It was really cool to switch out the five different discs on the original. My siblings and I were so excited when we finally got to put in disk number five.
My family got a PC in 1993 and I was the first in my family to finish Myst. I was so engrossed by the concept and story that I got all three books that released over the next few years. For Christmas in 1997, I got Riven, as well as its soundtrack and a poster. And then I never finished Riven. I got completely stuck in it, and refused to look up anything on AOL to try to help me. (I knew GameFAQs well enough by that time that I'm sure I could have.) I didn't play any of the games in the series that followed until the Myst remake a few years ago. Now, nearly 27 years later, I think I'm ready to give Riven another go. I love that Cyan Worlds has stuck to what they do best all these years later.
Long-time fan of the Myst series. I still can't believe this is real, since it seemed so unlikely for so long. Also 6:00 The best way to understand the gameplay is that there are very very few actual puzzles in the game. 90% of it is about environmental observation and understanding *why* things are in the world. This is a deliberately-designed space. Everything is a certain way for in-universe reasons, which you must suss out. Typically, understanding how a machine works requires intuiting *why* that machine is there. Overall, I'd say there are only two true puzzles in Riven. Everything else is simply figuring out the world and how it works. And contrary to what the review said, IMO, Riven is one of the best games for "ah-ha moments" ever made. You just gotta take it seriously.
There may be more puzzle elements added here in some spots than in the original - in fact I am sure there are. Cyan has confirmed as much. Seeing new areas in this gameworld seems like it has the potential to be fascinating and it seems any new material does fit aesthetically given the return of the original art director Richard Van Der Wende and the composer (Robyn Miller) apparently adding some new music tracks. Very much looking forward to revisiting all the familiar spaces but also seeing the various unlockable / discoverable spaces where they've been expanded on. Basically it is a remake that is creatively building on the initial design, not recreating it 1:1 as we have already seen in the demo, so any claim as to the puzzles involved based off the original is unlikely to apply accurately to this version.
Y'know what, you're definitely right. Most of the puzzles here are so well integrated into the world and lore, it's less like they're puzzles and more like they're mechanisms that exist for a reason. Most of it comes down to understanding who Atrus, Catherine and Gehn are, what's their role in all of this, what Riven is and what's happening to it, who the D'ni and the Rivenese are, what the Star Fissure is, all that stuff. Other times, it comes to understanding what the machine in question is, and what the different bits and bobs on it do. What's its power source, what's this valve for, why was it built and why do we want to make it work. Not only that, but good observation skills are a huge factor here. Most of the time, it's not just necessary to have good logical understanding or a comprehensive grasp on the world. Sometimes, you just need to notice that you can remove the hinge of a door.
Thank you so much for your review! I played the original Myst and Riven on PCs, both of which had exquisite beauty and annoying clunkiness. I loved both games! Today I'm looking at reentering Riven. I'm glad Cyan is still around. Riven looks very good, reminding me of some of the places and scenes from my recollection of play years ago, before my baby in my avatar was even on her way; she's now grown and flown. Now I'll play on either an iMac or an M1 MacBook Air. I remember how long it took to play both games in the past. Decisions, decisions... The linking book is open and in front of me...
This was a good review. Sadly i spent many months looking forward to this, having played myst when and the rest when they were originally released, only to find Cyan was not supporting Intel Macs only a week before the game’s release. Being a huge Riven fan, this was going to be a bright spot after a very challenging couple of years. Maybe someday I will get to play it but at least the shots you showed make it seem like if I do, it will be worth it.
I must admit, what lured me into Riven was the way it hit my senses, both visually and acustically. The game handles its music, sound design and ambience so incredibly well, it's almost to a pornographic degree. It is jaw-droppingly immersive. I remain a bit undecided about the puzzles however: They almost felt few and far between, but they never struck me as forced or arbitrary and connect with the game's environment naturally. Maybe it's because I expected more interactions with items, people etc. There was only on time I got mildly frustrated when I couldn't figure out how to get around the turned tree root on prison island to get a look at that totem's animal. Riven is different from the puzzle/point-and-click adventures that I am used to, but in what it is trying to be, it absolutely succeeds. Never in a game before have I just stood there and enjoyed the scene.
Just bought this last night. I have never played the myst series until the Myst remake. I loved it and have heard a lot about Riven, so i am excited to dive back into it.
