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Not as good as Riven

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: May 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Though nice this game is not as good as Riven. The 360 turn around ability is nice, you can trace steam and electrical lines much easier than myst/riven but the graphics are many times inferior to riven. Some problems with the mouse pointer catching up to where it was moved. Overall this is a good game but no match for riven. The water animation is really bad except in shallow areas, it looks like they pasted a flat texture down and made it stretch and contract unnaturally. I would recommend waiting for the price to drop, and steer clear of the "collectors edition".

Watch out for system requirements

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 23
Date: May 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge fan of the Myst series and have been waiting for this game for a long time. Unfortunately it is not supported by my Intel video card and does not work. Though my system meets the requirements on the box it still does not work. So buyer beware this game was promoted and released by Ubi-Soft. They rushed the product to market and they know it. I was told by their technical support that they will have a patch out within the month. No definite time was given. So if you purchase this game get ready to wait a month to play it. Isn't capitalism grand?

Absolutely, overwhelmingly beautiful

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: March 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I thought Riven was incredibly gorgeous, and it was for its time; Myst: Exile, however, blows it utterly out of the water. There were times when I was laughing aloud because I was so enjoying the scenery in this game. Some of the soundtracks are just magical, too. One world in particular, a small island with a large resident bird, was just stunning both in scenery and in soundtrack.

The puzzles could be a bit tricky to work out in some areas, and at times, the paths were incredibly difficult to find; however, the 360-degree viewing was wonderful. Brad Dourif does an excellent job of playing The Bad Guy, Saavedro, and there are a few truly enchanting creatures along the way. Some of the puzzles are really charming in their cleverness, too, and you'll feel a great sense of accomplishment if you manage them all without resorting to a cheat website.

Truly a wonderful game, top to bottom, and suitable for all ages (though younger children may need adult help to solve some puzzles, they'll surely enjoy romping through many of the worlds.) Highly recommended.

Myst 3: Takes the artistry up another notch

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 30, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I just finished Myst 3: Exile and I'm still in a trance. Several aspects of this game are extremely brilliant and combine to make this one of my favorite experiences sitting at a computer:

1) The music. The Myst 3 soundtrack contains echoes of motifs from Myst and Riven. As with its predecessors, the evocative instrumental music accompanies your exploration of each Age, working sneakily on your emotions to pull you into an appropriately reflective mood. But in this case, it's not just one song to an area (which tends to get annoying after a couple repetitions) -- it's an ever-changing score that incorporates elements of interactivity, mirroring your progress in each Age on a micro level. Composer Jack Wall and audio programmer Roland Gustaffsson have finally solved the age old Myst problem of repetitiveness over rather long stretches of gameplay. Wall basically sliced each Age's theme into instrumental layers/motifs (pads, rhythm, melodic fragments, etc), stored each of these layers as a separate sound file, and then Gustaffsson programmed in a complex set of rules to tell those files when and how to play back -- separately or in simultaneity -- based on where you are in the game, what puzzles you've solved, etc. The result is a nonlinear sound score with a finite number of motifs but an infinite number of possible variations. In other words, even if you spend days playing, you're not likely to hear the same sequence twice. Maybe all you non-music-geeks out there are wondering what's so exciting about this, but I'm just amazed by the amount of work this approach must've taken and the fact that they actually pulled it off AND it sounds good.

As far as the actual musical style goes, it is rather diverse: Myst's usual introspective oboe melodies and haunting synth textures are augmented by dramatic moments of choral singing and orchestral grandeur, as well as an infusion of world music influences. And of course it's all drenched in the heavy reverb that defines the "Myst sound." Basically, Jack Wall has taken the scale of the project up a notch, while preserving the spirit of Robyn Miller's sound. Saavedro's music in the concluding scenes is incredible.

2) The environment. Each Age is huge. The architecture is achingly beautiful. There are steam tunnels to crawl through, giant hollow plants to climb inside, precarious bridges to cross over redrock canyons, living escalators to ride, and endless other magic. So much loving care has been placed into the design of these environments that you start to forget it's all virtual. There are a few exceptions to the realism. I found the animals in the game (there's this bird I'm thinking of) kind of annoying and not believable as animated creatures, both in terms of their simplistic behavior and their plasticine appearance. Those are exceptions.

3) The puzzles. Okay, let's be clear, this isn't a game of reflexes. If you're looking for a shoot-em-up scenario, this ain't it, partner. This is a nonviolent game that is designed to provoke logical and experimental modes of thinking. Some people get frustrated or bored by that. Fortunately for them, there are already plenty of games out there to satisfy their tastes. There are still far too few good puzzle games out there. The puzzles in the Myst series are REAL puzzles: they don't just make you tinker with stuff at random; they ask you to draw connections, deduce the meaning behind things, fill in the missing links with your imagination. What sets Myst 3: Exile's puzzles above the rest is their interconnectedness with the themes and story of the game.

