Myst III: Exile

Overview

Myst III: Exile is a first person, point-and-click adventure game developed by Presto Studios and produced by Ubisoft and released on May 7, 2001. The third game in the Myst series, Exile continues to follow the story of the Stranger as he explores various Ages at the behest of his friend, Atrus. The game was first released for the PC and Mac but was later extended to the Playstation 2 and Xbox in 2002. Myst III garnered high scores from many publications and was praised for its immersive graphics, sound, and gameplay; however, it did not achieve the same success as its predecessors.

Gameplay

Exile is similar to Myst and Riven in that the player explores the world in a first person perspective - clicking the mouse to move in the desired direction. Exile employs the same node-based movement system wherein the player moves from point to point; however, Exile gives players a 360 degree field of view for each node as opposed to the static, 2D pictures of the previous games in the series. After exploring an area, the player can avoid clicking through each individual node by using the "Zip mode," which allowed for quick travel from one side to the other. Objects in the world can be picked up or otherwise manipulated using the context sensitive cursor. Myst III incorporates a limited inventory system that allows the player to collect journal pages and sketches found in the different worlds.

The puzzles in Myst III are considered to be scaled back in difficulty in comparison to the second game in the series, Riven. Puzzles are contained to a single area and do not require tracking back and forth across multiple locations to find solutions. Each Age has its own theme which is seen in the scenery as well as the puzzles. Within each Age are clues to the puzzles as well as information about the back story and its characters.

Locations

There are seven locations in Myst III: six Ages and one area located on Earth.

• Tomahna is located on Earth is the home of Atrus and his wife, Catherine, and hosts the introduction and final scenes of the game.
• J'nanin is the first Age that the player enters and is an introductory world which also acts as a hub to the three main Ages. J'nanin was created by Atrus initially as a training world for his sons; it also serves as training world of sorts for the player, as it includes some simple introductory puzzles to ease the player into the experience.
• Edanna consists of a single island surrounded by an ocean. The island is contains a gigantic tree which itself contains a forest and a swamp. Edanna is a very organic Age with almost no mechanical devices.
• Amateria is an island containing a large oriental-like structure and stone areas. It is criss-crossed with moveable tracks that guide a crystal ball around the island.
• Voltaic is a desert island with waterways flowing through it and exposed lava underneath. It has an industrial, electrical look with many tunnels and valleys.
• Narayan is the home world of the Saavedro, the game's antagonist. It contains a large ocean with no land masses; only large trees come up from the ocean.
• Releeshan is the Age that Atrus created as a new home for survivors from D'ni.

Story

Ten years after the story in Riven, the Stranger arrives in Tomahna, home of Atrus; his wife, Catherine; and their daughter, Yeesha. Atrus is about to leave for Releeshan when Saavedro suddenly appears, starts a fire, steals the Releeshan book, and flees to another Age, J'nanin. The Stranger follows Saavedro to J'nanin, which is an age created by Atrus for the purpose of training his sons, Sirrus and Achenar.

The Stranger must travel to the three lesson ages contained on J'nanin to put a stop to Saavedro and recover the Releeshan book. Along the way, the Stranger discovers the evil past of Sirrus and Achenar and what they did that would drive Saavedro to seek vengence against Atrus and his family.

Cast

Atrus - Rand Miller

Saavedro - Brad Dourif

Catherine - Maria Galante

Yeesha - Audrey Uhler

Soundtrack

Myst III: Exile - The Soundtrack (Jack Wall)