Just finished the remaster one! I think there are pros and cons for each opus. Riven 2024 comes with smooth HD graphics, it's really mesmerizing to walk though Riven in realtime, but meanwhile it lost the original strong lighting and contrast that made R97 looks so cool. In some places, R97 looks really better. Also, live characters actually look better than 3D avatars.
The remake is great; they really did a good job recapturing the feel of the original and reimagining things at the same time. The only thing I don't care for in the remake are the 3D character models; they're jarringly bad compared to the world around them. I get why it couldn't be FMV scenes again, but ... whenever a character shows up it's pretty rough.
Its great that you can look and walk around freely now, but the cutscenes looked a lot more impressive back in the old version. Everything looked more real, now its just fairly generic 3D with frankly quite shoddy characters replacing the awesome live action footage.
@@patrickdunham9490 Why couldn't it be FMV again? Just make it an option for those who want it like in the Myst remake. Every cutscene in the remake locks you in one place anyway, so it's no like they couldn't pop in the original recordings in there.
The environments look gorgeous, but the 3D character models are terrible and can't possibly match the realism of live actors, which made the place feel REAL. It IS possible to use video again, they only need to lock the screen/player in place whenever and actor is present.
Pretty much this. Any cutscenes with real actors is far superior in the originals but when it comes to the environments and gameplay the remasters knocked it out of the park for me. They perfectly captured the aesthetic of the originals but in full real time 3D. Incredible!
Yes, but they would have to hire new actors, I don't if would cost much and they would not look like the originals. Maybe they tried to make everything closer to the looks of the original as they could. But indeed, real actors are always better, one of the reasons I love the old games so much.
2 месяца назад
I’m curious whether there are any recent games that have tried this and how well it worked out? I too liked the effect of the real people.
The problem with that is it'd be very jarring to lock the player's head in place in VR I guess you could use 3D models for VR and FMV for regular play, but I guess the devs didn't want to have two separate experiences for all the scenes with characters
The 2024 absolutely nails it in the in-game graphics, and just the fact that you now can walk around freely instead of point-and-click is such a game-changer. But all the cutscenes in the old 1997 version with real actors, instead of the animated 2024 version, 100% still wins. The whole feeling with real actors/humans, just made the overall game experience so more realistic.
And the reason for that is 100% VR, because Cyan instead of making a VR version of the game always decide that there should only be one version tailored to VR, even when you're playing with mouse and keyboard. That's why all the doors are sliding now, as if they couldn't just make two separate .exe files for VR and nonVR with different kinds of doors, different ride anims etc.
@@kalkstein2694 Why spend resources to make 2 game exes with separate animations and doors to appease like 10 people on the internet? That money was better spent improving other areas of the game.
@@MrPandabros I don't know about that "10 people". I've seen a lot of complaints about the changes made solely for VR, and the MAJORITY of people who will play the game will play it non-VR, and yet this minority is who the changes to gameplay are done for. Realistically, how much money can it cost to have a different .exe? A lot of VR games allow you to choose VR or non VR when playing the game on Steam, and the change to the doors seems like AT MOST a day's work. They all would have the exact same opening animation anyway.
The maglev rides are boring because the frame rate is much higher, you lose that incredible sense of speed of the original. I think they should add object based motion blur to fix that.
@@mistersurrealist partially maybe, but it’s also the speed, sounds and animation work. You feel every jostle, turn and mechanism in the original because they put that much effort into it.
Hello ! the CYAN team made an incredible work. What a feeling to play this game i played when i was 13yo :') I observed that the 3D real time movements give a different atmosphere and experience. The calmness of the 1997 version brought something else. And i must admit that the 2024 version appeared too low poly to me ! it does not serve this license, which has been famous by the quality of the visuals. Real actors bring also a lot. But I'm going to escape in this game a little longer...
I kinda like the remake but the original definitely had soul. 90s PC games in general were a completely different world and feel the HD era simply can’t reproduce.
I love the little touches. The sunning creatures that can notice you now if you approach too quickly. The smoke stacks. The water flowing and receding.
Still don't like the 3D characters, but the remake is def beautiful. In saying that, some of the 1997 shots are actually still pretty impressive, even today.
