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Big MYST fan - # V is slightly sub-par

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have been a big fan (not fanatic) of MYST games. Part 1, 3, and 4 were all fascinating and fun. Challenging, beautiful, etc. Part 2, Riven, of course was the best. But the new method of navigating and exploring in V is actually less user friendly than the last few editions. Also, the game tends to lead you around a bit more. It feels more like a Zelda or Fable than a MYST. No fighting, of course, but a lot of running around and less figuring out of mechanisms and instruments which made the first games so unique. I think they spent more time with graphics and animation than with puzzles on this one. Just my opinion...

A Myst Opportunity

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Esher said it best, "A Myst Opportunity."

I loved the freely explorable interactive worlds. It cost them a bit in photorealism, but I think it was worth it to be able to look and walk around. I also liked the great shaft in the beginning. The tablet handwriting recognition was slightly flaky, but I liked the novelty.

I disliked the story, the linearity, and the small size of the worlds. The story was mysticism and emotional drama with very little plot holding it up. The worlds remind me of Mario, you go in one direction, past the obstacles, and come out the end. And if Myst V were Mario, the worlds would be two screens wide.

Unfortunately, when you take out the exploratory nature of the worlds and pay little attention to plot, what you don't get is Myst. You get an ok game worth playing, but not Myst.

Myst IV: Revelations is really the last great Myst game.

Quality, anyone?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You'd figure that after the less-than-myst gameplay of uru ubi soft would take a hint from its fans and go back to the tried-and-true method of point-and-click in a 2d, beautifully drawn world, but it seems they only tried to compromise in myst v. in myst v, they have included the classic point-and-click, but, as another reviewer pointed out, they have retained uru's realtime 3d, undetailed, unrealistic, unmyst. oh sure, there are improvements, such as cables swaying in the wind, none of that ridiculous avatar 'jumping' that was in uru and made it so hard to complete, and...and...that's about it. I share the sympathies of those who lament the lack of fascinating ages in myst v...who can forget uru, with the fantastic rotating fortress of gahreesan, the hilariously fake age of ahonnay, or the vastness of the dni city? Instead in myst v all the ages, with the exception of todelmer, are rather monotonous islands with an average of 3 puzzles per age. there are no gigantic machines, hidden surprises, or fascinating side stories--the whole plot revolves around the tablet you will receive at the end of the game and who you will give it to...being constantly reminded of the 'choice' during the game makes the end anticlimactic and predictable (there is one neat thing at the end--make the wrong choice, and you wind up stuck on the very island where this all began--myst, ruined and falling apart, imprisoned for eternity...a nice bit of poetic irony rendered in full 3d that is reminiscent enough of the original myst to send chills down your spine. needless to say i enjoyed the 'bad' ending more than the vague, confusing, all-fuzzy-and-warm-inside 'good' ending.) What i want to know is what is so freakin important about the tablet?? WHAT DOES IT DO???? This game will undoubtedly leave you confused at the end--and thats a bad confused, not the subtle, full-of-dread, hair-raising, is-there-more-to-the-story feeling found in the other myst games. simply put, whereas past myst games always made you feel there was some dread undercurrent side story (remember the cage and decaying skull in the original myst? Achenar's private quarters?) this one has a plot that borders on the ludicrous.
That said lets focus on the puzzles. one word--cinch. compared to the frustratingly vague clues of uru, the clues in this game are such that you usually know immediately what they're for. if you don't well you will figure it out pretty quick. the puzzles are not very creative as they generally revolve around you drawing pictures that the bahro read and obey, thus essentially solving the puzzle for you. And why couldn't there have been even a little part of the dni city to explore? the list of complaints goes on.
So, you ask, should i buy this? well, wait for the price to go down. This game is OKAY, but don't expect an instant classic.

Great Ending to the Myst Saga

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The Myst games have been loved by many for over fifteen years now. As I've read the reviews of this game, many people say it's different from the other games - too different. I agree; it is very different - yet very similar at the same time.

