Myst III: Exile

On the positive side: The Ages/worlds in this game is a big step up visually from the first game. The art design for each Age (including the hub world) is beautiful, serene, yet visually distinct. I loved exploring each Age and just taking it all in. On the negative side: - A number of the puzzles were frustrating and rather obtuse (I haven't played Riven yet though; I've heard it also has hard puzzles). The original Myst game, IMHO, managed to strike the perfect balance in puzzles that were mentally challenging, yet logical and fair. In Myst I, you usually had a good idea what the end goal of a given puzzle was, even if you hadn't figured out specifically how to solve it. In Myst III though, frequently you have no idea what you're even trying to accomplish with any given puzzle. This is compounded by the annoying backtracking and easily-missed clues that are often required to solve many puzzles. - Fiddling around with each step in a puzzle often involves a long and unskippable cutscene that you have to sit through before you can move on to the next step. - "Zip" function seems a lot more restricted and difficult to use than in the original game. - Edanna Age was too large and easy to become lost in. Bottom line: in Myst I, I enjoyed my time throughout the whole game. In Myst III, a number of the puzzles had me searching online for a walkthrough out of frustration, just to get the puzzle over with.

since they link the game with gog galaxy it is not working anymore

I had high hopes for this game having loved Myst, Riven and Obduction. But this game kinda fell flat for me. Some of the ages are a real pain to get around and interactive and some of the puzzles just aren't fun or creative. The story is silly (as always I guess) but didn't come to much and didn't have much depth. Took 6.5 hours to complete which seemed a little short to me. Nowhere near the calibur of Myst and Riven which was to be expected I guess seeing as it wasn't by Cyan but it was a real let down and has put me off the idea of playing further Myst games (tell me if I'm missing out!) 6.5/10

I've been playing the Myst series, in order, for the first time ever this year. My first impressions of Exiles, after playing Myst and Riven, where extremely positive. "I can move my mouse... and the camera follows it!" This small element of modernity was so refreshing after the fixed perspectives of its predecessors. The price is that the graphics are much more artificial than those of Riven, but I felt this was a small issue. We still don't have free movement, but it's something. Sadly, those positive impressions would not remain for the entire game. The big problem I have is with the narrative. Now, this is a puzzle adventure game. We progress by solving puzzles which the games' designer put there for us to do. But, why are we solving these puzzles in-universe? Exiles decides that the reason is that the game's villain has set us these puzzles, expecting we will solve them. That's really weak, and also better suited for a comedic game (like Portal) rather than something with dramatic pretensions. I also was underwhelmed by the acting in the game. I was surprised when I got to the end credits and saw that Brad Dourif was the main actor, as I had failed to recognise him by appearance, voice, and most distressingly performance. I generally like his work, but it just didn't feel like his best here. As far as gameplay goes, this discards the open setting and intense difficulty of Riven, in favour of the smaller self-contained areas and more reasonable difficulty of Myst. I was able to beat most of the game without a guide, and the most common reason for needing help tended to be interface issues. Most annoying is the way that certain levers only need a mouse click to use, while others need you to click and drag, and there's no obvious sign of which is which from the visuals. Despite my complaints, I did still enjoy Exiles overall. It's not Riven, but it's still good enough.

Game is good. Very fun. Sincerely recommend. This is not a "false review."