Times have definitely changed. One aspect that provoked these changes as well as the stuff you brought up is the current desire for instant gratification. If something doesn't hook or reward people almost instantly the title will be put down and exchanged for another one of the hundreds of alternatives out there. I'm guilty of it myself and I don't think I could enjoy titles like Majora's Mask or Ico as much if I played them for the first time now. Life has sped up, gaming reflects that, and that's not always for the better.
Yes, I agree. We've been conditioned for different types of enjoyment for many years - not as a big, evil conspiracy or something. The medium has just evolved. And it's always the medium that makes the content.
It's become a lot harsher. For example, I'm watching over 14 different shows now simultaneously and still can't shake the feeling that I'm missing out on at 4 times as many because I don't have the time or focus to juggle even more. Free time has become almost more stressful than "career time" in that regard. I often feel so overwhelmed with the options that I actually end up doing nothing at all just so the kind of regret that I'm not using my time optimally doesn't set in. Yet it does anyway probably with even more severity. In that regard games that actually take their time and basically force you to slow down and take it in are now more important than ever. Because being on edge constantly is not only unhealthy but actually makes you a worse person since all that tension has to go somewhere.
You know, I've been wondering why, in recent years, I've found myself enjoying video games less and less. The number of amazing titles to play seems endless, but I haven't been as excited to play a game as I was years ago. I have lots of games that are well loved by many, but I've only put in a an hour here, a couple hours there. Some haven't even been opened. Its been bothering me quite a bit, since I always thought that gaming was one of my favorite hobbies, and so I feel like I'm not being true to myself. And like you said, most of my free time is spent doing pretty much nothing. I really like the way you articulated that idea, as I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I just wasn't as enthused about gaming anymore. Its because I'm always sitting there thinking "I'm not spending my time in the best way possible". I'm gonna try to approach it with a relaxed mind set now, instead of being on edge about the ticking clock, judging me on how I spend my free time.
It's a terrible feeling, man. I do feel that gaming has become a lot more cynical and calculated because the absolutely absurd budgets and costs of titles nowadays. It's a perfect storm of people trying to make as much money as possible (with increasingly shady business strategies) while trying to keep up with an audience that gets bored and ditches them the nanosecond they let them breathe even for a moment. I try to go against that by giving things more time but even as I do that I feel myself becoming more and more anxious, always checking my phone or tabbing out during loadtimes to look at my facebook feed or whatever. I really miss the days when I could just sit my ass down in front of Mega Man 2 and get my ass handed to me for hours on end without thinking of anything else outside of how much of a cockwombler Quick Man is and that I'll get them next time.
Another thing that taps into that same feeling for me (gaming being more cynical) is how so many people seem to think it's their duty to be angry about games. No matter how much effort was put in it, people will be angry and loud and opinionated. And that stuff gets attention. Especially here on UA-cam. I really don't understand how one feels it's a good thing to dedicate days and weeks of work into talking shit about games they don't like, instead of just giving praise to the ones they do love. It turns people into compulsive angry video game nerds. The AVGN was meant to be ironic. But a whole new generation has taken this attitude quite literally.
If you haven't tried it yet, you should REALLY look into Quern - Undying Thoughts. I loved Obduction but felt there wasn't nearly as much of a need to write information down like the original Myst & Riven series. I only used 2-3 pages of my notebook that I've dedicated to Myst-esque games for the game which left me feeling a bit sad as I still have my notebook from the original which was a very full just getting through the first 2 games. Quern feels exactly like Myst did to me back in the day, but isn't nearly as graphically impressive as Obduction. The puzzles feel unique, yet a throwback to Myst. It's a shame the game is so understated, as it deserves quite a bit more attention. Give it a shot, I swear you will get the same feeling you did as you did playing Myst the first time. I'm glad I bumped into your channel good to see someone with no sensationalist fluff talk about gaming, will subscribe!
There is something magical in the intros of Myst and Riven. Each time I catch even a glimpse, something in my chest squirms, chills march down my spine, and I feel like a child again, sitting in a dark room alone, peering into the glare of the CRT monitor... Too many games today shift their focus toward streamlined, faultless experience, prettier graphics and high FPS count, while forgetting that faults and hardships are a part of what makes the experience special, or highlights something you would've never noticed if you ran through the game unhalted. As an example: Devil May Cry 2 is heeded as the worst game in the series and is often cast aside as garbage in favour of the better entries, and yet, it still holds a special place in my heart... because I got absolutely lost in the upper part of the town, walking the streets for an hour with nothing but Eye of the Wind (ua-cam.com/video/FYlDEUs6riI/v-deo.html) droning in the background. It made me look at the game in a new light, and made me notice how strangely depressing it was...
This is really touching. I was the one who was eyed strangely for loving the Myst series so much and played indeed with a friend to share the pain when getting stuck or to complement our ideas of how to solve a puzzle. It was a great experience and I love this genre ever since. The Witness reminded me somehow of the serenity of Myst, but the puzzles were a different thing. I can't wait to download Obduction and give it a try. I was also reminded of Zork: Nemesis which is also engraved in my mind as absolutely stunning and wonderfully crafted (but might also be the case of remembering it being far better than it actually was, though. :-)!) Thank you for the review. I am happy to count myself to the selected ring of people who appreciate a good deal of contemplation, brain racking and even boredom. All the best for you!
Always found it strange that Obduction doesn't get talked about a great deal. The game went a good deal beyond just replicating an old formula 1 by 1, took the words right out of my mouth. There's a fair point to the patience required in that sort of game, won't pretend that never happened; looking back at more some of those older first-person adventures like Rama or Journeyman Through Time, many of their puzzles were tough nuts to crack. Rama even went through the trouble of putting alien languages in hexadecimal letters or other base numbers. Anyway, thanks for the video.
Mike Marks Because most people don't cone to UA-cam to learn about stuff. They cone to what to watch funny videos or something else. Only a few people enjoy this. And the algorithm doesn't help ethier.
Another Myst veteran here - they were my favorite games as a kid. I also loved Obduction (just finished my second play-through after giving myself a year to forget everything). Another game that really captured the feeling you describe is Quern: Undying Thoughts. Mind-blowingly clever, visually stunning, and supremely satisfying to play - as long as you have a pen, paper, and a LOT of patience.
For me, original Myst was mind blowing. It was my introduction into digital worlds and environmental storytelling. I backed Obduction through blind belief and it was worth every penny (and then some). What they delivered, as you alluded to, brought back the memory and the experience of the original Myst and Riven in a cerebral, nostalgic way. Obduction is the culmination of everything I believed Myst would become. And it needed this time to do that. When I tell others to play this game though, I do so guardedly. I almost feel like they need to pass a Myst-like test in order for me to realize that they truly value and understand that which is Obduction.
OK that's it, I've got to finish this game, thanks for a very thoughtful video. Made me think that in this moment, pausing and soaking in the world around would be of help once again, it certainly was my main mode as a child playing Myst, Riven, Myst 3, it was a place of safety and escape - a place to focus on the art and the self.
