Thanks for sharing your experience! (hmm, it's been about 2 decades since I played Myst but I surely did not complete it in 4h+ only; boy, do I feel dumb :D )

Good for you. I also need a good break... to play some games XD

That's a seriously impressive time for solving Myst on the first attempt! No walkthrough or hints?

It took me a span of many months to play Myst originally, I can't imagine how many hours it must have been but certainly more than 4. Of course I was about 8. I wonder how I'd do if I was attempting it for the first time now.

After a conversation on another forum I discovered that not everyone solved that puzzle the "correct" way. I'm curious to know what your solution was for that puzzle.

Remember to give a big spoiler warning around it, or perhaps PM me.

Hah, I remember spending a whole month on Day of the Tentacle back in the day. Of course you'd probably finish Myst faster now if you were playing it for the first time (assuming you've been playing other adventure games all these years).

I use walkthroughs when the game doesn't interest me much or if it frustrates me, like The 7th Guest.

[mild SPOILER following]

As for the pod puzzle, I just went by the sounds that were provided in the room with the holograph map. I work with sound and music, so when I popped in the pod and heard the sounds from an earlier point in the game, I went back to refresh my memory. The only thing I hadn't noticed were the double-sounds (thought it was a problem with ScummVM), so I had to do it again after messing up on the first try :/

Edit: Actually, I don't remember if I went back to refresh my memory or if I had noted it down from before. I remember I made a note of it on my phone, just don't remember when.

Obduction takes care of the note-taking by having you take pictures in the game world, which was a nice addition.

That game! *shakes fist*

Yeah, I played it for the first time earlier this year and by the end I really began to resent it... it's really not a very good game IMO.

Hooray, someone else who actually solved it properly! The others I was talking to both solved it by brute force (they literally mapped the entire labyrinth). It's interesting that you mention working with sound and music as I also work with sound and music.
Technically I was playing the game collaboratively with my dad, but that was one I have a strong memory of solving pretty easily even at the age of 8 or so, so I guess it was a sign of things to come for me. :)

[spoiler]

My dad started mapping the labyrinth until I pointed out the sounds, luckily we'd given them descriptive names in our notes from earlier.

[/spoiler]

Yes, the in game camera in Obduction was a nice touch. Smartphones have actually changed the way I play Mystlikes anyway as I'm much more likely to take a quick photo of the screen when I find a bit of info rather than write it down.

Ha! You should see me when playing the RHEM series. My phone was literally stuffed with photos :)

Was on the fence for Quern, and then I read a review saying that the story is not that memorable. Decided against it. Sale is on for a few more days. What do you guys think?

I grabbed it a while back but decided against playing it until I have a better computer. The trailer made it look interesting, but I have to say the story is the least important part for me in a Myst type game. Sure, it's nice to have "the complete package", but I'm mainly in it for the puzzles and exploration.

What SirPrimalform said. As long as there's lots of exploration and mind-bending who cares about a story? :)
OK, that was too much, but puzzles & exploration are what I expect to entertain me in these games. Also bought it during the last Christmas sale, still sitting there untouched.

Well, you two have changed my mind! I'll join you in purchasing it and letting it sit in the library untouched! :D

I have a suspicion that if you let games in your library for a long time they mature somehow... like whiskey :)
Most of my library is now super mature and tasteful :P

It would be so wholesome if Postal 2 and other first-person shooters would be considered first-person point & click adventures. It sounds so cheerful and innocent.

Untouched games club assemble!

Hey eveyrone, long time no see!

Currently, itch.io has a special sale related to the current (unfortunate) situation. There are many games on sale, and also many given for free.

Guess what? A game that fits (and I think was previously mentioned) in this thread is currently free (and DRM-free!).

ASA: A Space Adventure

I've always waited for this game to appear on GOG, but... eh, you know.

On the download page you also have the option to support the developer if you wish.

Seems to me it's been a long time since we last discussed on this thread, so here's a new topic I would like your opinions on.

Recently I installed Titanic - Adventure Out Of Time and played it (well, read below for more on that).

First of all I would like to get something out of the way: I hated this game :)

Now, it is clear that the people who created it have a passion for the whole Titanic story. The ship is beautifully realized - actually they made sure it is similar to the real-life ship up to the most minor detail. For that, I give them kudos.

Navigation seemed to me weird at first, but quickly got used to it and eventually even liked it. You walk using W, A, D keys in predefined "paths" from node to node. Then you point to interact with the environment using the mouse.

Music was just tolerable, nothing too fancy or admirable.

Now the biggest issue: this game was clearly never designed before implementation. Almost all of the time you are free to do any of the available actions, even though it may not be the time to do so. This creates extreme confusion right from the start. I surely felt "lost" most of the time as I did not understand if I was supposed to do this or that.

Most of the time, you are supposed to look for specific people and interact with them in some way. The above applies here too. In most cases, even if I knew exactly who I was looking for, I didn't have the slightest clue as to where I could find him/her. There is a person that can give you the cabin number of each passenger, but hey, tough luck: when you go around knocking doors you probably never get an answer unless it's the right time - which is something only the source code knows internally. Go figure.

So most of the time, I ended up "scanning" the whole ship just to randomly stumble upon the person I was looking for. I could share specific examples, but I want to avoid spoilers here.

In the end, after about 5 or 6 hours of playtime I decided to just quit and watch the rest on a youtube playthrough. And I'm glad I did that, because I was just before the last part of the game which had even more of the same lack of guidance (and also within a time limit if I understood correctly? I hate those in my games).

I'm all for old first-person adventure games, but this really disappointed me. Also, I didn't have a copy back then so I did not play with nostalgia goggles on, it was a pure first playthrough without prior experience.

So, have you played it? What are your opinions?