Riven (1997)

This game rejects analysis. If you pull out just one component out from it, the whole game will collapse. It is impossible to explain what this game is like if I tell you about each component separately. It's perfectly balanced like a living creature. This game is not a game that absorbs the player with its technology. Technically, it's almost same with Myst. Then how it could be able to absorb the player completely into the game without awesome graphics or realistic physics effect? The answer is: marvelous detail of the world. In Riven, no alien uses english. They uses their own language and characters. Even they have their own numeral system. It makes the world so realistic. However, Riven never explains anything directly to you. It is a good choice, since your absorbed feeling would be broken if a direct explanation is provided. Then how the game makes you figure things out? The way of it is so brilliant. Let's see an explanation of it: how a player learns the numeral system. The player learns it in the place like a school with a simple game device. At first, the player just plays with it. Then, he realizes that it's a gambling device with numerals by its regularity and changing symbols. This device is not an unnatural device that is designed only to explain the numeral system to the player; its design is greatly related to the history and story of Riven. All of the puzzles are like this. At first, you can't know what it is. Then you realize what it is with the least information you have, fiddling with it, or some experience. Once you realizes what it is, then the story follows and it becomes clear that what you have to do. Usually in adventure games, puzzles are just obstacles blocking the progress in story, and what actually makes progress in the story is cutscenes or dialogues with NPCs; the puzzles and the story is separated. However, in Riven, all the puzzles themselves contain story. It means that solving the puzzles is actually same with making progress in the story. It gives you an intensive feeling of actively involved in the story; not just a passive bystander of it. Also, the puzzles containing story not only means that you could know the story with solving the puzzles; the opposite is also possible. Knowing story could be the hint of puzzles. So you have to imagine what the missing piece of the story is. The game constantly stimulates and requires your imagination. I felt like being the main character in a novel or a movie who explores and reveals the mystery of an alien world, rather than playing a game and solving puzzles. I was completely absorbed to Riven during the week I played it. This kind of immersion was possible because there were no single part that could break it. In Myst, puzzles were first, and the world was next. So the world of Myst looked like an unnatural world that only exists for puzzles. However, in Riven, all the puzzles are built in a world with no errors. So the complete immersion was possible. Because of the non-linear gameplay, the story of Riven is really simple. It's a typical 'Save the princess from an evil magician' story, but it's slightly different from that, avoiding being too common. Plus there are mythical, archetypical factors making the scale of the story huge. This kind of story would be no fun if you read a book with it. However, when it became 'my' story, the feeling when I rescued the princess is...indescribable. It wouldn't be possible if there was a single thing that could be able to break my immersion. This game is also truly artistic. The visual design is perfect. At first, you'll be drawn by the mystique of the designs of structures in Riven. However, as you progress with the story, you will realize that they are perfectly probable, perfectly fitting with the game. Also the music perfectly fits with gameplay. It amplifies the emotions that you feel, imprinting the scenes on your mind. The developers meticulously calculated how would a player feel; and the results are perfect. The ending is one of the greatest endings of all time. You can't understand it if you didn't play Myst, so I definitely recommend to play Riven after Myst. Riven is beyond a mere game; it is a true experience from another world. I can't thank enough to the developers who gave me an unforgettable experience.

The game works well for me on Windows 10. One caveat is that each time the game is launched, it claims it can't restore my save. However, if I mouse to the top of the screen and reveal the "File" menu, I can manually load the save and start my game from where I last saved it. As for the game itself, I am greatly humbled by the atmosphere the game is able to create. Despite its age (no pun intended), Riven transports me to a whole new world, captivating me with tidbits of Atrus' tale and keeping me in the moment by incorporating the puzzles directly into the environment. However, incorporating the puzzles into the environment also begets my biggest disappointment with the game - sometimes, I'll miss a small detail and get stuck. Since the world is so large, I end up island hopping, looking for what I missed (thank goodness the game no longer spans five discs!), clicking on all the items I see, hoping they'll spark an insight I didn't have before. It turns out the thing I missed is usually a small environmental detail right where I got stuck -- what do you mean there's a switch there!? Argh! This frustration will sometimes break my immersion but yet I have no regrets from visiting Riven.

TL;DR - If you are a fan of this style of game (adventure/puzzle) then you simply must play this. It is the greatest game (from any genre) ever made. Seriously... it actually is. RIVEN is the best video-game that has ever been. It is a master-class on how to design an adventure/puzzle game. If you are a fan of this style of game then you simply must play this. The MYST series in general are (imo) the greatest of the genre, and this one is the best of the best. You will need to actually pay attention in this game, and not in a "combine the rubber duck, the paper clip, and these other random objects so you can reach the key" type of way (sorry Syberia, I love you but your puzzles are really weird sometimes). In this game the clues are in the environment all around you, and may not even seem important at first. Then you will hit a new area and see a new lock/device/puzzle and will be reminded of something else you've seen on your way there. Trecking back you suddenly realize this must be the answer, or at least a part of it. With each new step on the journey you will feel as though you are actually solving these puzzles with your own senses, with your own skills. It feels completely "natural" to wander the world (or "Age" for MYST fans) and become swept up in the adventure and the events. I couldn't possibly do this game proper justice in a review, so I'll stop trying now.

Riven is unquestionably a masterpiece. The depth of design, the impact of the visuals. I remember playing this on a friend’s Windows 95 PC almost 15 years ago and I hadn’t played it since. Today, it exceeded every expectation at every step. Riven is a game for explorers, people who have the compunction to explore every square inch of a world, people who do not see absorbing the atmosphere as boring. If you’re the kind of person who skips nothing and always watches every cutscene in games, then Riven will be nothing short of a joy to behind. When it comes to puzzles, Riven is very passive and doesn’t put everything you need right in front of you like some GCSE exam. You will have to take notes, think laterally, and spend hours exploring and getting the gist of the whole picture of what is being presented to you. It is therefore very difficult at times, and you can be wondering around because you missed the seemingly obvious doo-dad somewhere else. There’s no hints system like Myst:ME, and whilst that was a big problem when the game was new, we have GameFAQs and so forth to provide direction. If anything, by not having a hints system, it makes me more determined to play the game properly without cheating and resort to asking questions in forums if I get stuck. Myst:ME can be blasted through in a couple of hours if you take the hints, whilst Riven is something that may take at least days, if not weeks or months to solve. Other than the blinding difficulty in some places (due to the hands-off, passive nature of puzzle explanation), this game is a stunning masterpiece of point and click games. Even if you use a walktrhough there’s still enough gawping visuals to be worth the price alone. The graphics hold up today, though if there was a game that would need a HD remake, Riven is it.

I have the original version of Riven, but I couldn't get it to run in Win 8. This download installed and ran perfectly. Thanks!