Welcome, Stranger. You're about to go on a very, very long journey. And it all starts with...
The Book of Ti'ana, actually. This novel covers the life of Ti'ana (Atrus' grandmother) and the fall of the City of D'ni.
The Book of Atrus is next on the timeline. This one follows Atrus' life from childhood up to just before the start of Myst. If you ever wanted to know how Atrus learned how to write Ages, this is your book.
Alternatively, you could also read the webcomic adaptation.
Ah, here we go. The original Myst is the second best-selling PC game ever at over 6 million copies (The Sims is #1, if you're curious). This is where your story starts, Stranger. You find yourself stuck on a weird island and have three people imprisoned in books yelling at you to help them get out. Myst was actually remade twice: there's also realMyst (which has 3D environments and a new area) and Myst Masterpiece edition (which ups the resolution of the prerendered images and remasters the audio).
Next is Riven, which has the incredibly blunt subtitle "The Sequel to Myst" just in case anybody got confused. This time, Atrus's wife, Catherine, is trapped and the Stranger has to free her and trap Gehn to save the day. The good news: I and many others consider this game to have the best atmosphere and world-building of any Myst game. The bad news: it is also unanimously considered the hardest game. Riven straight up hates you, and I'm pretty sure almost anyone who's actually beaten it has used a guide at some point. There is no shame in giving in to GameFAQs. Riven's just a fucking asshole of a game.
We return to literature for The Book of the D'ni, which puts the focus on Atrus as he builds a new home for the D'ni. It's meant to bridge the gap between Riven and the next game in the series...
Myst 3: Exile. This is my personal favorite game in the series. It also has the easiest puzzles. But remember, this is "easy" by Myst standards, so you're still gonna have to exercise your brain. It's just that this time the actions you need to take are significantly more intuitive, and the consequences of your wanton switch-flipping and button-pressing are made much more obvious. The Ages look pretty cool, too.
Oh, and I guess there's a plot about some asshole named Saavedro trying to take revenge on Atrus and, by association, the survivors of D'ni who are now living in Releeshahn. It's fine, but kind of forgettable.
Myst 4: Revelation has some goddamn gorgeous Ages. In terms of art design, I consider it to be right up there with Riven. Its puzzles are around the same difficult as Myst 1's: hard, but not quite on Riven's "go fuck yourself" level. It also has my favorite soundtrack. I mean, just listen to the main theme.
So good.
Just like in the previous Myst games, you take control of The Stranger. During another visit to Atrus' home (these never end well, do they?), his daughter, Yeesha, goes missing after being chased by a mysterious figure. Atrus fears Sirrus and Achenar (the antagonists of Myst 1) are responsible. It's up to you to figure out what happened to Yeesha and if Atrus' sons have reformed enough to finally release them from their prison Ages.
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is a weird game. Not only is it the first game to not feature the Stranger, but it's a third-person game with a customizable avatar that also has an MMO version. So like Second Life but with puzzles. The basic plot is about your avatar helping the D'ni Restoration Council in their quest to...well...rebuild the D'ni's civilization. I only played a couple hours of this game, so that's all I've got.
Finally we come to Myst 5: End of Ages. This is the only Myst game I have not actually played yet. Like realMyst and Uru, Myst 5's environments are fully 3D and rendered in real time. Your quest-giver this time is Yeesha, who entrusts you with the task of unlocking the power of a mysterious tablet in order to fully restore the D'ni civilization.
Now, there's a reason I bothered writing up that whole chronology. This isn't just going to be a thread for reminiscing about the games. Oh no. My goal is to play through every single Myst game and document my progress: like a more laid-back version of an LP. I invite you to play along with me.
You can find realMyst, Myst Masterpiece, Riven, Uru and Myst 5 on Steam and GoG. Myst 3 and 4, unfortunately, are only available as physical copies.