Myst III: Exile Review

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Myst III: Exile

Review by Orb

The first thing to do in Myst III: Exile is simply get over walking around in it so you can get busy solving puzzles.

This has the feeling, from an adventure player’s perspective at least, of being a cultural phenomenon. Presto’s production of Myst III: Exile, coming after their successful Journeyman Project series, is like Michael Jordan coming out of retirement and winning another NBA championship.

The story of Exile begins ten years after the end of Riven.  Atrus and his wife Catherine, whom players will remember from the first two games, have contacted the peoples of the D’ni Age and found that their world had been laid to waste, and the D’ni are looking at the prospect of having to rebuild the entirety of their civilization. Atrus plans to help repair these ravages, and he has begun to embark on this. His plans are interrupted by the villain Saavedro (played by Academy Award nominee Brad Dourif), who is seeking revenge for the destruction of his world by Atrus’s sons, Sirrus and Achenar. The player’s job is to stop Saavedro before his plan can come to fruition, and he/she must explore five new worlds to accomplish this.

Dourif (reportedly an adventure gamer as well) plays a man balanced on the edge of reason—Saavedro, an edgy character to say the least. His performance was thoroughly enjoyable, and his intense, high-strung Saavedro gives the game an additional tense excitement.  The character is pure fun.

All of the acting, including a return as Atrus by Rand Miller, is well-done and believable. The costuming of all the characters fit their respective ages nicely, and in what may be a twisted homage to Scarlet O’Hara (or perhaps Carol Burnett), Saavedro at one point takes what he finds hanging on the wall and clothes himself in it (unfortunately looking in the process somewhat like a giant otherworldly fez).

An amazing characteristic about the design is that the story is developed throughout gameplay. And the game is entirely nonlinear.  So it seems as though it was quite a trick to develop the story in such a way that pieces of it can be uncovered and assimilated in a number of different orders, just as the player is allowed to explore the ages and puzzles within them in varying order.

To say that the images and worlds of Exile are eye candy is simply a redundant and overused representation. Being in the ages of Exile is like entering and wandering around within every beautiful painting you’ve ever seen. The only kind of art I can liken it to is a kind of cross between Roger Dean and the Brothers Hildebrandt, except that you’re inside it.

Exile boasts both prerendered and real-time 3D graphics.  The proprietary engine Presto has been developing for use in Exile is simply nothing short of phenomenal. It gives full 360-degree movement. The game still incorporates the kind of quality prerendered graphics fans are familiar with and expect, but these are blended into the game alongside this new engine, giving the player unparalleled freedom of movement. With the movement design, players can look around landed-upon nodes in 360-degree pans, even while an animation is playing. Up until now this is pretty unheard of, as games usually lock the player down while an animation or in-scene movie runs.  The design team also kept in the Myst and Riven-style fade transitions. As Myst III uses real-time 3D technology, it provides players who have graphics cards that can handle it a hardware mode that gives even more immersive gameplay. The engine was built using 3D Studio Max by Discreet, and much of the programming was done on a Mac.

The game has a zip mode feature, a throwback to the original Myst, and it’s just peachy. It worked great in Myst, and damned if Presto didn’t recognize that it weren’t broke so didn’t fix it. I spent a fair amount of time wandering around when I got into the ages, but once I dug into the puzzles and needed to move from area to area, I couldn’t get at them fast enough, and this certainly did the trick.

Each age has its own distinct design style; for example, Amateria has a decidedly Asian flavor, with dark storm clouds moving in from the distance. And in Voltaic, the player can almost feel the sun beating down in the arid, dusty outdoor portions of the game. The secret behind such well-put-together differences is that each age in Exile had its own designer, and that smart move has paid off in gaming aces.

The music, composed by Jack Wall, is beautiful and soothing.  Jack Wall has previously worked with John Cale, who inspired him as a result to become a composer himself. Exile has over twenty minutes of fully orchestrated music, and there is almost a hour of music on the soundtrack, which was created using a full orchestra and choir. The game has simply incredible ambient sounds, from the clacking buzzing toys in Saavedro’s lair, to the metal grinding of machinery, to my personal favorite, the trilling voice of a small squee creature. In fact, I want one. (Of course, a personal squealing squee might upset my spoiled cats greatly.)

There are portions of the soundtrack that use some of the music from the earlier Myst, and this serves to tie Exile into the sensation of the earlier Cyan works. The soundtrack does, for the first time in the series, incorporate some singing, which I found quite haunting and a great addition to the ambiance.  However, there are those that go to the ages of Myst and expect to be in a solitary environment devoid of human interaction, and from that view the addition of singing may be a distraction.  It was certainly not for me, however.

The Myst series definitely coined the term “mechanical puzzle.” And mechanical puzzles are to the Myst franchise what George Martin was to the Beatles: One simply isn’t the same without the other. So if mechanical puzzles make you crazy, you might as well pack it in now, ’cause the ride ain’t gonna get any smoother.

One improvement that has been made is that when actions are done in a game area, the results are seen immediately in the same area of the game. Unlike Riven, the player doesn’t have to move something, say a lever, then go wander around and figure out what part of the game the action has affected. A thought I had about this while playing is that it makes for far less redundant gameplay, in that there’s no trudging though the same sections over and over to see if they have changed.

Something that struck me throughout the puzzle-solving was the sheer feat of engineering that had to get out of the designer’s heads and onto the computer. The puzzles are some of the most well–thought out and sublime in the history of the genre.  They enable the player to use deductive reasoning to solve them, and they are very much logic-based. The end of the Amateria Age is singularly the most spectacular payoff I have ever seen in a game, bar none.

A couple of great design decisions were made. Like its predecessors, Myst III does not rely on redundant inventory, and although it uses a certain amount of it, it is sparse enough to not be intrusive. The player also does not have to take copious notes throughout the game in order to solve sections of the game and is, in portions, given the clues that are needed in books in the inventory.

One feature that I must mention is the ability to install the whole game onto your hard drive and play just using disk 1, so even if the player is using a CD-ROM drive instead of a DVD, there’s no disk-swapping.

Exile does get the award for the quirkiest yet most inconsequential game bug: Every time I quit, I found the icons on the right side of my desktop rearranged. Now I say if I can just get it to rearrange the furniture in my living room, we’d really be onto something here.

Presto has hit a home run, right out of the ballpark. Anyone who says this game is boring simply doesn’t get it, and why should they have it explained to them anyway? I’m certainly not the taste police.

Presto has raised the bar, taking gaming from a pastime and moving it into the realm of a legitimate art form. Do, by all means, turn out the lights and plug in the best pair of speakers you can get your hands on, as this is a cinematic adventure. And kudos to Presto for releasing the Mac port simultaneously and as a hybrid.  You guys have never let the Mac community down. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Presto Studios Publisher: Ubi Soft Release Date: May 2001

Available for: MacintoshWindows

Four Fat Chicks Links

WalkthroughPlayer FeedbackInterview with Dan Irish

Screenshots

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System Requirements

Mac: 233 MHz G3 processor or faster Mac OS 8.1 or higher 64 MB RAM 200 MB available hard disk space 4X CD-ROM drive or faster 640×480 display, thousands of colors Supports optional 3D hardware acceleration Recommended 6 MB video card

PC: 233 MHz Pentium II or faster Windows 95/98/ME 64 MB RAM 200 MB available hard disk space 4X CD-ROM drive or faster 640×480 display, high color (16-bit) Supports optional 3D hardware acceleration Recommended 8 MB video card

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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