$34.99Myst A Silent Island Full of Secrets
Solve quiet puzzles across strange worlds and uncover a family's story, with several endings waiting on your choices.
Is Myst worth it?
Myst is worth it if…
- you like puzzles that ask you to observe, take notes and think rather than react
- you enjoy exploring strange, beautiful worlds at your own unhurried pace
- you want a story that unfolds through clues instead of cutscenes
- you have a long attention span and don't mind figuring things out on your own
- you want to see Myst Island in VR, or in modern 3D on a flat screen
Screenshots
An island that keeps its secrets
You arrive on Myst Island alone. There is no one to greet you, no quest log, no arrow pointing where to go. Just a library, a dock, a rocket ship, and a lot of locked doors.
The game trusts you to look closely. Notes, symbols and odd machines are scattered around, and the ones that seem useless at first tend to matter later. When you find a linking book and travel to another Age, a new world opens up with its own puzzles and its own story of what went wrong there.
It is a slow, quiet way to explore, and that is the point. You can photograph anything you come across in-game, so your notebook stays empty and your camera roll fills up with clues.
Puzzles that reward paying attention
The puzzles here are not separate mini-games: they are built into the world. You might route water through channels to power a lift, match symbols on a safe, or find constellations in a planetarium. Some have a brute-force answer, like trying combinations on a lock, but there is almost always a cleverer way if you have been reading what the island tells you.
Nothing punishes you for thinking. There are no timers and no way to lose, so you can sit with a puzzle as long as you like. If you have played Myst before, optional puzzle randomization changes the solutions, so the old answers will not save you.
Fair warning: the game never holds your hand. Some puzzles are obtuse, and reading the notes you find carefully saves a lot of wandering.
A story of family betrayal
At first it looks like there is barely a story at all. Then you find the red and blue pages, and the two brothers trapped in the library books start telling you their sides of what happened on the island.
Atrus and his sons Sirrus and Achenar each blame the others, and the truth comes together slowly, through the pages you collect and the evidence you find in their rooms. What you learn is not just backstory: the ending has not been written yet, and you are the one holding the pen. Whom you give the pages to decides how it all turns out.
The characters appear as 3D figures now, and if you prefer the original filmed performances, a setting lets you switch back to them.
Do you need a VR headset to play?
Do you need a VR headset to play Myst?
No. Myst was built from the ground up for both VR and regular flat screens, and it plays well either way. In VR there are comfort options like snap turning and quick travel up stairs and ladders, so you can adjust it to what feels good.
Can you lose or mess up your save?
There are no timers and no fail states, so you cannot lose by thinking slowly. Your choices near the end decide which ending you get, and there are several, so a second run can play out differently, especially with puzzle randomization turned on.
