The words “genre defining” are usually reserved for the most revered classics in the gaming industry. As with any entertainment industry, like movies and music, certain greats have redefined how we perceive specific things, like the great camera techniques in Citizen Kane to the blockbuster potential in Jaws. Video games, over their fifty years of commercial existence, have numerous games that have defined genres: Super Mario Bros., the platformer; Baldur's Gate, the RPG; Doom, the first-person shooter. We often hold certain titles to the loftiest of standards this way, using them as shorthand for the best the genre has to offer.
Perhaps one game that many tend to overlook is another game that is genre-defying in ways that may seem unusual. That game is Myst, a 1993 adventure game for the PC that for decades has built a reputation as being both one of the most important games ever made, along with one of the best games of all time. Is it an earned reputation? Ultimately, it comes down to whether you see Myst as genre-defining
Myst was the brainchild of Robyn and Rand Miller, the cofounders of Cyan Studios. Back in 1993, the PC was the reigning king for several complex video games, with the emerging 16-bit generation coming through on the console systems. Computer games were not wholly shackled by the constraints of hardware tech, leading to a massive industry of experimental, unique games that pushed boundaries in a multitude of ways. Sound design was crisper, use of voice acting was becoming more prominent, and graphics could retain a higher pixel quality and didn't feel suppressed. Since most games were on floppy disks at the time, they had constraints, but technical wizards were able to churn out mostly quality products, with some leaping consoles with mixed results.
For Cyan Studios, Myst was a complex point-and-click adventure game that, on a technical level, is unsurpassed for its time. Built on a HyperCard, a software application found in Apple II computers, with most of the game's production being on the Quadra 700 Macintosh. It was arduous, to the point where Cyan Studios had to compensate for technical limitations, such as using 3D Rendering software for more static environments vs hand-drawn imagery. The game would contain 25,000 frames of 3D rendered backgrounds, all enhanced in the earliest version of Photoshop before it was completed.
This type of technical wizardry is part of the legacy of Myst. It would be positioned as one of the first point-and-click adventure games to utilize a newer technology, CD-ROM. Though this came with its own limitations, it opened up games to more technical fidelity as the technology advanced. Much of Myst's design is anchored by this leap to CDs vs. floppy disks. Myst and its contemporary, the 7th Guest, were among the first to be CD-exclusive in the early 1990s, which at the time was nearly unheard of.
Myst was a graphical powerhouse in comparison to most contemporaries, using pre-rendered graphics in full 3-D. This also allowed Myst to experiment with lighting and polygonal effects that were mostly unseen at the time. By today’s standards, it may seem primitive (and in later incarnations of the game, such as the PlayStation version, the shortcomings are noticeable), but the very scope of the world's design, right down to the last texture, was impressive.
Discussing the technical aspects of the game's creation is part of the reason why the game is genre-defining. The game itself does show its age. It is still masterful in its simplistic premise and execution; the entire game takes place in a surreal world that looks like Salvador Dali conjured up. You control a silent protagonist known as the Stranger who washes up on this mysterious island all alone, with no idea as to where to go or what to do. The object of the game is to explore the island and the various worlds connected to the island by opening portals, and through a series of events, you begin to discover and uncover the mysteries of the world around you.
The game's entire surrealist approach is what was most memorable back in the early 1990’s. A game would rarely engross a player and force them to explore on their own, without any cardinal direction or method to do so. You are not given instructions, your just randomly clicking items and seeing what works. While this may anger some gamers who prefer a sense of direction to what they must do, Myst’s true rewards came from the use of exploration and ingenuity at puzzle solving.
Puzzles in Myst were purposefully made to be mostly environmental by Cyan Studios. Utilizing the surreal environment is the key to Myst's success, mainly because it made the puzzles approachable and, more importantly, drenched in logic. Myst avoids the adventure game trap of moon logic fairly well, and often feels organic in its puzzle resolutions through being narratively relevant versus completely disconnected from it.
Also impressive were the series of challenges a player had to accomplish. Once the story begins to reveal itself and unravel around you, the puzzles begin to ramp up in difficulty. Some are a bit too obtuse, like trying to channel electricity from a giant oak tree, or navigating a sewer system that can go on to infinity if you're not careful. These challenges are tough, but ultimately fair if you are observant and paying attention, at least. Throughout it all, the game's mysterious aura is all around the Stranger, and for the player, you feel it in what you see and do, wondering what is around the corner after you figure out the next brain teaser.
Perhaps its greatest achievement was the sound effects. The game boasts no music whatsoever, but instead relies on the swirls of the wind, the clanking of the gears, and the woodpeckers in the trees to tell the story for you. The game simulated what it would have been like to be on the island itself, and you had a sense that you were there based on what you heard, a truly marvelous experience at the time.
The game does have a snag later on, as once the mystery of the island and its various ages begins to unravel, it will become somewhat confusing to understand what is really going on, even with what was revealed to you. This is mostly told through your main rewards for the puzzles: book pages that unlock some FMV sequences in the observatory. Does it fully make sense? It really depends on how thorough you are. The endgame is solid, but also somewhat anti-climatic, especially after all of the exploration and backtracking you need to do to get to it. Plus, once the game is over, there is no need to play it again, as the adventure is great for a one-time romp.
But what a romp it is. Myst would be the highest-selling PC game of all time throughout the 1990s, and is often cited as the reason for CD-ROM technology becoming the defining format for nearly a generation. Myst’s influence is still seen in gaming, from titles like Professor Layton to Jonathan Blow's The Witness. All of this, despite adventure games being seen by many as an anachronistic genre. The game even influenced the media used to play games today, boosting the sales of CD-ROMS and leaving floppy disks behind in the dust. True, the near non-existent story, lack of direction, impressive but outdated graphics, and slow pace may be negatives for some, but Myst still deserves the praise that it was heralded fifteen years ago; it is truly the definition of genre-defining.