[Mikey]

Myst was surreal (and some macabre elements, I suppose) and while some of its puzzles behaved logically (in that things worked the way you expected them to) none of them made sense contextually. For example, why is there a keyboard in a rocket ship? However, since Myst was so barren aside from Atrus, Sirrus and Achenar, it almost felt natural to go around solving those bizzare puzzles. It was as if the game said "Here is a world just for you, go play in it."

Getting that out of the way, I'd like to nominate Riven as a fucked up game, especially when comparing it to Myst. You start the game seeing someone be killed, or kidnapped (my memory is sort of foggy). As you go around, you encounter people who hide from you, as well as beasts who do the same. And there's all this alien, quasi-religious iconography and evidence of people actually living lives in the place. Almost everything here, even if it's strange, seems like it has a sense of purpose (if not necessarily relevant to you and your task) here and not like it's just some random shit a game designer rendered. Never mind that some of the puzzles have you essentially breaking into places. It made me feel like an intruder, like some kind of prowler or peeping tom.