Review Myst V: End of Ages Developer: Cyan Worlds, Inc Publisher: Ubisoft Genre: Adventure Release Date: September 2005 Platform: Review by Jennifer Miller October 11, 2005		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Well, my friends, the ending has finally been written - at least for now. Myst has closed its Linking Books for the last time. After over a decade of intrigue, exploration, and surrealistically beautiful worlds, Cyanworlds is hanging up their Age writing quills and saying good-bye to the franchise that put them on the map. This didn’t come as a surprise to me – I had felt for some time that Myst’s days were numbered, especially with the closing of UruLive. What did surprise me was the timing of this final installment.

We all have to admit, these last three years have greatly spoiled us as Myst fans. In the winter of 2003, we saw the release of Uru, Cyan’s first breath of life since 1997’s Riven. Uru promised to change the way the general gaming public thought about graphic adventures. With its premise of a single player game to be followed by a MMO experience, Cyanworlds was making a risky bet. When the bet ultimately did not pan out, they announced (ironically on my birthday) that they were abandoning UruLive and instead opted to release the rest of the developed material in the form of expansion packs. And sadly, we only saw two of these.

Myst IV: Revelation, a Ubisoft developed project, was released the following fall. Revelation continued the story of Atrus and his devious sons, bringing answers to many of the original game’s questions and of course, providing more questions. I felt that Revelation had breathed new life into this series. Its visuals were awe-inspiring – never had pre-rendered graphics seemed so alive. Jack Wall’s equally impressive musical score never once failed to evoke the right atmosphere, whether I was standing in Sirrus’s bomb factory on Spire, or on the landing in Serenia, watching the balloons float by. Even with new actors in the roles of Sirrus (Brian Wrench) and Achenar (Guy Sprung), I believed that I was interacting with the same two men I had permanently imprisoned in the original Myst. And Rand Miller donning the Atrus garb is always a welcome sight. Revelation left me heartbroken and wanting more.

So after this plethora of Myst gaming fodder, I was shocked and pleased all at the same time when shortly after Revelation’s release, it was announced that Cyanworlds would be releasing a fifth installment of the series, billed as the last. But how could they, after just finishing the last expansion pack of Uru, already be prepared to release yet another Myst game? When I experienced my first taste of EoA at E3, I was beyond impressed with what I saw. I had heard rumors of computer animated stick people and having to draw on a tablet in order to solve puzzles. But this was not the case when I saw the demo last May. The “stick figures” were refreshingly life-like and moved with a fluidity I had only seen before in Half-Life 2. Because the game was rendered in Realtime 3D, the Ages became alive, with plenty of rolling clouds and ambient animal effects. And my taste of the tablet puzzles provided a unique and fresh gaming idea. This, I believed, was Cyanworlds at its best, always pushing the innovative button when it comes to adventure gaming. I was excited for EoA and couldn’t wait for the day when I would finally get my greedy mitts on it. But as Rand Miller warned me:

“It won’t be everybody’s favorite Myst Game, but it will be some people’s favorite Myst game.”

Oy.

The End of the Ages

EoA begins very much as its predecessors have. Atrus relates the sad tale of Yeesha leaving to discover her purpose in the entirety of the fate of the D’ni. Since Yeesha’s departure, Catherine has died and he is alone in Tomahna. If you’ve played Uru to it’s completion, you will find this story strangely familiar. It is prophesized in Path of the Shell that Yeesha is a figure known in D’ni mythology as The Grower, a being who will return life to the ancient D’ni city and free those who have been oppressed for thousands of years. The oppressed are the Bahro, a race of creatures that have slaved in the shadows for the D’ni and provided them with the power of Age writing and of Linking. Through this enslavement, the D’ni were able to come to power and become the masters of thousands of new lands. Through a series of journals, Yeesha tells the tale of her familiy, of their suffering and joy. She even talks about the Stranger (the player) who has unselfishly given his/her time to sort out the misdeeds of Yeesha’s evil brothers, her grandfather, and a misguided man named Saavedro.

So, what family business are we called upon to intercede in at the beginning of EoA? We wake up in K’veer, the large island home in the great city of D’ni where Atrus was taught by his father and later imprisoned, once by Gehn, and once by his sons. Yeesha instructs us to take the same path as her to retrieve a Bahro tablet that holds the power of the Art, or Age writing. When the tablet is freed, the player will then be given a great choice: give new life to D’ni or destroy the Ages forever. Gee, no pressure, right?