4) The 360-degree view. Takes a brief moment to get used to it, and then it's amazing. Works a lot better on my computer than RealMyst's engine, which allowed so much freedom of motion that it was impossible to navigate normally. Myst 3's node-to-node navigation with complete panning freedom provides a happy medium, while still giving the illusion of freedom of motion in the virtual space. Animation movies blend seamlessly into the picture.

5) I hated all the disc-switching in Riven. 5 CDs, constantly ejecting and inserting, sheesh! That aggravation is lessened here by the fact that each Age's puzzles are self-contained; thus the island-hopping is minimized. And if you have 2 extra gigs on your hard drive, you can install the entire game there and entirely avoid disc-switching.

Summary: this game is lovely. Don't miss it.

Solid so far -- but not spectacular

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: May 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Unlike many, I was able to load the game and have it run with no problems on a 333MHz Dell w/64MB of RAM. Two things I did a little differently--I downloaded ActiveX 8 from Microsoft and Quicktime from Apple, rather than the Exile CD, and I had room on my 18GB hard drive to put it all there.

Having recently re-played Myst and Riven, I feel the graphics in Riven were better than the ones in Exile (so far--that is, after hitting just two worlds). The colors in some places are slightly garish. I often feel like I'm looking at pictures, rather than being immersed in a landscape, as I did in Riven. And I find the guy playing the berserker saboteur to be completely unbelievable.

Still, the game has much to recommend it. It is, after all, the familiar Myst universe. The puzzles by and large are logical and solvable. The Quicktime movies mesh well. And while some of the scenery looks too much like a picture, there are other times when it all comes together perfectly. Is it worth buying? Assuming it loads and runs for you, then I would say "yes."

One caveat--the Collector edition had CDs, book and pewter Squee rattling around loose in the huge box. I would have hoped a "collector's edition" could have shown a lot more care in packaging and protecting its merchandise.

Enjoy!

Equal to Riven but in different ways.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Myst 3 is as enjoyable as Riven. But in much different ways.
Here are some points that make the game both better and worse than Riven.

Better than Riven:
Panoramic views
Movies
Deeper story
More pick up and carry items
Better designed puzzles
Saavedro(what a brilliant character)
Cleaver nature puzzles in Edanna
More rewarding ending

Worse than Riven:
More CD changeing
Less interaction with characters
No inhabited areas(in Riven the village is the best bit)
Less animals

Puzzles a bit too complex
Boring music
Less fun transport
Less realistic water effect

To name but a few, but anyway you get the message. If you liked Riven, get this. I give this 4 stars because there are a lot of scenes where it is hard to see what you are doing. I call it the 'Tomb Raider Syndrome' where there are so many darkened scenes that it is a real pain. Nevertheless, the fantasy worlds in it are well crafted and thought out.

A great game. A stunning adventure that keeps you riveted!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: July 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let me begin by saying that the first two games in this series, Myst and Riven were great titles. Adventure games that told involving stories and emphasized thinking, patience and puzzle-solving rather than power-levelling and killing everything you see.

Now the third installment in the series, MYST III: EXILE has come. Without spoiling much I can say that it uses a deceptively simple premise to draw you into a very engaging story. What do I mean by that? This. In Myst III your objective is to retrieve a book for for your friend Atrus that he has been working on for some time and has just recently completed. The book, titled "RELEESHAN" is a new world that Atrus has written for the D'ni civilization, whom the player encountered first in the original Myst game and more deeply in the sequel, Riven. Naturally you will have obstacles in the form of puzzles that make you think (and can try your patience) as well as an engaging villian who goes to extraordinary lengths to foil you in your quest for the Releeshan book.

Let me get more specific here for a bit. One thing I really like about Myst III: Exile is that you can now look all around you in 360-space by moving your mouse. This beats the point-click-and move affair that it was to look around in the first two games of the series. Also, here, when you complete a puzzle you know exactly wjat the puzzle is for, you see a reward immediately and you get a sense of real accomplishment when the puzzle is completed. Instead of just hearing a sound to tell you the puzzle is complete, you will see something happen nearby (ie: Plants grow, a machine begins to work correctly, etc).

I must touch on some more things here before I close. The worlds and the characters. Each Age here has it's own theme, whether it be nature-inspired, mechanically inspired, or a macabre version of an amusement park, and so on. The visuals for these worlds are utterly stunning, easily surpassing the original Myst and even the graphical spledor of Riven is easily matched and overtaken. The ambient sounds of the enviornments do wonders to place you right in the middle of a living breathing world. Also the music here is excellent, very appropriately tense and dramatic and invigorating to hear. The main title music alone for this game ranks in my humble opinion as one of the most grand, majestic, and best themes ever written for a video game score, hands dwn, bar none.

