Do you know how we know we are getting old? It’s that moment when you see a remaster and remember that thirty years ago, we held the CD-ROM of the original game in our hands while our mom rolled her eyes, knowing full well that days of doing nothing but gaming were to follow. Well, we sure feel old. But Cyan Worlds is as young and modern as ever. These awesome devs recently dropped a rebuilt Unreal Engine Myst remaster on the PS5 and PSVR2.
Again, we went back to those carefree childhood days, but this time with a helmet on. We walked around the island, pulled levers, stared at old books, and let all the nostalgia kick in. It is still a very quiet, weird game. But is strapping a headset on to play one of the most famous PSVR2 puzzle games an immersive experience, or just a frustrating one?
Classic Puzzle Gameplay: Red Pages and Ages
In terms of gameplay, the new Myst is pretty much the same as the original. We’re dropped onto an island, waiting for someone to tell us what to do. Since no one did, we just started walking until we found a library full of burned books. We’ll stop right here because we want you to experience the story on your own. There really isn’t much to it, and it would be unfair to rob you of even that.
Just know that you need to gather certain pages by unlocking linking books. These books act as portals, teleporting you to different worlds called Ages. This is the coolest part of this classic puzzle game, where you might visit a swamp or a mechanical fortress. The puzzles are some of the best brainteasers we have played in a while. They’re entirely about paying attention to your surroundings and figuring out how things connect—like how valves reroute water to power an elevator in the trees. In one instance, setting the time on a clock tower raises a bridge across the island. In another, you have to match specific sounds to a destination.
No one held our hand. Every bit of progress we made happened because we paid attention, drank coffee, experimented, relied on luck, and screamed in frustration. Myst is very beautiful, but boy, is it challenging.
Thank goodness Cyan added an in-game camera this time around. It helps a lot. We used to use a physical notebook to write down symbols and codes. Now, all you need to do is snap a photo of a clue and pull it up later. It is well organized and much better than using your phone’s camera, which is impossible when experiencing Myst VR gameplay.
From Slideshow to Real-Time PS5 Graphics
Myst, as we’ve said, is a beautiful game. The 1993 version was basically a fancy slideshow where you clicked the edge of the screen, a new static picture loaded, and you waited. Now, you can walk freely around the island and admire the rebuilt world. For our Myst PS5 review testing, the flat version looks great, offering 4K visuals and ray-traced reflections. Sitting on the couch with a standard controller is a huge visual jump and will definitely make you feel like you are in a surreal world.
Myst PSVR2 Gameplay and Comfort
When it comes to our Myst PSVR2 review experience, it feels like a missed opportunity. The headset resolution makes text look a bit soft. You have to awkwardly lean super close to a book, like an older person squinting to read. Distant objects look blurry, and the menus shimmer. Moving around takes some getting used to, and ladders are finicky. There is a lot of awkward positioning before the game lets you off a rung.
Then there is the controller feedback. This, we felt, was the biggest letdown. The PSVR2 Sense controllers have great haptics and adaptive triggers, but the developers completely ignored them (or we just didn’t know how to turn them on—if that’s the case, please tell us in the comments). You physically reach out, grab a giant metal lever, and pull. The controller is dead silent in situations like this, with zero trigger resistance. You feel nothing. Things like this make the VR mode feel cheap, rushed, or both.
Myst is still fun to explore, and the in-game camera is a godsend. Playing it flat on a TV with a PS5 controller is easily the best way to experience it right now. It is hard not to feel that the VR mode was an afterthought. Blurry graphics and dead controllers truly kill the immersion and make a wonderful world feel a bit underwhelming.
ID Card
- Developer: Cyan Worlds
- Publisher: Cyan Worlds
- Platforms: PS5, PSVR2
- Release Date: May 19, 2026
- Genre: First-Person Puzzle Adventure
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