Myst III: Exile lacks a bit of the magic that made the original so unique, but does manage to cut above the Riven that threw all sensibility and intuition out the window. On a quest to take back an important linking book from a hilariously melodramatic villain, this game ditches the single-age format of Riven for more sequential and straightforward progression through three ages.

Unfortunately, neither of the three ages are all that unique, choosing to instead center around puzzles instead of their environment. Edanna evokes Channelwood, Voltaic evokes Selenetic, and Amateria evokes Mechanical, but their central puzzles are decently interesting (compared to the animal stones and marbles of Riven that were downright infuriating). There are some puzzles that were a bit too finicky to get just right (the hub age and mapping the marble coordinates just right) but some fall into place fairly well (light-focusing the flowers in Edanna).

The game's visuals are quite beautiful, with a 360 view that serves as a nice upgrade above the previous games. The game still uses static images, but when moving via FMV the Ages come to life and can be quite gorgeous, even though the areas tend to look the same after awhile.

Given a short time span and slightly boring visual design, this game isn't the most stupendous but is quite more mechanically palatable than its more famous predecessor, Riven.