Note: Screenshots were purposely not included with this review. We felt that pictures of the original Ages won't do them justice in freeze frame, and we don't want to give away the look of the new Age.

I feel somewhat obligated to begin this review with the traditional polemic on the Myst phenomenon. Released in 1993 blah blah blah ... brought a new level of photorealism blah blah blah ... new kind of first person exploration mystery game blah blah blah ... alternatively praised and reviled in the computer gaming world blahbiddyblah.

Nope. Not going to go there. You know what Myst was, or you wouldn't be reading this piece!

For all of us Myst and Riven fans, it's a heady time to be a computer gamer, because we have the improbable embarrassment of riches of not one but two new Myst games coming up! In the doom and gloom of today's adventure gaming world, who'd have thought such wonders were possible?

Tentatively titled Myst Dimensions and Myst3D, and newly christened realMyst, this new game is a souped-up, real-time rendered version of the classic original.

My first advice to one and all is: calm down. It's essentially the same game. Yes, there is an additional Age added (more on that later), but it's still Myst. The gameplay is identical; the puzzles are unchanged.

However, the fact that you can now glide around these beautiful environments at will in gorgeous real-time 3D is truly a revelation. I think this is the game that should drive a stake in the heart of the notion that RTR games can't look as good as prerendered. This game is drop-dead gorgeous eye candy from start to finish.

To begin with, of course, there's the sheer beauty of the game's original environments. The lovely Myst island, the soggy wonder of the Channelwood Age, the creepy openness of the Selenitic Age, etc. But the designers weren't satisfied with merely recreating those wonders in 3D. They added stunning weather, water, and animal effects that truly make the game pop visually. The Stoneship Age, for example, with its roiling water, thunderstorms, and sunsets, is hauntingly beautiful to behold. And the variety of fish visible from the underwater study are fascinating to watch.

The Channelwood Age is perhaps the least changed of the original four ages, but nevertheless the slow-moving, swampy water adds greatly to the atmosphere. Additionally, navigating the treehouse maze with full freedom of movement is much less frustrating that it was with the slideshow version.

The Selenitic Age is enhanced by eerie red fog that's truly creepy (and cold!) to walk around in. Not to mention some pretty adorable bats!

Even though the game was the same, it was a real pleasure to revisit these mysterious, beautiful places again.

But my blood really got pumping at the end, when I figured out how to enter the new bonus Age created just for this game. You know what? I don't want to spoil any of it for you, so I'm not going to describe it explicitly. But I will say that it's very fun figuring out how to find the linking book, and the Age itself is really (surprise surprise) great to look at, with cool (hint) weather effects of its own. It's quite short, but it does tie the games of Myst and Riven together better than the original ending did (though still without any explicit ending per se, which still annoys me a little).

However, there is a downside to all this good news, I'm afraid, and that has to do with the enormous system requirements. At minimum, you need a 450 MHz machine with a pretty macho 3D card. For adventure game players, who tend to not update their computers as often as action game players, this could be a real problem. I played the game on my (now) wimpy 350 MHz machine, and I wasn't able to enjoy the game fully. Much of the movement was jerky and ragged, rather than the flowing smoothness I was hoping for. The indoor environments were fairly smooth, but when I was outside, forget it. To top it all off, this problem was at its worst in the new Age! I had to play the final part of the game in excruciating slow motion. It reminded me of the time I accidentally tried to run Prince of Persia 3D with my graphic accelerator turned all the way down! Well, I had it turned all the way up for realMyst, and it still wasn't up to snuff.

So I can heartily recommend you explore this new version of a classic, as long as you bought your computer, say, five minutes before reading this review.

Final Grade: B

If you liked realMyst:
Watch: Zardoz
Read: The Myst novels
Play: Myst and Riven, of course

System Requirements:

450 MHz (at least!)
128 MB RAM (at least)
3D video card. Maybe it's time to upgrade your hardware ...

This review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link back to Just Adventure.