Myst into Resident Evil

It's been awhile since my last post, I know, but I'm correcting that. This post isn't necessarily a textual analysis persay, but more of an observation.

It started during class, when we were breaking Myst down into it's individual elements: The isolation, the puzzles, the delayed effects. I got to thinking that a lot of what we were talking about, reminded me of Resident Evil.

Aside from the boss battles, most of Resident Evil is puzzle solving. You need to find the right key to unlock the right door, or you'll find a crank, but you'll need the hex gear to use it, and so on. They eventually get kind of complicated, but just like Myst had the diagrams in the books to help the player out, Resident Evil has certain documents scattered around the area that the player must find for the hint. Some though, are really simple. Just like Myst had the blue page fitting in the blue book, Resident Evil has the Armor Key unlocking the Armor Lock. Sometimes, you'll run accross a larger puzzle that requires you to find multiple pieces in order to finish it. Fans of the first game will recognize what I'm referring to, when I talk about a door in the courtyard out the back of the mansion. This door eventually leads the player to the next area, but in order to open it, one must find 4 different crests spread throughout the entire building, and they'll have to accomplish a series of smaller puzzles to reach each crest. This is kind of like the switches on the main island of Myst. You can't get all of them right away, you need to do smaller puzzles first, but once you get all of them, you can unlock the next area.

Next, just like Myst is about isolation on an island, I never realized it before, but Resident Evil is the same thing. Instead of an island, you're stuck in a mansion. Granted, you have to avoid various zombies and monsters, but the feeling of being alone is just the same. You're stuck in this awful situation and you have to figure a way out of it, and along the way, you get pulled into the plot through documents, letters, and reports you find, not to mention, the few cut scenes when you actually run into other people. In Myst, there are still notes and letters to help you out and bring you into the story, and you meet the characters in the books instead of walking around.

Having never have been too familiar with Myst, it really came as a shock when I realized that Resident Evil probably wouldn't have existed without that other game. Sure it may have been made eventually and it even may have involved killing zombies, but the puzzle aspect and the way the character interacts with the world wouldn't have been invented yet. Again, I know this wasn't really textual analysis, but it was just an observation that I wanted to get off of my chest.