Riven Reviews

I love a good puzzle game, and Riven has always been on my list to try. The older versions seemed more challenging due to the lack of a free-moving camera, though I understand the hardware limitations at the time. Now, with this modern version, I’m finally able to experience it the way I always wanted—and I highly recommend it. The puzzles are engaging, and I only had to look up one part when I got stuck. What made it even more special was sharing the experience with my dad, who played these games when they first came out.

This remake of Riven provided me with the opportunity to finally play this sequel to Myst. The world is rendered beautifully, with all the mystery and wonder I remember from the original. I was a little disappointed that it didn't have the live action actors, replacing them with CGI characters, but I read online the reason for that, I while I'm disappointed they couldn't bring those into the remake, I understand. The game is has challenging and intriguing as I remember from the original 1990s demo I played back in the day. I greatly enjoyed playing the game, and uncovering all the secret within the Age of Riven.

Great revival of an old classic. In my opinion a good idea to change up some puzzles compared to the 1997 original, because I played it so often, this remake would have been just a visual one.

It's great what Cyan have done to refresh the game, also for those of us who played the original and loved it. Looks beautiful. I loved the surprise changes that meant we were on a new adventure. From an internal logic point of view, it all seems a little more cohesive and makes more sense this time around. A negative point are the character models. Catherine and Gehn both need more work. My understanding is that UE should be able to accommodate much better models. Another is that the puzzles seem easier or there is more hand holding. For example (spoilers) the positioning of the fire marbles does not require carefully working out where the domes are on the islands, but is kind of just given to the player after a dead simple puzzle on Survey Island. Overall, it was a trip back down memory lane and totally worth the almost 30 year wait. Cyan and the Starry Expanse Project have done a great job. Cue applause!

This game is so much fun! It's just like the earlier version but the graphics are so much better! If you love first person, problem-solving games, you'll love the Myst series!

My feelings about whether the original or the remake of Riven is better are, well... themselves riven. Both of them are wonderful experiences. They are also flawed in differing ways, and regardless of the technical limitations both face, there are things gained and lost in both from their creative/puzzle/story aspects. Regardless, I wholeheartedly recommend both. That's the gist of my review, really. Below are the messy details... As of my current hardware setup, the most efficient way to travel through the age of Riven is through the Steam release of the original. With the remake on my 3070, the time it takes for each island to load is about the time it would take to change out a CD, an ironic echo of the 5-CD release I first played the game with. The lore of Riven in the remake is more compact. It takes much reading outside the original to make complete sense of what's going on, but I believe the changes in the remake streamline the important information into the game significantly. In terms of a self-contained game, the remake is more coherent of itself. The changed puzzles overall make for a fairer difficulty. The original's puzzles are almost impossibly difficult, but figuring out how everything connected in the original was more of the fun of Riven for me. Knowing the solutions off a guide and meeting those solutions and my understanding why in the middle - seeing how organically cohesive everything was - has been fascinating. For me, that is the unique replay value of the original Riven. Arguably, that's really esoteric, and I welcome the argument that the remake as a puzzle game overall flows better. Part of that flow in the remake comes from not being limited to a point-and-click interface. Exploring Riven in real-time and especially VR has been a dream of mine for years. It's absolutely cathartic to do so. The original falls completely short in this regard. That said, where the remake pales graphically to the original is some tiny nuances in some of the pre-rendered animations of the original - little details that are some of the most memorable parts of the game. I don't mean changes in the puzzles at all - just graphical/artistic things that lose a lifelike, minute fineness from the original. I would argue though that other details like the textures and some other scenery-based changes/additions overall are more lifelike in this remake. For the most part, where the already compelling "naturalistic uncanny valley" artstyle of the original isn't matched, the remake has elements that look even more attractively convincing. The sound design of the original, while lower quality and technically limited to choppy soundscape transitions, has more nuanced personality in my opinion. This goes back to the hair-splitting degree of fineness in little moments of the original. They might seem pedantically pretentious to bring up, but those little elements are at the heart of what I carry with me from my experience of the original. Speaking of graphics and nuances in the original: no 3D rendition will match John Keston's live acting as Gehn in the original. I believe the same can be said for all the other iconic performances. I feel even Rand Miller's acting as Atrus is more convincing in the original. It's definitely a gravitational pull I feel away from the remake. All that to say, it's impossible for me to value one over the other. Both games feel like two different, surreal lenses of the same mystifying world. At best, for someone new, I would recommend them start with the remake, and if they're still interested go for the original. Otherwise, Riven - as a collective of both iterations of the game - stands among my favorite games and most formative artistic experiences.

A beautiful little world to explore, with some of the most unique visuals and level design I have ever seen. Amazing music, worldbuilding, and writing. I needed to look up some of language/numeric stuff online to complete all the puzzles, otherwise great gameplay.

Excellent remake which gave me hours of fun. Surprisingly more different from the original than I realised until I just started the original again after completing this The rich game play make this a much deeper gaming experience than Myst.

I'll start by saying the puzzles is this game are alright, and the time I spent solving them was enjoyable. In general, the core of the game is good, but by about halfway through the game I was just hoping it would end soon. tl;dr: of my 11 hours played, probably 7 was spent waiting for animations The main issue is the outrageous amount of time spent waiting for an animation to finish. Once you have gotten to the point where you have solved the puzzles to traverse the whole world, many puzzles thereafter require traveling across the map for one reason or another. This process becomes quite tedious, as you have to trigger an event and wait for an animation to finish to continue on your journey. These animations are absolutely well-done and impactful the first few times you experience them, but movement soon becomes: run for 10 seconds > trigger animation > wait 5 -30 seconds > trigger another animation > wait 5 - 30 seconds > repeat until you're at your destination. By the end of the game, getting information to solve a puzzle felt like a chore, because I knew how many of these long animations I'd have to get through, and some were particularly time-consuming (looking at you, rotating room). If you want to play to experience the puzzles, I would suggest making a save in each major area, so that you can quickly load between saves to gather information, then continue on your way in the main save. This will prevent unnecessary travel.

This game truly puts you in another world where you can relax and explore. The graphics are amazing and the back ground dialog (sounds) are soothing. The puzzles are a challenging and rewarding when you can figure them out. Take your time and explore new worlds.