#MYST OBDUCTION UPDATE#
When the update comes out, it will be in a radically different VR landscape from the one in which Obduction was announced - one where we’re figuring out what immersion means, and what we want out of it. But while the game has gotten critical acclaim, Cyan is still working out bugs in its virtual reality version, which is set to appear soon. Three years later, in late August, Obduction was officially released. And Oculus Rift support soon became an official Obduction stretch goal, reached in the last few hours of the campaign. The studio had gotten one of Oculus’ early development kits, and they’d used it to walk around the world of RealMyst, a 3D remake of the original. And Cyan had already started to dip its toes into VR. Obduction, it seemed, could do the same thing with virtual reality. In 1994, Myst had pushed computer graphics to new levels anecdotally, its immersive and atmospheric worlds helped make the data-dense CD-ROM format mainstream. Miller’s answer was vague, but it seemed like a perfect match. When the campaign launched, Cyan co-founder Rand Miller dropped by Reddit, and somebody asked him a tantalizing question: would Obduction support a young, but increasingly exciting, new platform called the Oculus Rift? Myst fans and anyone else who loves the exploration-and-puzzle genre will find Obduction worth the wait, both for the game, and occasionally within it.The year was 2013, and gaming studio Cyan Worlds was running a crowdfunding campaign for Obduction - a spiritual sequel to Myst, one of the most beloved adventure games of all time. Obduction’s artistic triumphs made up for its technical trials, and its so-so story couldn’t eclipse the real joy of exploring and understanding its fascinating alternate worlds.
#MYST OBDUCTION HOW TO#
Cyanįiguring out how to get around in each of the game’s three main worlds is one of the most fun parts of Obduction. One level’s even built like a sly joke, with subtle details setting you up for a well-placed, legitimately funny “punchline” when you round the right corner. And another gauntlet of multiple, interlocking challenges late in the game ranks among Cyan’s most delightfully fiendish brain-busters- hard enough to be fun, but never frustrating. I only got completely stumped on one puzzle, which may be more my fault than the designers’. The story most effectively plays on your emotions when it’s told through the environments themselves, rather than the texts you find within them. Obduction even makes it fun to decipher a geometric base 4 number system. Lead designer Rand Miller and the Cyan team once again create fully realized places that look and feel alive, and integrate puzzles into the rules that govern those worlds in ways that rarely feel forced. The game’s story works better when it’s told through the strange environments you traverse, rather than the notes and journals you find along the way.īut oh, those worlds are gorgeous, brimming with real awe and wonder. And load times for levels range from “lengthy” to “seriously, go make a sandwich.” Leaping between different worlds sometimes took so long, with little or no indication of loading, that I thought the game had crashed. The game occasionally crashed when I replayed its opening minutes. But distant objects still jarringly pop into view as you draw closer.
#MYST OBDUCTION MAC#
You can tell that delays and budget cuts during the game’s lengthy development curtailed what Obduction might otherwise have been.Īfter months of glitchy pre-release Mac versions, the final version runs smoothly on a late 2012 Mac mini, albeit at the lowest settings. And somewhere in a pile of journals and notebooks, I must have missed the clues that would’ve helped me figure out how to choose between the game’s good and bad endings, both of which are short and anticlimactic. Reveals that ought to be spine-tingling fall flat. But Obduction’s story lacks suspense and urgency. The few characters you meet prove endearing, despite their somewhat hokey acting and old-fashioned full-motion-video appearances. You’ll stumble into a strange new world in Obduction-and then try your best to get home. But where Myst kept its story simple-magic books, their missing author, and his two suspicious sons- Obduction unspools a complicated, confusing saga of seeds, trees, and multiple alien species bracing for war. Like Myst, Obduction’s atmospheric prologue has a mysterious object transport you to a strange new world, from which you’ll try to return home.
#MYST OBDUCTION SERIES#
Despite real shortcomings, this spiritual (but not literal) sequel to the Myst series recaptures the incredible sense of place that made those games so compelling. Over three years later, Obduction ($25 available in the App Store) has finally made it to the Mac in finished form. In late 2013, 20 years after releasing its landmark exploration game Myst, semi-dormant developer Cyan returned with a Kickstarter campaign for a new game.