After being sent from K’veer, we begin our journey in the great volcano in the desert, near the Cleft that was the originating point for Uru. This is where Yeesha began her journey to D’ni, and where her great-grandmother Anna also began her journey. Here we meet Esher, a true full-blooded D’ni who agrees with Yeesha’s instructions to take the quest, but disagrees with her philosophies. He seems to be quite brilliant, and is a writer of Ages, taught by D’ni masters before the city died. His cynicism smacks of Gehn, and this told me right away – proceed with caution. So down into D’ni I went, and embarked on my last journey into the Ages of Myst.

It’s like Doom, except there’s no blood . . . or space creatures

EoA was crafted using the same technology that was much loved (or hated) when Cyan built Uru. In fact, if you played Uru in its first person mode things will look extremely familiar. Everything is in Realtime 3D, and although Cyan has gone to great lengths to make the game feel like one of its pre-rendered gems, I couldn’t help but feel as if I was looking at a movie set and not a real place. Granted, these Ages are gorgeous. The landscapes go from the familiar to the sublime. The starry night sky of Todelmer, the Space Age, is completely dominated by a huge moon. On the Age of Noloben, I spent some time just watching the large thunderhead clouds move across the sky.

But I think a line needs to be drawn here. For me, a Myst game has always consisted of elegantly crafted pre-rendered backgrounds layered with ambient sprites and live action video. (I’ll get to EoA’s animated characters in a bit.) Uru was a 3D developed project that made use of drawing polygons and interjecting animated people in lieu of live actors, due to limitations in the type of engine used. In my humble opinions these two series, while taking place in the same universe with some of the same characters, were totally separate franchises. Different engines, different story lines.

Now, to the characters themselves. Like I said earlier, EoA couldn’t use live action characters because of its technology. There are small segments where we do see live shots of Yeesha, but this is only briefly. All of the players in EoA are completely computer constructed although Cyan went to great lengths to make these people appear real. Rengin Altay has reprised her role as Atrus’s eccentric daughter Yeesha and provides her beautiful speaking voice and considerable acting talent for the role. (She was also the dubbed voice for Catherine in Riven for those keeping score.) Film and TV actor David Ogden Stiers is the voice behind Esher. It was interesting to finally hear someone who is actually D’ni speaking D’ni, and Stiers delivers the sometimes obtuse dialogue with great execution. Both actors had their facial expressions superimposed on the animated characters and at times, they do seem eerily real. Motion capture technology was used to map their actions, and their gestures are at times quite natural. The collision detection still needs some tweaking, such as when Esher’s robe disappears into his leg. But in the end, I never felt like I was talking to a real person, and this took me out of the drama of the situation. In Riven, I honestly cared about what happened to Catherine because I could look her in the eye, or at least through my monitor. And Revelation’s younger Yeesha had me completely nervous and concerned.

This is not to say that EoA doesn’t provide us with eye candy, for it does. Take one look at the Age of Todelmer or the peaceful hub Age of Direbo and you will see what Cyan does best, which is to spark the imagination and just make you “stand in awe,” or at least that’s what Esher says.

“Stand in awe . . . ”

Tim Larkin is back at the helm of Myst’s ambient soundtrack. He was also the mastermind behind Riven and Uru’s impressive sound design. And as usual, the sound does not disappoint. If you have an EAX soundcard, be prepared for a treat. Turn up the surround sound and let your ears do the feasting. EoA’s ambient sounds are lush, ranging from the low rumblings of the D’ni cavern to all sorts of animal life on the various Ages. The enslaved Bahro speak in a series of squeals and screeches that are creepy, but suitably strange. While the music didn’t stand out as much as Uru, it was still appropriate with the franchise, consisting of ambient effects and different cultural instruments. If anything, I felt that these musical compositions harkened back more to Robyn Miller’s original subtle scores rather than Jack Wall’s cinematic approach.

Okay, so what’s up with this tablet thing?

