Riven is nothing more than amazing. Just recently I caught myself musing about the lack of aesthetics in games. It seems a little weird that we have so many games like Crysis; visual spectacles that invests billions of polygons in rendering somewhat unimaginative and ugly environments. Where are the games about beautiful worlds that you explore at a calm pace?
The answer is Riven. After playing through the game I find myself wanting to pack my bags and go jumping into the one way linking book to get there. The world is beautifully rendered, even passable by modern standards and stretches huge expanses which takes hours to explore even if you ignore the puzzles. When I first booted it up I found myself doing just that. Wandering through the surreal landscape admiring the view. Eventually I turned to the puzzles and much to my delight, they were mostly logical yet seamlessly integrated into the world. There were only a few spots were I flicked to a walkthrough from frustration and even then it was rarely the puzzles fault; I had somehow missed a lever or button.
Riven is what Myst wanted to be. It took the story and concept and expanded it exponentially, creating a rich, surreal environment that is full of life and dare I say it, believable. The puzzles seem natural and don't break the flow of exploration. My only problem is that GOG doesn't stock Myst 3 yet.....