PC

  News 
  Reviews
  Previews
  Hardware
  Interviews
  All Features

Areas

  3DS
  Android
  iPad
  iPhone
  Mac
  PC
  PlayStation 3
  PlayStation 4
  Switch
  Vita
  Wii U
  Xbox 360
  Xbox One
  Media
  Archives
  Search
  Contests

 

Myst III: Exile

Score: 80%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment
Developer: Presto Studios
Media: CD/4
Players: 1
Genre: Adventure/ Puzzle

Graphics & Sound:

Graphics have always been a strong point of the Myst series, and Myst III: Exile is no exception. The ages are distinctive and sharp, with tons of little details that will have you looking around madly, just to catch everything there is to see. Another major improvement with the graphical engine is the use of a 'spinning' camera. Instead of the standard static 'screenshot' method of the previous two Myst titles, Exile supports a rotatable camera that lets you look everywhere, up and down and all around, in a specific spot. You still have to move around by steps--the world isn't real-time 3D--but it gives the game considerably more graphical oomph.

However, and this is something that has plagued the Myst titles since the beginning, the worlds of Exile still feel a little too static for their own good. Edanna, the plant-based Age, comes closest to breaking free from that feeling, but at times the game feels like some sort of uber-museum, where you're allowed to look but not touch. The moving water is a nice touch, and the animation that is in the game is very nice, but the worlds still feel a lot more ascerbic than I personally like. That's not to say they're not beautiful--they are--but in the end they make me feel more lonely than any other game series.

The sound in the game is solid--it keeps itself understated, but still remains noticeable. This is especially evident in the music of the game, which flares up occasionally to fit the situation and then calms back down to something dangerously close to Zen. For the deliberate pace of Exile, it works perfectly. The voice acting in Exile is also top notch, with the same ol' Atrus we've come to know and love, and a villain that is appropriately, ah, villainic? I'm not sure what the word here is, but suffice it to say that there's not a Jill sandwich in sight. And that is a Very Good Thing.


Gameplay:

Myst III: Exile is the spiritual successor to both Myst and Riven in every way imaginable--style, plot and gameplay. This leads to an obvious conclusion: if you didn't like the first games, you won't find much to like here. If, on the other hand, the style of the first few games was to your liking, Exile is going to ring true for you. The puzzles may sometimes feel rather arbitrary, but never do they approach the Myst levels of wackiness, and the game itself struck me as more immersive.

While the box claims that no prior knowledge is necessary for the enjoyment of Exile, it really does help to have played the first two games and read the books. There's a lot of complicated backstory that is only hinted at as you play Exile, and some of the actions in the game may not make as much sense to you if you haven't immersed yourself in the universe of Myst. While I played the original game, I never got around to trying Riven, so a few of the developments struck me as bizarre until I learned of their context. It's not a gaping flaw, and the game certainly stands on its own merits, but knowledge of the past definitely does help.

The game itself involves four major Ages, each with its own share of puzzles. After a lovely introduction where a wild man jumps into Atrus' home, steals his new Age, and leaps into it, you follow him into the newly created realm and attempt to, well, do whatever it is you do in a Myst game. The plot is actually quite intruiging, once you start seeing the snippets of it, and I found myself reading the journals and pages I collected in the game with considerably more care than I usually bother with. Of course, that could be because clues for the puzzles are found in the journals, but I digress.

The actual gameplay is what you'd expect--lots of puzzles and lots of exploration. Because of the self-contained universes in Exile, you generally don't have to worry about weird cause-and-effect sequences that make little to no sense; what happens generally happens close enough to notice. This is A Good Thing. While trekking back and forth between segments of the game may become tiresome, you really won't care the first few times because the game's so bloody gorgeous.

With intriguing puzzles, an interesting plot, and gorgeous graphics, what is there not to like about Exile? Well, it has its issues. Its nonlinear structure sometimes comes back to bite it in the butt, as it can be confusing to figure out just what you're doing or what you need to do. Yes, a good deal of adventure gaming is trial and error, but when you have to deal with clicking around a huge environment to see just what's going on, it can be a little frustrating. And a few of the puzzles still seemed rather arbitrary to me; I don't mind doing something if it makes sense in the scope of the world, and most of the times it did in Exile, but a few times I felt a little shoehorned.

Of course, sometimes adventure gaming is all about shoehorning.


Difficulty:

Myst III: Exile is one of those games that tests muscles most people don't even realize they have. Your skill at most other genres in no way translates to being able to play a puzzle game like Exile. The puzzles themselves are generally much less frustrating than in the original Myst, which is good, but there are still some that had me scratching my head for a while. None are impossible, though, even if some feel a little arbitrary. As with any adventure game, perseverence is key--if you can't figure out what to do at the moment, go explore elsewhere.

Game Mechanics:

The game is pretty much solely controlled by the mouse. It defaults to a sort of 'locked mouselook', where you move the pointer around and click if you want to interact with what's in the centre of the screen. Right-clicking unlocks the mouse, letting you play with the journals or click on things that aren't in the centre. The game has a very limited number of options, and lacks a few things that would have been nice, most notably gamma correction. For the most part, though, Presto has managed to keep the interface as unobtrusive as possible, which is excellent for a game that's attempting to stay fully immersive.

A warning to players: There have been a large number of reports that Myst III: Exile doesn't run on many systems, due to particular chipsets that the machines have. Ubi Soft has recently released a version 1.2 patch that (hopefully) fixes many of the issues, but there's a chance that the game won't even work out of the box for you. Make sure you update the game before you start to play. This is unfortunate--I'd love to know how these sorts of gross incompatibilities weren't found during QA--but remediable.

It's by no means groundbreaking, and it won't sway gamers who never liked this sort of game, but Myst III: Exile provides precisely what you'd expect for another sequel to Myst--gorgeous environments, intriguing puzzles, and a dash of story to keep you going through all of the challenges. Fans of the genre and fans of the series are going to love it; those who find the slow-paced adventures unimpressive will not change their minds because of Exile. I sometimes wish it had done more, not in a size sense but in an evolutionary sense, but there's enough fun to be had with Myst III: Exile that even I can't complain too much.


-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications
AKA Phil Bordelon

Minimum System Requirements:



P2 233, Win9x/ME, 64 MB RAM, 200MB HD Space, 4x CD-ROM, 640x480x16b display
 

Test System:



Athlon 1.1GHz running Win98 SE, 512MB RAM, GeForce 2 GTS w/ 32MB RAM, SoundBlaster Live!, 8x DVD-ROM

Windows Microsoft Train Simulator Windows Myth II: Worlds

 
Game Vortex :: PSIllustrated