Well, my play time wasn't what I hoped it would be the last couple of weeks, but I did manage to finish
Riven. Ack did an awesome job chronicling his journey through the game, so I'll instead focus on my overall impressions.
First, I talk about some of the puzzles. I guess this is the time to admit that I had to look at a hint guide in order to make it through the game (via one of those nifty sites that gives you a small hint to get you past where you're stuck rather than a full walkthrough). At first, I felt a bit of shame but it quickly became apparent that there were some puzzles which I never would have solved without help. Specifically, there were three which I never would have gotten without help. (Sorry, I'm going to be vague here to avoid spoilering, skip after the list if this annoys you.)
- How to count higher than 10. It turns out that this was similar to a dastardly puzzle I never solved in a later chapter of Start Trek: 25th Anniversary. That said, it feels like there were more clues on how to solve this puzzle in Riven than Star Trek, but I doubt I would have ever solved it.
- Solving the animal glyph puzzle to get to the rebel base. I knew what I needed to do, but it turns out I got three of the five in the combination wrong and I doubt I would have ever figured out what I was doing wrong. I wouldn't have gotten the 2 fish and I misidentified the bug glyph. Oh well.
- Finally, the colored stone puzzle at the top of the dome. Those who encountered it will know why it was hard, but I have the added problem of not knowing what solving the problem would accomplish. If I would have known that, it would have made it a bit easier, but not by much
I will say that one of the things which may have made things more difficult was the fact that this was one large Age rather than distinct Ages. In
Myst, some of the puzzles were definitely hard, but it was mitigated by the fact that each Age was relatively small, so it the areas where you had to search for solutions was quite a bit smaller. In Riven, the problem space is much bigger so I felt that there was a lot more wandering and I couldn't be sure I was looking in the right place. It's hard for me to call this a negative, however, since the Age feels a lot more cohesive and beautiful. However, it did come with the trade-off that there was so much more ground to cover.
As for the story itself, I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with how well they integrated with the original
Myst, specifically the Star Fissure. The fissure felt like a cool leaping-off point (ha!) to the first game, but it never really seemed all that important. Here, it's much more integral and it makes me wonder how much of
Riven's story was determined when the original
Myst was created.
The acting and the integration of the characters was well done. I mean, it's not really interactive, of course, but that suits me fine. In this series, the Stranger (i.e. player) is an observer of events rather than someone who partakes in them, despite the fact that the Stranger
does influence things quite a bit. I also like that Atrus and all of the family are jerks, just to varying degrees. You have Sirrus, Achenar, and Gehn are are total jerks and Atrus and Catherine who are still jerks, but less so.
Besides all that, the story was satisfying to me. They covered a lot of the philosophical points brought up by the linking books in the first
Myst, specifically around the brothers abusing the inhabitants of the worlds they create, and the moral ramifications thereof. It was explored further in
Riven, particularly when the inhabitants begin resisting. Apparently this is covered in more detail in some of the novelizations. That said, there were a few other nit-picky things that bug me, but not enough to ruin my overall enjoyment.
Anyway, I really enjoyed my time with
Riven. When I first saw it on the store shelf, I brushed it off as a cheap cash-in like all the other
Myst clones; I couldn't have been more wrong. Also, it's a little surprising to me that the
Myst series continued afterward given that adventure gaming died off at around the time
Riven came out. (I guess it was a couple of years afterward.
Escape from Monkey Island was 2000,
Gabriel Knight 3 was 1999). I guess it's just a testament to how strong the first two games were (along with
Uru and
Myst V, I hear), since there's still lots of interest in them. I guess it's not surprising that a continuation is being kickstarted (as mentioned up-thread).
Anyway, that's it for me for this month. Thanks for the theme, Elkin, I really enjoyed my time with it!