Visuals. Sound. Music. What are they without great characters and a great story? Myst III: EXILE has all of these things. Rand Miller(One of the creators of the Myst series) returns here in fine style as your buddy Atrus. Maria Galante does a fine supporting job as his loving wife Catherine. However it is the performance of Brad Dourif as the cunning and maniacal Saavedro that really drives this story. The deeper you get into the game, the more you get to know Saavedro. His agenda, his motives, his torment. This is not a cardboard villian, but a man driven to utter madness by a situation that he had no control over and no power to stop. Brad Dourif gives such complexity and life to the character of Saveedro that he becomes much more than a typical villian. I almost cried several times during the game for the story's sake, and at the end I DID let loose and cry without shame or regret. It was a beautiful experience. My hat is off to everyone that was involved in this project for a job that was VERY well done.
In short Myst III: EXILE a thinking person's adventure game. It is a grand story of a civilization in peril, and one man's quest for redemption. It is told through visuals and music that grab straight for your heart and mind, with charaters that are full of vivid emotion and depth and life. And should you complete the game it gives a real sense of awe, of wonder, and of true accomplishment. You will literally feel as if you have saved a world, and set many wrongs right. I loved this game as I did the rest of Myst series. To me, in fact, MYST III EXILE is the best game of the trilogy. If you like an adventure game with a great story that is very well told in every sense of the word told, give this game a look. You just might fall in love with it like did. Peace, and God bless you.

Yet another Myst Masterpiece!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

First off, I have a small request: Could people please just review the *game* and not rant about system specs and compatibility issues? Jeez, you'd think this was a tech support forum!

Anyway, being an avid fan of the original Myst I really loved this game (I somehow never got around to playing Riven, but trust me, it's on my to-do list). Exile has the same surreal feel that the original Myst did, with beautiful graphics and a soul-stirring score, and expands it with the free-look option. Technically speaking it's amazing, and it helps the game feel more fluid and less choppy. In addition, the free-look feature allowed them to hide parts of puzzles better. The puzzles are pretty tricky (with a few notable exceptions), so I don't recommend this for little kids, but I had a lot of fun with it and only needed outside help once. The 4-part ball puzzle in Armateria totally rocks my world.

My only real complaints are: The villain's preformance is totally over-acted and I was really tired of seeing him by the end of the game. Personally, I think they should have just cut all his holographic messages and just let you learn about him through his paintings, journal writings, and your final confrontation with him. Also, Exile is rather short; all in all it's about 80% as long as the original Myst, and for 4-CD's I was kinda hoping for something longer than Myst, not shorter. In the end, however, these are minor issues in an otherwise excellent game.

OK, but falls short of Riven and Myst

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Technologically, this is of course the most advanced installment in the myst series, with its new active panning graphics (and sound). Theatrical live-action and panning sequence are melded in much more effectively than ever before. I would not extend this praise to the quality of the pre-rendered graphics though, they're definately not up to par with Riven...being a graphics junkie,....

While there are some really nice procedural shaders simulating the natural environment, but the render quality is not up to par with Riven, and sometimes distracts from the immersive qualities which myst games are known for. Shadows are hideously raster-mapped in inappropriate places, and there are some images where they've quite obviously composited foreground and background elements (And I don't speak of the live action sequences). I pine away for the Softimage-rendered scenery in riven!

Even still, I found the ages are, artistically appealing, each a departure from what has ever been seen before in the Myst series. My personal favorite would have to be the bleak Voltaic age, with its bizarre barren landscape littered with huge mechanical devices, set to some of the most effective mood-setting ambient music I've heard so far in a game. Yes, I'd say the music is a definate two thumbs up (though the tunes in the Amateria age can get a bit old).

But I'd say the major shortcoming in this game is that it's got to be the least challenging in the series. It took me a few days (spread out among several weeks) to beat it. There don't seem to be that many puzzles, and they aren't as hard as in the other Myst games, and sometimes a lot less logical! (They want me to frikkin aim flowers?)

Oh yes, and a final word on the live action sequences. The compisiting was OK, about the same as in Riven, and though a lot of people weren't too impressed with Brad Dourif's performances, I DO think he had his moments in the game. Ok, maybe the ending sequence was played up a just a tad too much for dramatic effect (yes, that part was a bit too overdone), but you gotta give the guy credit for what he had to work with. In the several 'recorded' view-scope-thingy sequences scattered throughout the game, I'd have to say that he did an admirable job of giving the game an emotional quality. An interesting contrast from the cold and calculated Gehn, portrayed by John Keston in Riven. To me, it's really the one of the few memorable elements in this game.

I wish they'd fix it.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: May 22, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I wish i could say I was satisifed with this product, but I advise those of you that run HP computers, or any computer with an intel chipset to wait, because there is still a large bug problem with it. I'm sure the game will be very much worth waiting for, once they fix it, but even the company isn't sure when they'll get it fixed, they keep pushing the date back. So I don't say "Don't buy it" I say, wait till they get the patches out. . .and then buy it unless you're sure it'll run on your system.

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