Myst was my first PC co-op game, back in 1993, when my friend Steve and I sat side by side in front of a boxy CRT and marveled at a game like nothing ever made before. We went back and forth between beautiful and mysterious islands (well, clicking on still images), looking for pixels to interact with, taking notes with pencil and paper, and banging our heads against ridiculously esoteric puzzles. We never made it to the end.

After all this time, it's a little odd to return to Myst in 2021, when Cyan Worlds has completely reworked the game (after 2000's "realMyst" and 2014's "realMyst": I haven't played either). This new 3D Myst works on desktop and in VR, so I could actually spend time (virtually) walking around. As a remake, "Myst" is faithful, maybe a little too faithful; Cyan Worlds says it's a "reimagined" Myst, but while it looks much more modern, it's still pretty much the same game; the Myst of 2021, no matter how it looks, is pretty outdated.

For those who have not had the opportunity to play the numerous versions of Myst over the past 28 years, the adventure game begins with you being trapped on a strange island after reading a strange book. In order to collect the pages of the lost book and learn the story of the island and the family that once lived on it, players must solve elaborate puzzles and travel to a new island, where they must complete more puzzles and return. While there are a few stories and lore told through books, memos, and holograms (initially cheesy FMVs, now cheesy CGs), "Myst" is mostly made up of puzzles, not stories.

It's nice to be able to actually walk through the world this time, and it's novel to experience familiar places in a new way, wandering from puzzle to puzzle for a while, rather than just clicking on a static image when you want to move. This is because Myst is a lovely place, but it is not a large place. Everything on the islands is just a few steps away from everything else. Having played countless games set on islands over the years, especially other puzzle games like "Witness," I can tell you that the world of Myst now just ...... It feels small. Surprisingly small. Even under blue skies and glorious sunshine, playing "Myst" is like standing in an escape room whose boundaries are not more than a few meters apart. By comparison, the islands of "Animal Crossing" feel vast.

The puzzles are the same as in the original, but if you want to play again with a new challenge, you can randomize the puzzles; as in 1993, the puzzles range from fairly easy to punishingly difficult, or somewhere in between. the clues to solving one puzzle, It can be in several different places, so it's an exercise in walking around and staring at something, walking around some more and staring at something else, experimenting a bit here and there, and then walking all over again to see if there's something you've missed. Flipping through pages and pages of code and pushing buttons for the 120th time won't help you if you don't open your browser and look for a tutorial.

However, there is still a lot to enjoy and many clever puzzle designs. Sometimes a simple observation can go a long way toward solving a puzzle, such as noticing that a locked rocket ship is connected to a brick bunker by an electrical wire. [For example, the distant "clang" of a wheel turning in a cabin, the "boom" that signals an electric current in the wires, or the puzzle of an underground train that makes noises at track intersections that, when combined with each other, give directions. When you solve a puzzle, or when you figure out what the puzzle is asking of you, you not only feel clever, but the urge to look up the answer and cheat creates many happy eureka moments.

You can see "Myst" from a new perspective in VR, or it's a beautiful game on your desktop. The details are also wonderful, from the hypnotic ocean waves lapping on the shore, to the clouds rolling in overhead, to the little green frogs hopping along the bridge in the woods. Yet despite this modern makeover, the world of "Myst" remains largely static, and even in 3D, it feels more like a painting of a place than an actual place.

And even with the addition of a photo mode that allows users to take pictures of puzzle clues for reference, it is hard to imagine trying to solve the game in VR. Taking pictures can never replace using paper and pen to jot down notes, and doing so while holding a controller and wearing a headset would be very difficult.

Some of the PC options don't feel that modern either. Keyboard controls cannot be remapped and there are not many types of controls, but it would still be a nice option. Also, save slots are limited to two and autosave to one, which also seems to be from the 1990s.

Revisiting Myst after so many years is great, but the classic puzzle slideshow, even in 3D, feels more like a series of pretty pictures than an actual place to visit. If you're tempted to play "Myst" again, I'd recommend giving this version a try, unless you expect something completely (or slightly) different from the 1993 original.