Myst V: End of Ages
by Ubisoft
Our Price: $89.99
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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary
Brand: UbisoftRelease Date: 2005-09-20
Platform: Windows 2000, Windows XP
Model: 68252
Publisher: Ubisoft
Product features:
- Easy Point-and-Click Interface Easily explore vast 3-D worlds with just a click of the mouse
- A dynamic new slate interface lets you communicate with mysterious creatures and manipulate the world around you
- Richer game environments
- Innovative facial mapping technology, face over, brings characters alive with unprecedented emotions and expressiveness
- Explore the Noloben, Taghira, and Laki'ahn Ages, among others, in search of the tablet that will bring the final answers
Video Game Reviews of Myst V: End of Ages
Customer Review: Cyan ruined their own creation.
Summary: 2 Stars
I wanted to like this game. Really, I did. I mean, it's the first one by Cyan since Riven, and I wanted to let the original creators have the final word. But compared to all the previous games, End of Ages is a huge letdown.
Okay, first things first. The game engine. I understand that Cyan was desperate to conclude the series. Their Uru endeavor failed and they were in financial trouble, so they had to use the real-time 3D engine made for Uru because they couldn't afford to make Myst 5 from scratch. I can get past that. I wanted to get past that.
I have played Uru, and I didn't like it at all. That game centered on journey cloths, jumping puzzles, and kicking objects around with your feet. (All that attention to photorealistic detail, and yet the player can't pick objects up or climb low ledges.) No sense of mystery, no story to discover. Just a long-winded D'ni history lesson as you move through linear ages by solving blatantly artificial (and often illogical) puzzles.
The fun of Myst-the whole point!-is to believe that this is happening to you right now. It is an alternate reality and you are part of the story. You are Atrus' friend and have earned the privilege to be part of the family. Uru made all of that false. It separated the player from this beloved viewpoint. Someone in the distant past helped Atrus and now you are really exploring the ruins of a long dead civilization. It was way more fun when we were part of the story instead of just witnessing the ruins of its end. Cyan destroyed their own world by taking it out of the context Myst established.
On a more intangible level, the DNRC's presence ruined the atmosphere. I felt like I was exploring ages that had already been charted. Everything had already been discovered and I wasn't doing anything new. Esher's presence in Myst 5 creates this same feeling. Many have been on this quest before, so you are not doing anything special. (I wonder how the others failed. It wasn't *that* difficult.)
In all these ways Myst 5 suffers from Uru's engine. The graphics, while fluid and faster-loading, are lifeless compared to the beautiful pre-rendered landscapes of all the previous installments. The ages are tiny and horribly linear--there's no free choice in how you explore each age. You must stay on the path to move the slates and there's no room to look elsewhere. Like the journey cloths in Uru, the slates and pedestals are just inconsequential object hunting. Instead of discovering a story through exploration and problem-solving, moving slates is the goal. It doesn't feel like a Myst game at all.
Puzzles in Myst have always been part of the environment and story. They have logical reasons to be there, and when solved they mean something. And even if a few are artificial, they still serve some sort of purpose to the story. That's what makes Myst games so unique. The puzzles are not there just to delay the player, but to enhance the story. Not here. Puzzles are dropped in your path *only* to keep you from carrying the slates to the other side of the age and finishing the game in ten minutes. It's probably an attempt to recapture the feel of page-hunting from the original Myst, but even that rewarded you with another piece of the story and made you want to explore more, find out what happened. Moving slates is the goal of Myst 5, and it's a goal unto itself. It doesn't accomplish anything, so it's unsatisfying when you finally achieve it. If anyone wanted to make croquet into a puzzle game this is how to do it.
But there is some good here. With the exception of the elevator outside the arena in Laki'ahn, the puzzles are logical (even if arbitrary). In all fairness, the observatory age is the best of the four with gorgeous scenery and a brilliant set of puzzles that are satisfying to solve. The power of the Bahro is used for an impressive task in that age.
Elsewhere the Bahro are used to help you solve one puzzle in each age, which is obviously contrived so that it can only be solved in this way. It's an awkward use of the power because it all feels like a setup. This setup feel worked in Exile because it was there for a reason (you were forced to jump through the hoops the villain set up for you). But here it's not called for. This is supposed to be an epic quest, not a staged game of "Let's Move the Slate." Did the D'ni have to wait for a hurricane every time they wanted to use the winch in the last age? How contrived and pointless can a puzzle get?
