This is one of the games I remember watching my late father play when I was a little child. Fun fact: the game and I are the same age! And it holds up at least as well as I have.

On the one hand, you could say it took me about 25 years to beat this game, because I found it mystifying (lol) as a child, and also as a teen and young adult (college age) trying to play it myself. But once I, as an adult man, sat down and applied myself, I beat it in about nine hours over the course of three days.

I think the puzzle design is very good. There's some difficulty to it - this ain't spinning blocks in Skyrim! But sometimes the solution is pretty clear, and other times, I got to a point when I was just about ready to quit due to frustration, then suddenly made a breakthrough.

To be fair, if you're tone deaf or can't read a compass, you may be SOL.

The plot is fun to uncover as well - it's told with a combination of video cutscenes and environmental storytelling. The guys in the videos are, as far as I know, the same guys who wrote the game, and while the acting may be imperfect - scenery is gnawed on, let me tell you - the passion they have for telling their story comes through. You see it in the detailed environments too; there's something pure about it, the way a story could be told in the days of simple UI, when you couldn't interact with every object.

If I have one complaint, it's navigating the boardwalks in the Channelwood age with the clunky controls. The rare case where the maze isn't complex, but you keep accidentally clicking the wrong direction, so you get hopelessly lost anyway. But the puzzles in that age were the easiest, so it balanced out.

Anyway, damn good game to this day, highly recommend.

a classic to shape the ages, the surrealist symbolism and world making hold up today
the atmosphere and old charm are a delight, the sound design is very fun and the beuty of the point and click era was making every frame a painting which myst does a great job most of the time, some of course are serviceable but whatever
i loved that at first its this surrealist insane wonder land and once/if you get into your first age it feels like home immediatly

however
it is a slow game of unavoidable long sequences which granted games in the 90's had to be with technical limitations and some serious back tracking
with any game i play i refuse to use guides until i stop having fun
trust me when i say i can be patient but when the maze in the space ship zone took that long i saved myself the grief and looked it up as that was punishing

i reccomend this game,
a slow burn, art heavy puzzle advenute
but do know that if your not having fun don't be ashamed to look for a hint
this games limitations which that if you are TRUELY stuck you arnt going to get it