The lens was a really neat idea, I certainly had a-ha moments quite a few times, and every puzzle solved felt like an achievement on its own. What I didn't like was the slow and tedious nature of some of the animations, especially when you are frequently traveling between the islands. For example opening the domes could have been simplified.
NGL, I was hoping the game was gonna have the “realMyst” treatment, where everything from the original is translated 1-to-1 in 3D. It isn’t bad, but I’m so used to the original game that things like changing the spinning domes housing Linking Books to Age 233 are now access points into the Starry Expanse and is used as a makeshift fast travel between islands really threw me off. It’s still great though.
I actually had this when it first dropped on pc in the 90’s or whenever that was.. Hardcore graphic adventure aficionados will probably love it.. But as for me I’ll stick to my Valiant Hearts & telltale collection.. I remember it being too much for my brain to wrap around
It's a very good remake, has a lot of good stuff going for it, pretty much the same game as the original but in 3D. The only downsides are the character models (they're not very good), and some of the older and more nostalgic fans of the original game also complained about the lighting of some ages not being faithful (like Myst having a bit more warm colors to it), although I thought many of the other ages actually did have more faithful lighting to them when compared to realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, the remake from 2014. One last thing I do think is pretty lame, this remake doesn't have the bonus age that you can visit in realMyst: Rime. It's not necessary, but it was a really neat place to visit. Probably one of the most beautiful ages, to me at least
The stutter issue is basically UE default quirks a lot of shader compilation, if you watch Digital Foundry you'll know it. and I dont think that is easy solvable especially I think they're using UE4 instead of UE5 that has a fix for it but not actually solved yet.
Great review thanks! Loved Myst and played Obduction by the same developer. Obduction had a very similar look and feel and it also ran like garbage, but I enjoyed it none the less, so I think will get this one.
@@tubularmonkeymaniac Obduction mainly had two really irritating puzzles. Worst one is the gauntlet which takes a literal hour to execute even once you've worked out the solution state, which is really a showcase for the loading transition over and over for no good reason. The other isn't even a puzzle, it just looks like it must be one until you slowly realize it does absolutely nothing. It is that box with the cyrillic, which serves no real purpose, it is just a box of inscrutable lettering and numerous buttons that you would think is important but turns out just to hold some easter egg photos submitted by Kickstarter backers. And Firmament had a buggy as heck launch, and one puzzle legit had broken physics where I got a thing stuck and wedged precisely in a spot between two rock surfaces such that the crane thing was hopelessly stuck and immovable, the puzzle uncompletable without reloading from an earlier save. The story was a problem too as everyone smart enough to make it to the end pretty much anticipated the gist of the ending a mile away. And I was kind of hoping there was some really big unexpected extra, that we didn't see a mile away, or that the obvious twist was a deliberate misdirection to something crazier, but that isn't how it was, it went exactly, more or less, where we all suspected it would. And that was the gripe for me with Firmament - not the puzzles being hard but in the end the story outcome they were heading to being both predictable and broadly flawed in its execution. Obduction and Firmament had amazing visual artistry and sound design, will give Cyan credit for that at least. They looked and sounded beautiful in a ton of spots and they were quite expansive and detail rich game settings to explore. Which is not so bad (given they had, inflation adjusted, production budgets comparable, even slightly smaller, than the cost of making Myst circa '93.) And in both the puzzle design was a mixed bag, some good aspects, some bad. Hard, definitely, and sometimes genuinely frustrating, but not arbitrary at least in the majority of cases. But Riven, man, it seems Cyan knocked this remake out of the park and that is awesome to see them really do a great job making a faithful yet somehow also freely innovative take on a classic, and not have some glaring major design flaw introduced in the process. The reviews showing up are almost all stellar, 88% on Metacritic which is - amazingly - higher than the original Riven's review average in 1997. (83%) In fact that review aggregation, if it holds, makes this Cyan's best reviewed release in the studio's entire history.
@@inspectorbuttons You are right! I was trying to find the exact Windows / MacOS version these cursors come from but it is neither. The icons in the original Riven (and also here) are from HyperCard! The Apple software devkit used to make their first game - The Manhole (1988). Quite the callback...