It's pretty gratifying to hear others express the same thoughts I've been having for a while. A lot of possible emotions are lost from games when they streamline the experience in order to hold your attention over all the other alternatives available on the market. Immersion is best when you have a multi-faceted experience with a game, when there are 'bad' things in addition to good things. Like when you get lost, or have to backtrack because of a level's realistic lack of convenient shortcuts, or explore some area only to find it completely pointless, or when an area is much more difficult than the rest and you want to steer clear of it, or when a journey between two places is long enough to feel like it overstays its welcome but ALSO to feel like you've completed a real, arduous journey when you're done with it... I can't get immersed in games that try to be roller coasters, and it seems like games that present a more balanced experience aren't too viable anymore, and it makes me really sad. The worst part is I have no idea what could be done about it. Can there be games that somehow combine being not-instant-gratification-rollercoasters and being immensely attractive to a wide audience, gradually reintroducing them to that style of games by showing how shallow most games are by comparison? I feel that the From Software games might be going in the right direction, at least, so not all hope is lost... now everyone just needs to start making amazing games and games will be good again! Sigh.
So, we wanted to get a Family Computer and we go to the store. We end up getting the one with the first CD-ROM drive, the Apple Man IIvx! So, we are messing around with it, seeing what this AOL thing is that kept arriving in our mail like some defective Star Trek device, when my brother said "Hey, this has a CD-ROM drive, but we don't have any CD-ROM games. It's your birthday soon, let's just go pick one up, huh?" Most were crap, but that is not very fair because the choices were few. I had found "Spaceship Warlock", but my brother had found MYST. SW stayed on the shelf and MYST stayed in my heart. You have to understand, there was simply NOTHING like this at the time! It really did become your world. You took your time here. I had so much fun playing with my brother :D
I was never smart enough for these games. I played them over and over and over again until I felt how stupid I was that moment and hated the fact that I was just too dull......and then I figured it out. And that made me feel as if the world was not so hard.......until the next puzzle. Ah.......sweet memories.
I wish i could support you in anyway but i am poor af! Only help i could give is watch every single video that you have put out, they are indeed a work of art. Thank you very much for giving me something quite enjoyable to listen while i draw. Love your work please keep it up.
My god, how right you are, and how truly eloquent. I cry out for a computer that will actually let me experience the joy of THINKing once again, in a place where I have time to savor, without having to kill or try to avoid being killed. And notes, how I miss taking notes and pondering in peace.
It was my first book fair. I was in the middle of the convention, surrounded by books. And tucked away in the corner was a single PC with about a dozen kids my age huddled around it. This was my first experience with Myst. I was MYSTified lol. We were all taking turns wandering around that first island, wondering which lever did what. Good times.
I've only watched 2 of your videos, and I'm already subscribed. Really well-done and thoughtful pieces with no hyperbole or other annoyances. Relaxing and informative. You've obviously put a lot of effort into these, and it shows.
I like games like Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, etc. But I do miss the puzzle aspect of old point and click adventures, I love puzzles even if some do frustrate me for hours, there's something wonderful about being stuck for hours on a puzzle then once you reach that "ah ha!" Moment and finally figure it out you can pat yourself on the back for finally beating it, I remember playing Zelda Twilight Princess for the first time as a kid and I got stuck trying to move the statues to get the Master Sword, I spent 3 hours trying and asked my brother for help but he refused and when I finally got it I was so happy I was running around the whole house in excitement, and that's the feeling I miss that sense of joy you get from completing something challenging.
One thing I always found interesting about the never ending goal for photorealistic graphics is that it's been driven by furthering technology, not to make the aesthetic design of games more striking. In order for big budget companies to continue Moore's law in graphical quality, they need to have this awkward fascination with graphics that sometimes loses that game's art style.
Exactly. Also, when you can push more polygons onto the screen at the same time, a lot of artists/designers fall into the trap of throwing in a lot of flashy details into the characters and the environments at the expense of making them much less memorable and visually striking. If I ask you to describe Pyramid Head or Raziel from Legacy of Kain to a person who's never seen them, its not that hard. Yet if I ask to do the same for Dead Space Necromorphs or Marcus from Gears of War, it becomes very hard. That's not a bad thing in itself, but technical limitations of the 90s mean that game designers had to focus on the absolute basics - silhouette, color, texture etc. Every single shred of detail had to be crafted, since so little of it could actually be put in. And the ones that were put in were the ones that would make the game stand out. I also think Blizzard's approach to game art is probably adheres most closely to how 90s game artists approached it. Their games, imo, could be scaled down for graphics cards of 15 years ago and still have plethora of visual flair.
That's something KojiPRo has always done well with Metal Gear compared to other military-action games. Whichever variant of Snake you play in a Metal Gear, he always has a very distinctive and striking, appearance, as opposed to the generic "tacticool" soldier garb used in Call of Duty, Battlefield etc. Despite any of the MGS not really pushing hardware in texture quality or polygon count, the games still always look better (and hold up well,) because the aesthetic is stylised and memorable, rather than "as photorealistic as possible given the current tech."
Alexander Pavlyak Yeah... Cyan has always had a more imaginative art style than most devs and they really do still choose to challenge players mentally. I am doing sort of the same sort of thing aesthetically - stylizing and rejecting conventional AAA graphics patterns - with my own 'Mystlike' adventure game that chooses the also admittedly old school artform of handcrafted miniatures, which is - I feel - forms an interesting combination.
I grew up playing Battletoads on the NES, and while a guide wouldn't be much help with that game it was still one of those I played as a child that I kept throwing myself at despite the damn near impossible difficulty. Another game more fitting to talk about here would be Flashback, a game which I was utterly enamored with after being gifted it for my 11th birthday. Like mentioned here, games weren't nearly as easy to come by and I only had the NES and SNES to play games on as it was, which made me one of the lucky ones among friends I'd had at the time. I remember first playing the latter game and being stuck at one of the first screens, not realizing there was a spot where you needed to lower yourself down to advance. Had I been a kid during current times it's entirely possible I'd just had given up right there and never played the game again. But, as said in this here vid, I didn't have a lot of games so I kept messing around until I figured out what to do, and that feeling is really something else! That 'eureka' moment is so elating and one that doesn't come the same when using the assistance of a guide of some sort. But, when you know a guide is there it's hard to blame anyone for seeking it out these days.
New to the channel and looking around. I love analysis videos like this, especially about video games and TV series. I have been a long time player of all things Myst, got all the games and all the books, and was also a first time backer of Obduction when it was first announced, but unfortunately have never had the chance to play it ever, since I don't have a fancy beefed up PC. But was so glad to hear that the game is coming to PS4 and especially PSVR. So I cannot wait to dive into this when it arrives. Love your channel and will be spending a lot more time checking out all the other videos. Keep up the excellent work!
I remember playing Myst years ago, it was such a magical game( at least that's how it felt) I lost the cd and never finished. I'll try to buy Obduction some day. Awesome video, as always.
Never clicked on a video so fast before. I am quite new on this channel and watched nearly all of your videos now. Basically, you became one of my favorite UA-camrs over night! I just wanted to thank you for making such high effort videos. Keep it up!
Woo! New video! keep up the good work man, not only do I relate a lot to your videos, but you're like a goldmine of interesting information and game recommendations. Mix in some personal philosophical observations and you've got a RagnarRox video :D
I watched this video after finishing obduction few years ago. As this week I was going through a replay of Riven, I remembered it and came back to watch it again. I couldn't agree more on what you said. Thank you
"It even gives you an optional hot-spot point-and-click control scheme as another throwback to the good old days." You're probably right, but I think the main purpose of having it control like this is the consideration for VR. Classical motion styles give a lot of people motion sickness in VR, and this "point-and-teleport" system is a very common alternative.
maaaan, i really like you and this channel a lot, you get to the core in every video, and you have very interesting perspective on all the games i like, a lot about games you say is also true, i dont know why, but i feel video games should be more like pathologic or disco elysium than the constant iterations of shooter games like CoD games and alike are... there is so much more to explore in terms of video game design and you are one of rare people who steers it in the right direction! i hope one day you make a video about age old classic "Neverhood" played it as a child never understood shit but it kept me in constant awe and wonder for exploration...i think you will also like the professional and production side behind the game, its truly and interesting gem and i have yet to see a good review of that game! keep up the good work man!
