Myst

As I've just said my PS3 died with a Riven disc stuck inside, the reason I was playing was that I'd just finished Myst also on the PSOne.

I was clearing up some stuff and found the PC version I had, realised I hadn't looked at it for a while and tried to install it on Vista with no success (yes I looked at all the tricks it's that damn QuickTime), but I knew I had a copy on the PSOne, not so hot graphics but still the same game. So I gave it a whirl and remembered exactly why I hadn't played it for a while.

For those unaware Myst is a logic puzzle game set in a 'real-world' situation. You explore an island and find items you can manipulate, do it the right way and you gain access to other 'islands'. The object of the game is locate the scattered pages of one or two books and each of the islands contain a page from each book.

Supposedly the game runs on pure logic and all the clues are there, you just have to look around and work things out. Of course as I've always said one person's logic isn't always the same as another's and this leads to two similar problems - 'How the hell was I supposed to know that?' and 'How the hell was I supposed to find that?'.

A difficulty is that this game isn't a free-roamer it's a flick-screen so you're presented with a viewpoint, if you want to look to your left you move the hand-cursor to the left until it points left, click, and then you're presented with a new viewpoint. It's an old game so the tech wasn't there at the time so I can't fault that, but because of this it can be difficult to navigate or orientate yourself.

So let's start with the first problem. You're on a dock looking at a sunken ship.Turn to the right and you see a wall, turn to the right again and you see another wall with a hill behind it leading to some buildings. Right again and the continuation of the dock with some steps leading up a hill to another building and to the top of the wall. There's also some sort of box with a handle on top.

Move forward to the box and try the handle and nothing apparently happens. Head up the steps towards the hill and you're now on the wall facing back where you came from (see what I mean about orientation) I head that way and I'm above where I started but facing the buildings. There's a letter on the ground, addressed to Catherine it tells me Atreus has left a message for her in the room next to the dock, enter a code (the number of markers on the island) to access it. What room and what's a marker?

Turns out that the wall next to where I started from that faces the buildings has a door in it. It may be the poor graphics here, but it's difficult to find. Once it's been found it leads to a circular device showing water movement, there's a button that turns it on and off. Great. Turn around to head out and you should spot the paper pinned to the wall next to the exit. Examine it and it gives some codes including a Marker description. Huzzah now I can find out what a marker looks like. So where do I enter the code?

There's nothing on the device, you can't walk around the room, it's not outside. Turns out the code input device is behind the paper there's a pixel sized green light that turns out to be a button that lifts the panel. So that's the first puzzle and two "How the hell was I supposed to find that?''s

Sound plays a part and in some puzzles a sound tone indicates something happening. There's also one entire island puzzle set based on sound - all of which is really clever unless you're deaf in which case it's impossible to complete the game. Odd I don't recall seeing "Requires hearing ability" on the box.

One puzzle has you feeding power to two items by pressing buttons that add different amounts of power so button one is +10 Volts, but button two is +2 Volts. Two dials indicating two different power outputs, press a few buttons and they both go up until the one you want suddenly flips to zero. No amount of button pressing after that can alter the second dial even after you figure out the correct power level. Turns out you fed to much and the circuit tripped. Somehow you should know this by looking at the cables from the power building to the object in question and realise there are trip switches on the top of them. Of course that assumes you find the power station building because thanks to the flick-screen it's possible to walk straight past it multiple times.

Oh and the tree puzzle, the picture in the cabin has it on the left so of course once you're outside facing the same wall you discover it's one the right through those trees on the path you can't see.

It's also possible to access the other islands in any order, but there are clues on the main island and at least one major clue to how to solve the problem on one island exists on another and once you've travelled you can't get back until you solve the puzzles. Do it in the wrong order or miss the clues on the main island and it's major head-scratching time.

Also although each island contains a page from each of the two books, you can only carry one at a time. So if you want to collect both books (not necessary, but you miss out on some dialogue) you have to visit twice. At least all the puzzles are solved so it's not too much of a hardship. However once you've got a page in hand your cursor changes to reflect that and won't change to indicate direction or over a manipulatable item. So you end up finding a page, but are reluctant to pick it up until the puzzles are solved

It's a right pain, but it could be really good if it were converted to a free-roamer and the sound puzzles were tweaked to allow the deaf or hard-of hearing to manipulate the controls without the sound cues. As it is though it's seriously frustrating at times.