Both games are gorgeous. I don’t understand criticism to the remake that is absolutely fantastic. Changes they did are perfectly coherent with the plot. Don’t forget Cyan is anymore an AAA Studio, so what they did has even much value.
The CG characters ruined this for me. The original was my favorite game when it came out. I would have gladly bought this new one to support the company, but just can’t do it with those awful character graphics. Bring back the movie integration! They should have all the original footage on greenscreen. It shouldn’t be that difficult with all the AI technology today to resize the movies to a higher resolution?
Yes, but this game was also made to be played in VR. And I think you can imagine how bad having flat 2D video in a VR adventure game would look. And how would you account for scenarios like meeting Gehn, where he walks around you? Locking the camera would make sense but then you can't freely look anymore. I know it's different but they changed it for a reason. I just wish it had an option to use the original vocal performances for every character, not just Ghen. I love Rand's delivery as Atrus. He has a softness to his voice that's missing from the new actor's delivery.
@@chrisfratz I highly doubt that there will be as many people playing this game with a VR headset as there are just on a regular computer or even tablet. VR headsets are still expensive and people would either already need to have one or have to buy one on top of having a computer to hook it into. The target market is definitely NOT VR no matter what anyone says, even the game developers. They would not make nearly enough money to compensate for the hours spent redoing this game if it was intended for VR. If that was the case they would have done a MUCH better job on these computer models of the people to make them blend in better with their environments. They look extremely plastic-y and Polar-Express-like and the technology is already here to make them look better. SO, why didn't they? It's not a matter of money because they spent a ton of time redoing the rest of the game. They could have spent the same amount of time re-recording new video (even from different angles) and using that instead of these horrible cgi figures.
@@timz9862 You can buy the Oculus Quest 2 for $200 brand new. That's less than the Nintendo Switch or Xbox Series S. Yes, it's an older model, but it's still a great headset and you can play Riven on it in standalone, without a PC. And it's pretty clear this remake was designed with VR in mind. It's why stuff like the Maglev sequences were shortened and less shaky in compared to the original. And again, because they designed this game to be playable in VR. They can't do video. Unless you want everyone to be a stationary hologram or only viewable behind a window like in Obduction. And even then, the stereoscopic video in Obduction wasn't the best, in my opinion. A lot of the changes they made to the environment was to accommodate VR. I get that the video is nostalgic and in my opinion still holds up. But like I said, they made this change for a reason. Whether you like it or not, it is what it is. TLDR: The target market is absolutely VR. They just opted to include a flat mode so even more people could play it.
@@chrisfratz Even with VR, you are only ever looking at a character that's talking to you in one direction at a time. In that respect VR is useless. For the environments, it's fine because you can turn and look around. When you are trapped in a cage, or someone is talking to you, the game does not let you move around. You are fixed in the same spot until that interaction ends.
@@timz9862 But I wouldn't be fine with a flat video image of someone walking around me in VR. And recording something like that in 3D would probably be really tough.
Fan since launch day of the original. I really love the new release in almost every way, but honestly feel the puzzles are easier though that is probably the product of them making more sense in the context of the world. Part of me welcomes the more logical interpretations of puzzles yet I also want them nearly impenetrably difficult. 😅
The game play/navigation in the original Riven always felt clunky, even though it was “state of the art.” I never got very far with it. I agree the CG characters are a poor choice, but the scenery and movement is pretty spectacular on a 5k display
As someone who has tattoos of this game and is obsessed with it, I liked the newer one better in all cases EXCEPT the character models and voice acting. But being able to look at angles I could only have imagined was so nice
I wouldn't say it looks better in all cases. artistically the OG looks better in a lot of areas. the 2024 version on a technical level though, looks more impressive arguably.
That's not true in some cases. Actually, the 97' renderings looks more realistic in many instances. The tram ride for instance is way too smooth to be realistic in the new
@@zp2814 though that's not relevant to computing power. Time and budget is the issue, there. the remake was made by a tiny team with wayyy less money. if they had more resources we could get better animations across the game. the game was barely working by launch, and has already recieved hundreds of adjustments since launch, including revised art and character tweaks.