Fantastic overview!!! It felt like you were pulling the words out of my brain as you spoke them. I loved Obduction even though it had it's flaws (too long transitions, too much obfuscation with that damned machine, too much running back and forth). Course, I'm probably internally glossing over the bazillion times I was told to insert a different disk when playing Riven way back when. I still have the nifty slide out Riven game CD box that was included in some deluxe editions. While Obduction didn't eclipse Riven, it was fantastic. Riven is a tough, if not, impossible opus to beat. I also felt Obduction was better than The Witness or Quern. Both great games though.
I know 'The Witness' had a much more straight forward gameplay - Do all these clear coloured puzzles. The underlying story and the eureka moment at the end made me nearly cry. It was beautiful - and that cranial orgasm as you said was incredible. The eureka moments in games are just not there anymore.
I found witness iritatingly boring. There is no eureka, the puzzles are repeated ad nausium and the best part is finding shapes in nature. It a pointless hipster selfaware game for Dan Brown crowd of kiddos
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Great video Ragnar. Also, you look like Thor now lol
God, I loved Riven so much, it left this super specific web of colors and sounds and even smells and tastes in my memory, not unlike our theorized genetically imprinted instinctive longing for a certain type of terrain.
Thanks for helping me understand why people actually love Myst games. I hated them since childhood and always considered them terrible games, but at least I can see why they're loved now. Actually I can see myself enjoying them since now I know they actually start making sense after a while. Their nature of giving random and meaningless pile of puzzles right from the start always put me off too much.
Oh, that's great to hear. I must confess that my first attempts of 10-year-old me was also met with some disappointment. But eventually, I grew into the mindset that it needs. Those games are wonderful if you want to slow down the treadmill of fast rewards and instant gratification, but instead just want to take a mental breather from all of it. It can be very soothing. (With an element of wtf-frustration when you're trying to figure out things) Glad you watched it even though it's not your typical style of games. :)
I'm totally okay with slow and frustrating games if there is reason to keep going, something worthwhile. One of my all time favorites is Scratches and a lot of people criticize it of being too slow and boring. Not for me. Problem with the Myst was always the fact that I didn't really understand why those puzzles were there, why I was trying to solve those. When I think like that, games became unworthy in my eyes quickly. But I should've known better I guess. Cheers, your videos are always great! Silent Hill 2/3 are the best games ever!
Hello fellow Scratches fan. The fact that I even played Scratches was because I'm a long time adventure game fan. Starting with Myst and gravitating to the Dreamcatcher Interactive and Adventure Company games. Though even within the adventure gaming genre you can break them down into Sci Fi, horror, surreal... and not all people will like all those kinds. I tended to like 1st person non killing ones where if you got stuck it was your own darn fault and not an alien overlord running you over in his mechanical wheel chair (The Crystal Key). I guess now we're seeing more exploration based instead of puzzle based like Gone Home and Firewatch but it's really nice that games like Obduction are still being made.
Hello fellow adventure game fan! It's true that even adventure game fans don't like all adventure game types. For one, I prefer Scratches style games with a focus on story and atmosphere while puzzles are usually not full on puzzles but daily life problems. It's really hard to convince people to play games like Myst nowadays, though. Great visuals certainly help, but new generation of gamers are too used being hand fed and not working for their victories. I don't see them having patience to take notes or to look through encyclopedias to solve a puzzle without actually cheating with a walkthrough. One trend I appreciate lately is the Dark Souls style "git gud or die trying" trend which basically finds fault in players rather than the game, because the game is actually very fair and balanced, but unforgiving to any mistakes. It's like action rpg counter part of old style adventure games where when you got stuck it was because you couldn't figure out how to solve a puzzle. Well, to be perfectly fair, old adventure games were not the most fair games when it comes to puzzles, but feeling of achievement is always there when you solve a tough one. If you are interested in watching old adventure games on Twitch, I strongly recommend following RetrogradeTom. He plays old games fair and square. Sometimes terrible ones, sometimes great ones, but always great experiences. I'm usually there when he streams and my nickname is JoJTGT. Cheers.
Obduction was fantastic. Except when you were given a far-too vague instruction to "connect the trees" or whatever, when all we needed to hear was, "go to the other biomes, find the tree at their centers, and turn on the faucet." And the number puzzles. And that hidden pathway adjacent to the circular boulder room.
"go to the other biomes, find the tree at their centers, and turn on the faucet." Just like Myst back in the day, eh? Crystal clear instructions all the way through.
Big Myst fan here and I liked some aspects of Obuction very much, but you make Obduction sound much better than it is. Unlike with other adventure games, I hardly had to take any notes in Obduction and in one case I figured something out, it turns out that you could easily just luck out creating the solutions when you ultimately needed them. Obduction had enormous potential but ultimately falls flat because it cheaps out in several places. The attention to detail is there sometimes but by no means always. Unfortunately, it only takes a little defect to make a magic bubble burst and Obduction suffers from many such defects. I so wished to have a good time with that game and sometimes was rewarded, but Obduction doesn't come close to the coherent magic evoked by Myst. If anyone is looking for a spiritual successor to Myst, then in my book "Quern -- Undying Thoughts" easily trumps Obduction. "Quern" actually made me relive the Myst magic whereas Obduction almost never really clicked with me. Much of the artwork in Obduction just lacks taste and refinement. By the way, you make a good point about the difference between remembering old games and experiencing them again. However, I don't believe we remember them better than they ever were. I believe at the time, in their context, they were actually as amazing as we remember them. Sure, we added our imagination, but the games were truly evocative. FWIW, Obduction was one of the first games I played with a modern graphics card so the 3D immersion was much more mind-blowing for me than it would have been if I had been a gamer for the past ten years, or so. But still Obduction did not manage to immerse me into a world and then even disappointed with the last half hour of game play.
I think many people are reliving their myst days by analyzing every nook and cranny of darksouls + other such games, like hyperlight drifter, that left their lore scattered in pieces for players to immerse themselves in if they chose to
If you liked that you may like Returner 77. An old mobile game for sure, but played in the style of The Room with same type graphics, interesting local n story on an alien ship as humanities last hope with some FMV thrown in. Very fun and cool for its time
Speaking of old games - there was a game I remember playing but its name is long forgotten... My cousin owned it and he too has no recollection of the name of it either. So I am gonna leave a description and see anyone here can help me out. Basically you are wizard boy, in purple robes and you shoot fire, its isometric top down but has a feel of 3D to it. I also remember there is a girl, she is either antagonist or someone who helps you, has this mean look to her. It does have some point and click moments which you traverse a tower and then enter segments where you clear a room with monsters. Its quite bizarre how its name has left me but I remember its game play. Anyways hope someone can help find this mystery game for me. Oh and this was around 1998 and 1999 when i played the game.
I have been thinking about this game since I saw MATN or the like play it, and I could not remember the name to save my life. Suddenly today I just typed "puzzle game with mining place and tree" and found the name.
