Mini-review of Myst III: Exile

Introduction:

	I had a lot of difficulty writing this review, but perhaps
	not for the reasons that you might expect.  It would be easy
	to just blurt out the usual "I liked it", but it seemed to be
	unfair to anyone forced to wade through all my verbiage.  The
	process of reviewing this game has forced me to dig deeper
	into my own psyche to discover what it is that I enjoy about
	the Myst series of adventure games, and I will try to pass a
	bit of that evaluation onto you (sorry about that).  On top
	of that, I have to do all of this without even coming close
	to providing any spoilers.  Overall, it turned out to be
	harder than I thought.

	Ok, let's start with the easy part; I enjoyed the game very
	much, I loved the new graphics engine (and graphics), and
	overall have very little negative to say about the game.  If
	you want to find a review which trashes Myst, you probably
	should quit reading this review right now.

Graphics (quality, animations, cut scenes):

	The graphics weren't quite as crystal clear as in Riven, but
	the ability to spin around and look everywhere at each node
	more than made up for the slight graphics degradation.  Like
	all of the Myst series of games, the fully ray-traced views
	create an impression of reality that the 3D engines just
	can't duplicate.  I love that feeling of depth and reality
	you get from light passing through translucent objects, light
	bouncing off reflective surfaces, and the numerous shadows
	and highlights.

	One of the more impressive graphical feats occurs right at
	the beginning of the game.  Catherine comes outside to with
	her baby to talk to you, and not only does she look like a
	natural part of the scenery, you aren't frozen in place while
	watching her.  Truly an impressive bit of wizardry, and I
	wish all of the cut scenes could have given you that
	flexibility.

	I find I have to do more than just describe quality of the
	graphics in this game.  One of the things that made this game
	stand above the competition isn't just graphics quality, it's
	the artistry that went into designing the worlds of Myst.  I
	love exploring new worlds in an adventure game, and Myst III
	provides you with worlds that aren't "run of the mill" by any
	stretch of the imagination.  You get art nouveau style
	buildings (even ladder rungs), catwalks made from metal disks
	instead of boring grating, flowers that are half mechanical
	in nature, and mechanical devices that are almost organic.
	Myst not only gave me some new worlds to explore, but made
	them worlds which are truly outside of my personal
	experience.  When I start a new adventure game, I can only
	hope that every new room and view is a an adventure in
	itself, and Myst III more than delivers.  In fact, that's one
	of the reasons why I loved all three of the games; not only
	do I get new worlds, but I get imaginative ones beyond
	anything I could ever design myself.

Sound (music, voices, special effects):

	The sound track was wonderful.  It never got boring and the
	musical phrases seemed to almost be part of the environment.
	It's pretty hard to get a soundtrack that works better than
	this.

	The voices were all perfectly done, with no amateur efforts
	anywhere.

	The animals were so well done that I wanted to see (and hear)
	more of them.

	At one point, Brad Dourif waves a stone axe in a cut scene,
	and it is obviously made out of plastic or foam.  It looks
	silly when something that should weigh several kilos wiggles
	around like somethingm,uch lighter.

Story (plot, theme, depth):

	If I have any serious criticisms of Myst III, the worst ones
	have to do with the story line.  Myst III has a story, but it
	really seems to be there just as a reason for you to go solve
	all these puzzles.  I never got a feeling of the story being
	deeply integrated with the worlds I was exploring; quite the
	opposite in fact.  It all makes sense, but it was a bit
	disappointing.  I think I would have preferred less
	explanatory rants by Brad Dourif and more confusion on my
	part.

	Since I enjoyed exploring the worlds and solving the puzzles
	for their own sake, I would have enjoyed the game almost as
	much without any story at all.  I know, that's a heretical
	notion in the modern world of adventure gaming, and I am
	probably stretching the truth a bit anyway.  When I really
	get down to brass tacks though, I think I would have been
	happy with enough story to provide me with "my motivation",
	and not much more.  So, let me just say that there was more
	than enough story and plot line in this game, and perhaps a
	bit too much at times.

Characters (depth,development, interaction):

	There may be some disagreement about Brad Dourif's "take" on
	his character, but I am willing to accept his portrayal as a
	valid one for a man who is almost insane.  However, at one
	point in the game, my wife and I chimed in unison: "Oh goody,
	another rant".  In other words, it wasn't the acting itself
	that bothered me, it was the fact that there was too much of
	it.  The story and character explanations could have been
	done in a much more subtle manner than they were.

