Review of MYST

                      By Graham Raven
        (a hardened, dyed in the wool, RPG FANATIC)

Myst is one well known game which I hadn't actually played, so
when I came across it on a car boot sale, attractively priced at
œ2, I thought I'd throw caution to the wind, and heedless of the
expense, I bought it!

The box looked intriguing with images of a strange fantasy island
and an atmospheric sky with the outline of a man 'flying' amongst
the clouds. It was also stamped 'WINNER OF 20 MAJOR AWARDS'!,
including the 'Lilia Palme D'Or 1995'. The latter may translate as
'Winner of the French Plastic Spoon Festival' for all I know, but
I guessed that it must be something impressive.

Moreover, Michael my son who's an absolute wiz at all this
computer nonsense tells me that MYST is apparently a hugely
popular game which everybody loves! Hmmm!

Once I got the game home I was surprised to see just how little
written material there was inside the box. Maybe the manual was
missing? Ah, apparently not. A slim booklet bearing the words
'Users Manual' lurked furtively alongside the CD. If there's three
pages of real information in the manual that was about it, despite
the fact that it was thinly spread over 21 pages.  The rest of the
booklet is taken up by repeating the same information over and
over again, both for PC and Mackintosh users, ditto in several
different languages. I should have begun to suspect there and then
that the game was essentially 'foreign'; that would have explained
a lot! I was assured however, that MYST is a Surrealistic
Adventure which would quickly become 'my' world. Hmm, really?

The game installed easily and with very little to go on in terms
of help, I dived straight into this surrealistic fantasy island.
Ahem, for 'Surrealistic' read 'Weird'! The soundtrack is also
weird, and that's in perfect keeping with the general game.  Okay,
just what the devil am I supposed to do now? Erm, click on things
on screen and see what happens?

I clicked various things on screen and more often than not,
something did indeed happen. In a virtual blink you can teleport
all over the place, providing your target location is within
eyesight. Should something happen, "make a note of it", or so the
blurb told me, "it might just be important!"

I clicked on a lot of things, and although usually something did
happen whenever I clicked something, erm, I rapidly developed a
feeling of complete bafflement. Even the game blurb agrees that
this isn't uncommon amongst players. When something did happen, I
didn't seem to be able to derive any kind of meaning from it
either! The clues, I assume they were clues (?), may have been
subtle, surreal, bizarre (alien?) or maybe I'm just thick.
Probably the latter! Oddly enough, I can get my head around some
of the concepts of Zen Buddhism (what is the sound of one hand
clapping?), but making any kind of sense of this game proved
difficult.


I studied the 'Journal of MYST', another slim booklet included
with the game. This one contained ONE page of text, repeated in
three languages, and a whole lot of blank pages with which you are
supposed to make notes. 'Are you feeling MYSTIFIED?' asked the
book, 'You need unswerving devotion, use your eyes, ears and
wits!' 'Every scrap of evidence no matter how insignificant,
words, pictures, patterns, all such shards may be your best hope
to uncovering the secret!'

Erm, sorry, no, no, NO! A murder mystery I can appreciate. At
least you know that someone has been murdered, maybe even how they
died, and you have to find out who dunnit. ie SOMETHING has
happened! In MYST I haven't a clue about anything! I find myself
stuck in a dream where staring at the wall appears to be about as
meaningful as any other activity. I have no reason to think that
there actually IS a secret which needs uncovering! Nor have I any
idea as to whether a clue is staring me in the face, or not. "Hey,
there's nothing happening.  Is that a clue?" There should be some
kind of difference between what is a 'mystery' and what is a

'void'. If there is a mystery, well maybe it's 'Why did I buy this
game?'

The images on screen appeared highly commendable, attractive and
well designed, even if they are only available in 256 colours
(it's an old game). So it's good looking and it 'plays' well (no
bugs, etc), but you're the only person in this world.  Nobody to
shoot, nobody to talk to and no clues as to what you ought to be
doing, or not doing as the case may be. I can't help getting the
feeling, there's nothing to do really. There's a limit to the
number of times you can zoom up and down the island before you get
bored out of your skull. Hey, I've just come across another
snippet in the 'manual'; apparently the game was deliberately
designed to have no extraneous distractions on screen which might
interfere with your feeling of being in another world (or of being
in a bad dream; or to help you make any kind of sense of it
either!) That sounds to me rather like an excuse for not bothering
to put all sorts of useful, helpful elements into the game, which
might have made it fun to play.  "And MYST isn't flat, linear or

shallow!" proudly proclaims the blurb. For 'not flat, linear or
shallow' just read 'Weird'!

Thoughts along the lines of "Eh?" and "What the ****!" buzz
through my head and I have to admit to being puzzled as to just
what this darned game is about. Have I tried really, really hard
to uncover the mystery? No way!

If I was convinced that there was some mystery to uncover, I
might, but this world keeps its secrets pretty close to its chest.
So close in fact, that I really can't stop and look for something
which apparently isn't there! I've yet to be convinced that there
is any mystery. If there is one, I'm sure it's something pretty
terrific, probably (who knows?) and is just waiting to be
discovered in there somewhere. And you know, I think it's going to
stay hidden as far as my computer is concerned.

If you are the kind of person who is seduced by the promise that
there's a big mystery to be solved, even thought there's no sign
of it, then give Myst a try. For me, I need a lot more building
into a 'world', all of which will hang on the solving of such a
puzzle. Can I bang my head against the wall for thirty minutes for
no good reason at all? Well, probably, but I'm not going to,
unless you give me a good reason. Myst doesn't give you reasons.

For sale, one copy of MYST absolute bargain œ2, several careful
owners, in excellent condition. (The game, not the previous
owners!) Will accept a jam sandwich and a first class stamp if you
haggle.

Rating: When the dark men of winter stare through the new spring
shadows, grieving over the fat moon of returns, my hovercraft will
be full of eels! (purple)






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