I really appreciated the remake and love it for what it is. There are some changes that I’m sure for a many people make the game more intuitive without making it easier or taking away from the original. That said I can’t help but feel it misses the mark with some of the magic and atmosphere. I’m sure part of it was nostalgia but in watching this video I see that some of it was just actually the case in an objective way.
I am loving the Quest VR experience. It's too bad it feels like it's working in automatic LOD level 4 but even so, and with the several stutters it suffers, it feels incredibly immersive. Wish they had released a cross buy PCVR Oculus versions so I could compare the two. But overall it's a positive experience.
I think the original as a puzzle game and this remake/remaster as an exploration game with puzzles. But is a very well done job, extremely faithful to the original.
Don't get me wrong here folks. I do like the fact u can actually move about, rather then clicking screens to go forward. HOWEVER!, I don't like what they did to Atrus's animation in the remake. Plus i don't like how he hits a high e when saying d'ni. Maybe it's just me folks but, I like the OG Riven and will mostly stick to that. Sorry remake, but I prefer the original
Are you guys happy with the new Riven remaster? Which do you prefer more?
The old Riven is better
Just finished the remaster one! I think there are pros and cons for each opus. Riven 2024 comes with smooth HD graphics, it's really mesmerizing to walk though Riven in realtime, but meanwhile it lost the original strong lighting and contrast that made R97 looks so cool. In some places, R97 looks really better. Also, live characters actually look better than 3D avatars.
The remake is great; they really did a good job recapturing the feel of the original and reimagining things at the same time.
The only thing I don't care for in the remake are the 3D character models; they're jarringly bad compared to the world around them. I get why it couldn't be FMV scenes again, but ... whenever a character shows up it's pretty rough.
Its great that you can look and walk around freely now, but the cutscenes looked a lot more impressive back in the old version. Everything looked more real, now its just fairly generic 3D with frankly quite shoddy characters replacing the awesome live action footage.
@@patrickdunham9490 Why couldn't it be FMV again? Just make it an option for those who want it like in the Myst remake. Every cutscene in the remake locks you in one place anyway, so it's no like they couldn't pop in the original recordings in there.
New Riven feels like a game. Original Riven felt like a place.
2024 Riven is a waaay better experience
The environments look gorgeous, but the 3D character models are terrible and can't possibly match the realism of live actors, which made the place feel REAL. It IS possible to use video again, they only need to lock the screen/player in place whenever and actor is present.
Pretty much this. Any cutscenes with real actors is far superior in the originals but when it comes to the environments and gameplay the remasters knocked it out of the park for me. They perfectly captured the aesthetic of the originals but in full real time 3D. Incredible!
Yes, but they would have to hire new actors, I don't if would cost much and they would not look like the originals. Maybe they tried to make everything closer to the looks of the original as they could. But indeed, real actors are always better, one of the reasons I love the old games so much.
I’m curious whether there are any recent games that have tried this and how well it worked out? I too liked the effect of the real people.
The problem with that is it'd be very jarring to lock the player's head in place in VR
I guess you could use 3D models for VR and FMV for regular play, but I guess the devs didn't want to have two separate experiences for all the scenes with characters
Senua uses real actors in the cutshenes.
The 2024 absolutely nails it in the in-game graphics, and just the fact that you now can walk around freely instead of point-and-click is such a game-changer. But all the cutscenes in the old 1997 version with real actors, instead of the animated 2024 version, 100% still wins. The whole feeling with real actors/humans, just made the overall game experience so more realistic.
5:00 1997 version wins this one. the momentum of the ride, the shakiness. remake didn't do it justice.
100%. They could have sped up the remake.
And the reason for that is 100% VR, because Cyan instead of making a VR version of the game always decide that there should only be one version tailored to VR, even when you're playing with mouse and keyboard. That's why all the doors are sliding now, as if they couldn't just make two separate .exe files for VR and nonVR with different kinds of doors, different ride anims etc.
@@kalkstein2694 Why spend resources to make 2 game exes with separate animations and doors to appease like 10 people on the internet? That money was better spent improving other areas of the game.
@@MrPandabros I don't know about that "10 people". I've seen a lot of complaints about the changes made solely for VR, and the MAJORITY of people who will play the game will play it non-VR, and yet this minority is who the changes to gameplay are done for. Realistically, how much money can it cost to have a different .exe? A lot of VR games allow you to choose VR or non VR when playing the game on Steam, and the change to the doors seems like AT MOST a day's work. They all would have the exact same opening animation anyway.
