Myst III: Exile

childhood returned and now i actually know how to do puzzles!

BUG

Lizard mouse

This is a fun continuation of the the story Myst and Riven started.

Another great story of Atrus and his disfunctional family; well worth the puzzles.

While not as impressive as Riven in terms of worldbuilding and story, Exile is another enjoyable entry in the MYST series. I always loved the introduction of 3D pre-rendered graphics in Exile. They put it to great use in this entry's lesson ages. Amateria still stands out to me as one of the most scenic environments we are able to explore in the MYST games, and features one of the coolest puzzle finales as the cherry on top. One of the Ages, Edanna, has the player navigate an almost entirely natural environment that features multiple levels. While pretty, it is rather difficult to navigate, even on repeat playthroughs. This game has its ups and downs. There are great environmental visuals, good soundtracks and ambience, and more lore for the world of the MYST games. It doesn't hit as high as its predecessor, unfortunately, as the puzzles are more forced on the player (given the educational nature of the ages visited), and Exile returns to the MYST formula of briefly visiting multiple ages to accomplish an overarching task. While it has its pros and cons, Exile is worth the try, and does a good job rounding out the initial trilogy of MYST games, while introducing new visual improvements to the formula.

This is a sequel to Myst. Chronologically it takes place after Riven, but is very similar to the original Myst. Riven had a large world divided into themed islands with interconnected puzzles. This is more like Myst, with completely independent worlds. Finish one and you never come back to it, except the hub world (which just requires finishing the other 3, and then you never come back to it). Also the store page states "6 ages" but one of them is literally just 2 rooms. The game still holds up graphically, and the presentation is mostly fine. Full 360 rotation is a lot nicer than the original Myst/Riven's need to scroll by clicking. I still had some trouble getting turned around, especially in the jungle age (Edanna). Other than that, no complaints. Also the roller coaster sequence is still as good as I remember from 20 years ago. Great way to end the age. It's nowhere near as good as Riven. It's not "bad" but it's merely "fine". I haven't done a full playthrough of Myst in 25 years so I can't compare it to the original. This is certainly worth checking out if you're a fan of the series. Compatibility wise, I had no problems. The resolution is small for modern PCs resulting in a black border around everything; not great but not really a problem. I'm running on Linux and had no trouble. I'm assuming it works fine on modern Windows too.