The game starts out with Atrus telling you about his worries of D'ni (the underground civilization of the Myst games) and his daughter Yeesha. Then the game starts, and you are in the chamber that was once Atrus's prison at the end of the first Myst game. On Atrus's old desk, the Myst book is locked up. As you progress downward through the old mansion called K'veer in D'ni, you find an odd-looking bubble. When you enter it, you touch a shimmering slab of rock on a pedestal, and an odd noise sounds through the whole chamber. You leave the bubble, and Yeesha links in front of you telling you about "The Quest." The main objective is to free the Tablet which has responded to you and, if you wish, has the power to restore D'ni. Then she links you to the desert, where you meet Esher.

Esher tells you Yeesha wants the Tablet, but he says not to give it to her. Then you go downward into a network of tunnels leading to D'ni. As the game progresses, you discover more and more about Yeesha and Esher. But you must decide who to trust in the end.

There are four main ages in the game. I don't want to spoil them for you, but I'll say that in each one you find a differently-shaped slate. Your objective is to carry it to the Keep, at an unknown place in the age. If you've played any other Myst games before, you'll know that doing this won't be easy. You'll have to solve a series of complex puzzles. But one of the coolest things is that you can actually draw symbols on the slates to communicate with a race of odd-looking creatures - the Bahro. You can actually have them change the environment and the like. You can see how this can open a door to some pretty unique puzzles. Unfortunately, the slate is heavy, and certain switches cant be pulled when you're holding the slate. Also, you can't climb with the slate either. This opens up more unique puzzle solving.

The interface of Myst V: End of Ages will seem very similar yet very different at the same time, much like the rest of the game. You can play three different ways: The first is Classic Mouse-Click mode, which is like Myst and Riven, in which you click the sides of the screen to turn, and the center of the screen to walk forward. The second is Classic Plus mode, which is like Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation, in which you move the mouse to look around, and click to walk forward in the direction you're facing. The third is Free-Move mode, which is like Uru, in which you move around freely using the arrow keys of WASD. However, Myst V: End of Ages is the first Myst game besides Uru to use Realtime, so the environments are actually constructed, instead of just being made of individual "slides" like the others. In this way, you actually move forward, instead of the screen just changing to the next slide. Also, the characters are computer-generated using face-mapping, and not live actors like the others.

So all in all, Myst V: End of Ages is a great way to end the Myst series. If you've played the other Myst games, you must finish the story up in this game. Even if you're new to the series, this is a great game. I recommend you play the other games before this one, or at least read up about the story, because a lot of things may not make sense to you in this one if you don't. But nonetheless, Myst V: End of Ages is a grand adventure for anybody.

A time-tempered look

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: March 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Alright, so the initial feeling for Myst V was one of disappointment, due to very high expectations, based mostly on the phenomenal quality of Myst's flagship sequel, Riven, and the enchanting and previously uncharted Uru. No, End of Ages was not as good as they were. But it is still, despite the grief, a highly engaging game, and Myst fans should play it. There are some beautiful ages, and intriguing glimpses into the drama which unfolded first in Uru. How it will mesh now, however, with the triumphal resurrection of Uru Live, I don't know.

The puzzles of End of Ages are mostly quite good, and while slightly less mind-bending than the previous installments, there are a few which still call for some real effort. All are enjoyable, and contribute to the environments of the game. The characters are likewise good, especially Esher, who is a traditional Cyan-worked ambiguous and interesting personality (somewhat along the lines of Gehn). It is true that the end of the game is a let-down, a high note that is hardly true in key, but there's much to enjoy aside from that.

The game engine is a 2.0-version of the Plasma engine from Uru, which can render very beautiful 3D vistas, better than most such games today, perhaps not in photo-realism, but in vividness and textural depth.

End of Ages also contains the best musical score since Riven, and the soundtrack, which can be acquired from Cyan's Amazon merchant store, is highly recommended. Much more focused and coherent than Uru's themes, with a subdued intensity which is indeed reminiscent of Riven.