@@kalkstein2694 Cyan is also an independent studio. Who developed and published it themselves. So money is kinda important.
Some things definitely look better in the original like the whole jungle area. The maglev rides are so boring now as well
The maglev rides are boring because the frame rate is much higher, you lose that incredible sense of speed of the original. I think they should add object based motion blur to fix that.
@@mistersurrealist partially maybe, but it’s also the speed, sounds and animation work. You feel every jostle, turn and mechanism in the original because they put that much effort into it.
@@mistersurrealistthe animation was much better in the original
The maglev was probably changed to avoid making people actually throw up in VR
#bringbackliveactors
The 1997 maglev was way better imo
agree! There was more attention to details in the animations
@@AaronGwynaireGameDevthey were true actors.
@@AtrusDesign they're talking about the maglev... that's not an actor, that's a vehicle
@@AaronGwynaireGameDev the rides were seriously lacking polish in the remake. maybe they'll get an update some time.
@@Rhodochrone yeah definitely :D
Hello ! the CYAN team made an incredible work. What a feeling to play this game i played when i was 13yo :')
I observed that the 3D real time movements give a different atmosphere and experience. The calmness of the 1997 version brought something else.
And i must admit that the 2024 version appeared too low poly to me ! it does not serve this license, which has been famous by the quality of the visuals.
Real actors bring also a lot. But I'm going to escape in this game a little longer...
I kinda like the remake but the original definitely had soul. 90s PC games in general were a completely different world and feel the HD era simply can’t reproduce.
I love the little touches. The sunning creatures that can notice you now if you approach too quickly. The smoke stacks. The water flowing and receding.
I remember playing this game as a kid and never getting off the first island 😂
Still don't like the 3D characters, but the remake is def beautiful.
In saying that, some of the 1997 shots are actually still pretty impressive, even today.
Both games are gorgeous. I don’t understand criticism to the remake that is absolutely fantastic. Changes they did are perfectly coherent with the plot. Don’t forget Cyan is anymore an AAA Studio, so what they did has even much value.
1:44 that change sounds so clumsy and is so unnecessary.
I wish they'd reused the old audio instead
*What a joke! There couldn't be a comparison between image based game & 3D game.*
it's not the same riven anymore - just a developer failure
I think the only thing I'll miss are the live action characters, because the new ones are relatively bad
The CG characters ruined this for me. The original was my favorite game when it came out. I would have gladly bought this new one to support the company, but just can’t do it with those awful character graphics. Bring back the movie integration! They should have all the original footage on greenscreen. It shouldn’t be that difficult with all the AI technology today to resize the movies to a higher resolution?
Yes, but this game was also made to be played in VR. And I think you can imagine how bad having flat 2D video in a VR adventure game would look. And how would you account for scenarios like meeting Gehn, where he walks around you? Locking the camera would make sense but then you can't freely look anymore. I know it's different but they changed it for a reason. I just wish it had an option to use the original vocal performances for every character, not just Ghen. I love Rand's delivery as Atrus. He has a softness to his voice that's missing from the new actor's delivery.
@@chrisfratz I highly doubt that there will be as many people playing this game with a VR headset as there are just on a regular computer or even tablet. VR headsets are still expensive and people would either already need to have one or have to buy one on top of having a computer to hook it into. The target market is definitely NOT VR no matter what anyone says, even the game developers. They would not make nearly enough money to compensate for the hours spent redoing this game if it was intended for VR. If that was the case they would have done a MUCH better job on these computer models of the people to make them blend in better with their environments. They look extremely plastic-y and Polar-Express-like and the technology is already here to make them look better. SO, why didn't they? It's not a matter of money because they spent a ton of time redoing the rest of the game. They could have spent the same amount of time re-recording new video (even from different angles) and using that instead of these horrible cgi figures.
