ChrisNotgonnagetit!
Dec 22, 2005
Myst V.... Long awaited! A player of every MYST game (except REAL Myst... the fully 3d version of Myst), I waited for the day that it arrived on my doorstep!
Alas, the final chapter! I was saying to myself "How great this will be!!"
Boy, was I wrong. Compared to non myst games, Myst V blows every other game out of the water. But put it up to the other games in the Myst series, and IMyst V.... Long awaited! A player of every MYST game (except REAL Myst... the fully 3d version of Myst), I waited for the day that it arrived on my doorstep!
Alas, the final chapter! I was saying to myself "How great this will be!!"
Boy, was I wrong. Compared to non myst games, Myst V blows every other game out of the water. But put it up to the other games in the Myst series, and I was severly disapointed.
It wasn't just because of graphics, or lack of sounds, or even straying away from the Myst series (in all honesty, I thought I was playing URU through out most of the game). No. It was the whole package.
Every game has a hole or two. But this thing is swiss cheese!!
For example, you do a LOT of walking in water, especially on the 'last' age of the game (though you can play any age at any time, I went with when the age appeared. And they seem to get much more involved as they go on). Walking in water is good. Esp when seeing such amazing water graphics. But what was lacking? The splash (audio AND video) of water as you walked.
I thought maybe it was a glitch. Tried another age in the game after a reboot. Same thing! No splashes!
Ok, we'll forgive them on that one thing.
But the Bahro? Esher? I mean, really. There isn't any hint to Bahro from Atrus. And in the books I've read, there isn't any mention of the Bahro in them! Ok, so a new element. I can deal with it. I even welcomed it! But you know nothing (and wont learn anything) about the Bahro.
That was a little insulting to include a new species, then tell us nothing of them.
Then Esher. Atrus was always portrayed as the true last of the D'ni. Though Yeesha is part D'ni, she isn't full D'ni (Cathrine was born and raised on Riven, then fled with Atrus to Myst, the age that Ti'Ana, Atrus' grandmother wrote). Now we are hit with another full blooded D'ni? The problem? He is younger than Atrus! So the Shouldn't even be there if Atrus is the last full blooded D'ni, as everything else in the Myst series supports.
The 3-d gameplay was acutually kind of fun, though it meant 3-d rendering of people and places. No photo-realistic pictures such as Riven, Exile, or Revelation. Not a big deal at all. The graphics were actually quite good. And yes, they look JUST like the pictures you see one the websites.
I must admit, the worlds are truly amazing in detail and design. Including going to a former prison age of the D'ni.
Ah, but here is one of my real complaints against the game: The endings.
There are 5 endings possible (though the game is only programmed to respond to three. ANOTHER strike against them).
WARNING!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Myst comes into play here. Ah, Myst. So good to know that we can go back to the island that started it all! The lush trees, the sun, the amazing puzzles.
No such luck.
Myst, if you return, you find to be a bombed-out-shell of an island. No more sun. Everything is falling down. And don't look up when you first link to Myst, because you could poke your eye out on the broken boat mast that is just above your head!! Hmm. Not much to explore. No lushness. No puzzles. Just an empty shell. But Ehser (in the 3 cases that you return to myst... one with the stone and give it to him, one where you return, but don't give him the stone, and when you link without the stone. the game responds ONLY to when you give him the stone and when you link without the stone) tells you Myst is now your island. Your own prision. No way out. You're just stuck there.
Not too bad if we could link to the other ages! But alas, you just sit on a poor, broken down, raining island.
The other two scenarios:
You give the stone to Yeesha (oops. She takes it and runs!). you can then return to Myst without the stone and get chewed out by Esher, or just stay there in K'veer.
Or, the least likely, you can drop the stone on the floor (this is actually how you beat the game). The Bahro! They come and take the stone away.
NOW you learn that they were slaves, and that if they hold the stone, they are freed from slavery. NOW Yeesha tells you that.
Whats worse? You can't drop the final Bahro stone like you can the others. There is only a small corner of the stone that you can click on to drop it, unlike the edge of all of the other Bahro stones.
Ok, so the Bahro are freed, they take you and Yeesha to Releshan (alright! we can explore the age we saved in Exile! NOPE!! You just stand in the same place!!) to see a dying Atrus. Long, boring story short: Bahro freed, Esher tortured by Bahro for enslaving them, Yeesha and Atrus are reunited.... and the Atrus says they are rebuilding D'ni there!
What that...? How the....? Didn't they try that in URU, TWICE! And didn't they fail, TWICE?! Yep. But now, they want to rebuild it again. Ok, thats wierd.
AND WHAT ABOUT GETTING ME HOME TO WHERE I CAME FROM? Nope. You're stuck there as the endless credits roll, and you get a scene from an ugly spire in the distance.
THAT is Myst V.
Good compared to other adventure games... but by far the WORST Myst game yet!
Good to play if you don't know the Myst line, or anything about D'ni. But if you know about the Myst line, and D'ni.... you WILL be confused and disapointed.
Alas.. Myst died without firing a final stand.… Expand
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