Myst III: Exile

Time for the third game of the Myst series. This time, it’s made by different people. Does it still feel like Myst? Most of the time, yes. Myst III: Exile follows along with the first person puzzle adventure. This time around, there’s free-look! Still no walking around. You click to teleport around, but at each location, you can now look around in all directions! It really adds a lot of depth to the world.

Find it on Steam.

This time around, Myst feels a lot more like a game. It feels like an upgraded and gamified version of the first Myst. You have a hub age that you must solve some puzzles on. Then you go to other ages to solve their puzzles, too.

Remember when I talked about the first Myst and how I thought the way things were done was reversed? Meaning getting back to the hub age was hard but finding the thing within the age easy. This time, getting back to the hub age is easy and the main goal is locked behind a lot of stuff. Now you won’t feel trapped within an age and can go try other things.

While Riven is like getting through a world where I barely felt like I was solving puzzles(except for a couple of them), Myst III feels much like the puzzles are the main point. The story excuse for that is all the ages you’re visiting is meant for lessons, so that’s why they feel more like puzzles rather than a world people inhabit. There is still a lot of environmental storytelling going on, though.

The puzzles in this game require some thinking since there is still no words or instructions on anything. You just have to slowly fiddle around until you figure out how stuff works. The design of the puzzle feels hard to understand when you first see it, but walk around for a bit and you’ll get a good idea of how things work.

The different ages you can go to also feel really cool, though again, t the ages are definitely built for the puzzles rather than the other way around. It does allow for some strange and magical places that no one would possibly live. The end of each age also has a pretty cool scene for getting all the way through. It’s makes for a fun game.

In Myst III, they also tried making story more important. In Myst and Riven, the story is mostly a bit part of the game. Here, it is more prominent, and there is a guy you interact with through most of it. The story is pretty good. It’s not too complicated and works well within the style of the gameplay.

The character you interact with, Saavedro, also has great acting by Brad Dourif and is a complex character that you slowly get to learn more about through the ages.

Myst III is perhaps the most game-like of the Myst games so far, but it also feels the most run and rewarding to go through the ages. There are a lot more puzzles compared to Riven and Myst. I think Riven still has the hardest puzzles, but Myst III has some nice ones while not being too difficult.

While Myst III is made by different people, they did a pretty good job staying within the feel of Myst, even if they did make it a more game-like. It is fun and satisfying to get through.

Find it on Steam.