@@timz9862 You can buy the Oculus Quest 2 for $200 brand new. That's less than the Nintendo Switch or Xbox Series S. Yes, it's an older model, but it's still a great headset and you can play Riven on it in standalone, without a PC. And it's pretty clear this remake was designed with VR in mind. It's why stuff like the Maglev sequences were shortened and less shaky in compared to the original. And again, because they designed this game to be playable in VR. They can't do video. Unless you want everyone to be a stationary hologram or only viewable behind a window like in Obduction. And even then, the stereoscopic video in Obduction wasn't the best, in my opinion. A lot of the changes they made to the environment was to accommodate VR. I get that the video is nostalgic and in my opinion still holds up. But like I said, they made this change for a reason. Whether you like it or not, it is what it is. TLDR: The target market is absolutely VR. They just opted to include a flat mode so even more people could play it.
@@chrisfratz Even with VR, you are only ever looking at a character that's talking to you in one direction at a time. In that respect VR is useless. For the environments, it's fine because you can turn and look around. When you are trapped in a cage, or someone is talking to you, the game does not let you move around. You are fixed in the same spot until that interaction ends.
@@timz9862 But I wouldn't be fine with a flat video image of someone walking around me in VR. And recording something like that in 3D would probably be really tough.
Fan since launch day of the original. I really love the new release in almost every way, but honestly feel the puzzles are easier though that is probably the product of them making more sense in the context of the world. Part of me welcomes the more logical interpretations of puzzles yet I also want them nearly impenetrably difficult. 😅
The game play/navigation in the original Riven always felt clunky, even though it was “state of the art.” I never got very far with it. I agree the CG characters are a poor choice, but the scenery and movement is pretty spectacular on a 5k display
A stunningly beautiful remake, but a REMAKE nevertheless.
As someone who has tattoos of this game and is obsessed with it, I liked the newer one better in all cases EXCEPT the character models and voice acting. But being able to look at angles I could only have imagined was so nice
Crazy to think that today's real-time rendering looks better than 1997's pre-renders on state of the art hardware.
I wouldn't say it looks better in all cases. artistically the OG looks better in a lot of areas. the 2024 version on a technical level though, looks more impressive arguably.
That's not true in some cases. Actually, the 97' renderings looks more realistic in many instances. The tram ride for instance is way too smooth to be realistic in the new
@@zp2814 though that's not relevant to computing power. Time and budget is the issue, there. the remake was made by a tiny team with wayyy less money. if they had more resources we could get better animations across the game. the game was barely working by launch, and has already recieved hundreds of adjustments since launch, including revised art and character tweaks.
4:32 так и не понял, зачем эту лестницу можно поднимать? (2024 ver.)
Still prefer the FMV cutscenes
I mean there are almost no people in the game. The environments are great in the 3D version.
I really appreciated the remake and love it for what it is. There are some changes that I’m sure for a many people make the game more intuitive without making it easier or taking away from the original. That said I can’t help but feel it misses the mark with some of the magic and atmosphere. I’m sure part of it was nostalgia but in watching this video I see that some of it was just actually the case in an objective way.
I agree! I think there's a quality in the prerendered graphics that delivers a charm and atmosphere, in visuals but also in gameplay style too :)
Why are the sims in Riven?
Too many changes to the world and the Puzzle from the original. For me, this isn't Riven. How good the games looks...
I am loving the Quest VR experience. It's too bad it feels like it's working in automatic LOD level 4 but even so, and with the several stutters it suffers, it feels incredibly immersive. Wish they had released a cross buy PCVR Oculus versions so I could compare the two. But overall it's a positive experience.
I think the original as a puzzle game and this remake/remaster as an exploration game with puzzles. But is a very well done job, extremely faithful to the original.
looked more real with a real actor. looks redicilous changed to a computer animation.
I like the differences playing with the memories of seasoned players. This is Riven - Master Quest.
wait how do you enable that in the remake lol i just had a blank screen in my end
Enable what?
Don't get me wrong here folks. I do like the fact u can actually move about, rather then clicking screens to go forward. HOWEVER!, I don't like what they did to Atrus's animation in the remake. Plus i don't like how he hits a high e when saying d'ni. Maybe it's just me folks but, I like the OG Riven and will mostly stick to that. Sorry remake, but I prefer the original
Always the same people who prefer anything retro over anything new. "Back in the day bla bla" Learn to enjoy new things. 😉