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Realistic !

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: November 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

realMyst - A Dream Come True

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: December 13, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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!!!

Disappointing if it doesn't run on your machine

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 22 / 23
Date: December 16, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I loved Myst and Riven. I was ready to love realMYST but it won't run on my brand new Pentium III system since I don't have the right accelerator card. I talked with Mattel (the real publishers) and they say that it won't run on MOST systems since it requires a high end processor AND a specific graphics.

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT GRAPHICS CARD or it's useless.

Sigh, now I have to find a way to return an opened software package...

Not everyone wants an adrenaline rush...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: November 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I take exception to the professional reviewers comments about Myst in general, though it is true that to run realMyst you DO have to have a monster system...fortunately, I just bought one recently.

If Myst were such a dog of a game, as the reviewer says, why has it been a top seller for SEVEN YEARS??!! Obviously, he is one of those blood-n-guts, X-treme violence, action-oriented, adrenaline pumping game fans. I do not feel that all computer games have to be of this genre, and obviously I am in good company.

Yes, I'm a Myst junkie, but my first experience at gaming was a gentle game called Loom, by Lucas. The puzzles, though simple, sometimes took a long time to figure out, but I appreciated not dying during the game, and being able to try and try again. Myst is a much better game, of course, but some of us just like our gaming to be cerebral and slow-paced, rather than having to keep shooting and try to figure out how to survive on the run.

Oh, yes, I am eagerly awaiting Myst III: Exile...

Almost Perfect...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: November 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

Real Myst: Still fun but hard on the stomach

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 12
Date: December 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

realMYST- some caveats

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 37 / 60
Date: November 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Though I'm impressed with the amount of care and love that has gone into this redux of MYST, there are some negative things worth mentioning. All these points are based on my own observations from the free demo of the Stoneship Age that was released just prior to the actual game:

a) The system requirements are prohibitively high. Also, even patched, there were a lot of crashes and freeze-ups in the game. This might get fixed by the release date.

b) For all the excitement about the new graphics, the 3-D environment here is still just textures over polygons. If there is groundbreaking new technology at work here, I cannot perceive it. Anyone familiar with Quake II is going to recognise the engine style of this game. The graphics are on a par with current games such as Everquest and the like, but they are a far cry from the stunning visuals of the original.

c) Original MYSTies may find the new interface awkward - it is difficult to steer yourself around.

The original game was a true quantum leap forward in the Gaming industry, and perhaps that's why my own expectations were so high, but I cannot help but feel that Cyan took a big step backwards with this one. They have taken a product that was groundbreakingly original and made it merely ordinary. Sorry folks, only three stars today.

Fi

Beautiful Nostalgia

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: December 31, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The first thing that should concern you before you buy this game is whether your system can handle running this game. I have an Athlon 800 mhz, 128 megs of ram and a Voodoo 5 and realMYST runs well with these specs, though it's noticeably choppy outdoors. That aside this game should stun you with it's depth. If you remember how it felt to see the original MYST for the first time, I'm telling you that you can have that and more with this new release. I recommend this game on mood and characterization alone because now that I'm older I find the puzzle aspect of the game too simple. A minor complaint would be that you can't reverse the mouse control, but you'll get over that quick.

IT'S GREEEEEEEEEAAAAAT!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: May 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Absolutely breathtaking, yet not perfect

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: December 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I got Myst quite a while ago when it seemed to have first come out, so while I haven't played it in a long time, I do remember how astonished I was the first time I played it. Never had I encountered an adult game involving problem solving and reasoning, so maybe that it why I was so fascinated. The animations were breathtaking, and the plot intriguing.

I, however, was young :) lol, and could usually not play the game alone w/out getting scared. The world is very lonely w/out any contact to anyone else like other games where you can talk to people.

I will say, it was great fun traveling through the worlds taking notes on the two brother's rooms, trying to decide which brother was the "good" brother, and which the "bad" (let me note that sometimes the obvious isn't always right). I do recommend if you get this game, you plan on spending some time working to solve the puzzles, and to keep a journal and jot down everything you see. It makes it so much more fun.

Also, I beg of you not to cheat and look for help from someone or from a hint book! I, my cousins, and my aunts, all did this, and afterwards GREATLY regretted not solving it on our own. :)

My one major gripe, however, is that the end was a bit disappointing, and I remember reaching it and going, "What!? That's it? Now what do I do??" I would also suggest that you not buy this for anyone under the age of 11, as I've noticed that my younger cousins had no attention span to sit and think about the puzzles.

Overall, I would definitely recommend getting Myst, and the sequel, Riven. But take advantage of Myst being on one CD while you can, b/c I found it quite annoying when in Riven you have to go back and forth switching the five CDs. Hope I helped! :) -- On a last note, just incase anyone was wondering, I'm 15.

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