Myst III: Изгнание

Third title in the Myst series of graphic adventure puzzle video games

Myst III: Exile is the third title in the Myst series of graphic adventure puzzle video games. While the preceding games in the series, Myst and Riven, were produced by Cyan Worlds and published by Brøderbund, Exile was developed by Presto Studios and published by Ubi Soft. The game was released on four compact discs for both Mac OS and Microsoft Windows on May 8, 2001; versions for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 were released in late 2002. A single disc DVD version was later released for Windows and Mac OS. The player assumes the role of a friend of Atrus. A member of the D'ni race, Atrus can create links to other worlds called Ages by writing descriptive books. In Exile, Atrus has written an Age for the D'ni to live on while rebuilding their civilization. The book is stolen by a mysterious figure; the player pursues the thief in an attempt to reclaim Atrus' tablet. The creators of the Myst franchise gave the task of creating the third Myst game to Presto Studios, known for its adventure game series The Journeyman Project. Presto sought to develop a diverse and logical approach to puzzles and Ages, and worked to make the villain sympathetically multifaceted. The developers hired Jack Wall to develop a musical style different from earlier composer Robyn Miller but still recognizable as a Myst game. The project required millions of U. S. dollars and more than two years to complete. Exile was well received by critics; The Daily Telegraph called it the best game in the Myst series. Despite selling more than one million copies within the first year of release, Exile performed worse commercially than Myst and Riven. Myst IV: Revelation, the fourth game in the series, was developed and published solely by Ubisoft.

Gameplay in Myst III: Exile is 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 from set nodes across each Age. Unlike previous games, which employed a series of still images, Exile uses a "free look" system which gives the player a 360 degree field of view at each node. Each of the game's Ages has a distinctive look and theme. Players begin their journey on the Age of J'nanin, which acts as a hub linking to other Ages and as a "lesson Age" demonstrating important principles for later puzzles. Three of these Ages are Amateria, a mechanical Age in the middle of a vast sea; Edanna, a world of preserved nature, with abundant plant and animal life; and Voltaic, a dusty island riddled with contraption filled canyons. Puzzles often involve observing interactions between elements of the environment, then adjusting the links between them. A core team from Presto Studios held discussions which analyzed Myst and Riven, then set out specific goals for the third game. According to Presto founder and producer Greg Uhler, these goals included visual variety in the Ages, a satisfying ending, and a way for players to gauge their progress during the game. Presto spent millions of U. S. dollars developing the game, using the studio's entire staff to complete the project. Development took two and a half years, of which nine months were spent on design and pre production. Pre rendered environments, like those in the earlier Myst games, were used, providing what producer Dan Irish described 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." Presto used 3ds Max, Areté's Digital Nature Tools, and additional software to generate the pre rendered visuals as well as dynamic water, character animations, and lighting. As in Myst and Riven, the developers used live action sequences instead of computer generated actors and props; Irish stated that using computer graphics would have reminded players they were in a game, "which would wreck the immersion that is so critical to the Myst games". Live actors were filmed on a blue screen and then placed in the digital environments using chroma key technology. Dourif noted that acting for a game was much more difficult than working on movie sets, as he could not see the player or interact with the game environment. Uhler noted that the video was one aspect of Myst that Presto "did wrong"; because high definition video cameras were not used, the resulting video was not as crisp as developers had hoped. Exile ended up in the hands of a new subsidiary of The Learning Company titled GAME Studios. After Gores sold GAME Studios and their assets to Ubi Soft in March 2001, the title alongside the Myst franchise as a whole was put in the hands of the company.

Exile was generally received positively upon release; the PC version holds a 77% rating at GameRankings and an 83%/100 rating at Metacritic. The puzzles were described as 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. The pacing and rewards system was also appreciated by reviewers. IGN concluded their review of the game by stating that Presto had done "a pretty good job with a notable addition to the series". The Daily Telegraph offered even stronger praise, saying that Presto had crafted the best Myst game in the series thus far, a sentiment that was echoed in other publications. 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. The Los Angeles Times reported that bugs including a lack of sound, incompatibility with certain graphics cards and system crashes were present in as many as 10 percent of the first shipment of discs. During the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Myst III for "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development", "Outstanding Achievement in Original Musical Composition" and "PC Action/Adventure Game of the Year"; these awards ultimately went to Ico, Tropico and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, respectively. In 2011, Adventure Gamers named Myst III the 59th best adventure game ever released.

Exile was highly anticipated; preorders topped 500,000 units by March 2001. with an average retail price of $42. Its Collector's Edition claimed fifth place. The two SKUs held #1 and #9 the following week, by which time Ubisoft reported overall sales of 75,000 units. After staying in first place for three weeks, Exile dropped to third during the week ending June 2. It was the fourth best selling computer game of May in the region; PC Data reported sales of 54,468 retail units for the month. The Collector's Edition secured 12th place and sold 20,104. Exile remained on NPD Intelect's weekly computer game sales top 10 from June 3–23, and maintained fourth place for the month of June; PC Data tracked domestic retail sales of 49,287 units during the period. According to Ubisoft, Exile sold over 400,000 units worldwide by June 30. Exile remained in NPD Intelect's monthly top 20 from July through August, and sold 173,569 domestic retail units by October, while its Collector's Edition sold 40,051. Following Exiles European release on September 7, it reached second place on the British sales charts, and #1 on those of Germany and France. Ubisoft reported global sales of over 750,000 units by the end of September, and of nearly 1.2 million units by the end of December. Its domestic retail sales for 2001 totaled 284,555 units, for $11.7 million in revenue. Domestic sales continued in 2002, with 80,810 retail units sold from January to June; and in 2003, with 43,735 sales for the year. By August 2006, Exiles computer version had sold 400,000 copies and earned $14 million in the United States alone. Edge ranked it as the country's 37th best selling computer game released between January 2000 and August 2006. As of the latter date, it was also the country's highest selling Myst game released during the 2000s. By 2010, Exiles total sales had reached 1.5 million copies. Despite strong sales, Exile was considered commercially disappointing compared to the phenomenal sales of the first two games, which had sold nearly 10 million units by the time of Exiles release. Soon after Exiles release, Presto announced it was discontinuing software development; the Xbox title Whacked! was to be the last title produced by the company. Presto employee Michael Saladino pointed to the maverick style of the studio and its inability to develop more than one title at a time as reasons for its folding. The next game in the Myst series, entitled Revelation, would be produced and published by Ubisoft.