I feel almost as though I've been had...
Honestly, Myst V does not upset me simply because it marks the end of an era. Truly, it had to happen at some point. Game developers must move on to bigger and better things. One can only hammer a nail so long as the wood remains strong. The Myst series did have a great run, but all good things must come to an end.
However, End of Ages in no way compares to its predecessors. The artistic designers in every Myst game prior to End of Ages had one focus in mind: outdo each Myst game before it. For example, Riven was leagues beyond Myst as far as graphic detail and atmosphere. While still maintaining an almost slideshow-style interface, one could see that gaming technology wasn't far from creating a truly 3D environment. Riven also allowed gamers the sense that they were continuing the same story that was laid before them at the end of the original Myst. The following two games of the series still had roots in the original story as well - a tale that seemed to forever rotate around Atrus's desire to keep his craft away from those who would use it only for there own greedy purposes. And each one in succession brought new innovations and a greater level of detail to the Myst universe.
Now that we have arrived at what was assumed to be the end of a breathtaking saga, I feel almost as though I've been had. Where is all of the detail? The life? The story? Atrus just seems to have been tossed out like an old sofa. What about Catherine? We don't need her anymore! And Yeesha? Well...we'll get to that...
The environments are akin to those rendered in games like The Crystal Key 2 or Schizm, and are hardly anything to write home to mom about. Sure, they're pretty, but everything is cookie-cutter perfect with a minimalist feel. Trees protrude straight up from the ground, having no root systems at all, like those of Riven, or the Edanna age of Myst III: Exile. Even as you find yourself back on Myst Island for the "grand finale," you wonder if the designers ever took a moment to look back at the decade old original model of the island to get a feel for the density of the vegetation. Nearly every age in this game is barren and under detailed. The textures are also poor, incomplete and, in some areas, pasted like patterned wallpaper.
Now, before I mention this next failure let me first say this: I realize that we have come now to an age in game design where it is an almost constant competition to see who can make the best, most realistic computer rendered character models for their games. It is a noble pursuit and some developers are doing quite well. I will even go so far as to say that the character models in this game are quite good, even beautiful. That said, however, the computer character models in this game are probably its greatest flaw as well. I'm sorry, but Myst simply wasn't ready for them yet. For the previous Myst games, in order to make the environments truly believable, they used motion capture technology to place real people into the worlds. This drew the gamer even further into the story as they could then relate to the "human" aspect of the characters. The new model of Yeesha looks absolutely nothing like the young actress who portrayed her in Myst IV. Though the character may have grown much older, her facial features bare no similarities to the young girl. And the stick figure body type looks nothing like the motion capture characters from before. She is just, simply, another computer character. Seeing as this was the "End of Ages," I just feel that, in this case, the developers should've stuck with what worked, rather than trying something new at the last minute.
The only other thing that I will mention may seem a small detail to some, but for me it completely took me out of the game. I no longer felt as if I was playing Myst, but rather a disappointing knock-off. Everyone who has played the past versions of the game will note that everything you do in the Myst universe is done in the first person; from elevators to magnetic transports, blowfish submarines to pinball-rides. But the moment I stepped into the elevator in the Great Shaft and was at once shifted to a third person view of the elevator descending into the depths I knew all was lost. I may have completed the game, but that was the actual point in which, for me, the game was finished.
This may have been the "grand finale" for the Myst saga, but I think I missed the show. All I found in the roughly 6 hours or so it took to reach the end were a few childish puzzles, poor graphics (in comparison to what they could have been) and a new story that is completely distant and unrelated to everything that has lead us up to this point. I'm not sad that Myst is gone. I'm just sad that this is how it had to die.