Sure as hell doesn't play like it tho, when it comes to puzzles or story direction at least! ...thankfully. I mean, I liked the Witness, the puzzles were cool for what they were. Even tho most of them were basically puzzles from some mobile app, they allowed us to explore the island. The environmental puzzles and perspective tricks were a pretty neat thing. But damn, the story they were hiding was a big load of meta fauxlosophical nothing.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
Will you be grabbing Riven? Let us know in the comments below! Voice to the voiceless!
I'm 32 and I used to watch my dad play and love myst and riven. He's dead now but part of me wants to play these games just for reliving that time
Sorry for your loss but glad you have the memories!
I'm 42 I played the original at release and honestly can say Riven 2024 is mostly everything I'd hoped it could be. It's amazing!
NICE
It was really cool to switch out the five different discs on the original. My siblings and I were so excited when we finally got to put in disk number five.
haha yeah wild times!
My family got a PC in 1993 and I was the first in my family to finish Myst. I was so engrossed by the concept and story that I got all three books that released over the next few years. For Christmas in 1997, I got Riven, as well as its soundtrack and a poster.
And then I never finished Riven. I got completely stuck in it, and refused to look up anything on AOL to try to help me. (I knew GameFAQs well enough by that time that I'm sure I could have.) I didn't play any of the games in the series that followed until the Myst remake a few years ago.
Now, nearly 27 years later, I think I'm ready to give Riven another go. I love that Cyan Worlds has stuck to what they do best all these years later.
Lots of memories, appreciate you sharing them!
Riven was one of those games where you sometimes needed to write something down, which puts you at a disadvantage if you are playing in VR.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts!
Long-time fan of the Myst series. I still can't believe this is real, since it seemed so unlikely for so long.
Also 6:00 The best way to understand the gameplay is that there are very very few actual puzzles in the game. 90% of it is about environmental observation and understanding *why* things are in the world. This is a deliberately-designed space. Everything is a certain way for in-universe reasons, which you must suss out. Typically, understanding how a machine works requires intuiting *why* that machine is there. Overall, I'd say there are only two true puzzles in Riven. Everything else is simply figuring out the world and how it works.
And contrary to what the review said, IMO, Riven is one of the best games for "ah-ha moments" ever made. You just gotta take it seriously.
There may be more puzzle elements added here in some spots than in the original - in fact I am sure there are. Cyan has confirmed as much. Seeing new areas in this gameworld seems like it has the potential to be fascinating and it seems any new material does fit aesthetically given the return of the original art director Richard Van Der Wende and the composer (Robyn Miller) apparently adding some new music tracks. Very much looking forward to revisiting all the familiar spaces but also seeing the various unlockable / discoverable spaces where they've been expanded on. Basically it is a remake that is creatively building on the initial design, not recreating it 1:1 as we have already seen in the demo, so any claim as to the puzzles involved based off the original is unlikely to apply accurately to this version.
Such a unique title, certainly a cool thing to be brought up to modern times. Thanks for watching!
Some of the puzzles are pretty dang close to the original for sure, they have done a good job of making the game feel old but new.
Y'know what, you're definitely right. Most of the puzzles here are so well integrated into the world and lore, it's less like they're puzzles and more like they're mechanisms that exist for a reason. Most of it comes down to understanding who Atrus, Catherine and Gehn are, what's their role in all of this, what Riven is and what's happening to it, who the D'ni and the Rivenese are, what the Star Fissure is, all that stuff. Other times, it comes to understanding what the machine in question is, and what the different bits and bobs on it do. What's its power source, what's this valve for, why was it built and why do we want to make it work.
Not only that, but good observation skills are a huge factor here. Most of the time, it's not just necessary to have good logical understanding or a comprehensive grasp on the world. Sometimes, you just need to notice that you can remove the hinge of a door.
Thank you so much for your review! I played the original Myst and Riven on PCs, both of which had exquisite beauty and annoying clunkiness. I loved both games! Today I'm looking at reentering Riven. I'm glad Cyan is still around. Riven looks very good, reminding me of some of the places and scenes from my recollection of play years ago, before my baby in my avatar was even on her way; she's now grown and flown. Now I'll play on either an iMac or an M1 MacBook Air. I remember how long it took to play both games in the past. Decisions, decisions... The linking book is open and in front of me...