Firstly great video as usual Ragnar. I may be giving my age away but i too have many fond memories playing point and click adventure games such as Kings quest, Monkey island, leisure suit Larry, Indiana jones, heart of china and many many more. Half the fun of these games was indeed trying to figure out the story and what to do next and if you were to become stuck cheating was almost a taboo. I recall my dad buying a few hint books for some of these games and the books themselves were tiny and you had to use a red viewing card to read the text so as not to spoil the story. This was a direct indication that cheating was not what the player wanted to do and as you said today with the internet and game let's plays it is so easy to cheat and spoil the experience not that games today are overly difficult by comparison. I know it may not be the usual type of video that you upload Ragnar but would you ever upload a let's play of some of your favourite point and click adventure games such as Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis for example. I know you appreciate the genre and it would be awesome to watch. Just a thought :) I really enjoyed the video because it reminds me of being a kid playing these type of games on the family PC trying to work out the story and what to do next. I now have a sudden urge to put down the PS4 controller and fire up the old PC. :)
Oh, I remember those red filter card systems, that was super cool actually and totally underlines my point! About the Let's Play question. The thing is - I love to do these from time to time, but I can't upload them on this channel, since it would scramble the audience too much, especially in terms of youtube's algorithm. This is not meant to be a shameless plug, but I have done a couple of live streams on Patreon where I played classic adventures. (Monkey Island 2 and 3) and they're still available. As a fellow adventure-lover, if you're interested in watching them, feel free to shoot me an email via the address in the about section of this channel and I'll send you a link. :)
My dad used to hide the hint books but i would always find them lol but as mentioned i did not want information beyond the part where i was stuck that just felt wrong and i did not want to spoil the experience. Yes it does underline your point and as usual you are spot on. I understand as an audience becomes used to a certain format. Oh cool live streams sound good. Thanks for the reply Ragnar and i look forward to your next video :)
Always preferred Dark Fall 1-2-3 over Myst - plz don't kill me) I replayed them in a row with two of my best friends, we've been playing it every day until we finished all of em...it was so immersive....man.... And if you'll have a time or passion,pls make a video about these games)
I absolutely love Obduction, and I'm excited to experience it again soon when I actually get around to buying a VR headset. But I have one major problem with its design. I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a certain system you use to solve most of the puzzles in the game, and that system incorporates ... a loading screen, of all things. Sticking with the Portal comparison, imagine if you were playing Portal, but every single time you jumped through a portal you encountered a loading screen that lasted upwards of 40 seconds to a minute. That's exactly what playing this game is like, and it's infuriating, everything slows to a crawl and it goes from a breathtaking experience to an annoyance very quickly. Maybe it's better with an SSD, but I don't have an SSD. This seems like such a simple thing to fix, and I have no idea what they were thinking when they made it like this.
As a player that hadn't played myst before I can say that boy was it a lot easier then Obduction in terms of puzzle difficulty, cleared myst in one sitting and the only thing I looked up was the audio puzzle because I'm tone deaf. I'm a week into Obduction atm and so far it's been great.
"When Myst was one of the few games you had at the time, even if it was initially boring and daunting and even if you got stuck for days without making any progress, you'd still return until it became a habit." I didn't play Myst back then; I ended up finally playing it much later, in 2016 or so, after finishing Obduction. I knew nothing about the game, and I didn't look anything up, but I still was able to complete it in one or two sittings (Steam says about ten hours total). So I'm confused about how it would have taken someone days to make any progress at all. It's not because we have the internet now, because I didn't use the internet for anything while playing. Perhaps it's the fact that we have access to so many more games now? Back in the day, Myst was essentially one of a kind, but nowadays I've played so many different kinds of puzzle games that I know more or less how they work, and I used those skills to figure out Myst with relative ease. Or something, I don't know. I did think the game was incredible, though.
having more gaming experience could be the reson, Ive tried playing Myst years ago as a kid and couldnt even get off the main island played it again last year and was able to finish it in about 10 hours as well, still greatly enjoying it
Thank you for introducing this and so many other great games I would have otherwise heard of. I think half my game library is made up of stuff UA-camrs have recommended
If you have an iPhone / iPad, try the App Store release of Myst. Touchscreen works very well for that genre, and there's no need to deal with OS or QuickTime compatibility issues. Then, after plain Myst, try Real Myst. It's a fun adaptation, but it shouldn't be your first entry into the franchise. Riven is breathtaking (still!), and Exile might just be my favorite to play through. Both well worth it - but start with the original.
this was such a well done video. you managed to convey exactly what you thought about the game without actually spoling any of it. i actually feel a bit more interested in checking it out. i remember those times where games had a certain kind of mystery to them - we handed around theories about pokemon games in elementary school.. "you can find a mew behind that truck!" etc. i feel like nowadays games are not treated as unique gems anymore, there are so many, people are a lot less patient and interested in getting their moneys worth i feel. by the way, i really wanted to ask you wheter you know the zero escape series and what you might think of it. since its probably my favourite game series and this is one of my favourite channels so..
This is one of the most beautiful and interesting games i've ever played....thanks for taking such a passional approach on reviewing it
Just wanted to note that you have such a soothing voice and your videos are all so elaborate :)
Thank you very much :3
Agreed, he's like a Spanish Mechazawa. XD
Times have definitely changed. One aspect that provoked these changes as well as the stuff you brought up is the current desire for instant gratification. If something doesn't hook or reward people almost instantly the title will be put down and exchanged for another one of the hundreds of alternatives out there. I'm guilty of it myself and I don't think I could enjoy titles like Majora's Mask or Ico as much if I played them for the first time now. Life has sped up, gaming reflects that, and that's not always for the better.
Yes, I agree. We've been conditioned for different types of enjoyment for many years - not as a big, evil conspiracy or something. The medium has just evolved. And it's always the medium that makes the content.
It's become a lot harsher. For example, I'm watching over 14 different shows now simultaneously and still can't shake the feeling that I'm missing out on at 4 times as many because I don't have the time or focus to juggle even more. Free time has become almost more stressful than "career time" in that regard. I often feel so overwhelmed with the options that I actually end up doing nothing at all just so the kind of regret that I'm not using my time optimally doesn't set in. Yet it does anyway probably with even more severity.
In that regard games that actually take their time and basically force you to slow down and take it in are now more important than ever. Because being on edge constantly is not only unhealthy but actually makes you a worse person since all that tension has to go somewhere.
You know, I've been wondering why, in recent years, I've found myself enjoying video games less and less. The number of amazing titles to play seems endless, but I haven't been as excited to play a game as I was years ago. I have lots of games that are well loved by many, but I've only put in a an hour here, a couple hours there. Some haven't even been opened. Its been bothering me quite a bit, since I always thought that gaming was one of my favorite hobbies, and so I feel like I'm not being true to myself. And like you said, most of my free time is spent doing pretty much nothing. I really like the way you articulated that idea, as I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I just wasn't as enthused about gaming anymore. Its because I'm always sitting there thinking "I'm not spending my time in the best way possible". I'm gonna try to approach it with a relaxed mind set now, instead of being on edge about the ticking clock, judging me on how I spend my free time.
It's a terrible feeling, man. I do feel that gaming has become a lot more cynical and calculated because the absolutely absurd budgets and costs of titles nowadays. It's a perfect storm of people trying to make as much money as possible (with increasingly shady business strategies) while trying to keep up with an audience that gets bored and ditches them the nanosecond they let them breathe even for a moment.
I try to go against that by giving things more time but even as I do that I feel myself becoming more and more anxious, always checking my phone or tabbing out during loadtimes to look at my facebook feed or whatever.
