realMYST

Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect...
Review: I like the Myst Universe. While it is arguably more visual flourish than a deep story, the Myst universe has the abiltiy to pull you in. This suspension of disbelief is intensified by removing the jarring still frames of a slide show and opening up to full 4-D freedom. Graphically, RealMyst is gorgeous: real-time lighting effects, atmospheric shifts from night to day, birds and frogs moving about. While the geometry is slightly simplified from the original, the retexturing with more realistic materials more than makes up for it. Sound is more well done than the graphics. In the Channelwood Age, there are three distinct levels of ambient sound. On the ground, water gurgles and frogs croak. As you ascend to the trees, wind begins to blow, leaves rustle, and birds chirp. Music fades in at appropriate moments to accentuate discoveries and set the mood. Graphics and sound almost are the gameplay, but those two aspects are supplemented by intuitive puzzles. If you have never played Myst, this is a definite buy. If you have played Myst before, even years ago, you may find yourself finishing too quickly. By today's standards, RealMyst is a short game. If you are quick-witted or have some recollection of the original game, you can finish this is a few hours. Once the game has been played through, there is nothing left to brig you back.

Rating:
Summary: RealMyst like a pop-up version of a picture book...
Review: Real Myst was made by Mattel Media in place of Cyan, the original company. The graphics and textures are reduced and more pixelated from the original Myst. The navigation system gave me an alternate headache/near motion sickness (Bonamine, where are you?!?). The only true redeeming feature in my estimation was the realtime weather on Myst and the Stoneship age. You can sit and watch dawn turn to day, dusk and then night, watch the fog roll in from the sea and the sun slowly sink behind the watery horizon. Other than that it was the same old Myst, only with more freedom of movement.

I preferred Myst III: Exile as the graphics were far more detailled and the 360-degree navigation was easier on my eyes than the 3D keyboard-driven controls of RealMyst. One other feature that made the game worthwhile was the new age at the end of the game. This age was short, true, but drastically unlike any Myst age seen before or after (including in the new game Myst Exile). Diehard fans of Myst will want to check this out, but the system requirements are high for what this is, and it will run very slowly on older systems providing your 3D graphics card will support it. IMHO I would recommend buying the new Myst: Exile in place of RealMyst. There are five new ages to explore in Exile, only one very short age in RealMyst. Think of RealMyst as a pop-up book remade from a picture book.

Rating:
Summary: realMyst
Review: Not as good as the other two, but definitely worth playing. The Rime age is AMAZING. It makes the whole thing worth playing. The Selenetic Age is another of my favorites. I was also a little disappointed because almost nothing happens at the end, but, thank goodness, there's a sequel. VERY nice graphics.

Rating:
Summary: realMyst - A Dream Come True
Review: Back when the original Myst came out the two gripes I had were that 1) It was just a slide show and 2) It was stuck at 640 X 480. I realized that the systems at the time could not handle a full motion 3D version and it would look like crap if they could. What you have here is basically the same game in full 3D with user-definable resolution/bit depths up to 1920 x 1440, 32 bit color. You should see this game at 1920 x 1440 with 32 bit, uncompressed textures and full-screen anti-aliasing. Every frame is like a high-res calendar print! I have a PIII 533 EB with 256 MB of RAM and the ATI Radeon 64MB DDR video card. Please understand that the makers of this game were not concerned about performance issues; they just wanted to make it look as good as possible - hence there probably is not a machine in existence today that can run it at 1920 x 1440 32bit and get 60 frames per second. My machine gets about 5 fps in outdoor scenes and upwards of 30 indoors. This is with all the settings maxed out. Lower resolutions don't seem to help. I think it's because of the animated textures. Both the sky and water are full motion animated textures. When you just sit and look at them they go at at least 30fps. When I first got it I just sat on the beach and watched the clouds go by and the waves lap against the sand. I was then shocked to eventually see the sun go down with a gorgeous sunset and stars starting to peep out, and eventually night fell with a sky full of winking stars which were periodically obfuscated by the passing clouds. As far as 3D graphics are concerned, Unreal Tournament is no comparison. These are flat out the best 3D graphics of any game ever. The mouse movement was not a problem. I don't know what some of the other reviewers are talking about. I have played many 3D games extensively and had no problems whatsoever adapting to the interface. If anything it's easier than the original version. Buy this game now!!!

Rating:
Summary: realMyst
Review: This third version of Myst is better than the first two by far, because of the graphics, sound, and added world. The graphics are advertised as 3-D, but I think that the graphics are more 4-D, because the time of day changes and everything gets darker periodically. The added world helps explain more about the sequel, Riven, and is shorter than the other original worlds, though still fun. This game is so realistic, I really felt as though I were in the game. The cons are the price and the system requirements. It requires something like 700 MB of disk space, and super graphics cards. Even on my billion-hertz processor, this game is sluggish, but it's really worth it when you play it. You can move around like in a video game, not a choppy-screen thing. It has no violence or swearing in it (though it does have an intense story), but rather requires thinking, unlike many of todays bloody gunfights.

