After 2001's Myst III: Exile was handled by Presto Studios and 2004's Myst IV Revelation was developed in-house at Ubisoft Montreal, Cyan returned to wrap things up with Myst V: End of Ages, said to be the final chapter in the long-running adventure series. Hot on the heels of the demo release, we've been playing through a near-complete preview of Myst V, which appears to have all the pieces in place for an interesting conclusion.
This room is where you start Myst V; a Myst linking book sits on the pedestal to the right.
This Is How The Future Ends
The flow of Myst V is similar to its predecessors: there are several "Ages" you can visit -- unique worlds created through an ancient art of writing. Each Age is filled with puzzles to solve and tasks to accomplish, all leading towards one ultimate goal. If you've played the Myst V demo, you've already seen the Age of Direbo, which acts as a hub to most of the game's Ages. However, we've seen a bit more than that, including the game's proper beginning.
With no story or introduction, our preview started us in a palatial room with carved columns and a bit of rubble, undoubtedly caused by the tremors that routinely strike the area. This place, as we found later, is called K'Veer, and the mysteries begin piling up right from the start as several strange creatures appear in front of you and then seemingly vanish into thin air. These are the Bahro, who you learn about more as the game goes on.
On a pedestal nearby is a book with M Y S T on the cover, but it's bound shut with no apparent way to open it. Finding the one open door, a passageway leads to an empty journal and a camera, which you can use to take screenshots and jot down notes to refer to later when solving puzzles. (The camera also creates save points, although the game autosaves as you go). You eventually reach a room with a large glowing sphere, a portal of sorts, with images of other lands visible through the other side and a strange arrangement of tablets in the center.
Atrus' daughter Yeesha greets you at the portal in K'Veer, but she's a far cry from the daughter you rescued in Revelation.
As you examine the portal, a woman teleports into the room: It's Yeesha, Atrus' daughter, who you rescued in Myst IV Revelation. However, she's no longer the blonde, precocious 10-year-old you might remember: years have passed, and she's a much older (and fairly tortured) soul. As for Atrus? "If you're seeking my father, his time has passed," Yeesha says. And with that, Yeesha lays out your job: you're to retrieve four slates from four Ages that will somehow release the tablet... after that, it's anyone's guess.