I really miss the days when I could just sit my ass down in front of Mega Man 2 and get my ass handed to me for hours on end without thinking of anything else outside of how much of a cockwombler Quick Man is and that I'll get them next time.
Another thing that taps into that same feeling for me (gaming being more cynical) is how so many people seem to think it's their duty to be angry about games. No matter how much effort was put in it, people will be angry and loud and opinionated. And that stuff gets attention. Especially here on UA-cam.
I really don't understand how one feels it's a good thing to dedicate days and weeks of work into talking shit about games they don't like, instead of just giving praise to the ones they do love. It turns people into compulsive angry video game nerds. The AVGN was meant to be ironic. But a whole new generation has taken this attitude quite literally.
If you haven't tried it yet, you should REALLY look into Quern - Undying Thoughts. I loved Obduction but felt there wasn't nearly as much of a need to write information down like the original Myst & Riven series. I only used 2-3 pages of my notebook that I've dedicated to Myst-esque games for the game which left me feeling a bit sad as I still have my notebook from the original which was a very full just getting through the first 2 games. Quern feels exactly like Myst did to me back in the day, but isn't nearly as graphically impressive as Obduction. The puzzles feel unique, yet a throwback to Myst. It's a shame the game is so understated, as it deserves quite a bit more attention. Give it a shot, I swear you will get the same feeling you did as you did playing Myst the first time. I'm glad I bumped into your channel good to see someone with no sensationalist fluff talk about gaming, will subscribe!
There is something magical in the intros of Myst and Riven. Each time I catch even a glimpse, something in my chest squirms, chills march down my spine, and I feel like a child again, sitting in a dark room alone, peering into the glare of the CRT monitor...
Too many games today shift their focus toward streamlined, faultless experience, prettier graphics and high FPS count, while forgetting that faults and hardships are a part of what makes the experience special, or highlights something you would've never noticed if you ran through the game unhalted.
As an example: Devil May Cry 2 is heeded as the worst game in the series and is often cast aside as garbage in favour of the better entries, and yet, it still holds a special place in my heart... because I got absolutely lost in the upper part of the town, walking the streets for an hour with nothing but Eye of the Wind (ua-cam.com/video/FYlDEUs6riI/v-deo.html) droning in the background. It made me look at the game in a new light, and made me notice how strangely depressing it was...
This is really touching. I was the one who was eyed strangely for loving the Myst series so much and played indeed with a friend to share the pain when getting stuck or to complement our ideas of how to solve a puzzle. It was a great experience and I love this genre ever since. The Witness reminded me somehow of the serenity of Myst, but the puzzles were a different thing. I can't wait to download Obduction and give it a try.
I was also reminded of Zork: Nemesis which is also engraved in my mind as absolutely stunning and wonderfully crafted (but might also be the case of remembering it being far better than it actually was, though. :-)!)
Thank you for the review. I am happy to count myself to the selected ring of people who appreciate a good deal of contemplation, brain racking and even boredom.
All the best for you!
Always found it strange that Obduction doesn't get talked about a great deal. The game went a good deal beyond just replicating an old formula 1 by 1, took the words right out of my mouth. There's a fair point to the patience required in that sort of game, won't pretend that never happened; looking back at more some of those older first-person adventures like Rama or Journeyman Through Time, many of their puzzles were tough nuts to crack. Rama even went through the trouble of putting alien languages in hexadecimal letters or other base numbers.
Anyway, thanks for the video.
Well - you also gotta(somewhat) learn an alient number system in Obduction, so that's that. ;)
Well, I'm sold.
I've never heard of this game before your video and now I gotta get it.
Thank you.
why doesnt this guy have more subs
Mike Marks Because most people don't cone to UA-cam to learn about stuff. They cone to what to watch funny videos or something else. Only a few people enjoy this. And the algorithm doesn't help ethier.
Samuel Raji thats not necessarily true look at sci show
Mike Marks because not every youtube user is like you. There are so many good youtubers with few subs, and every one has comments like yours.
***** and? Your making it sound like i said something bad
Still asking that question two years later
Another Myst veteran here - they were my favorite games as a kid. I also loved Obduction (just finished my second play-through after giving myself a year to forget everything). Another game that really captured the feeling you describe is Quern: Undying Thoughts. Mind-blowingly clever, visually stunning, and supremely satisfying to play - as long as you have a pen, paper, and a LOT of patience.
For me, original Myst was mind blowing. It was my introduction into digital worlds and environmental storytelling. I backed Obduction through blind belief and it was worth every penny (and then some). What they delivered, as you alluded to, brought back the memory and the experience of the original Myst and Riven in a cerebral, nostalgic way. Obduction is the culmination of everything I believed Myst would become. And it needed this time to do that.
When I tell others to play this game though, I do so guardedly. I almost feel like they need to pass a Myst-like test in order for me to realize that they truly value and understand that which is Obduction.
Just played this, here 5 years later, at 57 years old. Loved it! Bought and played Myst back in 95 after buying my first PC. ;)
OK that's it, I've got to finish this game, thanks for a very thoughtful video. Made me think that in this moment, pausing and soaking in the world around would be of help once again, it certainly was my main mode as a child playing Myst, Riven, Myst 3, it was a place of safety and escape - a place to focus on the art and the self.
It's pretty gratifying to hear others express the same thoughts I've been having for a while. A lot of possible emotions are lost from games when they streamline the experience in order to hold your attention over all the other alternatives available on the market. Immersion is best when you have a multi-faceted experience with a game, when there are 'bad' things in addition to good things. Like when you get lost, or have to backtrack because of a level's realistic lack of convenient shortcuts, or explore some area only to find it completely pointless, or when an area is much more difficult than the rest and you want to steer clear of it, or when a journey between two places is long enough to feel like it overstays its welcome but ALSO to feel like you've completed a real, arduous journey when you're done with it... I can't get immersed in games that try to be roller coasters, and it seems like games that present a more balanced experience aren't too viable anymore, and it makes me really sad.
The worst part is I have no idea what could be done about it. Can there be games that somehow combine being not-instant-gratification-rollercoasters and being immensely attractive to a wide audience, gradually reintroducing them to that style of games by showing how shallow most games are by comparison? I feel that the From Software games might be going in the right direction, at least, so not all hope is lost... now everyone just needs to start making amazing games and games will be good again! Sigh.
So, we wanted to get a Family Computer and we go to the store. We end up getting the one with the first CD-ROM drive, the Apple Man IIvx! So, we are messing around with it, seeing what this AOL thing is that kept arriving in our mail like some defective Star Trek device, when my brother said "Hey, this has a CD-ROM drive, but we don't have any CD-ROM games. It's your birthday soon, let's just go pick one up, huh?"
Most were crap, but that is not very fair because the choices were few. I had found "Spaceship Warlock", but my brother had found MYST. SW stayed on the shelf and MYST stayed in my heart.
You have to understand, there was simply NOTHING like this at the time! It really did become your world. You took your time here. I had so much fun playing with my brother :D
I worked on this game and I must say, this video made me tear up. It really meant a lot to me, thank you so much.
I was never smart enough for these games. I played them over and over and over again until I felt how stupid I was that moment and hated the fact that I was just too dull......and then I figured it out. And that made me feel as if the world was not so hard.......until the next puzzle.
Ah.......sweet memories.
I have never played Myst or Riven, but this looks intriguing. Without this video I would have probably never heard about this game. Thanks!
You're welcome. Glad I could spark an interest :)
I wish i could support you in anyway but i am poor af! Only help i could give is watch every single video that you have put out, they are indeed a work of art. Thank you very much for giving me something quite enjoyable to listen while i draw. Love your work please keep it up.
