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Myst III: Exile

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Myst III: Exile
Developer(s)Presto Studios
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Designer(s)Mary DeMarle, Phil Saunders
Platform(s)Mac OS, Windows, Xbox, PlayStation 2
Release
  • (Win/Mac)
    (Xbox)
    (PS2)
Genre(s)Graphic adventure game
Mode(s)Single-player

Myst III: Exile is an adventure video game and the third title in the Myst computer game series. Unlike its predecessors, Myst and Riven, it was not produced by Cyan, the series' creator; Presto Studios developed Exile, and Ubisoft published it. The game was first released on four compact discs for both Macintosh and Windows PCs on May 7, 2001; versions for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 were also released.

As in the previous games, the player assumes the role of the Stranger, a friend of Atrus. Atrus is a D'ni who can create links to worlds called Ages by writing a descriptive book of the Age. Atrus has written an Age for the D'ni to live on, but the book is suddenly stolen by a mysterious figure. The Stranger pursues the thief in an attempt to take back Atrus' book.

Presto Studios, well-known for developing adventure games, was given the task of creating the next Myst game after preparing a sales pitch. The studio sought to develop a more logical approach to puzzles and Ages than Riven had, and also tried to make the villain three-dimensional and sympathetic as the plot progressed. The project took millions of US dollars to complete and required the entire workforce of Presto, a fact owner Greg Uhler would regret after release.

Upon release, Exile was well-received by critics; British publication The Daily Telegraph called Exile the best Myst game yet.[1] Conversely, long-time critics of the series found nothing in the third game that would make them change their minds that Myst's slower gameplay did not belong in the more modern action-oriented game market; GameSpot described the Myst series as having lost its relevance.[2] Despite fairly strong sales, Presto Studios would eventually drop software development, and Myst IV: Revelation, the next game in the series, would be developed and published solely by Ubisoft.

Gameplay

An example of Myst III's gameplay. Items such as journals are viewable at any time via the bottom menu.

Myst III: Exile's gameplay is fundamentally similar to that of its predecessors. The player explores immersive, pre-rendered environments known as "Ages" by using either mouse clicks or the space bar for movement.[3] Unlike previous games, where players could not change their view, Exile uses a "free look" system which gives the player a 360-degree field of view by moving the mouse.[3] To quickly travel across terrain already explored, Exile has an optional "Zip mode".[3] Clicking or using the space bar is also used to manipulate objects such as switches, or to pick up items for later perusal. The on-screen cursor changes in context to show the player what actions can be performed on objects.[4]

Each of four Ages in the game are based around certain themes and environments. Players begin their journey on the Age of J'Nanin, an Age which acts as a hub linking the other three Ages[5] and a "lesson Age" where players learn important mechanics and principles for later puzzles.[6] Each Age has a distinctive look and theme. Voltaic is a dry and dusty world filled with canyons man-made constructions. Amateria is a mechanical age in the middle of a vast sea. Edanna is a world of nature, where a massive hollow tree trunk provides shelter for plant and animal life.[5]

Puzzles are solved by gathering clues or manipulating the environment. For example, the book which leads to Voltaic is accessed by aligning beams of light across a canyon; the Age itself contains similar light-based puzzles.[1] Edanna's plant-filled puzzles require taking and giving life to the ecosystem to solve them.[7] Puzzles often involve observing interactions between elements of the environment, then manipulating the links between them.[8] Players can also pick up and view journals or pages written by game characters which reveal backstory or give hints to solving puzzles. Using the right-click mouse button or pressing the caps lock key switches players into Cursor Mode, which allows players to select items from the bottom of the screen to read or utilize.[4]

Story

Exile takes place ten years after the events of Riven.[9] The Stranger arrives at the home of Atrus and his wife, Catherine. Atrus is a scientist who has mastered an ancient practice known as the Art; he can create links to different worlds, known as Ages, by writing special books describing the world. This ability was used by an ancient civilization known as the D'ni, who were eventually devastated and almost wiped out. Atrus has called the Stranger to his home to show the Stranger his newest Age, Releeshahn, where Atrus plans on having the D'ni survivors live.

Suddenly, a mysterious man appears in Atrus' study, stealing the Releeshahn book and leaving behind another book, which leads to J'nanin, a "lesson Age" that Atrus had written long before to teach his sons the Art. The Stranger pursues the thief to J'nanin to recover the Releeshahn book. Due to the damage the J'nanin book receives in a fire started by the thief, Atrus cannot accompany the Stranger.

The mysterious man is named Saavedro. Twenty years previous, Atrus' wayward sons Sirrus and Achenar destroyed Saavedro's home Age of Narayan and trapped him on J'Nanin. Saavedro believes his family is dead and swears vengeance on Atrus, unaware of the fact that Atrus has already imprisoned his sons for their crimes and that Saavedro's family is still alive. The game can end one of several ways depending on the actions of the player. In the most ideal scenario, Saavedro returns to Narayan peacefully after giving back the book of Releeshahn. Other endings can result in Saavedro destroying Releeshahn or killing the player, or the player leaving Saavedro trapped to die.

