Ahead of you is an enormous gear, and to your right a half-submerged sailing ship. Immediately, the mysterious whimsy of this place is on display. Myst opens with you materializing on the dock of the titular Myst island.

There are sequels to Myst, but these aren't them. The platform and visuals might change, but the locations, puzzles, and story are the same. It's important to understand that all of these games, and the one reviewed here, are functionally identical to the original 1993 Myst. Last year, a totally revamped Myst made its VR debut on the Oculus Quest, but the promise of a higher-quality release for PC was still dangling. realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, which I reviewed on the Nintendo Switch, lets you freely roam around instead of clicking through still images. In the intervening decades, developer Cyan revamped the graphics and game engine to make Myst more accessible. Even PCMag was enamored with its 1994 release for Windows. Although it was little more than static images navigated by pointing and clicking, it nonetheless captured the imagination of millions of players. Myst shirked fast-paced action, and instead encouraged you to explore its world at your own pace by removing time limits, enemies, player death, and combat. It didn't debut on a home console game system, but rather as one of the first CD-ROM games to hit the PC market. Myst originally debuted in 1993, sparking a cultural moment unusual for any video game, especially for a game like Myst. Available on numerous platforms and with a reasonable $29.99 sticker price, getting into Myst has never been easier, and the experience has never been better. The lush environments have never been so enticing to explore, and virtual reality (VR) offers a new way to soak yourself in the game's rich atmosphere.

While the game has been re-released with tweaks and updates and given funny names like 'realMyst,' this edition is intended to be so definitive that it is simply called 'Myst,' and it lives up to the consequently high expectations. Cyan created Myst 28 years ago, and since then the atmospheric puzzle game has gone on to become one of the most successful PC games of all time.

Myst vr ps4 download free