Myst III Exile

I finished working though "Myst III Exile" - the third piece of the story that began with "Myst" and continued with "Riven". My impressions ...

J'nanin. Although the coloured prism puzzle is the hardest, it was the first I worked out being so very Myst-like. The expanding vegetables to access the Edanna linking book and finally the 'Roll out the barrel' eluded me longer. Credit to 12-year old William for pointing out how I might reach the Amateria linking book, the last of all.

Voltaic. Once I'd worked out that the broken window allowed one to fiddle with the rotor blades, switching on the hydro-electric plant was straightforward, but I have an engineering degree so I have an excuse. The geothermal power plant with its fan was fiddly, trying to get the platform up to its second level was tough and fiddly. I got a bit tired of the steam valve conundrum, and sought a prompt for that. I had expected a more complex problem and the answer was simpler than I thought it was going to be. I frustrated myself there and no fault of the game. Problem design aside, I found the scenery and sounds magnificent. I experienced a real sense of wonder when launching the airship, and getting to ride in it. The scene where the second vault is released caused me to gasp with astonishment.

Edanna. No need for clues here as the hints are everywhere. From the small pitcher plant in the study in J'nanin, from the pool of water 'feeding' that fabulous helter-skelter ride and the charred marks in the view of the 'sunflower' it's all there - in retrospect. BTW, has anyone read descriptions of Larry Niven's sunflowers? Nevertheless, there's some signs of the Riven ingenuity there. You don't capture the Cree in the trap, you just scare it away and your path to the internal realm is open. I found the spiralling paths and walkways a challenge and the textures and nose-close scenery very difficult to navigate through. This is not a complaint or criticism, it added to the claustrophbic feel. I could almost smell the damp moss and lichen. Again, the spectacular ride at the end was a suitable climax to the struggle which preceded it.

Amateria. More Myst than Myst. This felt more like a training room than either of the other three Ages. I confused myself totally with the Balance puzzle. I had to go away and come back to it with a clear mind, and solved it in minutes. I tried to solve the Sounds puzzle by studying that intricate repeater mechanism on the console. But again, the simpler and more obvious way was trial and error, eliminating the possibilities in series. A complaint here, was it really so necessary to have that point and click marathon between the puzzle and the console. That was bit dreary. Finally the dual carousels puzzle. I was well into gear at this point and once I'd worked out how the settings on the console affected the machine I'd got it done in just a couple of iterations. The final challenge in that magic gravity-defying cupola was a delight. Setting up the connections from start to finish was subtle, but obvious once you realised it HAD a start and finish (Duh! It was getting late, I was tired). Credit to William again for suggesting that pressing the coloured lights might suffice to start it.

Having collected all three symbols, it's back to J'nanin to see what happens next, and to experience yet more whining drivel from our insane tormentor. The baroque and clanky machinery presents us with the final linking book to Narayan.

Narayan. It was a revelation to find the symbols we'd collected weren't random squiggles, but quotes from Atrus' writings in the ecological writing form. (Was this writing form suggested by the references to the work of Liet Kynes and his father on Arrakis? I think we should be told.) A quick scan of the Book revealed the fourth quote and the final words of power were invoked. William and I got quite intense over which element of the word to select but our second or third attempts were successful. It's nice, by the way, to see the effect of one's fiddling to be instantly successful without repeating the same CGI assault course with every iteration as per the ball-race in Amateria.

The final face-off (as I named the saved game at this point). Got clobbered twice and lost the linking book twice. On the fifth attempt I was quite happy to leave the snivelling loonie trapped in sight of his own world, but forever doomed. After all he'd done, the taunts, the destruction, not to mention the treacherous and homicidal behaviour we'd already witnessed. But compassion got the upper hand and on the fifth iteration we released him to his own kind.

Back home with the dishevelled and smoke-stained family I thought the welcome was, well, less than welcoming. Not so muck as a peek at the Age we'd saved so gallantly. Atrus was more grateful when we'd exiled his megalomaniac offspring the first time around, and when we imprisoned his father and rescued his spouse the second time around. Perhaps merely rescuing a missing linking book was a bit to mundane to make a big fuss about. I suppose the next time it will be 'Thank God you're here! I appear to have run out of ink, would you mind nipping to the shops to get me some. Check with Catherine, I think we might need some milk as well!'.

Kidding aside, There is plenty of gorgeous scenery and wonderful experience to be had, but in some ways, there is slightly less there than I had expected, or perhaps wanted. Others have also said that Exile falls short of the high water marks set by Myst and Riven and I'm afraid I have to agree. The visual appeal is brilliant, the late evening, thundery Amateria is a delight. The lushness of Edanna is stifling, the clear and windswept Jnanin is uplifting and bracing. The desert island Voltaic age is ascetic and almost mystical. In all these settings the soundtrack and effects immerse you in the landscape. But in these respects, Riven was slightly more absorbing, more mysterious and felt more exotic and I do not think it is familiarity or fond memory speaking. Riven had the whark, the carnivourous whale-like creatures, the scarabs, the vast golden-domed powerplant, the oppressed villagers, the hints at a belief system and a guerrilla movement. Exile had none of these things. From a (very picky) technical point of view, some parts of the scenery in Voltaic were comic-book standard in their detailing, and I am thinking of that long view across the aerial pipeline here. There are other places where a lack of finishing detail shows but I will not dwell too much because it is an over-harsh judgement.

The story line is less dramatic than Riven's as well. Think of Riven's final scenes where the entire Age is destroyed. In Myst the characters of the two brothers grew as the game progressed, as we found out more about them they grew more repellent until the final choice which to release was made. In Riven we had a malevolent and brilliant opponent, a beautiful girl to rescue and a small cast of supporting characters. We got anaesthetised twice too, as I recall.

In Exile, the puzzles are complex, but not cunning. They require a methodical approach with none of the devious wit that was shown in both Riven and Myst. Do you remember in Riven you had to open a door and close it behind you to reveal the second exit from the room? The complexity of the underground railway in Myst was such that I felt a real sense of achievement in working it all out. Now these are two high points in puzzle-setting, and I would not like to have stretch my ingenuity in setting such a puzzle myself.

To summarise, and I want to say this in the nicest possible way, the designers have not excelled themselves.

Finally, If you are making up your mind whether or not to buy it, I'd say yes, do. If you've played either Myst or Riven before and enjoyed them, you'll enjoy this. If you haven't played either you'll find this fascinating and challenging in it's own right, but do play Riven and Myst as well.