Posted By: Kickaha
Riven: A personal reflection on a unique world - 08/19/02 01:05 PM
If you have never played "Riven" then stop reading this review. Don't read any other reviews. Get hold of a copy of "Riven" and experience it for yourself. It is a unique a must-play game.
"Riven" is Cyan's 1997 sequel to "Myst" – the most famous and most successful Adventure game of all time. It is a photo-realistic adventure game played from a first person perspective. Like the original “Myst” the views are done as a slide-show, no 360 degree panning. The illusion of panning is given by the new view sliding the
old view off as you turn left or right. This doesn't work so well if the view includes something like a long straight pipe. The graphic quality is high, the rendering of the 3D models is still state of the art five years on.
There are several FMV sequences at major plot points and also as you operate the various devices you will encounter. These are done as insets on a top of a static background – sometimes the colours didn't quite match up for me with the background image. There is a certain amount of dialogue in the FMV sequences but most of the information about Riven you will find in various journals. Cyan have published a number of books relating to the Myst universe to fill out the history.
Your character is not identified in any way. For some people that is a big plus – it can really be you exploring the beautifully realised places of “Riven”. For me being an anonymous blob adds to the isolation of playing “Riven”, There's no real character interaction – Atrus and everyone else talks at you not with you. There's no conversation trees, you interact with the technology of Riven not with the people. The acting of the characters is so much restrained as to be symbolic not realistic.
(A review needs must be a very subjective document. I personally felt that Brad Dourif breathed life into his portrayal of Saavedro in “Myst III: Exile” whereas Rand Miller was just reading the lines for Atrus. Others just as validly found Dourif's acting over the top carpet eating stuff but identified with world maker Miller's portrayal of world maker Atrus.)
The story-line of “Riven” has Atrus from "Myst" sending you to "Riven" to rescue his wife Catherine from his father Gehn. There is one successful ending and several unsuccessful endings possible. But the focus of “Riven” is on a lonely exploration of a strange broken world. Slowly you learn how to get to more places in "Riven" and in that the game is firmly descended from the first text Adventure games. Slowly you piece together (with help if you're like me) how to solve the two puzzles. “Riven” only has two real puzzles to speak of but they are multi-stage elaborate recondite abstruse Torquemadan puzzles.
The puzzles involve careful observation to deduce how to manipulate the various devices you will encounter. There are no timed puzzles. There is some tone matching but the information got by matching the tones can be derived another way. The imagination and craftsmanship of Cyan shine here in the puzzle-world that is "Riven" … this is a feast for the eye and ear and mind. Thoughtful loving care has gone into this game as can be seen from the way the cables flex when you ride the cable car. Master craftsmanship.
“Riven” for me is a puzzle-world. For me. Others will disagree and see “Riven” as a real place which real people could live in. On that we'll just have to agree to differ. "Myst" to me clearly is a puzzle-world, not a real world you could envisage people living in. The worlds you encounter in "Myst 3: Exile" are stated to be contrived training worlds. "Riven"? I felt "Riven" to be a puzzle-world like "Myst". I did not get the buzz of feeling here I am wandering down an alien street.
What's must play about "Riven"? I probably seem to have rather negative about one of the great Adventure games. What Cyan have achieved here for me is a stupendous act of world building. From one island you can see the others. The graphics and sound and puzzles all slot together. Art and technology go hand in hand. It is an integral holistic experience. Other games settle for lots of small independent locations. "Riven" gives you a whole world. That is its greatness.
(Riven is available on CD and DVD. I played the DVD version. For Windows the requirements are Windows 95, 166MHZ Pentium, 16MB Ram, min 82MB hard disk space, 4X CD-rom or 2X DVD-rom drive, 640X480 display high-colour, DirectX compatible. For Mac PowerPC G3, OS 7.5 or 8.1, 16MB Ram, 84MB hard disk space, 4X CD-rom or 2X DVD-rom, 640X480 display, thousands of colours.)
"Riven" is Cyan's 1997 sequel to "Myst" – the most famous and most successful Adventure game of all time. It is a photo-realistic adventure game played from a first person perspective. Like the original “Myst” the views are done as a slide-show, no 360 degree panning. The illusion of panning is given by the new view sliding the
old view off as you turn left or right. This doesn't work so well if the view includes something like a long straight pipe. The graphic quality is high, the rendering of the 3D models is still state of the art five years on.
There are several FMV sequences at major plot points and also as you operate the various devices you will encounter. These are done as insets on a top of a static background – sometimes the colours didn't quite match up for me with the background image. There is a certain amount of dialogue in the FMV sequences but most of the information about Riven you will find in various journals. Cyan have published a number of books relating to the Myst universe to fill out the history.
Your character is not identified in any way. For some people that is a big plus – it can really be you exploring the beautifully realised places of “Riven”. For me being an anonymous blob adds to the isolation of playing “Riven”, There's no real character interaction – Atrus and everyone else talks at you not with you. There's no conversation trees, you interact with the technology of Riven not with the people. The acting of the characters is so much restrained as to be symbolic not realistic.
(A review needs must be a very subjective document. I personally felt that Brad Dourif breathed life into his portrayal of Saavedro in “Myst III: Exile” whereas Rand Miller was just reading the lines for Atrus. Others just as validly found Dourif's acting over the top carpet eating stuff but identified with world maker Miller's portrayal of world maker Atrus.)
The story-line of “Riven” has Atrus from "Myst" sending you to "Riven" to rescue his wife Catherine from his father Gehn. There is one successful ending and several unsuccessful endings possible. But the focus of “Riven” is on a lonely exploration of a strange broken world. Slowly you learn how to get to more places in "Riven" and in that the game is firmly descended from the first text Adventure games. Slowly you piece together (with help if you're like me) how to solve the two puzzles. “Riven” only has two real puzzles to speak of but they are multi-stage elaborate recondite abstruse Torquemadan puzzles.
The puzzles involve careful observation to deduce how to manipulate the various devices you will encounter. There are no timed puzzles. There is some tone matching but the information got by matching the tones can be derived another way. The imagination and craftsmanship of Cyan shine here in the puzzle-world that is "Riven" … this is a feast for the eye and ear and mind. Thoughtful loving care has gone into this game as can be seen from the way the cables flex when you ride the cable car. Master craftsmanship.
“Riven” for me is a puzzle-world. For me. Others will disagree and see “Riven” as a real place which real people could live in. On that we'll just have to agree to differ. "Myst" to me clearly is a puzzle-world, not a real world you could envisage people living in. The worlds you encounter in "Myst 3: Exile" are stated to be contrived training worlds. "Riven"? I felt "Riven" to be a puzzle-world like "Myst". I did not get the buzz of feeling here I am wandering down an alien street.
What's must play about "Riven"? I probably seem to have rather negative about one of the great Adventure games. What Cyan have achieved here for me is a stupendous act of world building. From one island you can see the others. The graphics and sound and puzzles all slot together. Art and technology go hand in hand. It is an integral holistic experience. Other games settle for lots of small independent locations. "Riven" gives you a whole world. That is its greatness.
(Riven is available on CD and DVD. I played the DVD version. For Windows the requirements are Windows 95, 166MHZ Pentium, 16MB Ram, min 82MB hard disk space, 4X CD-rom or 2X DVD-rom drive, 640X480 display high-colour, DirectX compatible. For Mac PowerPC G3, OS 7.5 or 8.1, 16MB Ram, 84MB hard disk space, 4X CD-rom or 2X DVD-rom, 640X480 display, thousands of colours.)