Oh, that blasted thing. It is a neat idea, and could have worked really well within the context of the game. The Bahro speak a different language, so it’s only fitting that you would have to master parts of their language in order to solve certain puzzles. Each Age has four to five such symbols and you need to draw these the symbols onto the tablet to command the Bahro to move the tablet around. Wait . . . so you need to collect symbols to get to the end? Didn’t we do this in Uru with the Journey cloths? It was definitely satisfying when I was able get a new symbol and get my little Bahro man to move my stone to the next pillar. But this gave the game a sense of linearity that I wasn’t used to in Myst. With most of the Ages throughout the series, you have almost complete access to all the areas without solving a single puzzle. Yet in EoA, I felt my way being continually cut off because I had yet to find that next needed symbol for my Bahro tablet. (There’s a certain telescope thing on Todelmer that drove me completely buggy.) And the idea that you couldn’t move through certain places while holding the tablet provided a new challenge, but really didn’t become prominent unless I was trying to climb ladders.

But there’s a huge bug with the tablet, which many have already found, so I know I’m not crazy. In two of the Ages, you can prematurely end your explorations by drawing symbols that you see around the Age, mistaking them for your needed Bahro symbol. I have to say, while it helped the time constraints I’ve been under, I was really irritated that I missed an entire Age because I drew something I thought was what I needed. Typically, if the Bahro reads something it doesn’t understand, it will just scratch its head and then Link away. Just be careful with what you’re drawing on your tablet.

Now, as to the other puzzles. Almost all of the other puzzles involved reactivating a machine, unlocking a door (or a floor), and manipulating nature with the aid of the Bahro. It’s obvious that Cyan sought to tailor these puzzles to gamers of all levels as to broaden its appeal. Save for one, the solutions were never extraordinarily obtuse and usually came with careful exploration and experimentation, typical rules to live by when you’re an adventure gamer. The added feature of an online hint system might appeal to some, but I found it of little use and vowed to finish EoA without any outside help.

Those same controls I loved at E3 are still present in the final release, giving the player their choice as to how they will experience EoA. You have the option of classic mode that involves moving from predetermined node to predetermined node, to complete control in a FPS style of navigation, to a neat combination of the previous two. I chose the Advanced (FPS) controls for my game and really enjoyed having that complete freedom. But in places, it just felt really artificial. Instead of hearing my footsteps react to my environment, I heard nothing. In essence I was floating over the ground. Revelation added this little touch, which while subtle, adds so much to the experience of drawing the player in. Without this in EoA, it only added to the disconnectedness of the gaming experience.

Has the ending truly been written?

I have to say, I’m really at odds with this final chapter in the Myst series. There are many things I enjoyed about it, like the surrealistic worlds, experiencing the decent into D’ni, and finally understanding a little more about who the Bahro are and their role in the D’ni mythology. However, I still feel like there are many questions left unanswered. Also, there is an experience near the end of the game that was quite disconcerting to me and may leave some of the longtime fans of the series a little heartbroken. The payoff is nice, but that’s all it really is – just nice.

I had really hoped to see Myst go out with a bang, one last game that would break all the boundaries and give the player complete understanding. While I enjoyed the Bahro storyline in Uru, I felt that was a story best left to that series, not Myst. Myst is about Atrus and his family, not necessarily about Yeesha’s quest to become The Grower. In the end, I felt like I had played the sequel to Uru. If it walks like a Squee and talks like a Squee, well, you know . . .

Nevertheless, Myst V: End of Ages is an impressive gaming achievement. It explores the possibilities of what can be done with a puzzle in an adventure game and for that alone, it should be experienced. The Ages are gorgeous, though not as large as those in Uru. And the game itself is fairly short in length, compared to the massive undertaking of Riven.

Ultimately, Cyan hasn’t let Myst go out with a bang, not even a whisper, but with a little squeal of joy. Honestly, I hope that one day we will see another addition to this franchise, not for my own fangirlish reasons, but so that we can continue to see how Myst pushes the envelope.

Thanks for the memories, Cyan.

(For your Myst fix, check out a neat fan project called Sehv Tsahno. Intriguing, no?)

Final Grade: B
(find out more about our grading system)

System Requirements:

• Windows® 2000/XP
• 800 MHz Pentium® III or AMD Athlon™ or equivalent (1.5 GHz Pentium IV or AMD Athlon or higher recommended)
• 256 MB (512 MB recommended)
• 32 MB DirectX® 9.0c-compliant video card supporting 32-bit color
• DirectX 9.0c compliant (Sound Blaster® Audigy® series recommended)
• DirectX 9.0c (included on disc)
• 4x or faster CD-ROM drive
• Hard Drive Space 4.5 GB free
• Mouse, keyboard