Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jun 25, 2014

  Where to start...? I played Myst and Riven when i was a child, I continued with Exile and Revelation and I absolutly enjoyed every single one of them. Unmatched when it comes to atmosphere and puzzles. I remember these masterpieces to be some of the brighest lights in my history of playing video games. So it was just a matter of time until i would pick Myst V and finally now when i found it (fortunatly being on sale, yay) there was no way around it. Sadly...I dont understand why this game wears the name "Myst". The story is flat, the puzzles are somehow boring and they didnt pull me into the game. I miss the once so excellent leveldesign and its awsome surreal enviroments who seemed so alive and fascinating. I also appreciated the real actors...its was one of the key features for me. Myst V at the other hand looks dead and flat. I dont feel any interest to go "deeper" into this. What a shame...
• gamedeal user

  Jan 31, 2022

  I only recommend this game, as a sense of final closure to the entire Myst franchise. As when you reach the end of this game, you really see just how derailed the entire thing got, and you want closure with the most boring and mundane ending, that really gives you that sense of never wanting to return to this all ever again. The first three games were great. The three books were wonderful. The 4th game was ok, if not a bit weird. Uru was a departure of rules set forth in the originals and books and began the downward spiral of story. Then the 5th, closes it all up with a big heaping "meh". But its the journey that matters, not the ending.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 30, 2014

  Another great game from Cyan in the Myst collection! All of their games are updated to run on Windows 10 too! A must have for any Myst fan too complete their collection. 10 stars out of 10. Buy the "Myst 25th Anniversary Collection" to get this game and ALL of the others too.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 15, 2014

  Myst, Riven and Myst III: Exile are three of my favorite all-time PC games growing up, and had a huge influence on my gaming preferences. I even collected a few of the accompanying novels, I was that crazy for the series. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of any other games in the series beyond Myst IV (which I have not played yet), until recently. I really wanted to like this game, from the very start. But I couldn't help but feel disappointed by Myst V. The graphics are beautiful, like with any other Myst game. I couldn't help but feel the worlds were smaller somehow, though, and less explorative. Almost restrictive. I can appreciate how they are trying something different compared to the other games in the series; I just don't enjoy the outcome of it. For instance, full motion video had been used in the first four Myst games--and used very well. You rarely had contact with anyone within the games themselves, which added to the overall isolation and atmosphere of the games. And while Myst V only adds two characters into the mix, Escher and Yeesha, the impact just isn't the same due to predictable 3D rendered characters replacing the FMV. Their presence inside the game sort of ruins the notion of being isolated on some deserted world.Oh well. Another small but vital complaint: the voiceovers used during journal readings. Just like the rest of the series, journals provide key insight and deepen the backstory of the game. I remember it being a very immersive experience in Myst, picking up a journal and reading and re-reading it to myself at my own pace. This time around, the journals are read for you, in the voice of Yeesha. Don't get me wrong, the voice acting of both Yeesha and Escher are very well done. It just ruins the experience of reading it for myself, and often ends up becoming an annoyance throughout the game. My biggest problem with Myst V, though, are the puzzles themselves. When you think of Myst, you think of challenging, physics-based puzzles which require a good amount of patience. Even the hardest puzzle could be figured out eventually, as long as you paid strict attention to clues and weren't afraid to use a little trial-and-error. I never used a walkthrough for Myst, Riven or Myst III (and Riven was an incredibly difficult game). But I found myself breaking down for help several times in Myst V. The puzzles are frustratingly difficult, due to the fact that some of the clues are either misleading, or non-existent. I didn't really enjoy the use of the slate/tab mechanism, either, and found it frustrating as well. If this game is part of some Myst/Cyan/Ubisoft bundle on sale, then by all means go for it. But I would not personally recommend this game by itself.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 17, 2014

  I have played every Myst game since the original and read all the books, but I held off on buying and playing Myst V for a long time because of the interface change (aaaaand because I'm Dutch, and we don't buy things full price). My assuption was that it would feel different from the other Myst games. Many years later, on sale on Steam, I thought "for $10, why not give it a try". My reveiw is mixed, first the pro's: 1. If you know the Myst story, it is a fitting end in terms of plot. You should probably play it for the closure. 2. The worlds (with the exception of the 4th Age with the arena, which was a snore) are still as beautiful and imaginative as ever. I was particularly impressed with the "Observatory" age. 3. The game gives you the ability to place in one of several modes, from "classic" to "free-mode", so the change of format did not affect the game as much as I thought it would in that regard. 4. The game adds new elements to the Myst world, so there is more to discover! Now the con's: 1. The change from real actors to computer animated motion capture made a HUGE difference for immersion in the game world. Frankly, every time a character was on sceen they looked rediculous. Because of their rediculous appearance I found it really hard to accept the dialogue genuinely... something that never happened to me before even with some of the over-acting in the rest of the series. 2. The puzzles were far too easy and the worlds far too small. I got through the game super fast (my log says 68 minutes but I think that's innacurate). Basically one day. I bought it Thursday morning and finished it Friday afternoon. That included all reading, puzzle solving, and even some down time where I went to do this and that but left the game running. Myst took me a good week. Riven probably 2-3 weeks. Exile and Revelation somewhere inbetween, and Uru... well I never finished that ;). This was therefore the shortest and most dissapointing of the series in terms of bang for buck or immersability (whichever means the most to you). 3. The plot was too predictable. The big twist at the end can be seen from... well, from the beginning. Myst is about Mystery, judging who will be evil and who will be good, and finally making a decision that will determine all (p.s. I died twice when playing the original Myst... like everyone else probably)! End of Ages was about the end of that mystery, there was no secret what should be done (though I tried the other options first in order to see the alternate endings). Conclusion: I enjoyed the game, but it felt like a "Myst Snack" rather than a "Myst Meal"... and I was hoping to end my Myst experience with something like a Christmas dinner, not microwave popcorn. Oh well. Don't buy it unless you want plot closure or just to see the imaginative worlds.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 31, 2015

