There’s a actual group theater, yard cinema earnestness to Cyan’s Myst video games, starting from Myst, through which founding developer brothers Rand Miller and Robyn Miller performed all characters themselves in full-motion video. Cyan is famed for its use of FMV in its video games, however even after Myst and Riven turned blockbusters, the closest the Myst franchise has ever gotten to having a well-known actor has been Brad Dourif’s (The Lord of the Rings) flip because the villain in Myst 3: Exile — which he acquired not from a casting name however as a result of he was a fan of the collection.
However there’s one massive celeb second within the Myst franchise that can be essentially the most staggering musical selection I’ve ever skilled in a online game: Myst 4: Revelation’s Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene.
On paper, there’s nothing good concerning the Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene. For instance, it’s unskippable. Moreover, it comes out of left area — Myst, the steampunky FMV puzzle journey collection, is emphatically not a “voiced, English-language pop tune interlude” form of franchise. The cutscene’s visuals, whereas clearly a piece of bespoke animation, are stuffed with so many shapes spiraling out from heart display screen that it’s unavoidably harking back to a Winamp visualization. And all of it results in possibly the worst puzzle ever put in a Myst recreation.
And but… I unironically love the Unskippable Peter Gabriel Winamp Cutscene. Due to the enjoyment of theater.
Peter Gabriel, in a really obscure Myst recreation? it’s possible you’ll be asking. Peter Gabriel, the prog rock frontman, world music advocate, crusading human rights activist — , “In Your Eyes”? That Peter Gabriel? How?!
Nicely, within the Nineteen Nineties, Peter Gabriel acquired… actually into CD-ROMs. He produced two interactive musical experiences/video games, Xplora1: Peter Gabriel’s Secret World and Peter Gabriel: Eve. And when you had been an individual within the Nineteen Nineties who was within the potentialities of CD-ROM know-how, you had been an individual who performed Myst and Riven.
Which is to say, similar to Dourif, Gabriel was a fan.
“When Myst got here out I believed it succeeded properly in creating a sense of different worlds through which thriller and creativeness had been the compelling components as a substitute of the standard action-packed ‘shoot ‘em ups’,” Gabriel stated in a 2004 IGN article. “I believe there’s some similarity with the way in which I attempt to create worlds of sound. I very a lot loved engaged on Myst IV Revelation.”
Myst 4 was all the time going to be a bizarre entry within the collection, made throughout a interval when Ubisoft — exhausting at work producing mainstream video games like Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia — held the rights to the franchise. Narratively a direct sequel to Myst, it was the primary time Ubisoft Montreal had ever made an journey recreation with pre-rendered graphics, and that shift was apparently an actual grind. The tip outcome was a fascinatingly hybrid product. A bespoke recreation engine delivered pre-rendered photos with animated wind and water, and real-time options like lens flares and focal depth, making Myst 4 essentially the most cinematic and immersive recreation within the franchise. But the sport nonetheless had over an hour of FMV in it, with live-action, costumed actors taking part in the characters.
The thrust of the sport’s story begins when Sirrus and Achenar (Atrus’ wayward giant grownup sons, who had been every imprisoned in a distinct alternate world, or Age, on the shut of Myst) get away and kidnap their a lot youthful sister Yeesha. It’s on you to discover their jail worlds and confront them in a ultimate Age, Serenia, the place Myst 4 turns into not only a bizarre entry within the collection however a extremely, actually attention-grabbing one.
If the Myst video games have a cohesive mechanic, it’s puzzle anthropology — the clues to the puzzles lie in accounts and cultural artifacts from alternate worlds, normally ones which have been exploited and ruined by Atrus’ terrible relations. Myst 4 is the primary recreation within the collection that not solely has one thing extra difficult to say than “Don’t do a colonialism” (as a substitute, Myst 4 is about jail reform, however that’s one other essay) — it additionally really practices what the franchise preaches.
Serenia is the primary time the place the tradition you examine will not be separated from the individuals who belong to it. In distinction to earlier video games, native inhabitants not solely seem however are unafraid of you, converse to you in a language you perceive, and personally welcome you into their most sacred practices. There are positively nonetheless some The natives of this land, so in tune with nature, so smart stereotypes occurring right here, however for a Myst recreation this can be a stratospheric leap of evolution.