Always cool to hear from Myst fans they are a super chill group :)
Great review!!
Thank you! Cheers!
This was a good review. Sadly i spent many months looking forward to this, having played myst when and the rest when they were originally released, only to find Cyan was not supporting Intel Macs only a week before the game’s release. Being a huge Riven fan, this was going to be a bright spot after a very challenging couple of years. Maybe someday I will get to play it but at least the shots you showed make it seem like if I do, it will be worth it.
Thanks for the kind words and we hope you get to play soon!
These are literally the best graphics I've ever seen.
Thanks for watching!
I miss the tapping of the cursor you could do on different surfaces. It was a nice way of making the world real.
Appreciate you sharing your memories!
I still prefer the pre-rendered, 360 degree node-based system. It's just more relaxing than having to use wasd & mouse.
I played this on play station back in the day. Now I can play it in VR - a technology I only got to use 1 time in the 90s at Sega World.
Pretty wild!
Riven was the first myst game i ever played. A neighbor gave it to me 14 years ago and I've loved it ever since
Awesome history!
I love Myst. I had it on the Saturn.
It certainly has a passionate fanbase!
I must admit, what lured me into Riven was the way it hit my senses, both visually and acustically. The game handles its music, sound design and ambience so incredibly well, it's almost to a pornographic degree. It is jaw-droppingly immersive. I remain a bit undecided about the puzzles however: They almost felt few and far between, but they never struck me as forced or arbitrary and connect with the game's environment naturally. Maybe it's because I expected more interactions with items, people etc. There was only on time I got mildly frustrated when I couldn't figure out how to get around the turned tree root on prison island to get a look at that totem's animal.
Riven is different from the puzzle/point-and-click adventures that I am used to, but in what it is trying to be, it absolutely succeeds. Never in a game before have I just stood there and enjoyed the scene.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, awesome!
Just bought this last night. I have never played the myst series until the Myst remake. I loved it and have heard a lot about Riven, so i am excited to dive back into it.
Hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for another great video! 🤙🏻
You bet!
I can say that on my pimax Crystal Light this game looks unbelievably beautiful the most beautiful spectacular game I've ever seen on my headset
The lens was a really neat idea, I certainly had a-ha moments quite a few times, and every puzzle solved felt like an achievement on its own. What I didn't like was the slow and tedious nature of some of the animations, especially when you are frequently traveling between the islands. For example opening the domes could have been simplified.
Two more hours to wait until Steam launches the game, I'm excited.
Have fun!!
NGL, I was hoping the game was gonna have the “realMyst” treatment, where everything from the original is translated 1-to-1 in 3D.
It isn’t bad, but I’m so used to the original game that things like changing the spinning domes housing Linking Books to Age 233 are now access points into the Starry Expanse and is used as a makeshift fast travel between islands really threw me off.
It’s still great though.
Back in the day we played Myst and Riven et al with a pen and paper at our side.
So true! You theoretically still could I suppose 😂
How I played all my puzzle games back then, still how I do it these days, even when they have an in-game notebook mechanic.
Rivening content 🔥
Ha well done! Cookie for you 🍪
@@IDreamofIndie oh my gosh can I have my autograph? 😌
🖋️
It’s interesting how I prefer the remake look of all the areas beyond the demo that released lol.
then you have something to look forward to
It's very pretty!
I actually had this when it first dropped on pc in the 90’s or whenever that was.. Hardcore graphic adventure aficionados will probably love it.. But as for me I’ll stick to my Valiant Hearts & telltale collection.. I remember it being too much for my brain to wrap around
Fair!
Hey! I played this as a kid back in the day.
I know this is about Riven but do you think the remade version of Myst is worth it as well?
I didn't play that remake but it seems to have a mostly positive reception on Steam!
It's a very good remake, has a lot of good stuff going for it, pretty much the same game as the original but in 3D. The only downsides are the character models (they're not very good), and some of the older and more nostalgic fans of the original game also complained about the lighting of some ages not being faithful (like Myst having a bit more warm colors to it), although I thought many of the other ages actually did have more faithful lighting to them when compared to realMyst: Masterpiece Edition, the remake from 2014.
