Wait, What Year Is It Again?

This week on our Quick Reviews feature we’ve got a fantastic new VR game and remasters of… Quake and Myst. In an odd yet familiar time warp, Is this 2021 or 1994 we are living in?! We are in the middle of strange but fortunate times with so many varied gaming experiences and options to enjoy. If anything, this crazy year has already brought us a massive amount of quality titles. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

I EXPECT YOU TO DIE 2

PC VR (Reviewed) Quest, PS4
Available Now

In general, VR titles can be a bear to review. While most titles these days are glorified tech demos or close to that, others are polished, full fledged experiences that can convert people to VR and please hardcore VR veterans. I am pleased to say that I Expect You To Die 2 definitely falls into the latter camp and is overall, a joy to play. Apart from being polished, it’s just a clever title that makes several unpleasant spy/thriller-esque moments… well, pleasant to play.

It’s an escape-room type title full of scenarios that will keep you busy for awhile and an improvement in every way for the series, genre, and VR in general, showing what the platform is capable of. It’s chock full of details that are a blast to behold like playing with liquids, containers, and interacting with super detail environments and object that not only look fantastic, every sounds great as well.

I Expect You To Die 2 comes highly recommended for anyone new or experienced in the VR world as this is a showcase and a stunning achievement in every way, showing what makes the present and future of VR so exciting.

MYST

PC (Reviewed) Mac, Xbox One
Available Now

The crashing waves. The chirping birds. The mix of strange sights on a deserted island. The hauntingly beautiful soundtrack hovering in the background. These and so many other elements are what make Myst an absolute classic not only for me personally but for millions around the world. For a lot of us, it was our first true multimedia experience. That may sound funny in 2021 but having full quality music and audio, beautiful pre-rendered graphics, and real-time video, it was way ahead of its time. I still regard the time I visited the Cyan studios as one of the greatest experiences in my life.

Instead of a simple gloss of fresh paint, the latest Myst release is playable on PC. Mac, and Xbox (part of Gamepass!) in normal 2D or full VR. I am pleased to say that each iteration is a triumph in mixing old and new. Whether you are experiencing the game for the first time or for the 100th time, there is something for everyone in this release. A choice for randomized puzzles, full VR interaction, and incredible graphics are just a few features of a near-perfect remaster. You can experience this classic as you want and Cyan has struck that difficult balance between old and new. If there is one niggle, I prefer the old video sequences to the new 3d rendered ones but that is a small complaint in the grand scheme of things.

I love Myst. I love that it’s more an experience than even the game itself. It’s timeless. It’s a classic. I love that it’s been redone right for a new generation. Pick this up without hesitation.

QUAKE

PC (Reviewed) Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch
Available Now

To wrap up this week, we finally arrive at yet another classic being remastered for the modern age. I’m not sure Quake needs much of an introduction but in case you missed it, it was one of the first truly 3D FPS titles back in the day and I remember playing it on a LAN party on a Novell network if that doesn’t age me. While this remaster is overall, extremely polished by the folks at Nightdive Studios, it’s a much more subtle remaster than some in recent memory.

The things it handles extremely well are up to 4K resolution, widescreen, ultrawide displays, a ton of existing and new content plus a bunch of UI and QoL tweaks that make it the best iteration of a true classic by far. The other side of the coin is that while all these improvements are fantastic, it looks almost exactly the same graphically that it did clear back in the 90s, which by today’s standards, is pretty rough. Don’t get me wrong, the remaster is handled extremely well for nostalgia buffs but I would have preferred either a retro/modern graphics toggle or at least an option to improve the visuals in a more dramatic fashion. That would have really upped our final score and given a perfect mix of old and new a la Diablo II: Resurrected.

So in the end, this is a very tough game to score because it’s truly a classic and the best version yet but is it enough if you’ve already played the game to death? That’s a much more difficult question to answer with the lack of true graphical enhancements. Gameplay is 10/10 for sure, new improvements overall are 9/10 but the lack of visual overhaul drags us down so, overall, we arrive at: