at The Making Of.

Well maybe we should discuss this elsewhere, as it might spam the topic. :sneaky:

I respect your opinions, I was merely presenting my own.
I think Myst is a good series, but only if you want a cinematic puzzle game.
Not so sure about the adventure part in earlier incarnations.

The original topic is over as far as I can see.

Surprisingly this thing hasn't been closed.

Guess it's a Myst topic in general then.
Anything more to share?

[quote] I thought the puzzles in Riven were great. From the clues left by the Moiety to lead you to their age (stone circle puzzle) to the rotating temple and the firemarbles. They all had a point. You had to figure out how to power the linking books etc. It's all explained through the journal of Ghen.

Right now I'm at the end of Amateria (I think). I've found one pattern and soon I'll have the Amateria one. All in all based on what I've seen in Exile I have to say that

• The graphics are better than Riven
• The story unfolds in a better way than Riven
• It's somewhat easier than Riven
• The music is on par with Riven (from the little I've heard. Why isn't there more music in Exile!?!?!?)
• The puzzles aren't as well thought out as in Riven

My conclusion is that Riven is so far a better game, but Exile is a worthy sequel. I also REALLY prefer the "one age" of Riven as opposed to the "many smaller ages" of Exile and Myst.

That said I'm only halfway through Exile and I might change my mind when I get to Narayan... The Myst series are so far a masterpiece in my opinion. As you said, it's like walking around in an art gallery with beautiful music and sounds in the background.

I just bought the DVD version of Schizm. I've read the reviews and like what I've read. When I'm done with Revelations I'm gonna take on Schizm.

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There, solved Amateria. Only Edanna left now and I can take on Narayan... Edanna sure is an imaginative place :D more more pleasing to the eyes than Voltaic or Amateria.

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WHOA!!! Edanna is gorgeous! Easily the prettiest Age I've seen yet in the Myst series.

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Finished Exile and moving on to Revelation :D The GFX of Revelation is the most beautiful I've seen in a computer game, ever! Music kicks behind too.

I've just seen the trailer to Myst V and I also think that the graphics isn't the milestone, Myst, Riven and Revelation was (notice I excluded Exile here). All three mentioned more or less raised the bar of what could be accomplished in a computer game. I'm still playing Revelation and my jaw is still dropping from time to time. Exile had great graphics, but it didn't make my jaw drop in the same way as in Myst and Revelation (Riven would have made my jaw drop had I played it when it came out instead of a month ago).

If Revelation continues as it has now (still in Tomahna), my current Myst top list will be

1:st Revelation
2:nd Riven
3:rd Myst
4:th Exile

I don't know where End of Ages will fit in and I still haven't played any of the Uru games (though I own them all :P)