TheRewoR i even play the ads until the end
Outerwilds is an incredible experience that really scratches that itch that Myst does.
"the bastards with money" part killed me xD
Very nice touch at the end!
You have described my exact feelings that I had playing Myst back in 1996... Everything that I felt while playing this immersive game. Thank you!
My god, how right you are, and how truly eloquent. I cry out for a computer that will actually let me experience the joy of THINKing once again, in a place where I have time to savor, without having to kill or try to avoid being killed. And notes, how I miss taking notes and pondering in peace.
It was my first book fair. I was in the middle of the convention, surrounded by books. And tucked away in the corner was a single PC with about a dozen kids my age huddled around it. This was my first experience with Myst. I was MYSTified lol. We were all taking turns wandering around that first island, wondering which lever did what.
Good times.
I've only watched 2 of your videos, and I'm already subscribed. Really well-done and thoughtful pieces with no hyperbole or other annoyances. Relaxing and informative. You've obviously put a lot of effort into these, and it shows.
I like games like Walking Dead, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, etc. But I do miss the puzzle aspect of old point and click adventures, I love puzzles even if some do frustrate me for hours, there's something wonderful about being stuck for hours on a puzzle then once you reach that "ah ha!" Moment and finally figure it out you can pat yourself on the back for finally beating it, I remember playing Zelda Twilight Princess for the first time as a kid and I got stuck trying to move the statues to get the Master Sword, I spent 3 hours trying and asked my brother for help but he refused and when I finally got it I was so happy I was running around the whole house in excitement, and that's the feeling I miss that sense of joy you get from completing something challenging.
One thing I always found interesting about the never ending goal for photorealistic graphics is that it's been driven by furthering technology, not to make the aesthetic design of games more striking. In order for big budget companies to continue Moore's law in graphical quality, they need to have this awkward fascination with graphics that sometimes loses that game's art style.
Exactly. Also, when you can push more polygons onto the screen at the same time, a lot of artists/designers fall into the trap of throwing in a lot of flashy details into the characters and the environments at the expense of making them much less memorable and visually striking. If I ask you to describe Pyramid Head or Raziel from Legacy of Kain to a person who's never seen them, its not that hard. Yet if I ask to do the same for Dead Space Necromorphs or Marcus from Gears of War, it becomes very hard. That's not a bad thing in itself, but technical limitations of the 90s mean that game designers had to focus on the absolute basics - silhouette, color, texture etc. Every single shred of detail had to be crafted, since so little of it could actually be put in. And the ones that were put in were the ones that would make the game stand out.
I also think Blizzard's approach to game art is probably adheres most closely to how 90s game artists approached it. Their games, imo, could be scaled down for graphics cards of 15 years ago and still have plethora of visual flair.
Breath of the wild breaks that, the game is so aesthetically pleasing without having photorealistic graphic.
That's something KojiPRo has always done well with Metal Gear compared to other military-action games. Whichever variant of Snake you play in a Metal Gear, he always has a very distinctive and striking, appearance, as opposed to the generic "tacticool" soldier garb used in Call of Duty, Battlefield etc.
Despite any of the MGS not really pushing hardware in texture quality or polygon count, the games still always look better (and hold up well,) because the aesthetic is stylised and memorable, rather than "as photorealistic as possible given the current tech."
Alexander Pavlyak Yeah... Cyan has always had a more imaginative art style than most devs and they really do still choose to challenge players mentally. I am doing sort of the same sort of thing aesthetically - stylizing and rejecting conventional AAA graphics patterns - with my own 'Mystlike' adventure game that chooses the also admittedly old school artform of handcrafted miniatures, which is - I feel - forms an interesting combination.
My soon to release indie game BTW, is 'Miniature Multiverse'. www.miniaturemultiverse.com
I grew up playing Battletoads on the NES, and while a guide wouldn't be much help with that game it was still one of those I played as a child that I kept throwing myself at despite the damn near impossible difficulty. Another game more fitting to talk about here would be Flashback, a game which I was utterly enamored with after being gifted it for my 11th birthday. Like mentioned here, games weren't nearly as easy to come by and I only had the NES and SNES to play games on as it was, which made me one of the lucky ones among friends I'd had at the time. I remember first playing the latter game and being stuck at one of the first screens, not realizing there was a spot where you needed to lower yourself down to advance. Had I been a kid during current times it's entirely possible I'd just had given up right there and never played the game again. But, as said in this here vid, I didn't have a lot of games so I kept messing around until I figured out what to do, and that feeling is really something else! That 'eureka' moment is so elating and one that doesn't come the same when using the assistance of a guide of some sort. But, when you know a guide is there it's hard to blame anyone for seeking it out these days.
New to the channel and looking around. I love analysis videos like this, especially about video games and TV series. I have been a long time player of all things Myst, got all the games and all the books, and was also a first time backer of Obduction when it was first announced, but unfortunately have never had the chance to play it ever, since I don't have a fancy beefed up PC. But was so glad to hear that the game is coming to PS4 and especially PSVR. So I cannot wait to dive into this when it arrives. Love your channel and will be spending a lot more time checking out all the other videos. Keep up the excellent work!
I remember fondly those hard cover versions of the Myst books at the local library and how they were always checked out.
Snarky McSne I bought them from Amazon many years ago and bought that Riven picture book too. I've read them a few times. So good.
Your videos get me through work listening on my head phones, these are so amazing
I remember playing Myst years ago, it was such a magical game( at least that's how it felt) I lost the cd and never finished. I'll try to buy Obduction some day.
Awesome video, as always.
Never clicked on a video so fast before.
I am quite new on this channel and watched nearly all of your videos now. Basically, you became one of my favorite UA-camrs over night! I just wanted to thank you for making such high effort videos.
Keep it up!
Woo! New video! keep up the good work man, not only do I relate a lot to your videos, but you're like a goldmine of interesting information and game recommendations. Mix in some personal philosophical observations and you've got a RagnarRox video :D
I watched this video after finishing obduction few years ago.
As this week I was going through a replay of Riven, I remembered it and came back to watch it again. I couldn't agree more on what you said.
Thank you
this is so thoughtful and well written I'm subscribe
A+ backer reading at the end. Also I really liked your coverage of this game and your analysis of the genre.
I still need to play Obduction. Myst is still my all-time favorite pc game, and I've got it and Riven completely memorized.
"It even gives you an optional hot-spot point-and-click control scheme as another throwback to the good old days."
You're probably right, but I think the main purpose of having it control like this is the consideration for VR. Classical motion styles give a lot of people motion sickness in VR, and this "point-and-teleport" system is a very common alternative.
It's actually meant to replicate the old games, but it serves both purposes well
maaaan, i really like you and this channel a lot, you get to the core in every video, and you have very interesting perspective on all the games i like, a lot about games you say is also true, i dont know why, but i feel video games should be more like pathologic or disco elysium than the constant iterations of shooter games like CoD games and alike are...
there is so much more to explore in terms of video game design and you are one of rare people who steers it in the right direction!
i hope one day you make a video about age old classic "Neverhood" played it as a child never understood shit but it kept me in constant awe and wonder for exploration...i think you will also like the professional and production side behind the game, its truly and interesting gem and i have yet to see a good review of that game!
keep up the good work man!
I've been on the fence about playing MYST for a while but this video really sold me on the game. Really great video!
RagnarRox please please do a Video about David Lynch and his work.
