Riven Review — A Taste of ’97

Riven is a remake of the 1997 sequel to Myst, which also received a remake a few years back. While graphically redesigned for a modern audience, Riven feels remarkably 90s in its presentation. It is, without a doubt, a faithful recreation sure to provide nostalgia for fans of the series and stimulating puzzle challenges to newcomers.

That being said, I want to clarify that I haven’t played Myst or the original Riven, so I was coming to this game as a complete newcomer.

When I say it feels faithful, I don’t mean it’s triggering any specific nostalgia of my own. Instead, what I mean is that it has that incredible, palpable feeling of the 90s adventure games. Everything from how the game controls to the nature of directionless puzzle solving to the strange, alien environment (alien as in unfamiliar, not necessarily sci-fi, but we’ll get to that) feels remarkably like a game that would come on five separate discs, purchased from a Fry’s electronics in the late 90s.

Riven follows the story of a would-be dictator named Gehn, who was trapped a long time ago in a strange world called the Age of Riven by the use of Linking Books, strange pseudo-scientific, partially magical artifacts that transport the reader between worlds. Gehn has styled himself ruler of the Rivenese people but plots to escape the island and restore his empire of D’ni at the potential cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

Gehn’s son, who trapped him in the Age of Riven in the first place, wants to save the people of Riven and his imprisoned wife from an impending disaster, but not at the risk of releasing his tyrannical father in the process. Therefore, he’s sent you, the nameless player character and protagonist of Myst (presumably), into Riven with a trapped prison book, with the full intention of tricking Gehn into locking himself away on another plane of existence.

Riven is a puzzle game that sees you navigating across the islands in the Age of Riven, solving puzzles without guidance, and interacting with other humans. The beginning of the game does not even explain the events of Myst and simply tasks you with stopping the mysterious Gehn at any cost.

It’s in this esoteric weirdness that Riven, at least to me, shows its identity. That feeling of mystery, like you’re on a strange, alien world without fully knowing how you got there, with nobody around to guide you along your path or even give you a chance to ask questions. It’s a unique, lonely feeling you just don’t get from modern games anymore, making Riven instantly stand out.

The actual world of Riven does a lot to capitalize on this feeling. The civilization built into the rocky islands of the Age of Riven is strange, constructed of a mixture of adobe and steampunk science that feels like what they must have imagined the future would look like in 1990s science fiction. The look of everything reminds me of the cover of a Heinlein book or a lonely Morrowind, and it all serves to make you feel like you don’t belong.

I was given a guide to help me with the puzzles in Riven, and if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m not sure how long the game would have taken me without it.

When I say that the game has no guidance, I really mean that it has no guidance. There are no pointers, no hints put aside for a stuck puzzle solver, nothing.

For many, this is a major selling point; it totally relies on your ability to solve the game’s puzzles to progress, which is also incredibly faithful to the original game. While I admit that I am generally just terrible at puzzle games, there were points where I was stumped, referred to my guide, and was left dumbfounded by how the game expected me to come to the conclusion I was supposed to come to.

What I will definitely say is that an explorative nature and a good imagination are two traits that will greatly determine how long it takes you to beat Riven, and if you manage to progress very far into the game at all.

I experienced a couple of bugs while playing Riven. On occasion, areas would load late right before my eyes, which is more jarring when the combined playspace of the game is smaller than most games. The most notable intrusion, however, was one instance of the game crashing on my way to the boiler island. These kinds of bugs are not unheard of for the Unreal Engine, and they didn’t lead to me losing any real progress.

While I never played the original Myst or Riven, I can say that this remake feels incredibly faithful, if not to the game itself, than to the era in which it was created. Feeling starkly like a 90s game with an incredibly well-done new coat of paint, I can’t imagine Riven disappointing eager Puzzle gamers, be they fans of the original or newcomers looking for a new challenge.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Riven is available on Meta Quest, Steam and GOG.