Myst. You either love it or you hate it. It has the unique distinction
of not only being the best-selling computer game of all time but also both the
best-loved and the most-loathed. No matter what camp you fall into, one thing
is for certain: no other game has gotten more people hooked on adventure games
than Myst.

Seeking to capitalize on the previous success of Myst
now that it’s fallen off the bestseller charts, Mindscape has released an
updated version called Myst Masterpiece. The enhanced version is the same
game with the same puzzles, but the graphics are now 24-bit, the music has been
remastered, new sound effects have been added, and the game now installs and plays
very easily in Win95/98. In addition, there is a new online hint system–if you
get stuck, you simply click on the bottom of the screen. Three levels of hints
are available, from gentle nudge to outright spoiler. I know I would have welcomed
a feature like this the first time I played! Oh, and I almost forgot, the swellest
new addition is a map of each world. I always get disoriented very easily in slide-show
style games, and the maps are great!

I was surprised at the level of story
there was in Myst. All of the loathers have been getting to me, I guess,
because I remembered it as a series of puzzles that lead to a conclusion, but
it actually has a pretty strong fantasy plot. Replaying it brought back a lot
of fond gaming memories. I actually remembered quite a bit with regard to the
puzzle solutions (I guess because I strained my brain so hard the first time around
that it all got hardwired), and so I found it not so fun the second time through
(but it went fast!). Thus, I would recommend buying this new version only if you
haven’t played Myst before or if you played it years ago in Win 3.1 and
now want to try it again on your more up-to-date system. However, if either of
these two are the case–go for it!

A final thought: you know how there are
red and blue Pokemon games and now they’re coming out with a yellow Pikachu
version? They should have added some yellow Pikachu pages to Myst. We
and about a hundred million other parents will most likely be buying that yellow
Pikachu Pokemon, even though no doubt it’s the same damn thing as the red
and blue, around Christmas time, and it might have worked the same way for Mindscape.

My
overall grade for the game, both the original and this new version, is A.

Want
to learn more? The official web site is www.mystmasterpiece.com.