Twin Peaks is definitely planned (for a long time already)
RagnarRox ohhh great!! im looking forward! but i tell you "Eraserhead" alone would deserve a owne video. love your stuff! keep going!
and Dune! Don't forget that one XD
I see you didn't forget about The Void yet :D
Never. :)
I remember printing out the riven walk through from the Internet. it took me all day.
goddamit ragnarox, everytime you make a video about a game i havent played i want to buy it immediately! :D
Always looking forward to your videos Ragnar!
Amazing narrative as always! Love the Obduction game, it's really solid experience bringing back old memories. Thank you, Ragnar!
Fantastic overview!!! It felt like you were pulling the words out of my brain as you spoke them. I loved Obduction even though it had it's flaws (too long transitions, too much obfuscation with that damned machine, too much running back and forth). Course, I'm probably internally glossing over the bazillion times I was told to insert a different disk when playing Riven way back when. I still have the nifty slide out Riven game CD box that was included in some deluxe editions. While Obduction didn't eclipse Riven, it was fantastic. Riven is a tough, if not, impossible opus to beat. I also felt Obduction was better than The Witness or Quern. Both great games though.
I watch a lot of Obduction streams on Twitch. The live chat is so fun.
Turns out forever is only a few years. I've never been much of a puzzle guy, but I gotta try that Myst VR
Myst 3 and the damn gate puzzle, the one where you needed to change the frequency of several gates so they don't destroy your cart
I wish my mind was more compatible with this kind of games. :P
Interesting video, thanks.
One of, if not the best, game review I ever ever listened to...Bravo!
I know 'The Witness' had a much more straight forward gameplay - Do all these clear coloured puzzles. The underlying story and the eureka moment at the end made me nearly cry. It was beautiful - and that cranial orgasm as you said was incredible. The eureka moments in games are just not there anymore.
Joroh I second this. The Witness is amazing.
I found witness iritatingly boring. There is no eureka, the puzzles are repeated ad nausium and the best part is finding shapes in nature.
It a pointless hipster selfaware game for Dan Brown crowd of kiddos
Great video Ragnar. Also, you look like Thor now lol
God, I loved Riven so much, it left this super specific web of colors and sounds and even smells and tastes in my memory, not unlike our theorized genetically imprinted instinctive longing for a certain type of terrain.
Thanks for helping me understand why people actually love Myst games. I hated them since childhood and always considered them terrible games, but at least I can see why they're loved now. Actually I can see myself enjoying them since now I know they actually start making sense after a while. Their nature of giving random and meaningless pile of puzzles right from the start always put me off too much.
Oh, that's great to hear. I must confess that my first attempts of 10-year-old me was also met with some disappointment.
But eventually, I grew into the mindset that it needs. Those games are wonderful if you want to slow down the treadmill of fast rewards and instant gratification, but instead just want to take a mental breather from all of it.
It can be very soothing. (With an element of wtf-frustration when you're trying to figure out things)
Glad you watched it even though it's not your typical style of games. :)
I'm totally okay with slow and frustrating games if there is reason to keep going, something worthwhile. One of my all time favorites is Scratches and a lot of people criticize it of being too slow and boring. Not for me.
Problem with the Myst was always the fact that I didn't really understand why those puzzles were there, why I was trying to solve those. When I think like that, games became unworthy in my eyes quickly. But I should've known better I guess.
Cheers, your videos are always great! Silent Hill 2/3 are the best games ever!
Hello fellow Scratches fan.
The fact that I even played Scratches was because I'm a long time adventure game fan. Starting with Myst and gravitating to the Dreamcatcher Interactive and Adventure Company games.
Though even within the adventure gaming genre you can break them down into Sci Fi, horror, surreal... and not all people will like all those kinds. I tended to like 1st person non killing ones where if you got stuck it was your own darn fault and not an alien overlord running you over in his mechanical wheel chair
(The Crystal Key).
I guess now we're seeing more exploration based instead of puzzle based like Gone Home and Firewatch but it's really nice that games like Obduction are still being made.
Hello fellow adventure game fan!
It's true that even adventure game fans don't like all adventure game types. For one, I prefer Scratches style games with a focus on story and atmosphere while puzzles are usually not full on puzzles but daily life problems.
It's really hard to convince people to play games like Myst nowadays, though. Great visuals certainly help, but new generation of gamers are too used being hand fed and not working for their victories. I don't see them having patience to take notes or to look through encyclopedias to solve a puzzle without actually cheating with a walkthrough.
One trend I appreciate lately is the Dark Souls style "git gud or die trying" trend which basically finds fault in players rather than the game, because the game is actually very fair and balanced, but unforgiving to any mistakes. It's like action rpg counter part of old style adventure games where when you got stuck it was because you couldn't figure out how to solve a puzzle. Well, to be perfectly fair, old adventure games were not the most fair games when it comes to puzzles, but feeling of achievement is always there when you solve a tough one.
If you are interested in watching old adventure games on Twitch, I strongly recommend following RetrogradeTom. He plays old games fair and square. Sometimes terrible ones, sometimes great ones, but always great experiences. I'm usually there when he streams and my nickname is JoJTGT.
Cheers.
Obduction was fantastic. Except when you were given a far-too vague instruction to "connect the trees" or whatever, when all we needed to hear was, "go to the other biomes, find the tree at their centers, and turn on the faucet." And the number puzzles. And that hidden pathway adjacent to the circular boulder room.
"go to the other biomes, find the tree at their centers, and turn on the faucet."
Just like Myst back in the day, eh? Crystal clear instructions all the way through.
I really love how you described this game! You've done a marvelous job! :D
Best video on video games and gaming I’ve ever scene
Big Myst fan here and I liked some aspects of Obuction very much, but you make Obduction sound much better than it is. Unlike with other adventure games, I hardly had to take any notes in Obduction and in one case I figured something out, it turns out that you could easily just luck out creating the solutions when you ultimately needed them. Obduction had enormous potential but ultimately falls flat because it cheaps out in several places. The attention to detail is there sometimes but by no means always. Unfortunately, it only takes a little defect to make a magic bubble burst and Obduction suffers from many such defects. I so wished to have a good time with that game and sometimes was rewarded, but Obduction doesn't come close to the coherent magic evoked by Myst.
If anyone is looking for a spiritual successor to Myst, then in my book "Quern -- Undying Thoughts" easily trumps Obduction. "Quern" actually made me relive the Myst magic whereas Obduction almost never really clicked with me. Much of the artwork in Obduction just lacks taste and refinement.
By the way, you make a good point about the difference between remembering old games and experiencing them again. However, I don't believe we remember them better than they ever were. I believe at the time, in their context, they were actually as amazing as we remember them. Sure, we added our imagination, but the games were truly evocative.
FWIW, Obduction was one of the first games I played with a modern graphics card so the 3D immersion was much more mind-blowing for me than it would have been if I had been a gamer for the past ten years, or so. But still Obduction did not manage to immerse me into a world and then even disappointed with the last half hour of game play.
very nice episode man. thank you.
I think many people are reliving their myst days by analyzing every nook and cranny of darksouls + other such games, like hyperlight drifter, that left their lore scattered in pieces for players to immerse themselves in if they chose to
Another great video. It's always a bless to watch one of your videos Ragnar. Keep it up.
Hello Ragnar I just wanted to say that I love your Love Letter videos and I cant wait for the next one :)
Hey, thank you a lot.
