Quicktime movies allow playing back video recordings left by characters in the game. Exile adds the ability to "turn around" at each location - the render is for an entire sphere, rather than just the rectangle of the monitor screen. The large storage capacity of CD media allows the Myst games to avoid the downside of raytracing: rendering speed. While 3d graphic cards keep improving, raytracing still looks better. Myst depends heavily on realistic graphics to increase immersion. If you really like the music, there is a Jack Wall soundtrack CD, though it is currently out of print. Music themes are often heavily panned - I suppose to make you feel that the theme is all around, or following you around. Occasional choral accompaniment adds even more emotion. When not playing the game, load the M3Data subdirectory into your MP3 player, to hear all the pretty themes again (1.5 hours of mp3's!). The Options menu has a "Music frequency" control, so you can control how often music is played. Segments are played at random intervals, to add ambiance, without getting tedious. Each level/section has its own theme music.
I sometimes leave the windchimes running while I'm reading or doing paperwork the quality is that good. They get muffled when you enter a tunnel.
Wind chimes, wind, ocean water, river water, creaking bridges, clanking machines. Not only are sound effects panned correctly when you turn around, they were recorded well in stereo, so sound great. For me, it held up very well, even though it was released three years ago. This game has all that (as did the original Myst), wonderful raytraced graphics, and seamless Quicktime overlays. Good music can also add emotion to a game. I wear headphones, so if a game has good stereo sound, I almost feel as if I am there. Overall, I highly recommend Myst III, it's not just a game, it's a journey. The game (at the time of this certain publishing) was spread over 4 discs and it became very annoying switching between them all. I got the Limited Collector's Edition of this game which comes with the score CD (now very hard to find and very expensive) a 'making of' CD, the Prima Official Strategy Guide and lots of other inserts. Definitely the best score a video-game has ever known. He seamlessly blends magical with choral and gives us a highly thematic score with surpasses that of most big-budget movies.
But still, the most impressive thing about Myst III is Jack Wall's brilliant score, which is simultaneously haunting, beautiful, dark and Gothic. Each world has a different look from the last but still retains that spooky feeling no matter if your in a swamp, caverns, beach or mountaintop. Saavedro traps you into going through many different worlds, unlocking secrets, finding clues and seeing for yourself what Sirrus and Achenar did to Narayan. Atrus (played by Rand Miller as always) calls upon you to go to J'Nanin and find Saavedro, who has stolen Atrus new age Raleeshan. This man is Saavedro (Brad Dourif), who ultimately blames Atrus for his sons going off the deep end. They have destroyed a world known as Narayan and left sole-survivor in exile on the island of J'Nanin. The story involves the maniacal sons of Atrus (that would be Sirrus and Achenar) continuing to wreak havoc through-out the ages. Not only do the graphics stand out but sound effects pan across the sound-field when you spin around and wind whistles between the rocks. The graphics are so convincing that the roller-coaster ride in the middle of the game will make you feel like you're really there. These worlds are empty but beautiful to look at and have an eerie, ghostly atmosphere to them. The main new feature is that you can look anywhere you want in any direction withing the photo-realistic worlds when before you could only look at a limited amount of certain things. But Myst III adds a whole new level of realism to the franchise. In terms of graphics, Riven was a simple step up from Myst. Yes, it's taken me that long to finish it.
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