Played for Backloggd’s Game of the Week on the Discord (30th May – 5th Jun., 2023)
I remember first hearing about Pyst a long time ago and thinking the initial concept was a potentially strong one; after years of people playing it, with a good number of people getting frustrated at the puzzles, Myst Island is now become a filthy ruin. I thought that would be amusing, especially because I was never much a fan of Myst because I think its puzzles suck and always stalled out playing the game early on ever since childhood. Too bad that the game squanders that entire concept almost instantly. This is mainly because it’s such a shallow parody of the game, it really feels like the devs just ran around Myst Island for like twenty minutes and didn’t play much farther, its especially telling because they don’t use anything from the actual Ages, just locations on Myst Island that are mostly open to the player from the start. The game also doesn’t really make fun of the puzzles, probably as I said, because the devs probably didn’t get very far in the game so all there is mainly the most humdrum 90’s “comedy” you can think of. Crunchy granola people sure are annoying right, guys?! Oh here’s an X-Files reference out of nowhere! You see he’s the Prince Formerly Known as Prince, hilarious! The plot point of you getting guided around the island by two corpo reps before it gets bulldozed for a luxury resort is a decent one and I feel those parts were the closest things to actual satire.
The gameplay is barely there as you don’t even get to explore a 3D version of Pyst Island, you just have still images of postcards of locations around the island. There’s some Humongous Entertainment style interactibles you can click on but they’re just so half-assed in comparison. The game also just unceremoniously stops with no real ending, you just get to the cabin area with John Goodman’s character of King Mattress in the hot tub and you just have to quit the game yourself. The game mainly feels so forced and passionless, like the only person I felt who was having a great time was John Goodman. Goodman’s enthusiasm buoys the game a bit, especially when it comes to the main theme of the game, “I’m PYST”, which he sings and is the only genuinely fun thing about the game.
I am sucker for a 90’s PC multimedia oddities, but Pyst just ain’t that good. I would still like an actual good parody of Myst though. Give me Pyst: Masterpyst Edition made by devs who are actually funny please.
I remember first hearing about Pyst a long time ago and thinking the initial concept was a potentially strong one; after years of people playing it, with a good number of people getting frustrated at the puzzles, Myst Island is now become a filthy ruin. I thought that would be amusing, especially because I was never much a fan of Myst because I think its puzzles suck and always stalled out playing the game early on ever since childhood. Too bad that the game squanders that entire concept almost instantly. This is mainly because it’s such a shallow parody of the game, it really feels like the devs just ran around Myst Island for like twenty minutes and didn’t play much farther, its especially telling because they don’t use anything from the actual Ages, just locations on Myst Island that are mostly open to the player from the start. The game also doesn’t really make fun of the puzzles, probably as I said, because the devs probably didn’t get very far in the game so all there is mainly the most humdrum 90’s “comedy” you can think of. Crunchy granola people sure are annoying right, guys?! Oh here’s an X-Files reference out of nowhere! You see he’s the Prince Formerly Known as Prince, hilarious! The plot point of you getting guided around the island by two corpo reps before it gets bulldozed for a luxury resort is a decent one and I feel those parts were the closest things to actual satire.
The gameplay is barely there as you don’t even get to explore a 3D version of Pyst Island, you just have still images of postcards of locations around the island. There’s some Humongous Entertainment style interactibles you can click on but they’re just so half-assed in comparison. The game also just unceremoniously stops with no real ending, you just get to the cabin area with John Goodman’s character of King Mattress in the hot tub and you just have to quit the game yourself. The game mainly feels so forced and passionless, like the only person I felt who was having a great time was John Goodman. Goodman’s enthusiasm buoys the game a bit, especially when it comes to the main theme of the game, “I’m PYST”, which he sings and is the only genuinely fun thing about the game.
I am sucker for a 90’s PC multimedia oddities, but Pyst just ain’t that good. I would still like an actual good parody of Myst though. Give me Pyst: Masterpyst Edition made by devs who are actually funny please.