The next one will come, but ... it might take a little while till I get there. But it's planned. :)
If you liked that you may like Returner 77. An old mobile game for sure, but played in the style of The Room with same type graphics, interesting local n story on an alien ship as humanities last hope with some FMV thrown in. Very fun and cool for its time
Really well done video. Thank you.
Speaking of old games - there was a game I remember playing but its name is long forgotten... My cousin owned it and he too has no recollection of the name of it either. So I am gonna leave a description and see anyone here can help me out. Basically you are wizard boy, in purple robes and you shoot fire, its isometric top down but has a feel of 3D to it. I also remember there is a girl, she is either antagonist or someone who helps you, has this mean look to her. It does have some point and click moments which you traverse a tower and then enter segments where you clear a room with monsters. Its quite bizarre how its name has left me but I remember its game play. Anyways hope someone can help find this mystery game for me. Oh and this was around 1998 and 1999 when i played the game.
obduction is an underrated masterpiece. i'm so excited for firmament. i think the riven remake will be the best game ever published.
Love all the Machinarium music snippets
I have been thinking about this game since I saw MATN or the like play it, and I could not remember the name to save my life.
Suddenly today I just typed "puzzle game with mining place and tree" and found the name.
Firstly great video as usual Ragnar. I may be giving my age away but i too have many fond memories playing point and click adventure games such as Kings quest, Monkey island, leisure suit Larry, Indiana jones, heart of china and many many more. Half the fun of these games was indeed trying to figure out the story and what to do next and if you were to become stuck cheating was almost a taboo. I recall my dad buying a few hint books for some of these games and the books themselves were tiny and you had to use a red viewing card to read the text so as not to spoil the story. This was a direct indication that cheating was not what the player wanted to do and as you said today with the internet and game let's plays it is so easy to cheat and spoil the experience not that games today are overly difficult by comparison. I know it may not be the usual type of video that you upload Ragnar but would you ever upload a let's play of some of your favourite point and click adventure games such as Indiana Jones and the fate of atlantis for example. I know you appreciate the genre and it would be awesome to watch. Just a thought :) I really enjoyed the video because it reminds me of being a kid playing these type of games on the family PC trying to work out the story and what to do next. I now have a sudden urge to put down the PS4 controller and fire up the old PC. :)
Oh, I remember those red filter card systems, that was super cool actually and totally underlines my point!
About the Let's Play question. The thing is - I love to do these from time to time, but I can't upload them on this channel, since it would scramble the audience too much, especially in terms of youtube's algorithm.
This is not meant to be a shameless plug, but I have done a couple of live streams on Patreon where I played classic adventures. (Monkey Island 2 and 3) and they're still available.
As a fellow adventure-lover, if you're interested in watching them, feel free to shoot me an email via the address in the about section of this channel and I'll send you a link. :)
My dad used to hide the hint books but i would always find them lol but as mentioned i did not want information beyond the part where i was stuck that just felt wrong and i did not want to spoil the experience. Yes it does underline your point and as usual you are spot on. I understand as an audience becomes used to a certain format. Oh cool live streams sound good. Thanks for the reply Ragnar and i look forward to your next video :)
Always preferred Dark Fall 1-2-3 over Myst - plz don't kill me)
I replayed them in a row with two of my best friends, we've been playing it every day until we finished all of em...it was so immersive....man....
And if you'll have a time or passion,pls make a video about these games)
I remember playing this as a kid! I didn't get that far... but still memories!
I absolutely love Obduction, and I'm excited to experience it again soon when I actually get around to buying a VR headset. But I have one major problem with its design. I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a certain system you use to solve most of the puzzles in the game, and that system incorporates ... a loading screen, of all things. Sticking with the Portal comparison, imagine if you were playing Portal, but every single time you jumped through a portal you encountered a loading screen that lasted upwards of 40 seconds to a minute. That's exactly what playing this game is like, and it's infuriating, everything slows to a crawl and it goes from a breathtaking experience to an annoyance very quickly. Maybe it's better with an SSD, but I don't have an SSD. This seems like such a simple thing to fix, and I have no idea what they were thinking when they made it like this.
There is no loading with an SSD
He is basically explaining how it feels to learn for your engineering assignments.
Beautiful. Thank you for this
As a player that hadn't played myst before I can say that boy was it a lot easier then Obduction in terms of puzzle difficulty, cleared myst in one sitting and the only thing I looked up was the audio puzzle because I'm tone deaf.
I'm a week into Obduction atm and so far it's been great.
It's a good middle-ground between Riven and Myst, I think.
13:05 That Uru footage, is that from my Let's Play? Either it is, or someone who used the exact same avatar, and made the same movements. :)
That might just be!
Apologies if I forgot to put the link in the description - I might have just overlooked it in the post-process.
"When Myst was one of the few games you had at the time, even if it was initially boring and daunting and even if you got stuck for days without making any progress, you'd still return until it became a habit."
I didn't play Myst back then; I ended up finally playing it much later, in 2016 or so, after finishing Obduction. I knew nothing about the game, and I didn't look anything up, but I still was able to complete it in one or two sittings (Steam says about ten hours total). So I'm confused about how it would have taken someone days to make any progress at all. It's not because we have the internet now, because I didn't use the internet for anything while playing. Perhaps it's the fact that we have access to so many more games now? Back in the day, Myst was essentially one of a kind, but nowadays I've played so many different kinds of puzzle games that I know more or less how they work, and I used those skills to figure out Myst with relative ease. Or something, I don't know. I did think the game was incredible, though.
Riven is even better, check it out if you haven't yet
having more gaming experience could be the reson, Ive tried playing Myst years ago as a kid and couldnt even get off the main island
played it again last year and was able to finish it in about 10 hours as well, still greatly enjoying it
Myst still holds up. Loved Exile too
this video brought back my nostalgic child love of Nancy Drew !
Perfect review
Thank you for introducing this and so many other great games I would have otherwise heard of. I think half my game library is made up of stuff UA-camrs have recommended
There are so many versions of Myst, no idea which one to play
If you have an iPhone / iPad, try the App Store release of Myst. Touchscreen works very well for that genre, and there's no need to deal with OS or QuickTime compatibility issues.
Then, after plain Myst, try Real Myst. It's a fun adaptation, but it shouldn't be your first entry into the franchise.
Riven is breathtaking (still!), and Exile might just be my favorite to play through. Both well worth it - but start with the original.
Damn.. now i want to play those games....
Oh man if you like that feeling on a videogame you should DEFINITELY play Outer Wilds
this was such a well done video. you managed to convey exactly what you
thought about the game without actually spoling any of it. i actually
feel a bit more interested in checking it out. i remember those times where
games had a certain kind of mystery to them - we handed around theories
about pokemon games in elementary school.. "you can find a mew behind
that truck!" etc. i feel like nowadays games are not treated as unique
gems anymore, there are so many, people are a lot less patient and
interested in getting their moneys worth i feel.
by the way, i really wanted to ask you wheter you know the zero escape series and
what you might think of it. since its probably my favourite game series
and this is one of my favourite channels so..
Perfect review!
I'm intrigued! I like the sound of this game.
Brilliant. :)
my father and i played these games. when i was a kid best times ever
ur every cideo is like a celebrathion for me
Looks peaceful.
Oh how I wish I had a computer that could run a game like this...
Post climactic sadness... was that a reference to "Post Game Tristesse"? ;)
If you like puzzle games you should try The Witness, it is realy cool
This reminds me of a game I played on my Ps1, called Necronomicon.
I remembered Myst from my childhood... I feel old
Perfectly said