Myst is a well-known series of puzzle games from the 1990s and early 2000s. The first game, called just Myst, was released in 1993, and it was one of the most challenging games most people had ever played. There are a total of seven different games in the series, and while some kept up the challenge of the original, there are a couple that were comparatively easy.
7. Myst III: Exile
The easiest of all the Myst games was Myst III: Exile. While the final segment of this game was pretty challenging, the rest of it just wasn't like the Mysts that had come before it. This was most likely due to the franchise being taken over by a different development studio; while Cyan created Mysts I and II, Presto Studios, known best for the Journeyman Project games, created Myst III.
Unlike some of the other Myst titles, Exile has you walking across things that you wouldn't have been able to in previous games, like precarious beams, and it takes a bit of getting used to. Some of the puzzles are a little less intuitive, and the story isn't as fulfilling as the previous ones. Overall, Myst III is the weakest of the series story wise, but it's worth a playthrough if you love the lore.
6. Myst IV: Revelation
Myst IV put the Ages back into the hands of the Cyan (though mostly Ubisoft). This gave fans the very first Myst that changed from click-through movement to 3D. There were a lot of growing pains; it makes finding things you can interact with a little more challenging, but the puzzles themselves are fairly straightforward.
Revelation is all about you trying find and reconnect with Atrus' sons from the first game to see if they have reformed after being locked away in their worlds for more than a decade. Myst IV is lore-heavy, and its puzzles revolve around using both the new camera feature and young Yeesha's necklace to read memories of your surroundings. Most of the puzzles aren't too challenging; they mostly rely on memorizing numbers, colors, and pictures around you to get through both the sons' prison worlds.
5. Myst V: End of Ages
I have never personally played End of Ages, but after watch a couple of very good playthroughs and reading a lot of Reddit threads on how difficult the game was in comparison to the others, I have a pretty good idea of where this one should fall on the list: right about the middle. Myst V has this terrible tablet that forces you to draw symbols on it to solve puzzles, and the interface alone seems like it would be a challenge to wrangle.
Other than difficulties in actually trying to get the tablet to do what you want (which is the hardest part of the game from what I have seen), the puzzles are challenging but not too difficult. While some Ages are more challenging than the others, it's just sort of middling in difficulty when compared to its series companions.
4. Myst and Myst Remake
The original Myst is one of those genius games that takes a simple solution and obfuscates it; the game comprises the quintessential "difficult to figure out, but easy to do" puzzles that put Myst and Cyan on the map in the 1990s. The game isn't as difficult as many seem to think it is, but figuring out all the solutions will take some time.
Overall, the puzzles are focused around taking good notes, listening carefully for sound cues, reading every bit of lore, pressing every button, and keeping your eyes open for anything that looks out of place. It means it's easy to miss something, but most of the puzzle have fairly obvious solutions if you are really focused. The remake of Myst, made by Cyan in 2020, is functionally the same game, so I lumped these two together, unlike...
3. Riven 2024
Riven 2024 was surprisingly different from the original Riven: The Sequel to Myst which was released back in 1997. I played the original most of the way through, but got caught on one of the later levels and ended up giving up on it completely (don't blame me; I was still a child in 1997). The remake added a few new challenges, changed a few puzzles around, and reconfigured the sound puzzle toward the end of the game (if you know, you know).
The puzzles were intuitive but difficult. You need to take loads of notes, or screenshots in my case, and keep track of even the smallest details to get through. To add a layer of challenge to Riven, Cyan also made some of the puzzles randomized, so it's a little bit different each time you play.
2. Uru: Ages Beyond Myst
Uru was the first Myst game where you created a character and viewed everything from a third-person perspective. The controls were rough, and the puzzles so obtuse as to be nearly impossible without a guide. I found Uru to be challenging, but not in a fun way. It also had an MMORPG aspect to it, but I didn't have good enough internet at the time to attempt to play it.
The puzzles are all very different from one another, forcing you to learn entirely new ways of thinking for each world rather than building on the puzzles from the Ages before. It's one of my least favorite Mysts by far, but it certainly is one of the most difficult. If you can get past the janky early-2000s controls, and you thought Myst was too easy, you'll have a great time with Uru.
1. Riven: The Sequel to Myst
The original Riven: The Sequel to Myst was released in 1997. This game is the most difficult in my opinion; I used to play these games with my dad when I was a child, and even he couldn't complete the sound puzzle at the end (and he's really adept at these types of puzzle games). They certainly aren't unsolvable, but definitely the hardest puzzles by far of all the Mysts.
Riven: The Sequel to Myst was created by using actual photographs, so the graphics actually hold up really well. It's still a beautiful game with a stunning soundtrack. If you want something that will challenge you, stun you with beautiful vistas, and have you pondering over it for hours and hours, Riven is the one to pick up.
For more Myst, check out Riven (2024) Walkthrough – 100% All achievements & endings on Pro Game Guides.
Published: Jul 8, 2024 05:03 am