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Myst At Its Best
I got most of the way through this game before giving up on it. I had no trouble installing it, and loved the beautiful graphics and sounds (much better than Uru). But, after a while, I realized that the puzzles were just no fun. Too many of them involved getting the timing right and persnickity mouse movements (I quit the game after a couple of hours of trying to carry a bubble to an elemental guide who might or might not be present). Others were so clever that only after you solved them could you figure out the clues that should have helped you. And, I don't even want to talk about the small, blurry, cursive alien language writing recognition problem in Yeesha's bookshelf). There's also my dissatisfaction with the finales on the two "prison" worlds. Basically, you solve everything, get an animated ride, and then wonder what that was all about. After the first one, I actually had to visit a hint site to confirm that I'd done everything and it was time to move on. It's not at the level of the original Myst's ending, but it's on the same path. To my shame, I even had problems with the lack of direction in the game. Essentially, at every stage, you have a mind-numbing number of alternative paths with no guidance on which you should do first. I also had trouble keeping track of where I was, physically, in the worlds: Tomahna and Spire were OK, but Haven (vague, twisty paths in look-alike jungle) and Serenia (nice paths, but twisty enough that even backtracking doesn't take you back where you thought you were) were impossible.
I don't understand why the people who make these Myst games keep going astray. There's no place in Myst games for timing problems or mouse movement problems. If it weren't for those, I probably would have finished the game. But, as it is, it's just more trouble than it's worth. Overall, I give it 2 stars out of 5.
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