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Had a sudden urge to play what I would call Myst like(ish) puzzle games, I'm focusing on the free roaming adventure ones mostly but do have some more traditional ones as well. Idk, thought I would blog about it.

It mostly started with me remembering I had Machinika Museum in my Steam library and deciding to play it since every time there's a steam sale I feel guilty about my unplayed games. I won't call Machinika, or it's sequel, Myst-Like. It's more like object probing in the first game. Which is enough for me! I love puzzles that are more visual, poking and slide types. Probably because it's the one I've got the easier time with.

The sequel: Machinika: Atlas is a bit more free-roaming, where you get into an area and solve what you can in that room before moving on, The Room like? Is The Room known enough that people would get the reference? Either way, the puzzles aren't much different from the first, poke and slide but now go poke and slide something else in the room (I mean it positively). The story is very fun in both, simple alien mystery. Not very long games, either. Good starting points if you're not familiar with this type of puzzle games, since I won't call the puzzles too complex or difficult in comparison to other games.

Next was Obduction, I got this one for free on Epic's weekly free games (If you didn't know, free games every Thursday), And played the beginning of it a long time ago before stopping for some reason (Normal of me with anything). When I booted it up again, I was at the stone mountain world that nears the jungle world and had destroyed one of the Mofang lasers. I did take the help of a guide to steer me in the right direction.

Obduction is by the same Studio that works with Myst, and Obduction is BIG. Even if I tackled the puzzles myself mostly fine, I kept referring to the guide to turn me to the right locations, lots of walking around, especially when you try to figure it out yourself. It's also a very pretty game, the Biomes are beautiful, and has a very interesting story to put together. I did struggle with the Villein numbers, but that was because... I hadn't actually finished for completion the human settlement desert area, lol, particularly opening the garage and hadn't opened Farley's home. But it's good to know it has a non-linear puzzles, that's interesting, just easy to get lost.

Quern: Undying thoughts, is alike, but a lot smaller. You're mostly confined to an island, and that's a lot easier when it comes to puzzles. I had a grand time with it both as a game and story, with just some occasional guide help. The only time I would say I truly cheated was the underwater corridor puzzle. I could NOT figure this one out no matter what, even after looking at answer and trying to backward solve it, still don't get. Everything else was a breeze.

I like games that force you to actually write and draw down on paper to figure it out. Also, a pretty game in my opinion! I love the design of everything. It had a Bionicle feel to it, but I mean, island village with clockwork gear technology... and glowing orange crystals? Low-hanging fruit, I guess. I hope they make a sequel as hinted. A small thing, but I enjoyed that from either ending, the good and bad wasn't too clear-cut. You can kind of tell, yeah, but you can totally see the "bad" end as a good or neutral one from a point of view.

These are the ones I played these three days, I have Myst Masterpiece edition, but want to get the 2021 one to play when I get a refund money to my steam wallet (If I get it before the sale ends). There's some other puzzle games, thought. I never finished Black Mirror I, and I was enjoying it. Maybe I'll get to it, just not sure if I restart or try to figure out what was going on, on my own.

I want to replay the The Room games I got, since I finally got the 4rth game just recently. But that'll be a week of playing it so I can connect the story together. A really fun game series, great atmosphere and aesthetic to it.

I also want to talk about a mobile puzzle games by Five-BN Games studio. Some of them are a mixed bag, but I unironically love their Lost Lands series, and considering it has 8 of them it's their most popular one. It's full of stolen lore and visual bits from popular fantasy franchises, but idk, the puzzles are good imo, and there's a charm to it that I enjoy. I kind of love that the main character is a mom, and how they tried to play later on how her son, which she saves in the first game, resents how much time she stays on the fantasy land solving problems and keeps missing important family milestones. They dropped the ball a bit around it, but still, I kind of really like the concept of the story. Would read a book about a middle-aged woman whisked away to become a heroine in a fantasy land, honestly.

To end, I want to mention a little story around a puzzle game I went halfway into. I can't remember the name, but still, it's... a story to tell because I got reminded of it and spend way too much time looking it up. I could swear it was Nexpo, but now I can't find it at all, a video painting a Myst-like game as very mysterious dark game. Since I was following [whoever uploaded the video] for a while, instead of watching it I went to try the game myself.

The thing is, the pirate site had the manual uploaded as well and... a murder case papers... and I remember thinking "oh, it's part of the story? like a ARG thing? kind of cool.", Didn't get too far on the game because a puzzle was winning a type of board game against a AI and I sucked. Then I went to watch the video and, it was about a murder case tied to one of the developers of the game. And... WHAT? Having the papers of the actual murder with the pirated game manual, that's insane! And pretty disrespectful. Anyway, wish I could give pointers to whoever is curious but... genuinely can't find the video and honestly, a very sad case with a lot of investigation neglect. yeah. Just wanted to share.