Myst V: End of Ages
An abomination.
Uninspired, lifeless and flat-out boring world design in itself makes this a lousy game. But the game doesn't content itself with basic incompetence: The
three sets of controls are all awkward, the graphics are repetitive and uninteresting, the acting and writing are unbearable (which was true in the previous games as well, but there was less of them), and the puzzles are typical inventory puzzles with an added level of gimmickry only serving to annoy.
The story, which
cannot be skipped, has three sides: Yeesha's excessively vague whiny angst, Esher's excessively vague indignant rambling, and the Bahros' excessively vague existence. The Bahro have no sort of presence past the first scene, being completely contrived clockwork gameplay devices, while the two humans (or D'ni or dunny or dufnee or duckknee or whatever) were not only contrived as well (being there the whole time and never doing a darn thing to help) but also made me wish there were a gun nearby so I wouldn't have to keep listening to them. (If only the great all-powerful slate could be used in such a manner, say by hitting them on the heads with it. Nope, it's a useless rock.) There is no one here to sympathize with. The plot itself I didn't understand because it revolved around countless trivial little details which put me to sleep, with a generous helping of pretention mixed in.
This is by far the worst of the Myst series, worse even than Myst III. I am very glad that I borrowed rather than bought this game, and it's very unlikely that I'll ever buy a new game from Cyan again.
1/5
