Myst, Aura, Sentinel, Schizm etc.
 

How many have played these games (and those alike). What did you think about them? I still have Sentinel waiting in my bookcase and I still havent finished Schizm DVD.
Also, for those living in Sweden, Tradera has Schizm out for less than €6.

Hm... I don't see how Voyage, Blackstone Chronicles and Post Mortem could be classified as Myst-clones at all. I'm not too sure about Amber and Amerzone, either.

I'm probably over generalising, but I was bored and wanted to have more poll options :P

Damn!! Beat me to it! Was going to post the same thing....

I've played all the games in the Myst series and Aura. Sentinel is halfway finished. It's not possible to do multiple choices in this poll though.
Aura (as I know I've said before) hasn't much of a story, but easy puzzles (most of them anyway) and great music and stunning graphics.
Sentinel is a lot more difficult imho, is has really challenging puzzles where you really need to take notes and draw maps if you're going to solve them. Not much of a story there either sadly.

I say Riven, by far. Although I haven't played all the games on this list, I have played all the games in the Myst series. I found the follow-ups to be very good but lacking in the Riven mystic which is: art, plot, actors, puzzles, and music perfectly integrated to create a world that FELT real.

I also tried playing Aura which is much like Schizm. These are two rare games that I couldn't bother to finish. They have some beautiful scenes but the story lines are thin, the puzzles too frequent and random to the plot, and the opportunities to explore consistantly blocked so you couldn't feel the adventure.

I hate myst games...

i've only played riven on the list (and myst), and currently playing exile. but had to vote riven. :7

enwsiths, don't get angry with something you don't understand. ;)

I want to give Schizm another try, but the lack of subtitles made the cutscenes very hard for me to understand and thus the clues hard to get. The "gas collector"-puzzle for instance was a nightmare for me to solve. I have the DVD-version and no idea how to turn subtitles on.

Myst V is probably my personal favourite out of all these kind of games.

I still love realMyst up to this day. 'Cept that's not a Myst clone.

Which ones have you played?

Riven is one of the few games I consider to be perfect.

So, it gets my vote.

I also think Riven is a superb game, but I felt Revelation was more involved. I had a lot of fun with Riven, but even more so with Revelation so my vote is on Revelation. Spire was AWESOME!

I have not yet had the chance to play the last two games.

From what I have seen Revelation looks pretty good though. I just felt out of every game I have ever played, Riven made the most sense. Everything fit together perfectly.

I love revelation. Just wish I had the time to play it properly and get further. Oh well... I own Riven but haven't played it, and wont until I complete Revelation, then I'm going to go through the whole Myst series 1-5.

To be honest, I don't like many 1st persons. They have so little story (although I'm hoping Post Mortem will have, I'mma get that as soon as I get into the mood of playing Still Life again.

Amerzone was ok, but again, such little plot and some shoddy graphics put me off a bit.

But the one thing I hate most about 1st persons is having to read countless books, often in handwriting that I can't understand. At least some game companies have taken the hint and have V.O.s to read out the lettering, making it less tiresome. How can someone relax when having to squint their eyes to understand so much literacy?

Anyway, thanks for the pole. Reminds me I really gotta get a whole day off from one of my work places and get back to Revelation.

I hate Myst games as well. figuring out how ancient alien machinery works in order to solve some puzzle that I didn't know needed solving, or with little or no sense of a goal or plot, isn't my idea of fun.

Although I did like Zork: Nemesis for some reason, so I voted "Other".

I voted for Exile. There was more of a fun factor in it and the puzzles felt more comprehensible. And the soundtrack was tremendous.

I've also played Myst, realMyst, Riven, and Uru. I have Revelation and End of Ages, but I haven't touched Revelation in 10 months. I finished Haven with it's lowsy controls, but then after getting to Spire and looking around, I found it extremely daunting and haven't ran the game since.

For me, it's a toss up between Journeyman 2: Buried in Time, and Shivers. Those were my favourite 'almost no interaction first person puzzle mystery' adventures.

Riven would get my vote even if the poll was about the best video/computer game ever... Simply perfect.

