Aug 22, 2006  Myst V: End of Ages Screenshots by Tom Bramwell, Contributor Updated on 22 August 2006. Subscribe to The Eurogamer.net Daily. The 10 most popular stories of. Myst V: End of Ages. The 10 most popular stories of the day, delivered at 5pm UK time. Never miss a thing.

A book written by a potentially paranoid man named Atrus serves as a portal to an otherworldly place, the island of Myst, in this atmospheric adventure game by developer Cyan. Forgoing the character interaction and inventory-based puzzles found in earlier computer adventure games, Myst places you in a lonely, desolate environment with no obvious indication on where you should go or what you are supposed to do. By exploring the island, you will eventually stumble upon an assortment of puzzles in the form of intricate contraptions, whose secrets can only be unlocked after discovering evidence of their nature. As you progress in the game, you will find four other books written by Atrus that magically transport you to additional worlds, each offering more interconnected puzzles and clues to the storyline. Myst's look is noteworthy for featuring still images viewed from a first-person perspective, with interaction limited to manipulating a cursor over each static picture.You have just stumbled upon a most intriguing book, a book titled Myst. You have no idea where it came from, who wrote it, or how old it is. Reading through its pages provides you with only a description of an island world.

But it's just a book, isn't it? As you reach the end of the book, you lay your hand on a page.

Suddenly your own world dissolves into blackness, replaced with the island world the pages described. Now you're here, wherever here is, with no option but to explore.Myst is a first-person point-and-click adventure where the player controls a character known as The Stranger. Magically transported into the world described in the book, he needs to explore Myst Island and solve its mysteries.

The game is presented as a series of static scenes where the player acts with the environment by clicking and manipulating objects. There are no enemies and it is not possible to die.

Through Myst Island, the game is further divided into mini-worlds set in different ages accessed through different books. The game's interface is reduced to a single cursor for navigation and interaction.

Rather than collecting items and using them to solve puzzles, the player must gather subtly placed clues and manipulate complex mechanical devices in order to advance in the game. The world of Myst is mostly uninhabited, and the game has very few live-action scenes with characters and dialogue.

Myst V: End of Ages is a 2005 adventure video game, the fifth installment in the Myst series. The game was developed by Cyan Worlds, published by Ubisoft, and released for Macintosh and Windows PC platforms on September 20, 2005. As in previous games in the series, End of Ages's gameplay consists of navigating worlds known as 'Ages' via the use of special books and items which act as portals.In a departure from previous titles in the Myst series, End of Ages replaces pre-rendered environments with worlds rendered in real-time 3D graphics, allowing players to freely navigate the Ages. The faces of actors were digitally mapped onto three-dimensional character models to preserve realism. The game also includes multiple methods of navigation and an in-game camera.End of Ages was positively received, despite complaints such as lessened interactivity compared to previous games and poorer graphics. After End of Ages's release, Cyan abruptly announced the end of software development and the layoff of most of its staff, but was able to rehire much of the development team a few weeks later.GameplayMyst V: End of Ages is an adventure game taking place in the first person.

Players travel across several worlds known as 'Ages', solving puzzles and gathering story clues by reading books or observing the environment. End of Ages offers players three navigation modes to explore. The first, 'Classic mode', uses the same controls used in Myst and Riven; Ages are divided into locations of interest, or nodes, and the player's view is fixed at every node. Players advance to other nodes by clicking on portions of the screen. The 'Classic Plus' mode uses the control scheme of Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation; movement is still node-based but players can rotate their view 360 degrees in any direction. The final navigation mode, known as 'Free Look' or 'Advanced' mode, allows players to navigate and observe the Ages freely like Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

The WASD keyboard keys are used for walking forward, backward, and sideways, while the mouse changes the player's point of view. A new game mechanic to the series is the use of a slate found on all the Ages. These slates can be carved using the mouse to create shapes and symbols. The use of the slate is necessary to communicate with a shadowy race of creatures known as the Bahro. The Bahro understand certain symbols drawn on the slate and will respond to them; the creatures also retrieve the slate and return it to its original space if the player drops it.

Slate symbols can cause environmental changes such as rain or increased wind, which may be necessary for solving puzzles. The slate cannot be carried everywhere due to its size. For example, the player will have to leave the slate behind if they want to climb a ladder.End of Ages has several features designed to help players complete puzzles.

To recall clues or important items, players can use a camera feature to take screenshots, which are then placed in a journal the player can access at any time. Player interactions with other characters are similarly recalled via another journal; everything a character tells the player is stored and can be viewed at any time. Journal pages are narrated by the voice of the character, and missing pages of the journal appear translucent in menus.PlotEnd of Ages takes place in the present day, sometime after the events of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and begins as the player responds to a letter from Atrus. Atrus is a writer of special volumes called linking books, which serve as portals or links to worlds known as Ages. A linking book to the Age of Myst, the setting of the original game, lies sealed in the ruins of the ancient D'ni civilization. The D'ni had the ability to craft linking books, but their society crumbled from within; Atrus and his family have been trying to restore the D'ni people and created an Age for the survivors to live on, known as Releeshahn (introduced in Exile).

