Myst V: End of Ages

Myst 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. A new game mechanic to the series is the use of a slate found in 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. == Plot ==

End 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, who 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 in, known as Releeshahn. Atrus by this period is an old man, mourning the deaths of his sons and wife. 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 an 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", which connects the D'ni to the surface. 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 before abandoning the player. 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, 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. == Development ==

Robyn and Rand Miller, Mysts creators, had initially decided against creating sequels to 1997's Riven. The publishing rights to the series was later transferred to Ubisoft, who commissioned two sequels: Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation. Myst V: End of Ages was officially announced at the 2005 MacWorld Expo by Myst and Rivens developer, Cyan Worlds. In the announcement, Cyan stated that the game would be the final installment in the series. Whereas most previous Myst titles had forgone 3D graphics rendered in real-time in favor of interactive prerendered environments, Rand Miller decided that technology had advanced to the point that End of Ages could use real-time graphics without sacrificing player immersion. "Over the years the Myst games have become increasingly sophisticated, culminating in Myst V, where we offer striking graphics that players can walk smoothly through", Miller stated in an interview. Miller emphasized that the goal of the game was still for players to become immersed in Mysts alternate worlds. A focus in development was to make End of Ages more accessible than previous Myst games, which had often stymied uninitiated players with their puzzles. Learning from the control scheme used in another real-time Myst game (a remake of the original entitled realMyst), Cyan decided to develop multiple control methods to allow new players to quickly learn the controls, as well as provide a familiar interface for franchise veterans. Esher's experiences with the player's quest allowed a hint system to be built into the story. The original Myst games had used chroma key to insert live-action footage of actors into digital backgrounds. The models of End of Agess characters were instead computer-generated, but Cyan did not want to lose the warmth and feeling provided by using live actors. Instead, Cyan developed a device mounted to the actors' faces that captured video of the actors while they spoke their lines. The video was then manipulated and used as a facial texture that was mapped onto the 3D characters, and the facial movement was also tracked and used to animate the faces of the characters in-game. Motion capture of the body was also used to ensure lifelike movement. Cyan staff were worried that the audio synching for animation would not be finished in time for the unveiling of the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), but were happy with the end results. Miller was relieved, stating that when the mostly shooter game-dominated showcase declared that End of Ages might be the best game in the series, "That feels good". Larkin stated that whereas earlier Myst games had been constrained by technological limitations, the available technology allowed End of Ages to have a more dynamic environment, with the music changing with various timings of different sound effects. Surround sound provided a more realistic and immersive gameplay experience. A major challenge in writing the music was that the score had to be flexible enough to match the non-linear gameplay events. "Games are totally interactive experiences", Larkin explained. "You don't guide a player through, since you can't count on being at a certain place at a certain time. I can't write cue music to get the player to do this, this and then this. One player might hear the cue and run the other way!" Larkin had to step away from what he had learned as a jazz composer and musician writing pieces with a definite beginning and end, instead creating music with "less arc" and less structure. Larkin admitted that some Myst fans would have preferred a musical style similar to Robyn Miller's scores for Myst and Riven, but replied by saying that change happens and players would find something to like in the new music if they kept an open mind. Larkin used a variety of synthesizers, samplers, and computers to create the score, working at his home studio and Cyan's offices. Release End of Ages was packaged in two different retail versions for release in September 2005, to coincide with the 12th anniversary of the franchise's debut. A standard edition, containing only the game, was released for Windows-based PCs in a CD-ROM format. The limited edition contained the original soundtrack, a collector's lithograph, a strategy guide, and a bonus DVD with a "making of" retrospective on the Myst franchise. The video was made by GameTap, a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System; the behind-the-scenes feature was the first game-related documentary developed by Turner. The limited edition was shipped on hybrid Mac OS X/Windows DVDs, with Macintosh conversion provided by Quebec-based developer Beenox; this was the only commercial option for Macintosh players. The reason for the sudden closure was a failure to gain financial backing for a new project after End of Agess development. Part of the blame for the company's financial troubles was placed on the commercial disappointment of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The company was, according to Rand Miller, "able to pull a rabbit out of a hat" and rehire many of the employees a few weeks later after backing for a new project was secured. With the release of End of Ages, Cyan stated that their next game would have nothing to do with the Myst series. After release, End of Ages placed sixth for the week of October 9 on NPD Techworld's sales rankings. In combination with the other games in the series, the franchise sold more than 12 million copies by November 2007. == Reception ==

End of Ages was largely well received by critics. As with previous games, the visuals of End of Ages were widely praised. The game's music was lauded; were well received in End of Ages. Publications such as GameSpot and IGN praised the voice acting and the switch to character models; Juan 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. Likewise, Oliver Clare of Eurogamer praised the character animation, while noting they weren't quite as good as those found in Half Life 2, released the year before. 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. End of Ages was a nominee for GameSpot 2005 "Best Adventure Game" award and IGN prize for the year's top computer adventure game, but lost both categories to Fahrenheit. == References ==