Riven (1997)

The original Myst is wildly overrated, and I can't recommend it. Riven does better, by focusing (mostly) on a single world, with meaningful connections between the various things you'll see and do. It's a short game, but a slow game, that wants you to look around and think about the world you're in. It's frequently beautiful, its sound design is exceptional, and many of the puzzles are very clever. But while in theory there's a certain wonder in realising that object A on island B is actually the clue to puzzle X on island Y, the actual process of backtracking from location to location to solve these global puzzles is tedious. It's not fun to cross the entire world to re-look at a clue (or re-listen to it), and if you're on the wrong track entirely there's not always good feedback to set you straight. It's a game that doesn't sufficiently reward the player's experimentation, or respect the player's time, which leaves it as a promising and pretty diversion (and, again, better than Myst) but something which falls short of being called a classic of the genre.

The game is great, a little difficult at times to know if you are making progress, but that is the 'old school' nature of these games. The major issue I am having, and the subsequent removal of stars, is the relatively often game lock-ups forcing me to log off and on again as the game window becomes unresponsive and the menu stops working, preventing task manager to get to the front. Not often enough to for me to give up on it, but usually prematurely ends a session. I'm running Windows 8.

I cant keep the game running long enough to enjoy it. I owned this game on win 95 and it worked but 12 years later and this new version wont run for more than 10 minutes on either win 7 or win 8

This game is IMMERSIVE. You are transported to a world that you will wish that you lived in. I have the soundtrack by Robin Miller, and listen to it often while I'm working, and I have loaded the game many times, and just left it running in the background, just as a pleasant escape. I actually cheated to get through some of the puzzles. I didn't care, I just wanted to see the world they created. Just being there is worth the price of admission, it is so beautiful. Do yourself a favor and get it. It's that good. Best game of all time? Yes, I think so.

I can't describe how excited I am to see this game on here at a price this low. I swear gog.com or Cyan or Ubisoft aren't paying me. I really just love this game (and all Myst games). I played this when I was about 13 so I couldn't really connect the entire story fully. I'm very excited to get back into the game and try again. Riven is one of those games that stays with you. It's so immersive that in your mind it becomes a place memory rather than a time memory. You actually think you've been there, or at least I feel that way. It takes me back! This game is probably one of the best video games to exist, in my humble opinion. Years later the graphics are still striking and the in-game real actor sequences and monologues still put games like Mass Effect and Oblivion to shame. And that's not even mentioning the plot! Please buy this game. It will not disappoint you (although it might make you pull your hair out in frustration!).