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Myst V: End of Ages is the final chapter in the decade-old Myst saga. Like its predecessors, Myst V is a puzzle game. You play as a nameless explorer charged with discovering the many mysteries of the Myst world. However, even if you are familiar with the Myst series, you will find that Myst V is different in many ways.
In the previous games—all the way up to Myst IV: Revelation—you were on your own while exploring the richly textured worlds of Myst. Your help came from clues in books and videos. Now clues also come in the form of two other humanoids. Yeesha, the daughter of the first game's hero, and Esher, a mysterious helper with a penchant for rants, periodically reveal themselves to you with advice or stories. This game is not for the impatient, and that becomes quite apparent in your first few conversations with Esher. His long stories can become tedious with their frequency and lack of humor, but if you make it through the stories, you'll find yourself in a gorgeous world full of puzzles.
A majority of the puzzles are mechanical in nature. Using clues gathered from diaries scattered around the levels, you will have to figure out how levers and cogs move, why they move and even when to move them. The puzzles become progressively more difficult as well. One of the first puzzles requires nothing more then the flip of a switch, but later puzzles require a series of carefully timed movements. We found that a pencil and paper to jot out solutions on made the game a little easier.
The game is not just made up of mechanical puzzles though. When the game first begins, you'll notice a group of creatures staring at you curiously. When you move towards them they scamper away. These creatures are the Bahro, and in order to successfully finish the game you must get their help. The only way to do this is by using a series of stone tablets, you find. By learning and drawing a variety of symbols on these tablets you can call the Bahro out and get them to help you. Learning how and when to use the Bahro is a puzzle in and of itself. There is no manual to follow or how-to guide to read. This is another instance where your pencil and paper will come in handy. You can draw out the symbols and their meanings rather then try to rediscover them every time you need to use them.
Some will consider the slow pace to be one of the weak points of the game. Myst V is for the careful and methodical puzzle solver, and not your action-craving, first-person shooter fanatic. Things progress gradually, and the rewards can often seem rather small for the effort you put towards them.
If you move past the slow pace of the game, you'll find something completely gorgeous. The first few Myst titles gained notoriety for their pre-rendered worlds. When the original Myst came out, it stunned players and reviewers alike with the complex beauty of its worlds. Myst V continues this tradition. You can easily lose yourself in the scenery. You can watch waves of water climb up onto the sand and revel in just how real it all looks.
The sounds of the game are also extraordinary. The actors playing Yeesha and Esher are very good and rarely overact. The ambient noises of the environment and the Bahro are also exceptional. Somehow, noises from behind actually sound like they are coming from behind, even on the speakers of a PowerBook or iBook.
If you want to relax with a gorgeous and leisurely game full of intriguing puzzles, then Myst V is definitely one of our picks.
–ALEX CRANZ
Myst V: End of Ages: 
Ubisoft | www.mystvgame.com | $50
Pros: Gorgeous graphics, interesting puzzles, excellent voice acting.
Cons:Slow pace, little humor.
Requires: OS 10.2.8 or higher, G4 /G5, 1GHz or faster, 256MB or more RAM, 32MB or higher VRAM
macHOME recommends: 1.5GHz, 512MB or more RAM
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