Cyan Worlds via PolygonSusana Polo is a senior entertainment writer at Polygon, specializing in pop culture and genre fare, with a primary expertise in comic books. Previously, she founded The Mary Sue.In honor of the 31st anniversary of seminal puzzle adventure game Myst, Cyan Worlds has a new Humble Bundle sale, “Enter the Mysterium.” Through Oct. 2, players can pay $20 and pick up 13 games, which run the gamut from Myst’s earliest 1989 predecessor, to its modern progeny, and every mainline Myst game in the franchise, with part of the proceeds going to Active Minds, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping teens and young adults with the tools to advocate for mental health advocacy and suicide prevention.Enter the Mysterium$20$19290% off$20$20 at HumbleOr, you could pick up any of four smaller, cheaper bundles. But in the opinion of me, Polygon’s foremost Myst-pilled weirdo, here are the titles you should make certain to grab, in order of importance.Myst: Pick your poison! The bundle offers Myst: Masterpiece Edition, which attempts to replicate the experience of playing the original 1993 game; realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, the first attempt to render the game in 3D; and Myst (2021), which supports both 2D, 3D, and VR play.Riven: The Sequel to Myst: This is the intricately cut crown jewel of Cyan’s puzzle games, in its original form. If you get really fed up with it I would also recommend their recent 3D remaster, which improves on perfection (but was released way too recently to be included in a discount bundle just yet).Myst IV: Revelation: Pretty much a direct sequel to Myst. Unequivocally the hardest Myst game, but my personal favorite for its story. It’s got an unskippable Peter Gabriel cutscene. Please, please, please play this game.Myst III: Exile: By no means easy, but still the easiest Myst game. The villain is played by Brad Dourif (The Lord of the Rings) and in one of the “bad endings,” he clubs you to death in first person FMV. If that doesn’t entice you I don’t know what will.Obduction: Not in the Myst setting, but if you play the others first, you’ll be able to call all the plot beats of this one. That said, it’s got a frightfully interesting sphere-based puzzle dynamic, an interesting setup, and gorgeous vistas.Firmament: I haven’t played this one yet. “And you call yourself an expert!” I backed the Kickstarter, OK?! I just haven’t had time! I’ll get to it… sometime after Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes out. I hear it’s worth it, though! And if you’re already picking up the rest, well, why not?But what am I, the Myst-pilled weirdo, going to buy? Well, even though I already own the vast majority of the games in this bundle, there’s still something here for me: Spelunx, Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, and The Manhole. Two American dollars will net me three of Cyan co-founders Robyn and Rand Miller’s pre-Myst works, dating back to the unfathomable desktop gaming year of 1988, when Cyan released The Manhole on floppy discs available by mail order (the one in this bundle is a 1995 CD-ROM rerelease).Calling these three games “puzzle games” might seem like a stretch compared to Myst and its successors — I’ve poked around the original Manhole on the Internet Archive, and it’s more like an interactive object. But there’s a sense of humor, silliness, and, above all, play in it. Even just after ten minutes in a browser emulation, it was clear to me that I was looking at a couple of game developers fascinated by the potential of the point-and-click mechanic, and playing in that space as expansively and freely as they could. I could already see the lines running from this strange, Alice In Wonderland-themed object, to a couple of adventure games that were going to bust the genre wide open.Head over to the Humble Bundle, and you can make those connections, too.
Related Posts
Uh oh, it’s sounding like The Witcher season 4 will have even more new faces, as the actor behind Vesemir has also reportedly been replaced.We’ve known for quite a while now (two years in fact) that when The Witcher season 4 rocks up presumably sometime next year it won’t be Henry Cavill playing the one and only Geralt of Rivia, but Liam Hemsworth. It was a choice that didn’t exactly go down well with fans, as many really like Cavill’s performance as the titular Witcher, but hey ho, what can you do? For the most part since then casting appears to have remained the same, with some new talent joining as new characters for the upcoming season, but according to Redanian Intelligence, there’s another character that’s been recast: Geralt’s mentor Vesemir.To see this content please enable targeti…
Read moreIndiana Jones and the Great Circle is now confirmed to be arriving on PS5 in spring 2025, not long after it initially releases later this year as a timed exclusive. That was set in stone – following plenty of reports and rumours – during yesterday’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, and now Xbox boss Phil Spencer’s said some thing about what went into the decision to bring the game to Sony’s consoles.Obviously, this is all a part of Xbox’s ongoing plans to do more multiplatform things, as outlined in that podcast earlier this year, with Grounded, Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment, having all been brought to fresh platforms so far.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings During one of Microsoft’s Gamescom 2024 livestreams, Spencer was asked about the who…
Read moreThe Mandalorian & Grogu might not have a great name, but with Sigourney Weaver joining the cast, at least you’re more likely to be in for a good time.Back in May, it was reported that Alien, Avatar, and [insert third film beginning with A I’m sure she starred in for some nice alliteration], star Sigourney Weaver was in talks to join the The Mandalorian sequel film The Mandalorian & Grogu. Now, in a new interview with Deadline, the iconic actor has confirmed that she will be appearing in the Star Wars flick, a big addition to what will be the first Star Wars film in seven years by the time it releases – there’s only been TV shows since 2019’s Episode 9 – The Rise of Skywalker.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings When asked what the next movie We…
