Posted September 17, 2010
It's not often you see a sequel which improves on the original in every way, but Cyan really took their time in making Riven.
A direct continuation from Myst, the style of gameplay is relatively unchanged; point and click, first-person perspective, flick screen graphics. The flick screen element may not appeal to everyone, but there's a LOT of images in the game, so you get a reasonably good feel of your position in the world (unlike Myst, which had some huge steps which could easily disorient).
The puzzles themselves are really what this game is all about, and they are fiendish. This to me is a good thing; I grow increasingly weary with game puzzles which are dumbed down for mass appeal. Although the puzzles are difficult in Riven, they are also logical, so with enough note taking and raw brain-work, you should be able to get through them. However, there is one critical puzzle which relies heavily on sound. On my Win XP x64 system there were some glitches with sound in animations, which meant that the puzzle was impossible to solve without a guide, so be aware of this.
The graphics and sounds are superb, as you'd expect. The 16-bit renders are a huge improvement over Myst's 256 colour images and really help bring the world to life. The only area in which Riven does not improve over its predecessor is the plot. That's not to say it's worse - it still just feels inconsequential. Here you are, stuck on Riven. Here you go running round solving puzzles... but at no point do you ever really find out WHY you're doing this. The entire plot can be summed up in one sentence: "The world of Riven is falling apart, you must go there to imprison the evil Gahn, rescue the fair Catherine and hopefully escape back home". And it doesn't really get explained in any more depth than that, even with the REAMS of text in Catherine's and Gehn's diaries. I would have preferred a little more character interaction, but I guess we can't have our cake and eat it.
Problems aside though, Riven is a great game which will keep you thinking for days on end, and at just under 4 quid, you can't really go wrong.
A direct continuation from Myst, the style of gameplay is relatively unchanged; point and click, first-person perspective, flick screen graphics. The flick screen element may not appeal to everyone, but there's a LOT of images in the game, so you get a reasonably good feel of your position in the world (unlike Myst, which had some huge steps which could easily disorient).
The puzzles themselves are really what this game is all about, and they are fiendish. This to me is a good thing; I grow increasingly weary with game puzzles which are dumbed down for mass appeal. Although the puzzles are difficult in Riven, they are also logical, so with enough note taking and raw brain-work, you should be able to get through them. However, there is one critical puzzle which relies heavily on sound. On my Win XP x64 system there were some glitches with sound in animations, which meant that the puzzle was impossible to solve without a guide, so be aware of this.
The graphics and sounds are superb, as you'd expect. The 16-bit renders are a huge improvement over Myst's 256 colour images and really help bring the world to life. The only area in which Riven does not improve over its predecessor is the plot. That's not to say it's worse - it still just feels inconsequential. Here you are, stuck on Riven. Here you go running round solving puzzles... but at no point do you ever really find out WHY you're doing this. The entire plot can be summed up in one sentence: "The world of Riven is falling apart, you must go there to imprison the evil Gahn, rescue the fair Catherine and hopefully escape back home". And it doesn't really get explained in any more depth than that, even with the REAMS of text in Catherine's and Gehn's diaries. I would have preferred a little more character interaction, but I guess we can't have our cake and eat it.
Problems aside though, Riven is a great game which will keep you thinking for days on end, and at just under 4 quid, you can't really go wrong.