In 1997, Riven: The Sequel to Myst sold a million and a half copies and became the bestselling game of that year. It was a point-and-click puzzle adventure that combined some live-action footage with pre-rendered backgrounds to create an eerie flipbook of a world.
Players accessed this puzzling experience through five CDs that they’d plop into their home computer’s CD-drive, with the story being revealed chapter by chapter. And, via the magic of a whopping 16 MB of RAM and a 1 GB hard drive (at most), those players would gaze at the exotic but slightly grainy visuals spilling from a boxy CRT monitor the size of a large toaster.
Leap ahead 27 years, and the universe of games and computers has radically changed. And the game makers at Cyan Worlds are now offering players a rebuilt, fully 3-D (and CD-free) version of Riven that’s, well, better than ever.
But gamers who’re used to a little modern day hand-holding might be a bit surprised.
Riven starts off with a message from a guy who needs our help. This man, Atrus, is a descendant of the D’ni, a group that have the ability to “write” entire worlds (or Ages) into existence. They pen that world into a book that can be used as something of a magical transport. But Atrus’ evil dad, Gehn, has been up to no good. He has trapped Atrus’ wife, Catherine, in a book called the Age of Riven, with no way out.
You, playing as an unnamed and largely unseen character, must help. Your job is to zip into Riven; solve the many path-barring conundrums of this crumbling place; trap Gehn and then free Catherine and the other oppressed people from that decaying and dying Age.
Do you need to have knowledge of the original Myst game? It wouldn’t hurt, but it’s not necessary. What you will need is patience and some environmental puzzle-solving skills. For that’s what this game is really all about. You’re plopped down into this beautiful land of steam-operated gears, domes, stone, wood and metal, and you’re asked to find your way from there.
You’re given a scrap of note paper here or a journal entry there to offer a clue or two, but it’s really all about wandering anywhere you want in this inexplicably creepy but gorgeous world. You flip this switch, poke that button, peer through any crack or window and try to figure out how to open doors and domes, explore islands, and get things to work.
You need an internet connection to download the game to PC, Mac or iPad, but not to play. This is a single-player-only game.
This remade version (rebuilt with full 3-D graphics and rerecorded voice overs) of Riven is quite beautiful to see and walk around in. The musical underscore is evocative and rich. You can also play this in virtual reality if you choose, which delivers an even deeper sense of immersion.
It should be noted, too, that a number of the puzzles have been tweaked or changed altogether. But rather than detract from the original, the changes give the game some fresh perspectives and throw a few new puzzling curves and improvements at older fans.
The game offers a notebook that can be used to hold pictures and notes of found clues and objects spotted along the way. Players who stick with it—mulling conundrums outside the game and coming back to solve them—will feel challenged and exhilarated.
Some light violence is depicted in this E10+ rated game. We see a man hit with a blow dart, for instance, and then dragged away by someone. With exploration we find his body lying on a lower stone cliff where it was tossed. We can also be killed by a deadly blow dart—the screen fading to black—depending on our choices. A man we meet admits to attempting to murder his son.
Some settings can also offer lightly perilous situations, such as a confrontation with a threatening whale-like creature.
Riven also has a creepy feel about it at times, heightened by shadowed environments and music. A man puffs from a device holding some unidentified smoky substance. The word “d–n” appears in the dialogue.
This new Riven remake is a masterfully crafted experience that maintains all the past classic charm with new injections of next-gen visuals and fresh puzzles.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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