When I got my first PC as a Christmas present, I needed to learn every possible thing I could about it. I took it apart, put it back together, and spent an unhealthy amount of time crawling through the file system. I knew everything about that machine. When the power supply failed and my parents gave it to my uncle to fix, I spoiled a birthday present because I found CD-ROM drivers that weren't there when it left.
This level of obsession is where I was at in life when I found Myst on sale at local shop. I didn't have a lot of games, but it looked so pretty and the box said it was all about puzzles so I was extremely ready for this experience.
I have played Myst more times than I have bothered to count. I own it on PC, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and I keep it in my pocket thanks to the release for Android. As much as I love the other games in this series, I always find myself coming back to this little puzzle island when I want to relax. And now that I can also play Myst on Oculus Quest, I can put my virtual hand on a linking book and be transported into the virtual worlds of this incredible classic.
There's not much else to say about this. It's Myst and it's in VR. The game has been tweaked slightly to support waving your hands around to solve the puzzles — for example, the machine you use to interact with the clocktower is slightly modified — but the puzzles themselves haven't changed much. You can choose ro randomize the puzzles at the start of the game, but otherwise it's the Myst you either know and love or have never heard of before.
Be default, Myst in VR is teleport-based for movement and most of the environment looks like a lot of work into making it feel good in VR. Some of the effects, like leaves on the trees and water droplets, are not overly convincing 2D shapes in a 3D environment and break the illusion, but the port to VR is otherwise well done. This very much feels like a port, and not a total remake of Myst, right down to being able to beat the game in about five minutes if you remember all of the puzzles.
If I had to pick a single thing that could've been done to push the envelope on this experience, it would have been hand tracking. This is supposed to be Myst, built from the ground up with Oculus Quest in mind. How epic would it be to reach out with my actual unencumbered hand to throw a switch or put the missing page in Atrus' book? It's likely the experience would be difficult to make as smooth as what we have with the controllers, but it would've dramatically increased how real it all felt and made the VR edition feel more unique.
Myst will always have a special place in my heart, and experiencing it in VR is something I wanted before I knew VR was a real thing. If you don't have a Quest, Myst 2D for PC will be released soon and will also support multiple VR headsets. Here's hoping this release is successful enough to help pay for a VR version of Riven. Mine Cart Ride in VR? Yes please.
If you know, you know.
Being able to experience this magical puzzle island in VR is going to make a lot of 30 and 40-somethings very happy, hopefully happy enough to fun some of the sequel games in VR as well.