The worst on that list is Post Mortem. It tells a decent story and has nice graphics but the rest, especially the puzzles and dialouge system, is just a mess. Not really sure it should be called a Myst clone at all though, since the gameplay in PM is very much focused on talking to other characters.

I went with Riven too, even though Blackstone CHronicles was really really great, nice gripping story and fresh puzzles.

I just don't like Myst-like games. Many people seem to like them, but I don't. I surely don't consider them to be fun in anyway. :)

The only games that I've played from that genre are Lighthouse and 11th hour.

Which may explain why you don't like them. You ought to give a chance to the good ones one day. ;)

I think Voyage fits the category rather nicely. Post Mortem and The Blackstone Chronicles however I agree, don't really see them as Myst-clones. Might fit the list better: Rama, Timelapse, Zork: Nemesis, Reah, etc.

But anyway, from this list I'd pick Voyage. I'm currently playing it and enjoying it tremendously! What a wonderful game! Much better than any of the Myst games really which, from the ones I played, I never really liked that much.



Really? Must say I actually liked Lighthouse. Gotta agree on 11th Hour though, that was pretty crappy. The 7th Guest then again was ok, but Shivers did a much better job in the haunted-house-filled-with-puzzles department.

Hehe, agree with you on that!

I think the emphasis on the inventory is far too great for it to be considered a Myst-clone.

(But whatever it is, I agree with you that it's a wonderful game. :) )

Ah, that's true, didn't really think of that part. Must have been too long since I played a real Myst-clone. ;)

The lonely world, emphasis on (and fun of) exploring a strange world, some mechanical, code and symbol puzzles, 1st person perspective, etc, was what made me consider it as a Myst-like game. Doesn't really matter idd, enjoying every minute of this game! :7

Voyage looks and sounds great. I gather it's inspired by a classic. For some reason, I've never wanted to buy a game that is a take-off on a well-known book or movie. I guess that is one of the many reasons I love Riven ... it's so uniquely original.

Voyage (and Return to Mysterious Island by the same company) were inspired by Jules Verne stories but they don't follow the stories faithfully. I haven't read either but I really enjoyed both games.

Mysterious Journey (in the poll) should of course be Return to Mysterious Island :frusty:

I realize that my definition of Myst-clone is far more loose than everyone elses. To me a Myst clone is basically a first person point and click adventure with puzzles here and there.

Myst-clones imo shouldn't have any inventory and Return to Mysterious Island is the most inventory heavy game I've ever seen.

Yeah, when I think Myst-clone, I consider it a game with a puzzle-filled, character-empty world. Not a lot of world/character interactivity, but pretty to look at. And a story that is secondary to the puzzles, if any real story development at all. The only "Myst-Style" games I liked were the 2 Shivers games and Zork: Nemesis, although those settings never felt as devoid of life as Myst did. I don't know, I just never enjoyed puzzles as much as plot development, and so many of this type of game end up being verrrrry puzzle-dependent.

Yes, I'd say Mysterious Journey (aka Schizm) should stay as a poll option, even if MdaG originally meant RtMI. :D

Therein lies the problem with generalizing as 1st person vs. 3rd person. To some, if they hear first person game, they automatically think of Myst when there are a wide variety of first person games with varying degrees of character interaction, story, puzzle types, etc.

I don't really want to give those games a chance, because I really, really don't like the Myst™ puzzles and gameplay, sorry.

then why are you even in this thread posting? the poll mentions "most fun".

...and the thread starter asks "What did you think about them?". Come on, Kolzig said nothing in the least inflammatory, and was clearly just presenting his own opinion.

In fact, for a thread that has "Myst" in the title, we are doing great as far as flamewars are considered. :D

"The Mysterious island" is a wonderful book witch I recommend to everyone. Survival novel, society critisism, character relations, it really drags you in.

"50 leagues under the sea" witch I think it's called, but not sure, is also very good, but how you read it is based heavily on what political views and meanings you have. I know that I've interpetated the book totally different than ppl. who really like this world..

Shivers.

Isn't Voyage inspired by Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon? (not entirely sure about the title either)