Can anyone tell me the point of Myst III - Exile?

[alice_in_wonderland]

I got it for my Bro as a birthday gift, and he's in the middle of preparing a big presentation for school and he asked me to keep the game so he wouldn't play it.

He suggested that I should install in on my confuter and give it a go while he's finishing up.

So I did. And I tried to play it. And I don't get it.

There's some chick and she says some guy has to talk to you about something and blah, blah, blah.

What on earth is going on? Is there some clue I'm missing?

(BTW - when Bro is done his school for the semester I've giving the whole shwack to him and you can't play without the CD's so there are not copyright issues or anything.)

[Bryan Ekers]

To make more money for the writers of Myst and Myst II.

[mhendo]

Did you go in through the door and look around the room? When you do that, the guy comes to talk to you, and then you get to go to the other worlds and start solving the puzzles.

The Myst series are very intuitive in their interactive gameplay techniques. You move the mouse cursor onto objects etc., and click the mouse to open doors, turn handles, pull ropes, etc. There's not much in the way of rules; you just have to explore, experiment, and work it out as you go along.

If you didn't get past the woman at the beginning, go to the left-hand door (i think; it's been a while), put your mouse cursor over middle of the door, and click. You'll enter the room. When you have explored a bit, and go to look at the globe thingy at one end of the room, Atrus will come in and speak to you. Then the action hots up.

Good luck.

[GuanoLad]

The joy of the Myst games is the atmosphere - you are left alone on a strange world, and you have to figure out what to do, where to go, and how to get to those cool looking places a long way over in the distance.

All the way through it there are funky sounds and musical machines that give hints, and amazing technologies that amaze and confound. But it takes many hours to figure it all out, it's not a weekend game (unless you are awake for 36 hours).

[lee]

I love the games and my husband hates them for exactly the same reason: You are left alone for the most part, no one to talk to or bother you. He actually seems to get lonely when trying to play those games.

The point is to solve the puzzles so you get to see the neato pay off movies.

[alice_in_wonderland]

I got through the door.

The dude talked to me.

Some other bad dude showed up, blew some shit up and stole the magic book. I followed him through the other book and wound up on an island type place and looked at some stuff. Nothing much happened after that.

Is there a particular place on the island I should check out? I followed the bad dude to the light-house and peeked in the window and saw him wandering around but couldn't get in.

then I got bored. Then I quit.

NowI'm trying to figure out why this game is so amazing that my Bro couldn't have it in his house until his done his project.

Please - elaborate.

[masonite]

alice: (Spoilered info follows, in case there's anyone who gets really annoyed by having games spoiled even a little bit -- although this game has been out for a while.)

SPOILER:

On the island that you followed the bad guy to, there are a bunch of colored light-reflector-refractor type things. Your first task might be to (a) discover the light source -- it's near the water; and (b) line up the reflectors in such a way that you've linked a beam of light all around the island. When you're done, it will point to a door that you can then open.

In this type of game, you can do most things in any order, however. Wander around long enough and you'll find other areas to explore even without solving the light puzzle.

I've enjoyed the Myst games, but I'm not at all serious at this type of gaming, and I find the walkthroughs / cheats / hints websites to be very valuable -- in fact, totally necessary for getting anywhere. Just google "Myst III Exile Walkthrough" for some ideas.

Real gamers will turn up their noses at this, but they needn't concern us.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Interesting. Ok - I'll try that.

I'm really a computer game neophyte.

The only other game I've played is the one where you're starting a civilization and you have to build stuff like houses and a mill and stuff and then other civilizations come along and attack you.

I liked that one, but I don't remember what it's called.

[Orbifold]

Non-spoiler stuff: your main objective in Exile is to get back the book that guy stole. Your secondary objectives are to explore, solve puzzles, go "Oh that's pretty", and maybe figure out why that guy who took the book is so angry.

Mild spoiler stuff:

SPOILER:

You do have to get into the room the bad guy is in at some point. For a start, there's another entrance to the lighthouse.

I'll second masonite's suggestion to find a hint/walkthrough website if you start getting frustrated.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Humm - Maybe I'll try that.

Problem is, I only have the game for about a week, then my bro is gonna want it back (It IS his B-day gift).

I wonder if I can figure much out in a week.

[GuanoLad]

The best thing about Myst III is they finally had a real actor - the great Brad Dourif - instead of relying on the creator, Rand Miller, whose acting skills lie in the range of 'sigh a lot and never smile'.

[Mahaloth]

All three Myst games are what I call "immersion" games. You need to immerse yourself in the world and figure out how to advance to the different worlds that branch off it.

In the world of Myst, world have been created by writing books. If you open a book(called a linking book) and put your hand on the page, you get sucked in.

Riven(Myst 2) is the best of the series and I highly recommend it. All three are fun if you like to figure out creative and clever puzzles.

[Dragonblink]

I especially love how the Myst games incorporate real actors (like the great aforementioned Brad Dourif) instead of computer-generated people as characters. Even the original, back in the Iron Age when my 386 could just barely run the game, had (small) videos of real people; in Exile, they're much better integrated into the game.