  I am a huge fan of the Myst franchise: I love the lore, the gameplay, the atmosphere and everything that makes it a unique puzzle/exploration franchise. However, this game crushed my little fanboy heart. Whereas previous entries to the series offer so much to entice the player, THIS game offers much, much more. It's got: * Empty, 2-dimensional characters whose struggles you can't possibly care about. *A vague, loosely-formed plot with new lore that is poorly explained and quite uninteresting for a Myst game. *The exploration of the differernt ages feels very restrictive and linear compared to previous games. *The soundtrack, which the Myst franchise has always been praised for, is unbelievably bland. *The introduction of new concepts that offer nothing to the story. In particular the use of the tablets is much more of an inconvenience than a challange and are often frustrating to accurately use with a mouse. *Major characters from the previous games that feel like more of an afterthought. They really phoned it in on this one. What is most insulting is that they knew that this was going to be the final installment and they opted to throw diarrhea in the faces of their small yet loyal fanbase. This was a very sour not to end a great series of games on.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 20, 2016

  Honestly I wished I never played this one. I'm a huge fan of the series and I own all the books. Needless to say it didn't feel like Myst I know and love. The graphics were a joke, not that big of a deal to me. It was the story that got me over all. It didn't fit to the whole linking to other worlds via books. Instead you use some kind of tablets or something and draw on them? And the plot was a joke. Hell even the overall look of Dni and how it's been described in every text just didn't seem to fit. I get what they wanted to do they just did it so horribly it ruined it for me. Like seriously just stop at Myst 4 don't play this one.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 9, 2016

  A decent conclusion to the Myst series (and unfortunately a very final one at that) which suffers from the lack of a strong story & 3D polygon visuals which look primitive by today's standards. I think this was originally intended to be a part of Uru that they later decided to develop into a game of its own after the MMO aspect of Uru got shelved & they stopped designing new ages for it, or something. For some reason this felt really short compared to the other games in the series, though its puzzles aren't any less challenging for it - however, after playing the other games they seem more than a little formulaic. A new mechanic is introduced where you link to ages not through a book but through pedestals constructed by a non-human race called the Bahro, who are either moving into formerly D'ni-colonized ages or reclaiming them after having been driven away; these pedestals also have tablets which you carry around (sometimes you have to drop them) and can write symbols on them which you find in each age in order to communicate with them & have them use special powers specific to each age (such as creating geothermal energy, or altering the flow of time, etc.), or carry the tablet to secondary pedestals throughout the ages to which you can link through the main one. The game's detection of the symbols drawn on the tablets can be very finicky, though, and in one instance was so sensitive that I must've kept redrawing the symbol close to a hundred times before I was able to get one of the Bahro to understand it, when each time it was more or less the same symbol with minor variations. That in particular was extremely frustrating & I doubt the developers intended the player to have that experience. The story line is only vaguely related to the previous Myst games, takes place at the same time as Uru (which practically confirms that it was originally supposed to be a side quest for that game) & implies that the player could not be the same "mysterious stranger" character they are in the four preceding games. The player is guided by Yeesha, daughter of Atrus and Catherine who was also the guide in Uru, who explains that she is predestined to have the power to restore D'ni (she believes she is what is called "The Grower") if given a certain tablet locked onto a Bahro pedestal right outside Atrus's study on K'veer in D'ni (the place you find him at the end of Myst and the beginning of Riven), which you unlock by finishing each of the game's ages; but she tells you never to give it to her under any circumstance lest she actually restore D'ni. Your other guide is a man named Escher who speaks in a strange accent (Dutch? hence the name Escher?) which is sometimes hard to understand, and in each age tells you what it functioned as for the D'ni race, how great the D'ni were, how primitive the Bahro are & how dangerous & deluded Yeesha is, trying to get you to take his side. So at the end of the game, like the end of the other games in the series, you're given a crucial decision as to who to trust & what course of action to take. For some reason, though, the ending feels anticlimactic. It may be that the overall story never really affects the player's course of action up until that point, and consequently you can get through all of the game without listening to anyone or reading any of Yeesha's journals, except to find symbols for a certain endgame puzzle (another relic of the series). There aren't any really effective dramatic monologues from skilled actors such as Brad Dourif, who was the antagonist in Myst III & really made the whole story come alive; it may be that 3d-rendered polygons just don't have the same expressive power as human beings, certainly not in 2005 and not when you can always choose to look away. This game feels like an addendum to a series that's already been wrapped up & completed, one which Cyan actually wanted to end with Riven & only made this game because two more had been previously developed by other studios & released as sequels. It feels unnecessary, or at the very least optional, for those who liked Uru. It seems like the reason they made it was just to put the final nail in the coffin of the series. So long, I guess.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 26, 2017

  I do not feel this game was a satisfactory ending to the series. A departure from the beautifully pre-rendered graphics of the previous Myst games (Excluding Uru), End of Ages uses a realtime game engine to render - and it shows. This is a 2005 game which, while it makes good use of technology of the time, does not compare to previous titles. The interactivity is limited and feels forced, while the story is lacking and makes little sense as to why you're there and what you're doing.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 4, 2018

  It is a Myst game on the surface but it has none of the feeling of Myst 1-4. If you liked Uru (which I did not) then go for it. All good things come to an end and Myst should have ended at Revelations, in my opinion.