Myst sequel in a bubble-world universe, still as contemplative and enigmatic. Puzzles are ingenious and art direction is splendid. Brad Dourif is memorable as the antagonist. For fans of calm adventure and demanding puzzles.
Your verdict
Category
Adventure1 player7+
Description
Saavedro, a survivor of a devastated world, has stolen one of Atrus's books and traps the player in a journey through five surreal ages to reclaim it. Published by Ubisoft, released in 2002 in the United States and Europe. Third entry in the exploration and puzzle franchise, featuring strikingly beautiful prerendered full 3D environments, environmental puzzles, and Brad Dourif's voice as Saavedro.
Myst III - Exile review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
4/5
Story
★★★★★
"Captivating"
Each age is built around a single physical principle, and the whole setting follows from it: a solar-energy world lines up mirrors and lenses, another rests on wind with its turbines and sails, a third on water and its locks. The pre-rendered images allow a depth of field and reflections real time could not reach.
Each age gets a single very long pad that never restarts and transforms imperceptibly: a metallic drone where wind dominates, crystalline harmonics near water, a low breath beneath the solar machines. Since nothing repeats audibly, you soon stop perceiving the music as a piece at all.
The antagonist is not a monster but a man whose world was destroyed by Atrus's sons, and who comes to demand a reckoning from their father. The story lets him lay out his grievance in full, without contradicting it, so crossing the ages amounts to verifying an accusation rather than thwarting a plan.
The third entry in Presto Studios' adventure saga, Myst III Exile extends the contemplative exploration of mysterious ages riddled with mechanical puzzles, enhanced by pre-rendered settings of great beauty and a 360 degree freedom of view. The depth of the puzzles, the spellbinding atmosphere and the careful writing carried by a memorable antagonist win over genre fans. The slow pace and lack of action put off the impatient. An excellent puzzle game for fans of cerebral, contemplative adventure.