Development

The task of developing the sequel to Myst and Riven was offered to several development companies; according to Game Developer, developers interested had to include story concepts, analysis of the first two games, a technology discussion, and a technology demonstration.[10] A core team from Presto then held discussion where they analyzed Myst and Riven, as well as setting out specific goals for the game. According to Presto founder and producer Greg Uhler, these included visual variety in the Ages, a satisfying ending, and a way players could gauge their progress throughout the game.[10] This was very important for Uhler, who stated that "Players who had failed to complete Myst or Riven did so because they were unsure of how much remained of the game and what their goals were."[10] Initially, Presto prepared three possible storylines for the game to follow; a meeting between Myst developer Cyan Worlds, Presto and Mattel (then owner of the franchise) yielded a completely different plot which explored some of the loose ends hinted at in Myst.[11] Presto would end up spending millions of dollars developing the game, utilizing the studio's entire staff to complete the project. Development took two and a half years from start to finish, of which nine months was spent doing design and preproduction.[10]

Prerendered environments, like those in the earlier Myst games, were chosen to be used again, due to what producer Dan Irish explained as the "photorealistic ability to present the world in a convincing way. The 360-degree camera view also allows you to experience it in a way that makes it feel real."[12] Particular attention was spent on developing strong visual styles and mechanics, which one reviewer described as "a collaboration of Jules Verne, Rube Goldberg and Claes Oldenburg".[6]

As in Myst and Riven, the developers decided to use live-action sequences instead of computer-generated actors and props; Irish stated that using computer graphics would have reminded players they are in a game, "which would wreck the immersion that is so critical to the Myst games".[13] Live actors were filmed on a blue screen and then placed in the digital environments using chroma key.[13] While the sets were being constructed and filled with physical props the actors could use, costumes for all the characters were fashioned.[13] Rand Miller returned to play Atrus, a role he had filled since the first Myst game. Brad Dourif, a professional actor, signed on to play Saavedro because he was a huge Myst fan.[14] Dourif noted that acting for a game was much more difficult that working on movie sets, as he could not see the player or interact with the game environment.[14] Other actors included Maria Galante as Atrus' wife Catherine, and a cameo of Greg Uhler's daughter Audrey as Atrus' daughter Yeesha.[10] Uhler noted that the video was one aspect of Myst that Presto "did wrong"; because high-definition video cameras were not used during shooting, the resulting video was not as crisp as the developers had wanted.[10]

Audio

The music for Myst and Riven had been composed by Robyn Miller; Jack Wall was tasked with the score for the third installment. Irish stated that developing the music was one of the hardest aspects of Exile: "We had to match or exceed the surrealistic style of music that Robyn [Miller] had pioneered. It had to be recognizable as "Myst," but unique and distinctive."[15] Wall looked at the increasing complexity of games as an opportunity to give players a soundtrack with as much force as a movie score.[16] Wall also echoed Irish's opinion that he wanted to make a very different score from the "wonderful sonic pastiche" of Myst and Riven, yet still recognizable as a sequel to the earlier games; Wall considered copying Miller's style as the "safe" yet unappealing route that was expected of him.[16]

To prepare for writing the score, Wall studied Miller's music, noting that he and Miller differed on their opinion on the use of melody. Miller, according to Wall, felt that "melody could easily get in the way of the experience of playing the game", but Wall also felt that some melody gave the player something thematic to hold onto.[16] Wall wanted the music to have as much "purpose" as possible while still preserving interactivity, so he composed "reward music" for completing puzzles and recorded the score with a real orchestra.[16]

Myst III: Exile - The Soundtrack tracklist
No.TitleLength
1."Main Theme"4:22
2."Opening Titles"1:54
3."Atrus' Study"2:46
4."Saavedro Enters"0:45
5."Saavedro's Theme"2:14
6."A Heartbeat Away"1:47
7."Saavedro's Lair"1:20
8."Theme from Amateria"2:15
9."The Spider Spinner"1:11
10."Libra's Lever"1:13
11."The Wheels of Wonder"1:29
12."Theme from Edanna"3:24
13."Deadwood Ridge"2:14
14."Swing Vines"2:54
15."The Forest and the Swamp"2:00
16."Theme from Voltaic"3:10
17."The Airship Chasm"3:14
18."Energy Island"1:40
19."The Confrontation"2:52
20."He Sees Hope"2:07
21."Let Me Go!"2:14
22."You've Been Followed"0:29
23."Into Oblivion"0:40
24."All Is Lost"0:48
25."Trapped"0:45
26."The Tide Has Turned"1:30
27."The Dilemma"2:02
28."All Is Well, My Friend"1:06
29."Going Home"1:10
30."Exile (Bonus Track)"3:27
Total length:59:02

Reception

Exile was generally positively received upon release; the PC version holds a 79% favorable rating at Game Rankings and a 83% rating at Metacritic.[20][21] The game was the best-selling title in North America within a week of release,[22] selling 75,000 copies within two weeks.[23] The game would go on to sell one million units within the first twelve months of release.[24]