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Atrus by this period is an old man, mourning the deaths of his sons Sirrus and Achenar in Revelation, and the death of his wife Catherine in the period after. In his letter, Atrus expresses concern that his daughter, Yeesha, may be lost as well.The player starts in Atrus' old study on K'veer, an island near the ruins of the main D'ni city; in the antechamber outside the study, there is a strange tablet locked in place on an altar. Yeesha links in and explains that legends state that in order to fully restore D'ni, someone known as the Grower must utilize the tablet.

The artifact has the ability to fully control a mysterious enslaved race known as the Bahro. As Yeesha made the wrong decision upon unlocking the tablet, she can no longer use it; Yeesha instead charges the player with uncovering the tablet's power.

After leaving Yeesha, the player meets a man named Esher near 'the Great Shaft', connecting D'ni to the surface (as detailed in Myst: The Book of Ti'ana). Esher is a survivor of the fall of D'ni and tells the player that Yeesha cannot be trusted, warning the player not to give her the Tablet. Throughout the Great Shaft, the player collects twelve fragments of Yeesha's journal. The writings appear to confirm Esher's warnings, as the narration seemingly indicates that Yeesha has descended into madness, believing herself to be the Grower.At the urging of both Yeesha and Esher, the player travels across four Ages, collecting four slates that unlock the tablet's power. Esher occasionally appears in the Ages to offer his counsel, or reveal the histories of his people and the worlds the player explores.

Once all four slates are collected, Esher requests that the player bring the tablet to him in the now-unlocked Age of Myst. The player is then returned to K'veer, where they have four possible choices. Travelling to Myst without the tablet will cause Esher to angrily abandon the player with no way out. If Esher is given the tablet, he will explain he wishes to use the tablet for domination, and will also leave the player trapped. If the player gives the tablet to Yeesha, the tablet simply slips through her hands and disappears into the ground; she walks away, disappointed, leaving the player trapped in D'ni. The only good ending involves giving the Bahro the tablet, ending their enslavement. Arriving at Releeshahn, the new home Age of the D'ni, Yeesha and Atrus thank the player and speak of a new chapter for the D'ni people; Esher is handed over to the Bahro to be punished for his crimes.

The game ends on a visit to Releeshahn.ReceptionOverall, End of Ages was well received by critics. The game was judged a fitting end to the series, and in combination with the other games in the series sold more than 12 million copies by November 2007. It placed sixth for the week of October 9 on NPD Techworld's sales rankings.As with previous games, the visuals of End of Ages were widely praised. The switch to real-time rendering was generally seen as a positive step. The game's music was lauded; GameSpot's review noted the use of music in End of Ages was sparse, but the little audio present set the proper tone for different Ages. A few reviewers, such as Charles Herold of the New York Times, felt that the graphics fell short of what was possible, especially compared to the prerendered visuals of Myst IV: Revelation. While Greg Kasavin of GameSpot felt that though the visuals were on par with previous games, End of Ages was missing several elements which made Myst IV more immersive; only important, story-driving items could be interacted with, for example, and the player makes no sounds or footsteps in the game.The characters of Myst, occasionally ridiculed in previous games, were well received in End of Ages.

Publications such as GameSpot and IGN praised the voice acting and the switch to character models; Jaun Castro of IGN stated that though the player could not interact directly with the characters, the rendered characters wound up 'feeling more genuine and real' than in previous games, speaking with genuine conviction and animation. Special praise was given to David Ogden Stiers for bringing Esher to life. A dissenting opinion was presented by reviewer Mark Saltzman, who thought that players might become bored by the 'overly dramatic' character dialogue.Critics warmly received the addition of the slate and its related puzzles. Oliver Clare of Eurogamer called the slate system a welcome addition to the Myst formula, although he felt that the recognition of symbols was occasionally too precise.

Paul Presley of Computer and Video Games felt that the slate concept could have been explored further, while GameSpot enjoyed the environmental effects created by the slates. End of Ages won several awards upon release, including IGN's 'editor's choice'. Larkin's music was nominated under the 'Best Interactive Score' category at the 2006 Game Audio Network Guild Awards, and won the 2006 Game Industry News award for best soundtrack. It was a nominee for GameSpot's 2005 'Best Adventure Game' award and IGN's prize for the year's top computer adventure game, but lost both categories to Fahrenheit.

Video Review and Screenshots.