Myst III

One day I was reading slasdot, as you do, and what I thought was a review for Myst III appeared. So, here I was thinking - yay a review. Ah well. I'll supply one then:

I just happened to walk past a copy of Myst III on the shelf, only found out it had been released the week before, never even wondered how much it was going to cost (AUS$84.95), figured that they were lying when they didn't mention NT on the box.

I'm running Myst III on NT4. It's not a supported operating system, my mouse is broken, but using the numeric keypad I have been having a ball.

So what is it like then?

My game came in a big box, with a manual, installation guide, though the box was too big for the CD case, but you get that.

I inserted the CD, fired up the installer, and had no problems.

The game sports full 360 degree views, and I must say that my 17" monitor is too small, I get queasy if I spin around too fast, but the sound is directional, high quality and worth pumping up the volume for.

The manual talks about modes (I hate modal software :-), but it doesn't get in the way too much. The idea is that there is a navigation mode and a click/action mode, but using the numeric keypad, I seem to swap between the two fairly simply.

Game save shows you a screen shot of where you were when you saved, and I suppose my only comment would be that renaming a saved game would be nice. It wasn't obvious that you could change the whole name until I accidentally deleted too much text - the save stuff uses Myst characters, rather than a standard save dialog.

The game itself is for me an excellent example of the development stages of technology, Myst, Riven and Myst III show a definite progression of excellence in development.

For my money, well worth it.

This article appeared in slasdot.org and in a now long defunct gaming magazine.