Read moreOh boy, it’s happening again. The war between cheaters and Call of Duty’s anti-cheat software is kicking off once again. This time, the battle is rumbling aroun the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta, where early testing of Activision Blizzard’s home-grown Ricochet anti-cheat software is ticking away and stamping out cheaters where it can.However, as is the way with this sort of thing, cheaters are hard at work trying to figure out their way around such measures. Already there are clips of cheats in-action within beta matches, but for the moment bans come fast as long as reports land on suspicious players. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings For those who are unaware, there’ll be a back and forth between cheaters reigning supreme, and massive ban waves. C…
Read moreWhile it might not be the awards you were expecting, the Fallout show has in fact won a couple of Emmys.Not that many people had doubts, but the Fallout show is now Officially Good, at least if winning an award from a long-running awards body is the thing that determines such a thing. It was the 76th annual Emmys last night, where a whole bunch of awards were given out to, mostly, Shogun (it took home 14 all in all, a record breaking total). But the incredibly popular Shogun wasn’t the only show to win awards, it couldn’t win them all after all, and everyone’s favourite video game adaptation this year (it was never going to be you, Borderlands movie), took home two of them!To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings The first is one you probably won’t even be…
Read moreIn case you haven’t heard, the PS5 Pro’s a bit expensive. As was slapped across a barrage of rightly flabbergasted tweets and articles in the aftermath of the console being revealed on Tuesday, it’ll set you back at least $699.99/£699.99. So, a lot of people have been asking, is it a no brainer to just buy a PC instead?Well, that exact quandary has now been posed to Richard Leadbetter, founder of acclaimed hardware boffin hive Digital Foundry by IGN, and well, the answer isn’t quite as simple as ‘oh yeah, of course’.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Asked what a comparable PC build to the Pro would cost, Leadbetter said: “Probably a fair bit more [than the PS5 Pro]. The GPU that you’re gonna need, if you consider a holistic view of all of the …
Read moreDid you know Disney had made a mobile gacha game? Turns out the company has made several, though one of them will soon be hanging out with Bambi’s mum and Captain Barbossa, as Disney Mirrorverse will soon be shutting down. The game has been taken off mobile stores, microtransaction sales have been ceased, and the game will go offline December 16.This announcement was made on the game’s official website, its Discord server, and other official platforms yesterday. The official statement explains the the final updates coming to the game will be wrapping up its story, a silver lining to those who’ve invested a lot of time (and money) into the game.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “Our sincere thanks to you, our amazing community of players, who have ma…
Read moreKyoto Animation, an industry defining anime studio, is coming back with a new series next year from the creator of Nichijou.It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a brand new series from Kyoto Animation, as following the arson attack against the studio in 2019, all of what it has made has been follow-ups to earlier series, like Sound! Euphonium. But over the weekend, the animation studio announced that it’s next series is based on City by Keiichi Arawi, possibly best known for his series believed to be in the same universe, Nichijou. If that name rings familiar, that’s because Kyoto Animation also made the anime for Nichijou, which if you’re a real one you already know that it’s one of the best anime ever made.『CITY THE ANIMATION』ティザーPV Watch on YouTubeYou can check the teaser…
Read moreMetaphor: ReFantazio isn’t even out yet, but players have already discovered the game’s PC version has a bit of a performance problem.Earlier this week, some PC players began to report performance issues with the Metaphor: ReFantazio demo, some struggling more than others. It doesn’t seem to be an issue completely across the board, as not everyone was faced with the same issues, but it’s enough of a problem that developer Atlus has commented on the matter. “Thank you to everyone who has downloaded and played the Metaphor: ReFantazio – Prologue Demo!” tweeted the developer. “We are aware there is an optimization issue on Steam and are actively working to address this problem.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “We will share updates, including patch re…
Read moreListen up folks. Are you a fan of Tekken 8? Have you wanted six inches of Jin Kazama, all to yourself? if you’ve said yes to both of those you’re in luck…because new Tekken 8 figurines of Jin Kazama (and King) are now for sale for the low, low price of £15.Available right now on Hotukdeals, you can grab yourself both Jin and King made of luxurious plastic. Not only do both figurines get stands to hold them in place, they also get changeable hands for your pleasure. Jin also gets a lightning effect attachment, for those in the mood for an electric wind god fist every now and again.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Here’s some interesting snipets from the product description. Apparently, these are great “for play & display”. Also, in regar…
Read more