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Riven: The Sequel to Myst

starstarstarstarstar
Released: 1997 Manufacturer: Broderbund
In Brief:
Truly beautiful, immersive game with overly difficult puzzles.
Puzzle Quality: great Visuals: gorgeous Difficulty: hard
Dramatic Effectiveness: great Ease of Interface: good
Riven is a bigger, prettier, more animated version of Myst. If you want each game you play to be a new experience this might annoy you, but if at the end of Myst you wanted more Myst, as I did, then this is your chance.

Once again you are wandering around a beautiful deserted landscape, only this time you're not quite so alone, catching the occasional glimpse of an island native off in the distance. Some people find this unsatisfactory: they actually want those people in adventure games who keep saying the same thing to you over and over again, but I love exploring strange deserted worlds, climbing through tunnels and playing with strange machines. Riven is a wonderfully immersive experience; nothing else I've played gives me such a feeling of really being there. Like Myst you are basically just looking at a picture slide show, but Riven has added little animated touches, like bugs flitting around you, and has a few spectacular cut scenes, such as the roller coaster rides from one world to another. Perfect sound, perfect pictures. This was a game I wished would never end.

And if I hadn't cheated, it never would have, because this is one tough game. Sometimes I cheated and thought, I should have solved that, but often I was really glad I cheated because I never would have got it, or it was too tedious to be worthwhile. What can I say, I'm a lazy guy.

But there are a lot of puzzles, and I did solve more than I cheated on, and they were darn good puzzles.

Riven is also a game that can be a little unfair. They recommend setting the screen to pretty dark, which makes things very pretty and lush, but there are levers in shadows and obscure paths and one button (which you don't need to solve the game but which helps you get around) that is so difficult to find that I doubt one out of a hundred adventurers find it without help. Even if you know where it is you can barely see it.

So in terms of puzzles, there are games like Zork: Grand Inquisitor that I enjoyed more. But in terms of being immersed in a different world there is nothing that compares with Riven. I love this game passionately, and am waiting eagerly for another sequel.

-- Charles Herold -1997