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Riven is a point-and-click adventure computer game, the sequel to Myst. Developed by Cyan Worlds, it was initially published by Brøderbund. Riven was distributed on five compact discs and released on October 29, 1997 in North America; it was later released on a single DVD-ROM, with improved audio and a fourteen-minute "making-of" video. In addition to the PC versions, Riven was ported to several other platforms, including the PlayStation and Sega Saturn.
The story of Riven is set immediately after the events of Myst. Having been rescued from the efforts of his sons, the main non-player protagonist Atrus enlists the help of the player character to free his wife from his power-hungry father Gehn. Unlike Myst, which took place on several worlds known as Ages and linked together by special books, Riven takes place almost entirely on the Age of Riven, a world slowly falling apart due to Gehn's rule, and his tampering with the Age.
Development of Riven began soon after Myst became a success, and spanned more than three years. In an effort to create a visual style distinct from that of Myst, director Robyn Miller and his brother, producer Rand Miller recruited former Aladdin production designer Richard Vander Wende as a co-director. Brøderbund employed a US$10 million advertising campaign to publicize the game's release.
Riven was praised by professional reviewers, with the magazine Salon proclaiming that the game approaches the level of art. Critics positively noted the puzzles and immersive experience of the gameplay, though publications such as Edge felt that the nature of point-and-click gameplay limited the title heavily. The best-selling game of 1997, Riven sold 1.5 million copies in one year. After the game's release, the Miller brothers drifted apart, with Robyn Miller forming his own development studio while the older brother, Rand, stayed at Cyan and continued to work on Myst-related products, including the novel Myst: The Book of D'ni. The next entry in the Myst series, Myst III: Exile, was developed by Presto Studios, and published by Ubisoft.
Like its predecessor, Riven is a point-and-click adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The player explores immersive, prerendered environments using mouse clicks for movement. By operating mechanical contraptions and deciphering codes and symbols discovered in the surroundings, the nebulously explained goal can eventually be reached. The cursor changes in appearance, depending on its position on the screen and what it is hovering over, to show what effect clicking will have.
To navigate the world, the player simply clicks in the direction they want to walk or turn. For instance, if the player positions the cursor hand near the right or left edge of the screen, it may show a bent finger, indicating that clicking will turn the camera 180° in that direction. The cursor also changes in context to show when players can drag or toggle switches, or when certain items can be picked up and carried. Such items can then be examined at any time, and either reveal clues to puzzles or provide information on the game's setting and story. As in Myst, Riven has an optional method of movement known as Zip Mode, which allows players to skip to areas already explored, but may cause them to miss important clues.
Whereas in Myst the objective of the game is to travel to different Ages to solve puzzles before returning to a "hub Age", Riven's gameplay takes place on the five islands of the Age of Riven. Much of it consists of solving puzzles to access new areas of the islands, though players are also able to explore without fulfilling objectives. Many puzzles' sole purpose is to advance the backstory.
Being the first sequel of a game as successful as Myst, Riven was eagerly anticipated. On the whole, it was also positively received, with the PC version garnering an average critic score of 84% at GameRankings. The game sold more than 1.5 million units within a year of its release, and was the best-selling game of 1997, despite having only been on the market for less than three months. By 2001, over 4.5 million units had been sold.
Riven's story continues where that of Myst—and its companion novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus—left off. [Wikipedia]
"There's also a chance, if this all goes well, that I might be able to get you back...to the place that you came from ... "
The story of Riven is set immediately after the events of Myst. Having been rescued from the efforts of his sons, the main non-player protagonist Atrus enlists the help of the player character to free his wife from his power-hungry father Gehn. Unlike Myst, which took place on several worlds known as Ages and linked together by special books, Riven takes place almost entirely on the Age of Riven, a world slowly falling apart due to Gehn's rule, and his tampering with the Age.
Development of Riven began soon after Myst became a success, and spanned more than three years. In an effort to create a visual style distinct from that of Myst, director Robyn Miller and his brother, producer Rand Miller recruited former Aladdin production designer Richard Vander Wende as a co-director. Brøderbund employed a US$10 million advertising campaign to publicize the game's release.
Riven was praised by professional reviewers, with the magazine Salon proclaiming that the game approaches the level of art. Critics positively noted the puzzles and immersive experience of the gameplay, though publications such as Edge felt that the nature of point-and-click gameplay limited the title heavily. The best-selling game of 1997, Riven sold 1.5 million copies in one year. After the game's release, the Miller brothers drifted apart, with Robyn Miller forming his own development studio while the older brother, Rand, stayed at Cyan and continued to work on Myst-related products, including the novel Myst: The Book of D'ni. The next entry in the Myst series, Myst III: Exile, was developed by Presto Studios, and published by Ubisoft.
Like its predecessor, Riven is a point-and-click adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The player explores immersive, prerendered environments using mouse clicks for movement. By operating mechanical contraptions and deciphering codes and symbols discovered in the surroundings, the nebulously explained goal can eventually be reached. The cursor changes in appearance, depending on its position on the screen and what it is hovering over, to show what effect clicking will have.
To navigate the world, the player simply clicks in the direction they want to walk or turn. For instance, if the player positions the cursor hand near the right or left edge of the screen, it may show a bent finger, indicating that clicking will turn the camera 180° in that direction. The cursor also changes in context to show when players can drag or toggle switches, or when certain items can be picked up and carried. Such items can then be examined at any time, and either reveal clues to puzzles or provide information on the game's setting and story. As in Myst, Riven has an optional method of movement known as Zip Mode, which allows players to skip to areas already explored, but may cause them to miss important clues.
Whereas in Myst the objective of the game is to travel to different Ages to solve puzzles before returning to a "hub Age", Riven's gameplay takes place on the five islands of the Age of Riven. Much of it consists of solving puzzles to access new areas of the islands, though players are also able to explore without fulfilling objectives. Many puzzles' sole purpose is to advance the backstory.
Being the first sequel of a game as successful as Myst, Riven was eagerly anticipated. On the whole, it was also positively received, with the PC version garnering an average critic score of 84% at GameRankings. The game sold more than 1.5 million units within a year of its release, and was the best-selling game of 1997, despite having only been on the market for less than three months. By 2001, over 4.5 million units had been sold.
Riven's story continues where that of Myst—and its companion novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus—left off. [Wikipedia]
"There's also a chance, if this all goes well, that I might be able to get you back...to the place that you came from ... "
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