CoolMacintosh.com: Myst III: Exile Review

Myst III: Exile is the third game in the legendary Myst series. The first two games were Myst and Riven. Myst was such a big seller that Cyan, the makers of Myst, decided to create a sequel - Riven. Riven was a big seller too, so Presto Studios started developing Myst III. But in order to keep the surrealistic aura about the game, Presto consulted Cyan during the process of making Myst III. After many months of 3D rendering and storyline editing, a new game in the series was born. A game that promised to be the best of the series. It lived up to its promise.

Installation:
The installer is a standard VISE installer. It lets you choose from two installation options - Standard Install or Full Install. Standard Install installs the game software and various stuff. The Full Install option lets you install the game software AND all the resource files, graphics, etc from the other 3 discs. I opted for the Standard Install because the Full Install required approximately 2.36 gigabytes of hard disk space.

After you choose your installation package and hit install, the process is pretty easy. Just sit there and watch the progress bar slide to the right. After the installation is finished, the registration screen automatically launches and you can either register online or thru mail. I chose to wait and register later, over the Internet.

The installer also places aliases of the Myst III software and registration utility on your desktop.

Controls:
Getting around in Myst III is pretty easy. You just click in the direction you want to go, and you'll be taken there. The geniuses at Presto Studios used Apple's QuickTime VR software to create 360?views. The first few minutes in Myst III were spent playing around with the 360? view. You can move the mouse to the right and the view will smoothly turn in that direction. Move the mouse up or down, and the view will go up or down. This enables you to experience the game more deeply than the previous two games. Also it makes ascending/descending ladders easier.

Hit the caps lock key and you'll be restricted to looking left or right. But the only thing this feature is handy for is reaching the items in your inventory, which are displayed in the black bar below the view screen. Click on any item to use it.

If you want to access the Finder really quickly without quitting the game, just press Command-Tab. The game will still be displayed in the background, but you'll have access to all programs currently open, and the Finder. One problem though.. the game hides the desktop, so if you wanted to get to something on the desktop, you'll have to type its name and select Open from the File menu.

Concept of the Game:
In the beginning, you are visiting Atrus and Catherine at their house in Tomahna. Soon, you discover Atrus' study and look around. Eventually, you find the Releeshahn book and Atrus appears to tell you about it. But Saavedro, an old friend of Atrus, links into the study and steals the Releeshahn book to get revenge on Atrus for letting his sons destroy Narayan. You are suddenly transported to an Age called J'nanin.

Your duty is to retrieve the Releeshahn book from Saavedro, who is stuck on Narayan. But in order to do that, you have to find the three symbols that activate the Narayan linking book.

In my Opinion:
I think that Myst III: Exile is a GREAT sequel to the previous two games, Myst and Riven. I spent hours and hours trying to solve all the puzzles to get the symbols. Some of them were pretty complex and hard to figure out, but some were pretty obvious and easy to complete. The only big brain twister is the puzzle on Narayan that unlocks the shields.

Moving around was pretty easy for me. Click click click. But I'll admit that all that clicking has taken a toll on my wrist. Luckily, there's a feature called Zip Mode. It lets you click on an area far away and be transported to it instantly. That's much better than clicking your way to it. But the Zip Mode is only available on certain pathways. You can't use it everywhere, which is a big bummer.

The storyline is pretty good. It's non-linear, too, which means you don't have to complete puzzles in order, or visit worlds in the correct order. That means you'll still reach the end, no matter how you get there. No starting over because you didn't do the puzzles in an Age in the right order, or because you visited an Age at the wrong time.

Overall, the game is pretty excellent. I give it 4 1/2 stars out of 5. I still don't like all that clicking....

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Mac Faces.

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Listen to your favorite news and novels through iTunes.
www.audible.com

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Check eBay daily for the newest Mac stuff! Including new and old systems, software, hardrives, CD-RW's, T-Shirts and more..
www.ebay.com

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Adding RAM is the most cost effective way to boost your computer's performance. Upgrade factory-direct today with Crucial Technology.
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