About that elevator...it's just plain stupid that you can't run off it as it lowers. There's no barrier that holds you back, so running to the platform while the elevator lowers seems natural because you do something similar in a previous puzzle. Why stop us from doing it here? Alas, an invisible barrier keeps the player from doing something that by all visual cues is quite logical. I hate it when games use methods like this to make puzzles.
But I think all the above is nitpicking. The story is the real problem. Since my first day playing Myst, I was under the impression that the D'ni wrote all these things into existence. Every game (including Uru) has presented and underscored the breathtaking power of the Art to create anything by writing it. So where did the Bahro come from? Why did the D'ni need an enslaved race to do their building when they had the Art? They were never mentioned in the previous games and no back story is given to explain or give weight to their purpose. Even if they're mentioned in the Myst novels it does no good because it contradicts everything we've come to know and love about the D'ni. Again, Cyan spoiled their own world by putting this in there.
Without a solid story to discover, there's no Myst game. I could've overlooked all the puzzle and graphical shortcomings if the story had been good. But the journey is not worth it and the ending can't save it.
In Myst, Riven, Exile and Revelation, the endings leave you with a deep sense of achievement. You not only solved the puzzles and got to the ending, you earned the privilege to understand the story. Don't expect End of Ages to have this feeling. It'll leave you scratching your head and rolling your eyes.
The ending is supposed to be dramatic, but the unnatural, jerky movements make it impossible to take seriously. Cyan did the best they could with what they had, but these computer animated characters just can't replace live action actors. The CGI Atrus is especially laughable. Speaking of that, you better have a fast computer or the voices will be out of synch, making it even more awkward. At least live action is in synch no matter how fast or slow your system is.
Cyan destroyed not only Myst 5 but the whole concept of the D'ni when they made Uru. It destroyed Cyan itself as well. I weep for the loss of an otherwise wonderful series.
Description of Myst V: End of Ages
The Grand Finale of the Greatest Adventure!
Decide the fate of a civilization in this triumphant final chapter to the Myst saga. Embark on an epic journeyinto the heart of a shattered empire as the only explorer who can still save it - or destroy it with the wrong choices. You are civilization's last hope. Tread wisely, and you will recover what no explorer has ever been able to before. But remember - one false step can seal the civilization's fate forever. Myst V is rendered in real time, allowing you to go nearly anywhere and see nearly anything.
A note from the Cyan Worlds Development Team:
The End of Ages should not be thought of as an ending, but rather as the conclusion to a very long journey. Some years have now passed since we first unveiled Myst and took you to worlds have traveled to these worlds and followed a family and theimmense challenges that confronted them. The time is here for one final journey. We're glad you could make it. So dim the lights, let go of your world, and come enter ours.
Developed by the OriginalCreators of Myst
Rand Miller and Cyan Worlds bring you the ultimate chapter in a series already renowned as the pinnacle of adventure gaming.
Interact with the World Like Never Before
The innovative new slate lets youcommunicate with mysterious creatures and manipulate the world around you.
Know Your Options
Myst V offers lots of control and user options.
Save Your Journey
When you quit Myst V, everything is saved. There's no need to actively save your game. When you start again, you will be right where you left off. But if you want to create a specific save, you can.
Journals
Player Journal: The snapshots youtake with your came
Decide the fate of a civilization in this triumphant final chapter to the Myst saga. Embark on an epic journey into the heart of a shattered empire as the only explorer who can still save it--or destroy it with the wrong choices.
Picking up immediately where the original Myst ended, players are presented the privilege, challenge and responsibility of restoring the lost empire of the D'ni--an ancient civilization of people who thrived for thousands of years but later met with a great catastrophe. Like each previous Myst title, Myst V: End of Ages advances the graphical beauty and detail of its worlds with a fully immersive 3D environment. Cyan carefully crafted and combined elements of adventure, puzzles, storyline and gameplay innovation creating a worthy ending to the one game to which millions will forever compare any adventure title--Myst.
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