Your seek for solutions ultimately leads you to the priesthood of Serenia, who supply that will help you discover what you search of their sacred Dream realm, guided by your individual private elemental spirit (The natives of this land, so in tune with nature, so smart). A robed priestess leads you to the sacred chamber. At her course you lie on the stone slab, and she or he positions a carved stone above you with two holes representing “the eyes of the Ancestors.” As she delivers her ultimate directions, soothing however boppable music begins to play, mushy percussion and excessive synths. After which, as you begin to journey…
…Peter Gabriel begins singing about curtains.
Congratulations: You could have reached the Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene, that includes a roughly three-minute lower of “Curtains,” initially the B-side of his 1986 single “Large Time.” Issues don’t get much less bizarre from right here!
As soon as the cutscene finishes, your spirit information, within the type of Peter Gabriel’s disembodied voice, introduces you to… a colour flip puzzle. You’re surrounded by coloured balls, and it’s important to get all of the balls to show white (“Lend the ancestors your vitality” or one thing). If the sport deems the way in which you contact the balls to be too erratic, it can play a disapproving sound, and a bunch of the coloured balls will randomize.
Not solely that, however this colour flip puzzle is a bottleneck. If you happen to’ve gotten there, it’s seemingly since you’ve accomplished all else that’s doable. Till you get previous it, that is the entire recreation. Not a machine to intuit, a pocket book to peruse, or a numerical system to decipher. A tone-setting cutscene that includes a Peter Gabriel jam after which Peter Gabriel ASMR with coloured balls.
It’s tonal nonsense. It’s in opposition to the core puzzle philosophies of the franchise. It’s an unlimited swing that doesn’t work. And I nonetheless find it irresistible, as a result of Myst video games are — hear me out — form of like theater.
Although these will not be role-playing video games, Cyan has imbued the franchise with an invite to the participant to take part in establishing the sport’s actuality. Myst and Riven start with earnest notes advising you to placed on the most effective pair of stereo headphones you’ve, to dim your room lights, and to calibrate your display screen and audio simply so for the most effective immersion that Nineteen Nineties pc gaming can present. Cyan additionally maintains an enthralling kayfabe with its group, through which the Myst franchise relies on actual occasions, derived from archaeological findings within the southwest United States and the private historical past of Atrus’ household.
These makes an attempt to protect the truth of Myst solely body how imperfect that phantasm is. The seams are right here earlier than you: the newbie performers, the boundaries of exploration in a pre-rendered 2D atmosphere, the lengthy animations to attend by means of, the live-action footage superimposed on digital environments. Myst video games ask to your endurance — with irritating puzzles and by making you wait — and so they ask you to purchase into their actuality, as a result of a tiny unbiased studio like Cyan can’t make a wonderfully convincing phantasm by itself.
In that context, what’s the “Curtains” cutscene and Peter Gabriel’s (actually actually fairly good) appearing stint because the participant’s spirit information? It’s inviting a fan up on the stage to contribute to the factor they love. On a stage, all of the seams are seen: the strains of the lure door, the microphones taped to the actors’ cheeks, the relatively Winamp-reminiscent animation, the out-of-left-field tune, and the silly colour matching puzzle.
However you full the circuit with your individual thoughts, and the stage turns into one other actuality as a substitute of a platform for individuals reciting strains. Myst 4’s Unskippable Peter Gabriel Cutscene is made completely of actually seen seams. However it additionally appears like an earnest inventive selection from somebody who’s personally invested within the work.
Rand Miller, who maintains that he strongly dislikes appearing, performed Atrus in Myst from effectivity and necessity. And he’s been caught reprising his newbie efficiency ever since, as a result of followers wouldn’t have it another means. It merely wouldn’t be Atrus with out the awkward vibes! And if I’m right here for Rand Miller’s Atrus, how can I flip up my nostril at Peter Gabriel’s spirit steering? How can I really like Myst video games and never love their largest dangers? I’m already mendacity on the stone slab. It’s not exhausting in any respect to finish the circuit with my thoughts and have a chill time flying round this Winamp visualization whereas a boppable tune performs. That is the Zen of Myst video games.
That stated, the colour puzzle nonetheless blows.
