I know Myst only by reputation and screenshots. I have never played it.
Nevertheless, I can offer at least one other game that seems to be similar: Douglas Adams’ Starship Titanic (which I have played).
PROS: Adams’ style of humor (e.g. Hitckhiker’s Guide the Galaxy etc.) is evident in some of the premises and interactions with the robots that power the ship. The graphics are quite striking, and appear to be similar in style to those I’ve seen in Myst screenshots. And the gameplay is apparently similar as well-- wander around a giant, mostly empty world trying to figure out precisely what it is you’re supposed to be doing.
CONS: Um… the game is about as boring as one-legged men having an ass-kicking contest. I’m an action gamer, and bought ST only because of the Adams connection. I got bored wandering around an empty world without direction or a clear purpose (or anyone to kill). I also found that the various puzzles were non- or even counter-intuitive and thus, absurdly difficlt, but then again, I’m not much of an adventure gamer.
If Myst is your kind of game and you dig Adams-style humor, give ST a try. It’s an older game now, so you can probably pick it up cheap-- probably $10 or less on eBay.
Played and loved Myst… recently started in on Riven. I also have Amber and Gabriel Knight. I got the latter two at the same time and found the Gabriel Knight game more appealing than Amber so far, but haven’t put more than an hour into Amber to be fair.
My biggest problem is finding the time to noodle with these games. I wish I had more free time! By the time I get back “into” where I left off last time, one of the kids comes in and wants to play one of their games. Oh well, guess you can’t be a dad and a kid at the same time.
You’d recommend King’s Quest? Personally, I have a hard time liking a game that would allow you to use up (accidently or not) a vital resource without a word of warning and not allow you to get a replacement. After starting over from scratch twice, I finally gave up.
Monkey Island was such a great game though. Also, I remember playing Hitchhiker’s on my cousin’s computer about 10 years ago. That was a fun game. Well, up until the point I couldn’t pass. I was wandering around the ship and Marvin was there blocking a door. He wouldn’t let me through. I tried every verb I knew to make him move, but he just sat there in a depressive funk.
Anyone ever played Tangled Tales? You were this apprentice wizard and travelled through worlds meeting fairytale characters, surfers, bakers, farmers, and you had to solve these mysteries. I think there was a glitch in the programming because one level always screwed up on three different versions (I returned it twice). Anyway, it was a really fun game.
Anyway, I’m glad I saw this thread. I have a $40 gift certificate to Best Buy so I’m really looking for a fun game to try.
Heck, Hitchhiker’s would stick you without saying anything in the same way King’s Quest did. Can you say “atomic vector plotter”? Marvin never blocked any door, as far as I can remember. There was the door to Marvin’s room that had quite the attitude problem, though.
That said, you’re right, getting dead ended like that isn’t great, which is why I do prefer the LucasArts style (and humor).
I second Grim Fandango and Lighthouse. The Grim Fandango was a riot. I highly recommend it. Lighthouse is more similar to Myst. (I didn’t finish either of these (yet), but I am glad to hear that a walk-though of Lighthouse is suggested and that I’m not just dense.)
If you like RPGs the best one has to be Planescape: Torment. Played like a good book. So many different ways to play. Interesting characters, leaves the Tolkien inspired setting. (not that there is anything wrong with that setting)
Another awesome game is Deus Ex. PLays like a book, also. Maybe the best storyline in a game I’ve ever played. People compare it to System Shock, though I’ve never played that.
I gave up on Lighthouse because I was sick of feeling stupid. I think I will go back with a walkthru at some point to see the rest of it.
My best friend and I both love these games, but usually don’t have much extra time for them, so a couple of years ago we started playing them together. We take turns “driving” and talk through the puzzles. It’s still fun to think about, and we can usually move through them a bit faster than than we could alone.
Mrblue92,
you’re right, it was Marvin’s door that was causing me trouble. Marvin just wandered around aimlessly on the ship acting depressed.
Still, the greatest game in the entire freaking world, bar none, is Worms: Armeggedon. You haven’t lived until you’ve holy hand grenaded half the screen away, sending worms flying in every direction.
To get through the door, you had to show it “tea” and “no tea”. If you drank the tea before that, you were stuck. If you accidentally dropped the tea and spilled it (like I did the last time I played it), you were stuck. If you burned out the large receptacle on Eddie before the missiles where fired at the ship, you couldn’t get the real tea anyway. If you never noticed the atomic vector plotter in the Vogon ship, you wandered around for hours on the Heart of Gold trying to figure out what you were supposed to do. But I still love that game.