One last thing I do think is pretty lame, this remake doesn't have the bonus age that you can visit in realMyst: Rime. It's not necessary, but it was a really neat place to visit. Probably one of the most beautiful ages, to me at least
The stutter issue is basically UE default quirks a lot of shader compilation, if you watch Digital Foundry you'll know it. and I dont think that is easy solvable especially I think they're using UE4 instead of UE5 that has a fix for it but not actually solved yet.
Bummer!
Riven is using UE5.
Great review thanks! Loved Myst and played Obduction by the same developer. Obduction had a very similar look and feel and it also ran like garbage, but I enjoyed it none the less, so I think will get this one.
I am so lost in Obduction. No idea what to do. If I have to look at a guide, it defeats the purpose of the game itself. They made Obduction too hard!
@@marcusarelius Yeh, some of the puzzles are too obtuse and illogical. Apparently firmament is even worse which is why I avoided it.
@@tubularmonkeymaniac Obduction mainly had two really irritating puzzles. Worst one is the gauntlet which takes a literal hour to execute even once you've worked out the solution state, which is really a showcase for the loading transition over and over for no good reason. The other isn't even a puzzle, it just looks like it must be one until you slowly realize it does absolutely nothing. It is that box with the cyrillic, which serves no real purpose, it is just a box of inscrutable lettering and numerous buttons that you would think is important but turns out just to hold some easter egg photos submitted by Kickstarter backers.
And Firmament had a buggy as heck launch, and one puzzle legit had broken physics where I got a thing stuck and wedged precisely in a spot between two rock surfaces such that the crane thing was hopelessly stuck and immovable, the puzzle uncompletable without reloading from an earlier save. The story was a problem too as everyone smart enough to make it to the end pretty much anticipated the gist of the ending a mile away. And I was kind of hoping there was some really big unexpected extra, that we didn't see a mile away, or that the obvious twist was a deliberate misdirection to something crazier, but that isn't how it was, it went exactly, more or less, where we all suspected it would.
And that was the gripe for me with Firmament - not the puzzles being hard but in the end the story outcome they were heading to being both predictable and broadly flawed in its execution.
Obduction and Firmament had amazing visual artistry and sound design, will give Cyan credit for that at least. They looked and sounded beautiful in a ton of spots and they were quite expansive and detail rich game settings to explore. Which is not so bad (given they had, inflation adjusted, production budgets comparable, even slightly smaller, than the cost of making Myst circa '93.) And in both the puzzle design was a mixed bag, some good aspects, some bad. Hard, definitely, and sometimes genuinely frustrating, but not arbitrary at least in the majority of cases.
But Riven, man, it seems Cyan knocked this remake out of the park and that is awesome to see them really do a great job making a faithful yet somehow also freely innovative take on a classic, and not have some glaring major design flaw introduced in the process. The reviews showing up are almost all stellar, 88% on Metacritic which is - amazingly - higher than the original Riven's review average in 1997. (83%)
In fact that review aggregation, if it holds, makes this Cyan's best reviewed release in the studio's entire history.
You are very welcome!
They added new puzzles, right?
Yes. Some of the old puzzles were reworked, actually made easier, for better or worse. And there's some completely new stuff.
This is coming to VR soon too!
Yes it is!
@@IDreamofIndie so hyped! Great review!
Is this on iOS?
why do we have Windows 95 mouse cursor icons in 2024? it REALLY sticks out
I guess it was put in purpose...as a reminder of the roots
@@inspectorbuttons You are right! I was trying to find the exact Windows / MacOS version these cursors come from but it is neither. The icons in the original Riven (and also here) are from HyperCard! The Apple software devkit used to make their first game - The Manhole (1988). Quite the callback...
Is this out yet or is this the demo?
Out today!
@@IDreamofIndie 😮😮!
Those new character models - ouff. 😭
senua hellblade 2 without senua
Thanks for watching!
Looks like the Witness.
Sure as hell doesn't play like it tho, when it comes to puzzles or story direction at least!
...thankfully.
I mean, I liked the Witness, the puzzles were cool for what they were. Even tho most of them were basically puzzles from some mobile app, they allowed us to explore the island. The environmental puzzles and perspective tricks were a pretty neat thing. But damn, the story they were hiding was a big load of meta fauxlosophical nothing.
The old Riven is better.
Thanks for watching!
i fully agree. My potato computer can't run the graphics in the new version, and I miss the live action footage from the old version