Myst III: Exile

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Myst III: Exile

Developer(s)	Presto Studios
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Designer(s)	Mary DeMarle, Phil Saunders
Release date(s)	(Win) May 7, 2001 June 28, 2001 August 21, 2001 September 21, 2001 (Mac) May 7, 2001 (PS2) September 19, 2002 October 4, 2002 March 20, 2003 (Xbox) May 02, 2002 September 17, 2002 September 26, 2002 October 4, 2002
Genre(s)	Graphic adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone (E) PEGI: 3+ (re-release)
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, PS2, Mac OS, Xbox
Media	CD-ROM (4), DVD-ROM (1)

Myst III: Exile is the third title in the Myst computer game series. Unlike its predecessors, Myst and Riven, it was not produced by Cyan, Inc., the series' creator; it was developed by Presto Studios and published by Ubisoft.

However, the game continued in the style of the previous games, allowing the player to navigate through imaginary worlds by clicking on prerendered images. On the technical side, a 360-degree panorama system was introduced (first seen in The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time and Atlantis: The Lost Tales), allowing the player to look around smoothly, with video clips seamlessly integrated.

The game featured live action performances including Rand Miller, the creator of the Myst series, returning to play Atrus once again, and Brad Dourif, starring as Saavedro. Other performances included Maria Galante as Catherine and Audrey Uhler as the baby Yeesha. Robyn Miller was not involved in the making of Myst 3.

1 Storyline
- 1.1 Alternate endings
2 Ages
3 Hacking & technical details
4 External links

[edit] Storyline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story takes place about 10 years after the end of Riven. The Stranger — Atrus's friend whose role the player takes in the first four of the Myst series games — arrives inside the new home of Atrus and Catherine, a beautiful little oasis surrounded by a desert. Catherine calls this place "Tomahna" (in Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, it is explained that Tomahna is not a separate Age, but actually a small area located on Earth). Atrus has called the Stranger to Tomahna to show him his newest Age called "Releeshahn", which he wrote for the D'ni survivors to live on. Suddenly, a mysterious man links into Atrus's study, appearing out of thin air, sets the study on fire, and steals the Releeshahn linking book. He links out, leaving another linking book behind. This linking book leads to J'nanin, the lesson age where Atrus had hoped to teach his sons the Art of Writing many years ago.

This mysterious man is called Saavedro (played by Brad Dourif). Twenty years ago, Atrus's sons, Sirrus and Achenar, destroyed his home age of Narayan and then trapped him on the lesson age of J'nanin. For twenty years, Saavedro suffered the horror of believing that all of his people living on his homeworld were dead. Now, Saavedro is taking revenge on Atrus and his family for the suffering he has had to endure. Saavedro does not realize though that Atrus has already imprisoned his sons for the horrible crimes they committed.

There are several possible endings to the game, depending on the player's actions. The most ideal has Saavedro returning to Narayan and giving back the book of Releeshahn. You free him to return to his people, and then link back to Tomahna via a Tomahna linking book found in Narayan. You can do this by throwing the switch to lower the outer shields instead of the inner shield when you have trapped Saavedro, and then turning the power back on.

[edit] Alternate endings

You turn the power off in Narayan, leaving Saavedro trapped. He begs for release and hands you Releeshahn, and you link home without freeing him. It is implied that Saavedro will commit suicide.
After you trap Saavedro, you can release him. He will then kill you.
You can do what Saavedro wants. He will then throw the linking book into the void, laughing at your stupidity. Catherine and Atrus are very sad that you did not bring the Releeshahn book back.
In Narayan, if you stand out by the gondola long enough Saavedro will kill you for not helping him get back to Narayan. (If you go back inside twice, on the third time Saavedro will immediately kill you.)
You can link back to Tomahna before solving the last puzzle. If you do that, Saavedro will follow you and kill you, (and supposedly) Catherine, and Atrus.

[edit] Ages

Main article: Ages of Myst III: Exile

The structure of Exile is similar to the first Myst game. J'nanin is the "hub" age, where the stranger must solve various puzzles to gain access to the three lesson ages of Edanna, Amateria and Voltaic. In each of these ages the stranger must solve more puzzles to uncover a symbol to bring back to J'nanin. After the stranger finds all three symbols, s/he gains access to the final age; Narayan, Saavedro's homeworld.

The six Ages present in the game are:

Tomahna, Atrus, Catherine and baby Yeesha's home, where it all begins
J'nanin, the 'hub' Age, from where you will link to the other Ages, more of an age made as an exile
Amateria, the learning age of dynamic forces
Edanna, the learning age of nature
Voltaic, the learning age of energy
Narayan, Saavedro's home, which you visit only after you have completed the other three ages; you will not directly go to his town

[edit] Hacking & technical details

As in most Myst games, it is fun to extract the video and audio so that they can be edited into custom movies. Myst III Exile was the first Myst game to use the Bink video format (from RadGameTools) for every animation. Each disc of Myst III Exile contains several huge .m3a files (presumably standing for "Myst 3 archive"), which for the most part corresponding to particular Ages, and contain all the Bink videos used for the game portions on that disc. The .bnk Bink videos can be extracted from .m3a files using FMV-Extractor by Necrotech (freeware). The Bink files can be played/converted using the RadGameTools Bink program (shareware).

The audio in the game that is not inside of a Bink video, is collectively stored on disc 1. Whether or not the user chooses to install all the data to the hard drive (so disc-switching is not needed), all the sounds are copied from disc 1 to the program folder. Most of the music for the game is stored as .mp3 files, while other miscellaneous sounds are in WAV format (but surreptitiously have no extension). All of them can easily be played and used (in most cases without a converter).

As a side note, choosing the install-to-hard-drive method will copy all of the .m3a archive files to the program folder, storing them in a folder named by the corresponding disc.