Because I need another way to waste time

The Replicator activity on Stargate Atlantis got me thinking again about picking up Myst V: End of Ages, the last in the Myst series of computer games. Really, it makes sense - David Ogden Stiers (who will forever be Charles Emerson Winchester III to me) plays the Replicator mouthpiece, Oberoth. Well, he also voiced a character in this last Myst game. While I've checked out End of Ages and started poking around a bit, I haven't sat down & gotten very into playing it, so it's about time I do that.

I finished Myst, Riven and Exile, but never got all the way through Revelation. Revelation's puzzles lacked the organic feel I thought was present in the three previous games. For me, the integrated nature of the puzzles, their appropriateness to the game atmosphere and context, were a huge part of what made those games fun for me. As much as I liked some aspects of Revelation, my disappointment in many of the puzzles was enough to keep me from sticking with it. Maybe I'll go back to it sometime and give it another shot.

Riven is my favourite of the series and it's no wonder. It was the first one I played and I discovered it under very positive circumstances. I think it was around my birthday, sometime in the late-'90s, and I was at the tail-end of a solo trip that had gone pretty damn well. I joined my boyfriend at his computer, where he was playing Riven. Not surprisingly, I thought it was sooooo beautiful. Heh. As it happened he was stuck, so while pondering what to do next he gave me a tour of the game. It & I were a natural match, as I fell in love with everything he showed me, and then I promptly got him unstuck. I was totally hooked. Between the beautiful scenery, the complete lack of hack & slash, the excellent puzzles, and that nearly immediate sense of gratification upon my introduction to it, Riven was pretty much the perfect game for me.

I know that seeing the game for the first time and quickly solving a puzzle that'd been vexing someone else for awhile had more to do with being a fresh set of eyes and my heightened state of mind, than with me being any kind of puzzle genius. Many of the puzzles in Riven, as well as Myst and Exile, definitely challenged me. They also evoked appreciation and enjoyment on a purely aesthetic level, because of how smoothly they seemed to fit the games' atmospheres. Pretty much everything about the games was satisfying.

So, I'll give End of Ages a shot and see what I think. It's definitely beautiful, though I thought the intro could have been cut down. I'm more into game-playing than game-watching, so long narratives with animated characters don't really do it for me. But, if that ends up being my biggest complaint, I think it'll be a good experience. We'll see!