The Riven Review

A rebel dwelling in the Age of Tay.

I previously wrote about playing the iOS version of Cyan's Riven: The sequel to Myst but I had never finished the game until last week, a full six years after I bought it. I found Riven to be a visually impressive game with challenging puzzles and an immersive storyline.

My first attempt at playing Riven was shortly after its PC release nearly two decades ago. After finishing the enormously satisfying Myst, I was excited to find out that a sequel was in development. To bide my time until then, I discovered and played similar graphic adventures such as Gadget and The Residents Freak Show. However, as the years progressed and Riven's anticipated release dates continued to slip by, I had to lay the thought of it aside as I left for university.

The village at Jungle Island.

After four years in development, Riven was finally released. Reviewers at the time had universal praise for its visuals.

"The graphics are superbly, even fanatically, detailed..."

"...scenes constantly dazzle you with realistic highlights, shadows and textures that utterly belie their origins as computer constructs."

"...has moved toward an often amazing level of photorealism...almost mind-boggling."

"Gorgeous scenery that makes Myst's artwork look like Space Invaders."

I decided to give myself a self-imposed challenge of finishing it without any help or hints simply because I had done the same for Myst. That decision ended up being a mistake. While I was able to solve a handful of puzzles and explore a few islands through careful observation and meticulous note taking, I eventually hit a dead-end and had to take a break.

Some time later, I bought the official Riven Hints and Solutions guide as an emergency back-up plan and tried it again. Once again, likely due to time constraints, I stopped playing it.

When the iOS version was released, I wasted no time in trying it once more. But the problem again was the vast amount of time needed to get through the environmental puzzles. If I lost my notes, I wrote mine in empty spaces of notebooks, I would forget how to get to certain areas and lose the desire to play through and write them down all over again.

So what finally motivated me to finish the game? Two reasons. First, I had a couple of days off during a national holiday. Second, I used both the online Riven Hint Guide and the Hints and Solutions guide book to get me past the dead ends. Both guides were excellent in giving me just enough information to find the solutions on my own.

Jutting rocks on Survey Island.

The graphics and art design were stunning, way above and beyond what I expected for a sequel. After the success of Myst, the developers could have continued to use Macintosh computers and Strata StudioPro to produce another beautiful, yet incremental, release. Instead, they boldly invested in powerful, $40,000 Silicon Graphics Indigo workstations paired with high-end Softimage 3D software to help realize their ambitious new ideas.

The decision to upgrade the hardware and software definitely paid off in the end. Vastly more detailed geography. Higher-poly rock formations, buildings and foliage. Custom mental ray shaders for accurately simulating the physical properties of weathered rock, rusted metal and water with variable depth. Realistic, yet naturally constrained animation. The imagery is even more impressive when you consider that Cyan didn't have a lot of the CG tools that today's artists enjoy such as global illumination, photogrammetry or physical sun and sky models.

A walkway to an elevator on Survey Island

The puzzles in Riven were tough but better integrated into the environment in comparison to Myst. Some clues were so incredibly subtle and obtuse that I found myself overlooking and literally walking past them. Clues involving symbols, colors and animal shapes and sounds were spread throughout the islands and needed to be explored and carefully noted.

Probably the best advice I've read on finishing either Myst or Riven is simply to click on everything.

Just a few negatives to point out:

Inability to look freely in 360 degrees. Spatial awareness is key to finishing the game so at times it's a bit difficult to follow where a pipe, ladder or track leads to when you're toggling back and forth between two pre-determined views. I would often find myself wanting to look up or down for a better view but couldn't.

Inconsistent navigation. Clicking to turn left or right either means either turning 90 degrees or a complete 180 depending on the designer's decision.

Reading. There are a few journals that give the player more background on the characters of Riven as well as providing necessary clues to finish the game. I guess you can quickly scan through them but I was afraid I would miss something if I didn't read through every page.

Overall, I give Riven an A- as a graphic adventure. These explorable, leisurely type of games aren't for everybody but if you can invest the time and have the patience, the experience is well worth it.