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Riven Red Orb Although it probably needs no such introduction, "Riven" is the long-awaited sequel to the best-selling software game ever: Myst. This follow-up leads to great expectations, and the people at Cyan are no one-hit wonders. Whatever your expectations when you begin, Riven delivers. Once I inserted the first CD, I was hooked. My wife and I took turns, with one of us running the mouse while the other took notes and provided additional thinking energy. After all, thinking is what Riven is all about, since it is more of a story than a game. We gradually worked our way through the lushly created physical world of Riven. As we moved, we listened carefully to the sounds of the world - there are as many aural clues as there are visual ones. But the thing that remains long after you shut off the computer and lie down to sleep (something I had to remind myself to do, along with going to work) is the thinking, the story. You can speculate about the world and its inhabitants, wonder what to do next, try to decipher one of the handful of clues you are always struggling with. There is a number system to work out, a fully developed mythology, and even a brand-new alphabet to tinker with. With a minimum of characters, Riven is as involving as a well-constructed fantasy or science fiction novel. For those who have played Myst - and you probably should've played Myst to play Riven - the game continues in much the same vein. The story takes up right where Myst left off, and there is the same attention to detail that put Myst at the top of its class. Events unfold based on clues, puzzles, and a creative logic that requires the player to piece together how this world works. But Riven goes beyond Myst in many ways as well. Myst had a surreal appearance - an odd blend of early Industrial Age, fantasy, and science fiction. Riven manages simultaneously to preserve this fantastic appearance while adding more of a realistic feel. For example, the movement in Riven is smoother and more intuitive. Both Myst and Riven use a series of beautifully designed still shots, rather than the scrolling, continuous background common to computer games that focus on action. When I first played Myst, it took me a while to adjust to the jumping effect between still images. Beautiful though they were, they sometimes were difficult to weave into a continuous world. Riven is more coherent in this sense, with a combination of more details and smoother transitions making it easier to visualize the setting as a whole. However, perhaps the most noticeable example of this added realism is the storyline. Myst began rather uncertainly, with the player plunged directly into an unknown world without much idea what the goals or possibilities were. I remember my first reaction to Myst being, What do I do? Riven is immediately clearer in both its objectives and its reason for being. Atrus, the father who was (hopefully) rescued at the end of Myst, has trapped his evil father, Ghen, in the Fifth Age - the Age of Riven. Atrus' wife, Catherine, is also trapped there, and there is apparently no way to get her back, since sending a linking book to Riven would be a terrible risk. If Ghen got a hold of it, he would be able to escape, possibly kill Atrus and Catherine, and continue to manipulate and subject the worlds he creates. The rescue of Catherine without releasing Ghen becomes at least part of the mission, and this is made clear right from the start. For those of you who haven't played Myst, this is probably a baffling barrage of nonsense - linking book? Fifth Age? created worlds? That's why it is important to play Myst first. Although Riven is playable as a stand-alone game, playing Myst first will give you a feel for the fabric of these games and what will be expected of you. Anyway, game-speak aside, Riven's story is cohesive and believable right from the start. Details that aren't necessarily needed to "win" are still included to give the game a lifelike feel. The world's unique technology and appearance is intrinsic to the native culture and often ties in with what Ghen has taught the natives about himself. The puzzles are as interesting as the ones of Myst, but they are not as obviously created to be puzzles. Instead, the experience aims more for the unfamiliarity that would surround anyone suddenly plunged headfirst into an unfamiliar culture. The puzzles are more a result of the player's foreignness. Speaking of culture, there are also other people in Riven. Their actions are somewhat fixed and there is not much real interaction between the player and the natives, but their presence again increases the sense of realism. The player becomes a trespasser, rather than a visitor. This adds an element of discomfort, such as when little children are cautioned by their parents and run away, or natives quickly retreat, slamming doors shut in your face. Riven's intricacy of course requires more programming, and there are 5 CDs in the game, rather than the single CD of Myst. This seldom became an annoyance though. The game was planned well, and only toward the end was I switching rapidly between the CDs. By then I was pretty sure that I was almost done. This effective organization helps maintain the seamless feel Myst had, while allowing space for much more detail and live-action sequences. After I was finished with the game, it still wasn't over. The world is so real, so involving, that you don't want to let it go. I went back to various points along the way and tried out other options, finding several different endings. After this, I found myself and my wife looking back at some of the things we hadn't figured out and continue piecing them together. How many games do you do that with? -Chris Riven requires: (PC) Windows 95, 100MHz Pentium, 16MB RAM, 75MB hard disk space, 4X CD-ROM, 640x480 display High Color, Windows compatible sound device, video and sound cards compatible with DirectX. (Mac) Mac OS, System 7.5 or higher, 90MHz PowerPC, 9MB RAM, Min. 65MB hard disk space, 4X CD-ROM, 640x480 display thousands of colors. Website: www.riven.com |
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