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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2401 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for July 26, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The original Myst relied heavily on the wow factor of the high res video and imagery. The game was doing things people had never seen their computer do, and the puzzles were there to space things out.

The legwork gave you a chance to look at the cool images and the cryptic puzzles made you focus on the cool details.

Without the wow factor it just turns into a slog.

It’s not fair, I want to go back.

Exactly, and it's why the remasters pretty much always fall flat. Myst was a technological showcase, and what people are nostalgic for is not good gameplay design, or a particularly good story. It's for seeing a game where things didn't look so much like abstract pixels anymore but like the actual thing they are. For seeing full motion video in game, making them mentally project to the future where games look like movies (and gaming did take a dead end detour through FMV games to try to rush to that point in the aftermath of Myst). The production values were impressive for a video game of that time, but outside of that context they are awful. The acting was cringe, the FMVs were really really small and low res (which they cleverly hid through the "book" framing). The visuals, not as pretty and always look a lot more plasticky and cheap than they seem to be in my memories.

Remove the technological achievement and Myst is a step back from the puzzle and gameplay design from Sierra/LucasArts graphical adventure games and even the older interactive fiction games that preceded them, but with 3D pictures and movies. I guess story is debatable.

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