By Atari on 5/26/00

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"Excuse me miss, I'm looking for a game called Myst."

Searching for the voice, I looked down at an eager young girl who looked to be about 12 years of age. Her mother, who had been trailing behind her, walked up and explained that her daughter's friends were gathering together for a Myst party. I smiled and remembered the times that Circe, Strider, and I would get together and bang our heads against the monitor trying to discover what made the world of Myst tick. Looking at that girl made me come to the realization that perhaps Myst parties were not as uncommon as I thought. This happened a few years ago when I was working for a local game distributor. At the time, it was rare to see a young girl in our store and I remember making a mental note to myself to recommend Myst to parents so I could point them in a direction other than Barbie.

There was something about Myst that captured the hearts of so many people. Perhaps it was the way that the puzzles seamlessly tied in to the worlds in such a way that you forgot they were even puzzles. Stunning graphics combined with creatively designed artwork also contributed to the gamer's immersion into Myst's fantastical environments.

When Riven hit the shelves, it enticed Myst-lovers to return to the stores for another go, but this sequel to Myst disappointed many fans. The puzzles seemed pointlessly disconnected from the worlds, even though they eventually interconnected into a much larger puzzle in the end of the game. Would Myst 3 pull off all the tricks that made the first Myst so great, or would it turn out to be more like Riven? These were the kinds of questions plaguing my brain when I sat down with Presto Studios Producer Greg Uhler.

Presto? That's right. Presto Studios is developing Myst 3. But not to worry, Cyan, the original developers of Myst and Riven, have been working closely with them. "We have coordinated a lot with Cyan," Uhler says, "In fact, I don't think they want to see much more at this point because they want to play the game and not know what it's all about." By consulting with Cyan, Presto is confident that the design of the new game will seamlessly fit into the original Myst saga.

"We want to keep the flavor of the first 2 games, but I also felt like there were some improvements that we could add from our strengths," explained Uhler. Indeed they are adding some new twists to Myst 3, including a new real-time pre-rendered 3D graphics engine that allows gamers to look around with 360 degrees of freedom at each stopping point in the game. Myst 3 will be able to take advantage of 3D acceleration video cards, but if you don't have one, don't worry. It is not required. You will still be able to view the world in 360 degrees, but you will miss out on some of the special effects (ie. waves in the water).

How the worlds of Myst were first created is still a bit unclear. By writing in a special book using an ancient secret language, worlds are created. Each Myst book in the game then acts as a portal to that particular world. I asked Uhler if Myst 3 was going to give any insight on how the books worked and how the worlds were created. "It kind of loses its magic if you divulge how the worlds are created. There would be inherent limitations, so we didn't want to go in that direction. It's kind of like Star Wars coming out with the midiclorians."

Uhler also kept a tight lip about the storyline, but what he could tell me was that there was going to be a villain whose home world was ruined by Sirrus and Achenar, the sons of Atrus and Catherine. Other than that, he didn't divulge any more information about the plot, and frankly I don't think I want to know much more. After all, I don't want to spoil it for myself either. :) A movie trailer is available on the official Myst 3 website, but don't expect it to be an eye-opener, there's a reason they call them teasers.

The CEO of Presto Studios Michel Kripalani is especially excited about the allure of the Myst games to women. "The game storyline, physical beauty, and seamless puzzles are extremely appealing to our female audience." Well from what we saw of the game, Myst III: Exile certainly will deliver the goods. The Myst trilogy fan sites also boast a high percentage of female members. Kripalani says that RivenGuild, a fansite dedicated to the game Riven has a female membership of at least 40%.

The low-end requirements for Myst 3 will be a 300MHz PC or a 200MHz Macintosh. The game will also be coming out for DVD, but the DVD version may not be shipping at the same time as the PC and Mac versions.

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