Try this out, by all means. And remember, Uru lives. Shorah.

A wonderful, wonderful game, for a VERY select group.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: February 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I like puzzles. Crosswords, mazes, mind tricks, and all manner of other little brain-teasers have always been fun for me. So I thought that Myst V would be a good game for me. I had not played any of the previous Myst games, but it says in the description that that isn't necessary, so I figured it wouldn't matter.

I was, as you might have guesed by now, wrong.

Myst V is easily the strangest and most difficult brain-buster I've ever seen. It took me several days, even though playing it straight through without stopping to think on each challenge would only take about two hours. I still couldn't even get by the first world without an online walkthrough. And as I read the walkthrough that gave all the answers, I thought to myself, with alarming frequency, "How the devil was I supposed to figure that out?" Myst is not the type of game to give you hints, beyond cryptic things like "Use the slates." They don't even generally tell you what you're supposed to DO in any given world you're in. You just have to wander around until you stumble on your puzzle-task, and then the solution to the task, by accident.

Normally, that would be acceptable, but it seems to me that you'd have to have a good deal of knowledge about the Myst world before you even started playing if you wanted to win. At the very least, you'd have to KNOW (because no one will tell you and there is no way to intuitively figure out, usually) what the symbols you are drawing on your slate mean.

"Oh, so the squiggly lines make the magical Bahro symbol for heat? Fabulous. I was supposed to know that, how?"
"So you need to take three steps forward, two steps back, drop the slate, turn around, take four steps forward, and then spin around slowly in a circle. Otherwise you lose the game. The manual did not mention this."

Bits and pieces of it, parts that look like the conventional types of puzzles that we're all familiar with, are relatively simple. But if you haven't played or studied Myst before, I can almost guarantee that at some point you will run into the wall of your own ignorance and be forever trapped there.

Besides that, it's all great. It's refreshing, in a way, to just stop and look around in a world with immaculately designed scenery and not have to worry about monsters coming out of the bushes to shoot you. The music and the story are all great in their own fantastic ways. The worlds are amazing. And this is all coming from someone who hasn't played other Myst games and isn't fully able to appreciate the things from previous games that cary over into this one or are referred to by the characters.

Myst V, I would suggest, should be left exclusively to hardcore Myst fans. Anyone else should either go back to Myst I, or quit entirely.

Major let down

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 10, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Basically I agree with the previous detractors. This installment was a complete and utter let down. I was expecting a grand finale, but it was a soggy firework instead. Way to easy, not really puzzle based at all (or at least too few and too simple), and visually disappointing also. Stick with the first 4 games and give this a miss unless you are a real fan and really care what happens in the end.

Myst V BLOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 18
Date: November 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the LAMEST ending of all times!! Totally anticlimactic, completely lame...DON'T BUY THIS PILE OF MUNG!!

Heartbroken

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: March 18, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Amazon forces you to put stars on a review, but this game deserves less than zero. I know I'm not saying anything that the other reviews haven't said, but this game actually hurt.

I've played all of the Myst games except URU which won't run on a Mac. Then I had a kid; he's four, and he sits next to me and plays them too, so playing Myst has become an intergenerational meaningful experience...

...which Myst V completely destroyed. It is SO bad that I feel like Cyan has robbed me of the enjoyment of doing something fun with my kid. It is a betrayal of everything that the earlier games excelled at. I'm heartbroken, truly pained.

A Spectacular End to the Greatest Adventure Game of All Time!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 15
Date: October 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just finished playing this game, and let me say, what a rush. The visuals were spectacular, voice-overs and human integration amazing, and the puzzles challenging, but certainly feasible. The story line was very moving. The game was full of emotion, from the opening movie to the final credits. It really made me feel as though Cyan, the game's creators, had put their heart and soul into this game. It was an excellent finale to the Myst series.

It may dissapoint some techno-junkies who crave the real-video lay-overs of some of the previous games. However, I would definitely recommend this game to both the first time player and the hardcore myst fanatic alike.

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