Myst V: End of Ages

Ouuu she's not giving. Who are these aliens and why is there a brand new magic system introduced here. Might side with Robyn and consider the first two installments the true canon if this is what the rest leads to

Very challenging.

This game is really only for the Myst lore. It tries to tie up the Myst series by exploring the liberation of the Bahro as well as some of the reasons why the D'ni fell through their oppression, and gives a gloss over Yeesha's back story. It is definitely recommended just to get the lore dump. However, an average player with no knowledge of playthrough of the earlier games would find this unplayable and tedious. Admittedly, this is the weakest game of the series. The Ages are beautiful, but the animation of the characters are a bit off and a bit creepy. Puzzles are average. Gameplay is a bit mid. The story is a bit of a debate as some think this is more like a retcon or going in a completely different direction to what the first games were about. It definitely does feel rushed. One thing I found annoying is that the journal you can write your journey in (which I feel is one of the main experiences you can get out of playing this game) defaults to the beginning every time you close it so you have to flip many pages to get to where you left off.

SCORE: 5/10 - MEDIOCRE The conclusion to the Myst series isn't as grand as I hoped. You get four short Ages to explore with puzzles of moderate difficulty. The graphics are quite good for a game released in 2005 and the ability to move and look about freely are a welcome feature. But overall, I found Myst V to be a disappointingly meager experience due to its short length, frequently simple puzzles, and a story that failed to get me invested, perhaps because the characters were a bit too performatively dramatic to be taken seriously.

7/10 Although not as strong as other games in the series, this is still a solid Myst game. Even by 2025 standards, the environments are well done and some are absolutely breathtaking. The puzzles are challenging, although not as difficult as previous games like Riven. The story is interesting and the acting is good (although I much preferred the younger Yeesha who was happy and sweet and didn't speak in preachy riddles). I appreciated that they kept the reading materials down to a minimum. While it is good to have some books to get backstory and clues, you don't want to stop playing and spend 15 minutes reading a book. Cyan experimented with the tablet in this game as a new feature. It was mildly annoying and temperamental, and I would not want to see it in other games, but it did not ruin the experience. As others have said, one criticism is how disconnected the puzzles are. You pull a switch here and something happens very far in the distance that you may or may not notice. Todelmer was a beautiful world, and perhaps one of the most magnificent in the Myst series. I hope that Cyan makes more space worlds like it in (hopefully) future games. This world did have a lot of misleading and/or irrelevant clues, as well as glitches with the telescopes that would go blank and the cable car where I kept falling right through it. But overall, lots of fun and worth a play.

I reloaded this game to figure out why I stopped playing it. Ten minutes in I remembered. Poor graphics, but you need to find something hidden in the image. Endless, cryptic dialogue. "In order to find the end me must start from the beginning." "So and so hid for love while blah, blah, blah revealed for power.." ugh. I can just picture the first year English lit major who wrote that and thought, "Yeah. Wow. That sounds awesome! That's deep." I might try the VR game Cyan came out with in the future. I hope the writing isn't as pretentious in later games. This one was just too hippy-dippy for my taste. I bought it at a higher price years ago. It's only $10 now. I like to support developers but I can't even recommend this game for $10. It's boring and that's the worst sin any game can commit.

I love this entire series, and though this particular game is not my favorite, it is still very good for a point and click puzzle exploration game. On a side note, this game does have some issues when playing on the steamdeck. I have noticed lost frames while moving and looking around, camera sensitivity is off the charts if using the right joystick, text is slightly blurred and distorted, and there are audio issues when opening up the Steam menus. This was all found in the first 5 mins of playing. These issues are not surprising given the age of the game, and I do not fault Cyan Games for these issues, nor do I expect them to work to fix these issues. I do recommend the game for any who like P&C puzzles for PC users. However I cannot recommend it for any individuals attempting to play the game on a steamdeck.