Rating:
Summary: Real Myst: Still fun but hard on the stomach
Review: While RealMyst offers fans a lot of what they have always wanted, it does have it's limits. The good parts are that you do get to move around in a more realistic world, and the birds, fish, rolling waves, animals and addition of night to day are really quite beautiful. There are the added benefits of what brought Myst fans to near cultlike adoration: it is a relaxing, soothing game that has wonderful music and allows the player to really feel that he/she is entering another land. It still has that appeal and that's what makes it fun.

The bad part is that anyone with any sensitivies (like myself) to motion are going to have to be very careful. Within 10 minutes of starting the game, the movement got the better of me and motion sickness set in. The movement is "real" in the computer sense but in computer movement, there is no such thing as a "steady cam". So any movement of the mouse produces a lot of "yaw" and "pitch". The playing screen fills the monitor field and there is no way to adjust it and put a border around it to allow your brain to orient itself. Careful, slow clicking and movement will allow you to play the game with the drawback of making it a VERY slow process. But for those who would like to experience amore realistic Myst, it is worth the money and time and with exposure, anyone who is sensitive can build up a tolerance.

Rating:
Summary: IT'S GREEEEEEEEEAAAAAT!!!!
Review: I thought that this game was excellent. The graphics are much better than the original version of the game and I really liked the changes in the music score. It was great to be able to play the game again after all these years (the original version won't play properly on my new computer equipment). The only problem that I had was that manuevering through that game was loose and sloppy (sort of like when the steering of a car is going caput). But the realMYST 1.1.1 update patch that I downloaded fixed it up quite well. I see that some people are complaining that it looks quite dark in places but all you have to do is adjust the settings on your monitor to fix this problem. I found it much easier to figure out where I was because of the realistic movement rather than the abrupt view changes in the original. And the puzzles in Rime Age just rock! All in all I would say that if you liked playing the original version of MYST, and you are itching to relive the experience; then this game is for you. And it is a good way to brush up your MYST skills in time for playing MYST III.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not as good as the other 2
Review: I started the Myst games with Exile, and worked my way down to Myst, Real Myst.
I won't tell you the story, (you've probably heard it from all the other reviews anyway) because discovering the story, and whats going on is half the fun!
But i have to tell you that i love, and i mean love Riven and Exile, and i thought that RealMyst would be awesome, but i couldn't help but be dissapointed. Its not the full 3d format, some people would call that annoying, but i don't think its that bad, but its just that the ages aren't half as incredible as in Riven and Exile, and the game in general is just not as good as the sequels. Maybe its just because i basicaly knew the storyline before i played it. But whatever it was i just didn't find it as good as the others.
And by the way to returning Myst fans, the new Rime age is a big dissapointment, its so small!
Anyway, its worth the price, but just letting you know that its not all that.
And if you haven't played a myst game DON'T READ THE STORYLINE! Discovering the story detective like is half the fun. And that goes for all myst games.

Rating:
Summary: Realistic !
Review: Myst, the game that sold over 5 million copies worldwide and is still considered one of the most popular games around. Imagine yourself stranded on a deserted island and in order to get out of the island, you have no choice but to explore the island. In the process of doing that, you discover the dark secret of the island...

In the original Myst game, in order to get around the beautiful surrealistic landscape, it was just a simple mouse click on the static 2D image. To move left, you click on the left of the screen, to move right, you click to the right of the screen and so on. It was like watching a slideshow. In RealMyst, the new version of Myst, all this has changed.

Myst was just like real life. You will never die and you have to solve many cleverly designed puzzles that are scattered all over the island. The puzzles are fun, but can be frustrating at times. And the fact that you can never die is actually a plus point, it takes out the frustration of solving the puzzles.

In RealMyst, the storyline is the same however, there is a new ending, which is actually a bonus stage that was not included in the original Myst. Everything in RealMyst is in 3D and real time. Unlike most 3D games, the textures of RealMyst are strikingly realistic. RealMyst also features real time, that means that night will turn into day and there will be weather changes. All these new features and the freedom to move around and look in any direction that you wish,will fully immerse you into the rich and surrealistic world of Myst.

RealMyst could have been better if not for the steep system requiremnts. Even on the the fastest computers, it runs slow.

Overall, RealMyst is a game worth playing but if you are looking for something fast and exciting, this is not the game for you.

Rating:
Summary: A nice way to revisit MYST.
Review: You can see all of the other reviews for the details. What I'll tell you is that if you didn't like MYST, there is no reason realMYST will change your mind. Despite a SERIOUS makeover, it's the same game.
realMYST is for those of us who liked the original and want to revisit the game in a new way. The original Myst runs terribly on my newer machine. So even when I feel like playing it, even if to only walk around on the islands, it becoms a pain.
This new version runs great. So if you have a machine that can handle it (by now you prob. do)and liked MYST, I would suggest you get this game .