simX
Unofficial Mac Genius
So I went down to the Apple Store in Palo Alto today, and got myself a copy of realMyst. I saw the whole website and it looked really awesome, and since I've bought Myst Original, Riven, and Myst III: Exile, I thought I'd complete the collection with realMyst (yes, I know there's Myst Masterpiece Edition).
It was kind of disappointing at first. I knew most of the Myst puzzles, so it went pretty fast (although in all seriousness, it took about 5 hours to complete the game even with all my knowledge). There were also a couple of annoying aspects about it: 1) completely locked up OS X when I ran it, so I booted into OS 9 to play, 2) was really slow on my setup at 1024x768 full quality, so I put it down to 800x600 full quality, 3) the graphics weren't nearly as good as I expected in some cases I actually prefer Myst original to realMyst, and 4) it was all familiar and no real new puzzles.
At the end, you are given Myst to explore, of course. But when you come out, there's a book lying in the library, that tells you how to get to the new age of Rime. It's actually pretty cool, when described in the books, and when you get there, it's a fresh, new age. There's like three or four simple puzzles, and some cool effects.
It was weird, though. The graphics weren't stunning, and the Age was pretty easy to "finish", although, like Myst Original, there's no real ending even though you know when you've finished all the puzzles in the Age. But looking at the last finished puzzle, I got this weird feeling just sitting there. It was like a combination of satisfaction of completing the game, fascination at the new age, awesomeness from the concept of the new age and what you read from the books, nostalgia from the fact that you just re-completed a Classic Mac game, and even slight disappointment from the game itself (although this is not by any means the overriding emotion) then the music just completed the feeling. The Myst theme music was there a little bit, but all of the music was peaceful, relaxing, and fitting to the age. It was.... interesting, to say the least I've never really felt that strange mix of emotions before, except sometimes when I watch Star Trek or something and think about space and the universe, and what it would be like to see Earth from space.
I kinda thought I'd share that. Have any of you played it and had the same feeling? Kind of bizarre when I try to talk about it.
I did notice one little thing in the game, though, that I also had a question about. I couldn't for the life of me find the red page in the Selentic age! That's the one where you go through the rocket ship. Anyone with good memories remember where the red page was in the original Myst, so I can go back and try to find it in realMyst? I seem to remember that it was near the fire chasm. Yes, I know you're not supposed to give the red page to the guy, but I just thought it was funny that there WAS no red page incidentally, you can still be caught in the book by Sirrus... the game just ignores the fact that you never brought that red page.
Oh, one last question what was the bonus age that was included with Myst Masterpiece Edition? If there was an extra one that was different from realMyst, I should probably snag a copy of that too.
It was kind of disappointing at first. I knew most of the Myst puzzles, so it went pretty fast (although in all seriousness, it took about 5 hours to complete the game even with all my knowledge). There were also a couple of annoying aspects about it: 1) completely locked up OS X when I ran it, so I booted into OS 9 to play, 2) was really slow on my setup at 1024x768 full quality, so I put it down to 800x600 full quality, 3) the graphics weren't nearly as good as I expected in some cases I actually prefer Myst original to realMyst, and 4) it was all familiar and no real new puzzles.
At the end, you are given Myst to explore, of course. But when you come out, there's a book lying in the library, that tells you how to get to the new age of Rime. It's actually pretty cool, when described in the books, and when you get there, it's a fresh, new age. There's like three or four simple puzzles, and some cool effects.
It was weird, though. The graphics weren't stunning, and the Age was pretty easy to "finish", although, like Myst Original, there's no real ending even though you know when you've finished all the puzzles in the Age. But looking at the last finished puzzle, I got this weird feeling just sitting there. It was like a combination of satisfaction of completing the game, fascination at the new age, awesomeness from the concept of the new age and what you read from the books, nostalgia from the fact that you just re-completed a Classic Mac game, and even slight disappointment from the game itself (although this is not by any means the overriding emotion) then the music just completed the feeling. The Myst theme music was there a little bit, but all of the music was peaceful, relaxing, and fitting to the age. It was.... interesting, to say the least I've never really felt that strange mix of emotions before, except sometimes when I watch Star Trek or something and think about space and the universe, and what it would be like to see Earth from space.
I kinda thought I'd share that. Have any of you played it and had the same feeling? Kind of bizarre when I try to talk about it.
I did notice one little thing in the game, though, that I also had a question about. I couldn't for the life of me find the red page in the Selentic age! That's the one where you go through the rocket ship. Anyone with good memories remember where the red page was in the original Myst, so I can go back and try to find it in realMyst? I seem to remember that it was near the fire chasm. Yes, I know you're not supposed to give the red page to the guy, but I just thought it was funny that there WAS no red page incidentally, you can still be caught in the book by Sirrus... the game just ignores the fact that you never brought that red page.
Oh, one last question what was the bonus age that was included with Myst Masterpiece Edition? If there was an extra one that was different from realMyst, I should probably snag a copy of that too.