Exile's graphics and sound received near-universal praise, and were credited with helping to make the game immersive.[9][19] The puzzles were described as both less difficult and more contained, meaning that players did not have to experiment with switches and then click several screens away to see the effect, as in Riven.[9][19][18] Macworld's Peter Cohen also praised Presto for listening to fans and giving out bits of story throughout the game, rather than just dumping exposition on players in the opening and closing sequences.[8] The pacing and rewards system was also appreciated by reviewers.[6][25] IGN summed up their review of the game by stating that Presto had done "a pretty good job with a notable addition to the series".[18] The Daily Telegraph offered even stronger praise, saying that Presto had crafted the best Myst in the series thus far,[1] a sentiment that was echoed in other publications.[8]

Criticism of the game included complaints about the four-disc format of the game, which required players to swap out the installer disc with one of the other discs every time the player entered a new Age.[19] Gamespot's Scott Osborne noted that due to the frame-by-frame nature of gameplay, it was occasionally difficult to discern where players were allowed to venture and what areas were unreachable.[17] The Los Angeles Times noted that bugs including a lack of sound, incompatibility with certain graphics cards and system crashes were also present in as many as 10% of the first batch of games shipped.[22] Reviewers who had not enjoyed Myst or Riven stated that there was nothing new or substantially different in the game to warrant another look for those who had never liked the series; as The New York Times noted, "Exile has everything you loved or hated about Myst and Riven."[26]

Despite fairly strong sales, Exile was considered commercially disappointing compared to the phenomenal sales of the first two games,[27] which had sold nearly 10 million units by Exile's release.[1] GameSpot editor Greg Kasavin told Time that "Myst is no longer as relevant to gamers as it used to be" and that "it represents an antiquated style of gaming" compared to the 3-D action games being released at the time.[2] Soon after Exile's release, Presto announced it was discontinuing software development, with the Xbox title Whacked! the last game the company would ship.[24] The next game in the Myst series, entitled Revelation, would be both produced and published by Ubisoft.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Boxer, Steve (2001-07-12). "Seductive kind of Myst". The Daily Telegraph. p. 6.
  2. ^ a b Hamilton, Anita (2004-09-04). "Secrets of the New Myst". Time. 164 (6): 84.
  3. ^ a b c Presto Stydios (2001). Myst III: Exile - User's Manual. "Playing the Game" (PC/Mac ed.). Ubisoft. p. 4.
  4. ^ a b Presto Stydios (2001). Myst III: Exile - User's Manual. "Manipulating Objects" (PC/Mac ed.). Ubisoft. pp. 5–6.
  5. ^ a b Poole, Stephen (2001-04-07). "Myst III: Exile Preview". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  6. ^ a b c Yim, Roger (2001-05-14). "Demystifying Myst: An ingenious adventure". San Francisco Chronicle. p. C1.
  7. ^ Cook, Brad (2001-04-01). "The Lost Ages: Myst 3 Revealed (page 2)". Apple, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  8. ^ a b c Cohen, Peter (2001). "Mystified". Macworld. 18 (8): 43–45. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ a b c Saltzman, Mark (2001-06-13). "Myst III a Stunning sequel". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Uhler, Greg (2001). "Presto Studios' Myst III: Exile". Game Developer. 8 (10): pp. 40-47. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Irish, Dan (2000-06-15). "Mattel Interactive Designer Diary". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2003-12-19.
  12. ^ Cook, Brad (2001-04-01). "The Lost Ages: Myst 3 Revealed (page 1)". Apple, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  13. ^ a b c Irish, Dan (2000-08-14). "Myst III Developer Diary #3". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2003-12-19.
  14. ^ a b Semel, Paul (2001-06-01). "Myst-ery Man". Gamespy. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  15. ^ Pham, Alex (2001-05-17). "Game Design; Adding Texture, Detail to Miller Brothers' Legacy". Los Angeles Times. p. T4.
  16. ^ a b c d Wall, Jack (2002-01-11). "Music for Myst III: Exile - The Evolution of a Videogame Soundtrack (page 1)". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  17. ^ a b Osborne, Scott (2001-05-04). "Myst 3: Exile Review". Gamespot. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  18. ^ a b c Staff (2001-05-07). "Myst III: Exile Review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-05-29.
  19. ^ a b c d Staff (2001-06-01). "Reviews page: Myst III Exile". Game Revolution. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
  20. ^ a b "Myst III Exile (pc:2001) reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  21. ^ a b "Myst III Exile Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  22. ^ a b Pham, Alex (2001-05-25). "'Myst III' Loses Its Magic Amid Glitches". Los Angeles Times. p. C3.
  23. ^ Walker, Trey (2001-06-01). "Myst III off to a strong start". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  24. ^ a b Peterson, Kim (2002-08-31). "Local video game-maker Presto closes despite being debt- free and rich in talent". The San Diego Union - Tribune.
  25. ^ Staff (2001-05-14). "A Myst not to be missed". Newsweek. 137 (20): 12. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ Herold, Charles (2001-11-15). "To Play Emperor or God, or Grunt in a Tennis Skirt". New York Times. p. G11.
  27. ^ Odelius, Dwight (2004-01-08). "Game is magical and immersive - and nonviolent". Houston Chronicle. p. 3.
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