Six Myst-style adventures

These are all first-person adventure games more or less in the style of Myst, meaning that they are all concerned primarily with exploration and discovery, and preferably take place outdoors and are not room-escapers. This is not true for all of them, but they're all very nice games, whatever kind they are.

Terra Realms is a nice little exploration game in classic slideshow format. The first installment online is a plug for the other two episodes, but as always, you can enjoy it on its own. The puzzles are simple, but generally decent. The game site provides its own hints and walkthrough.




Vastáre is another short game with some attractive scenery. Using your senses and objects you find, you must solve puzzles to unlock four different worlds and escape.
There is a walkthrough at the Adventure Games Unlimited forum.




Locus is a simple but very nice-looking game in QuickTime VR. It is extremely short, with easy puzzles like matching and memory games, but its main attraction is as interactive VR art. The game is available to play online, and there is a higher-quality, full-screen version to download. As far as I can tell, the telescope is the end of the game...I can't find anything beyond that to click on, though there's no definitive ending to indicate it's over. If you find something else, let me know.




Kharon4a is a very cool game. It has a sophisticated interface, character selection, an interesting storyline, and multiple endings. You are exploring the four rooms of a futuristic genetics lab in an attempt to save a friend. Along the way you have to learn facts about genetics and DNA, and the workings of your world. The game has a dark, gritty atmosphere, and is accompanied by an appropriately eerie soundtrack. The game is available in both English and Norwegian.
There is a walkthrough at Orgdot.




Archipelago is a nice game by designer Wooly Thinking, which also brings us
Return to the Archipelago and the very cool abstract puzzle game The Dark Room. In Archipelago, you navigate a sizeable panoramic 3-d world to explore an island chain and try to find your way off after a shipwreck. The scenery is made up of simple flash drawings, and the bright, sunny islands have a certain cartoony charm. The game provides its own walkthrough and other documentation.




One Time Never is an interesting and unusual game. Apparently dreaming, you wander aimlessly into encounters with various creatures that you must pass by answering riddles and solving puzzles. Failure to evade traps will cost you life points. Nice locations and jazzy music set the tone for your journey.
There is a walkthrough in the lazylaces forum.




Two of the games that I most wanted to post in today's category no longer exist. Faradise, a game puzzlingly produced by Fa, maker of bath products, was one of the best online adventures I've ever played -- lots of intriguing locations, beautiful graphics, lovely music, interesting puzzles, and a bit of a story -- and now it's gone without a trace. My point is, it's already been created, so what's the harm in keeping it online? But no. Also Endsequence, a great adventure game with really cool visuals which for some reason now only exists in the Hungarian. I have a similar complaint about this game -- the English version was made, so why is it no longer online? I left a pleading message in the guestbook, and maybe if you do the same the creator will consider reinstating it. Or you could just muddle through the Hungarian, which I suspect I may give up and attempt someday.

While I'm at it, I should post some game-site related news... there is a new category in the blogroll called "Online Games" which currently includes Little Fluffy Industries, which daily posts links to all kinds of online games, usually flash puzzles and other great little time-suckers; and lazylaces, which comes up often in my search results for me to know that it was some people with a bit of interest in adventure games, but which I didn't realize until today was a great blog that posts loads of treasures all the time, online games as well as other exciting things.

Also, I've learned that the reason I couldn't access Nordinho, my main resource for adventure game links and walkthroughs, was because they've moved: it's now Nordinho.net, not Nordinho.com. This means that I'll have to change all those walkthrough links in my previous game posts. I won't do that right now, but soon. For now, I have changed the link in the sidebar.

I have also added one new adventure game forum to the list: Adventure Games Unlimited.

And that's all. Next: Even More Samarost-style Games.