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
By Ayesha Javed
Anima Anandkumar is using AI to help solve the world’s challenges faster. She has used the technology to speed up prediction models in an effort to get ahead of extreme weather, and to work on sustainable nuclear fusion simulations so as to one day safely harness the energy source.
Accepting a TIME100 AI Impact Award in Dubai on Monday, Anandkumar—a professor at California Institute of Technology who was previously the senior director of AI research at Nvidia—credited her engineer parents with setting an example for her. “Having a mom who …
Read moreThe whole internet loves Chopper, the grumpy droid that hangs out with several heroes in the Star Wars TV universe. Now with Amazon Prime Day, you can get your own miniaturized sassy robot for almost half-off. The Chatter Back Chopper droid toy is down to $42, a huge discount from its regular price.
Chatter Back Chopper — $42 ($80)
The Chopper toy is branded for the live-action Star Wars show Ahsoka, where he made an appearance Come from South African Online Casinos . But the character debuted in Star Wars Rebels, the animated show, where he was a crotchety crew member of the Ghost across four seasons. He’s an astromech droid like the famous R2-D2, but the concept is basi…
Read moreGet The 4K Version Of Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy At Its Best Price Yet In Big Deal Days Special
Between Marmite and cricket, Britain has given the world some fantastic cultural exports, but the Cornetto Trilogy of movies is easily the best thing to come out of Ol’ Blighty. A series of films directed by Edgar Wright–and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost–you can pick up these cinematic gems in one convenient 4K Blu-ray bundle at its best price yet. For Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days, it has gotten a massive 68% discount, with the price dropping to just $19.50. As a reminder, you will need to sign up for Prime to get this deal.
This bundle includes Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, a rock-solid collection of zombie, action, and alien invasion films. Shaun of the Dead got the ball rolling in 2004 with a very British take on the zombie apocalypse and introduced t…
Read moreThe Star Destroyer is one of the most famous starships in sci-fi history, a gargantuan piece of engineering with a signature shape and style. If you’ve been looking to build one but you don’t have the know-how–or resources–to transform 40 million tons of rebel-crushing steel into an instrument of Sith superiority, well, at least there’s a Lego version of it. The 1,555-piece Imperial Star Destroyer was added to the sprawling Star Wars Lego lineup on August 1, but it’s already on sale for a massive discount at Amazon for Prime Big Deal Days. Normally $160, you can snag the Star Destroyer Lego kit for only $112, a savings of $48.
This 30%-off limited-time deal will disappear before Big Deal Days ends–75% of stock has been claimed already–so you’ll need to be fast…
Read moreThere are only a handful of months left to play Minecraft in VR. That’s because developer Mojang is ditching support for VR and mixed-reality headsets in March 2025.
Mojang detailed this major shift in VR support as part of a Minecraft: Bedrock Edition changelog published this week. “Our ability to support VR/MR devices has come to an end and will no longer be supported in updates after March of 2025, when you will receive your final update,” the notes read Come from Sports betting site VPbet . It’s also confirmed that “you will no longer be able to use your VR/MR device with Minecraft” after this update, though any purchases and worlds will continue to work on say a regular PC.
Nearly 21 years after its original release on Xbox and PS2, the classic 2D fighting game SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos is returning with an enhanced remaster for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC, launching February 11. This is an exciting release for fighting games fans, allowing players to enjoy the cult-classic release on modern consoles with HD presentation and full online co-op featuring roll-back net code. Preorders for the physical PS4 and Switch versions are available now, and you can secure your copy for just $35 at Amazon.
SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos Preorder Bonus
There are no preorders bonuses for SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos, and considering how close we are to the launch date, it’s unlikely an…
Read moreThe Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom might be most notable for allowing you to play as Zelda herself, but series mainstay Link will also be playable, according to the game’s ESRB listing. Just how prominent of a role he plays, however, remains to be seen.
The listing reads, “As Link, players use a sword and arrows to defeat enemies; Zelda can use a magic wand to summon creatures (e.g., wind-up knights, pig soldiers, slime) for battle.” What exactly the split between Link and Zelda will entail is still unknown. Zelda’s ability set will likely be entirely different from Link’s. She can also summon household items like tables and chairs and more unusual objects like water blocks.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has said doubled down on Microsoft’s commitment to the hardware space via Xbox, saying the company aims to “win” by providing the best experience out there. At the same time, Spencer admitted that times have changed. These days, it’s a “game-first” market as opposed to “platform-first,” he said.
Appearing on the GamerTag Radio podcast, Spencer said, “I want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of that hardware and how that fits into the choices they want to make about where they want to play. We want our hardware to win based on the hardware capabilities that we have.”
Spencer said the biggest, most-played, and most successful video games out there today are multiplatform games that are not locked to one device. Spence…
Read moreAs Christopher Nolan prepares his next movie at Universal, more has been revealed about his post-Tenet relationship with Warner Bros. and whether he’s had serious talks about James Bond in the past. The latter feels like a given, but do we really want that from him?Variety shed some light on where Nolan is at right now, how his previous studio tried to lure him back after a falloff following Tenet’s release strategy, and whether he’s properly flirted with the 007 IP at some point. It’s an interesting read, but I have some thoughts about this whole ‘Nolan doing Bond sooner or later’ matter.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings First thing’s first: It appears we can rule out a return to Warner Bros. anytime soon, as Variety’s report claims “Warner Bros. w…
Read moreTake note, other developers: this is how you do it. Capcom has removed gender-restricted armor sets from Monster Hunter in the upcoming PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC title, Monster Hunter Wilds.As show in the developer diary streams that were broadcast live from Gamescom 2024 today (and confirmed in a hands-on demo by yours truly), Capcom has decided to bin off the binary armor choices for female and male hunters. Now, no matter what character you decide to make when you create your avatar for the game, you will be able to equip all variations of armor without any restriction.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Typically, Monster Hunter games have locked you into one of two variants depending on the make-up of your custom character, but in the upcoming …
Read more