Puzzles (difficulty, uniqueness, suitability, ugliness, linearity):

	I enjoyed every single puzzle in this game, and I never even
	came close to thinking about consulting a walkthrough.  The
	puzzles were always "fair", with no pixel hunts required, and
	immediate feedback provided for any action on an active item.
	There was never any doubt when you had moved a lever into the
	correct position; there would be some sort of visual or
	auditory feedback to let you know what was happening.  Some
	of the best sequences in this game occur when you
	successfully solve a puzzle; the payoff was a such a jaw
	dropping treat that you wanted many, many more puzzles to
	work on.

	Many of the puzzles were too easy, and one of them I ended up
	solving by trial and error because I hadn't explored a part
	of the island which would have allowed me to solve it by
	logical deduction.  In general, it should be impossible to
	solve a puzzle by trial and error, since it ruins all the fun
	and just turns it into an exercise in tedium.

	One of the worlds was so organic in nature, that we were
	stumped a few times because we had completely missed an
	entire path of travel.  I was going to criticise this, but on
	second thought, perhaps this can be considered part of the
	world's puzzle set.  The really nice part about this game was
	that I had no doubt whatsoever that I had missed some area in
	my explorations; the feedback from the puzzles was that
	positive and immediate.

	One change from the original Myst was actually quite nice.
	The return book back to the central island was immediately
	available, so if you got bored or stuck on on world, you
	could go back and try a different one without losing any
	progress up to that point.

Controls (user interface, save/restore, sound/video adjustments):

	The game is has node-base movement, with full panning
	viewpoint at every node.  The normal mouse mode keeps the
	cursor centered on the screen and lets the view spin around
	you, but you could click the right mouse buttin to "freeze"
	the view and allow you to move the mouse over various objects
	without getting dizzy.  The controls were easy to use, and
	seemed quite natural almost immediately.

	The game absolutely requires gamma correction for proper
	viewing, but there was no in-game gamma control provided.
	Instead, you had to check the test pattern, exit the game,
	adjust the gamma, start the game, and so on.  If Tex Murphy
	games could provde a gamma control, I really don't see why
	other engines can provide one too.  It seems like a silly
	oversight.

	There were no separate controls for music, sounds effects and
	voices.  A master volume control was about all you got, and I
	can do that from my speakers anyway.  The only saving grace
	was that the sound level mixing was done very well, so I
	didn't really miss those controls.

Bugs or problems:

	There have been many reports about how buggy this game was,
	but I seem to have escaped almost all of them.  Here's what I
	encountered:

		The game crashed on exit after credits finished.

		My video card (Matrox G450) had a slight flicker on
		one portion of my screen (about 1/3 of the way down).
		I never did manage to eliminate it, except by going
		to software rendering.  This appeared very much like
		a bug in my video driver, so I wouldn't worry about
		it happening on your machine.

		I had a few random crashes (not repeatable).

		The game complained about being unable to delete some
		files when uninstalling.  They seem to have been deleted
		anyway.

		After installation, Windows squawked about updating
		my system files every time I booted.  This continued
		until I uninstalled the game.

		The first patch caused the game to become completely
		unrunnable, forcing me to uninstall and reinstall the
		entire game.

Install/Uninstall:

	The game installed a huge number of files and registry keys,
	but completely deleted them all, even those that it complained
	about not being able to delete.

Pros:

	Eye-popping worlds and artistry "to die for"
	Graphics quality to do justice to the artist's visions
	Full panning at every node -- much more immersive effect
	Fair puzzles, with immediate feedback provided
	Puzzles not as impossibly difficult as in Riven

Cons:
	Buggier than it should have been
	A patch that made things worse
	A very rude installation, causing Windows message at every boot
	Too much "ranting" by Brad Dourif
	Some puzzles a bit too easy (hard to satisfy, aren't I?)

Conclusion:

	Well, Myst III: Exile has warts, but so do all games.  My
	final conclusion remains the same -- you are in for a treat
	when you play this game.  It was so much fun that I was very
	sad when it was over; in fact, I could happily purchase a new
	world online every month or two and play it as a never ending
	serial.

	What this game tells me about myself, is that plot, story,
	and acting aren't always as important as I thought they were.
	I enjoy exploring new worlds in a game, and a game that can
	show me worlds outside the normal, boring castles, old houses,
	stone passageways, caves, etc. will get my vote of approval.
	So long as the other parts of the game don't detract too
	badly from that core experience, it can even keep my vote of
	approval.  Don't get me wrong, a good story always adds to a
	game, but I am personally enchanted by artistic visions of
	wonder.  Myst III provides those visions, and didn't ruin the
	experience with bad acting, a bad story, or bad puzzles.  The
	result is a game much better than I had hoped for, and I am a
	happier person for the experience.

/* -------------------------------------------------------------------- */