Hi, my brother retires in a week and i want to get him some games to play. He LOVED Myst. I was thinking Firewatch and Quern. Suggestions? Now He lives kind of remote and not great internet connection. I don;t know what DRM free - no activation or online connection means. Does it mean he is able to download the game and then play it whenever without a connection? He could download them at my house. I just don't want to get something that won't work well. He has a PC and its 8.1 I think. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

The Witness, assuming what he loved about Myst was the puzzles + setting. The Myst series is also available here but if he was a fan then he's probably either got actual copies of them or has already purchased them digitally from here or elsewhere.

Your brother is a man after my own heart. Tell him I said this.

What he's looking for are games with environmental puzzles. If he likes Myst, there's a whole series of Myst games afterwards, starting with Riven.
Quern is absolutely fantastic, I'd definitely say get him that.
Firewatch isn't quite the same thing from what I can gather, but I haven't played, so I can't confirm.
Obduction is made by the same devs who made Myst and has that same puzzly goodness.
Schizm: Mysterious Journey is a decent Myst clone.
If you're willing to go outside of GOG, look into the Rhem and Aura: Fate of the Ages series.
Amanita Design's games (Machinarium, Botanicula, the Samorost series) are rather similar in the "figure out how the world works" sense. I recommend 'em, though it's not the same type of first-person view.
If we get more into stuff where you start to have an actual inventory, some of Kheops Studios' games are nice, like Return to Mysterious Island 1 and 2.

DRM-free means basically what you just said. You get the installer, and there's no extra steps you have to go through, you can download the game and install/play without internet. If you'd like a client (to manage your game library, a bit like Steam), you can download Galaxy. If not, just use the "offline backup installers" when looking at the game in your library.

I must confess to having never played MYST, but if he likes strategy games he might enjoy Civ 1, 2, or 3. He also might enjoy Railroad Tycoon 2 (those were my favorite games for many years).

Hi. Yes, DRM-free here means you don't need an internet connection or the Galaxy client (like Steam) to play, at least single-player. What you or he can do is, after clicking on a game in the library, click "Download offline backup game installers" beneath the big blue button, and download all those files (1 or more parts, but often just 1 file), then save them to a Flash drive and go from there.

If he has technical issues you or he can contact Support. You or he may want to test the games on a computer with an internet connection, in case there are issues and you want to ask for help right away here or GOG Support.

There are a number of free games already in your GOG library btw.

Just to reiterate what people said before me: when you're in the page that lists the games you bought you'll click on one game and you'll see a huge blue button written "Download and install now". IGNORE THAT BUTTON.

The file you would download from that button is Gog Galaxy's installer. Anyone might personally like the client or not, but either way that installer wouldn't be adequate for your brother because a client's main features rely on its connectivity. It would just frustrate him, being promised a game and getting a program that he could use to download that game if he had a decent connection.

What you really want instead is the "Offline backup installers" tfishell said above. Those are the files that you'd want if you were taking a laptop to a deserted island with zero internet connection.

I also recommend Ether One, which is a story driven environmental puzzler + one of those games I always fondly remember for good story, setting, sound and graphics/environment. Here is a great review by Adokat from the game page:

Ether One is an engaging, dreamlike adventure game, set inside the abandoned town of Pinwheel. Soothing painterly art (a deliberate choice as you'll discover) captures the serene but lonely atmosphere perfectly. As a 'Restorer,' you are actually exploring the mind of a patient suffering from dementia. What information you do collect is rarely obtuse, and tells you just enough without stooping to exposition, fitting with the theme of the game. This gameplay reminds me most of titles like Myst, as you explore abandoned areas, attempting to rebuild what has been damaged . There's an underlying logic to every puzzle, and each takes considerable thought to solve. Puzzles require items and information from multiple areas, as well as a fair bit of logical reasoning. You use items to solve puzzles, and each can been examined from all sides. Determining which object is useful (many are junk) and finding its function is another challenge. Pen and paper is highly recommended to keep track of everything. Not understanding the British terms for some objects has tripped me up a few times, so make sure to fully examine each object and its name. You can always warp back to an area that functions as a little home/retreat, where you can store items and some important documents From what I gather, you can actually progress through the game without solving any puzzles, but if you're going to do that, I think it's missing the point of the experience.

As others have said, just go look after "Download offline backup game installers". It's all he needs after downloding those, no internet, no connection, anything.

Also, Quern is just awesome and if he enjoyed Myst games, imho it's probably what it is more similar.

Have you seen Obduction? Although is not as good as Myst (well, not nearly imho), it is still a good adventure from the same creators.

Both work well on win 8.1.

Is his PC a laptop, or a full desktop setup? Because if it's a laptop that's old enough to have shipped with Windows 8 (or older), then unless he specifically bought a souped-up gaming model, it might not meet all the minimum system requirements to be able to play all the more recent first-person adventure/puzzle games (such as Firewatch and Quern). Older games (such as most of the actual Myst series, which are now all available here) should be fine, but even with those, you should still check system requirements (and any associated notes) to make sure there aren't any hiccups, such as a particular title not working on multi-core CPUs, or not being supported on Windows 8/8.1.

Edited for clarification

I think I may just break down and cry.

I thought the same thing! OP, listen to zeo here.

Another fun thing you could do is to download all the offline backups into ausb thumb drive and give that to him. A physical gift is nice

The more games we know he likes, the more we can recommend

Id suggest checking his specs first before buying Quern. The game itself is fantastic (seriously, one of the best Myst-like games I have ever played, beside the originals) but its optimisation is a bit wonky and a relatively new GPU required to stay at around 60FPS with the most beautiful settings.

As for other adventure games, I really liked the Black Mirror series (not the most recent one, just labelled Black Mirror). The first one hasn't aged very well but 2 and 3 still look and play great. They do have a nice atmosphere and ongoing story. Puzzles aren't all that difficult but decent. More item based puzzles than environmental ones though.

Definitely yes to Rhem! Not fantastic on the art design front but solid puzzles. Aura is a lot more polished in terms of environments but I found some of the game design a bit shonkier (I think I'm mostly thinking of the second).

I hear you - and I am a strategy and RPG gamer. ;) What I mean by that is that while the wife and I are strategy and RPG gamers who have only recently gotten into the puzzle/adventure games, if your brother LOVED Myst, then you'll want to stick with zeogold and the others' advice on this. (And don't fault Microfishd too much, strats can be a different type of long-planning puzzle if done well.)

Quern - definitely this, if your brother's rig can handle the requirements. See HunchBluntley's post above.
Obduction - another very good one I would highly recommend here.
No on Firewatch - it has a bit of mystery and exploration but lacks that feel and sense of wonder and the see it from another way and think outside the box puzzles of Myst.

I would personally start with those. IF your brother likes thinking and puzzles - then he might want to try a turn-based strategy game like Sid Meier's Civilization III. It does not have the first person exploration and put-it-together puzzles of Myst, but is more a strategic long-term planning "stay up all night just one more turn" addictive bit-of-a-jigsaw empire building type of puzzle. Or he could look into a city-builder, which is more jigsaw planner and usually a bit less long term. However those would be something to see if he wanted to look into later. For now, I would stick with the majority's suggestions.

Also, definitely use the "Offline Backup Installers" as others have said. That way the games will not require internet connections and can be played offline at any time. :)

--------------- Hm, I'll have to go look these up myself. Thanks! :)