From the December, 1997 Issue of The Central Iowa Computer User
RIVEN De'MYST'ified
A game review and an interview with a player of RIVEN, The Sequel
To MYST
by Tim Cook, CIACUG
My wife, Debbie, loves adventure games. She's a tireless puzzle solver who cherishes
her Games magazines. She's been playing adventure games for a while now having solved
all of the King's Quest games and many of the Space Quest games. So I decided to
get her MYST for Christmas a couple years ago after it won Games magazine computer
game of the year. Unfortunately, we didn't have the computer power to play it with
a 486 and Windows 3.11. Even though, technically we met the "minimum" requirements,
we would get the dreaded "Run Time Error". Due to my laziness, I didn't
return the game, but put it away. Last year, she got a Pentium based computer with
Windows 95 and this added computing power provided her with the ablity to play MYST
after a year of waiting. Debbie doesn't believe in hint books but she solved all
of the four possible endings. (If you didn't know there were four endings, you have
more playing to do.) She loved this game and come October 31st when Riven was released
she rushed out and bought it.
"As is typical with all things relating to computers, this one is more advanced
than MYST taking up even more memory. (75 mb of hard disk space is required. It took
even more space with the necessary drivers added.) It comes with five compact disks.
Fortunately, her computer could still handle this increased power so, at least, we
were still ahead of the curve there. However, we only had 30 mb of hard drive space
available. We had to do some heavy duty file maintenance to make room for this game.
My wife's computer skills are at the beginner level but she was able to enlist my
son to help her install the game after she got the message that she didn't have enough
hard drive space. After that, installation was relatively easy. The game has the
ability to register on line but my son didn't do it when installing the game. After
explaining to my wife the advantage of registering a game is to get all sorts of
neat junk mail, we decided to register it. Since we only got one chance to register
it electronically, we were unable to do this through the game. I was able to activate
the registering program through Windows 95. We had the option of transmitting the
registration to an 800 number or through our internet provider. We selected our provider
and it pretty much did the rest of the work and gave us a confirmation that the game
had been registered.
TC: What is the premise of RIVEN?
DC: _ The game continues where MYST left
off. But you don't have to be familiar with MYST to play this game. Where MYST did
not begin with an obvious plot, the beginning objective of RIVEN is to discover the
fate of Katherine who was briefly introduced in MYST. You must rummage your way through
the land to find Katherine. In Riven you travel from island to island searching forclues
and their meaning. Right now I've found five colored marbles and I'm trying to find
out what they are used for. In both MYST and RIVEN you find things but you don't
necessarily know what to do with them. It is not only your job to find these objects
but to figure out how they are used. All this without much guidance from the game
itself. This concept really adds to the challenge.
TC: _ Was there anything you didn't like
about the game?
DC: _ I thought that there were a couple
of buttons and levers that were too hard to find. You basically have to click your
mouse button over the entire screen to find them. I felt the clues of their existence
was too vague. It also gets annoying going back and forth where you have to do something
in one area, but must check its effect in another area. It gets a little monotonous
going back and forth just to test an adjustment.
TC: _ How were the special effects?
DC: _ Great. The visuals are better than
MYST. And I loved MYST's visual presentation. The animation is very good at first,
but it gets repetitive. You can skip through them by using the space bar, but you
have to be careful you don't miss a clue. The sound effects are terrific. I suggest
you use headphones if you don't live alone. There are three modes of transportation
around the islands in addition to walking: one is under water, another is like a
mining car, and the third is a helicopter type vehicle on a cable. The effects are
good. You feel like you're riding a roller coaster.
TC: _ Sequels have a tough job of living
up to the success of their originals. How does RIVEN compare to it's original, MYST?
DC: _ It's better. The puzzles are harder.
But it's still early. Before I finished MYST there were days when I didn't think
very much of that game. On some days it was so frustrating that I thought it was
awful. But it was all worth it in the end.
TC: _ Have you visited their web site
at http://www.riven.com?
DC: _ I'm not sure. I probably have. I
entered "riven" into the search engine LOOKSMART and came up with several
responses to explore. I didn't pay much attention to which ones they were. I wanted
to check on some items I had found to see if they were clues or decorations. One
site I especially liked. Clues and information were given at different levels with
the ability to click on "Give me more information" if I wanted to know
more. There were also areas labeled "Spoiler" for hints that would give
away part of the game. I stayed away from these. This setup kept me from inadvertantly
learning more about the game than I wanted to know. I appreciated that. If I get
really stuck I may want to go back to this site for more information, but as of now
I don't plan on it.
TC: _ Do you have any hints that you would
like to give?
DC: _ Not really. Part of the fun of the
game is finding the clues and discovering what they're for. I do have some advice
though. If there is something you can't unlock, it's probably too early in the game
and the answer will be revealed to you later. If you're playing with something or
looking at something, don't give up. Keep at it. You will eventually go "AHA!"
and in a flash discover it's meaning. When you get to a point where there's nowhere
else you can go and nothing else you can do, something will click.
TC: _ Do you think you'll finish it?
DC: _ Absolutely. I'm dRIVEN!
TC: _ You just had to get the last pun
in didn't you. Well, good luck, and we'll check back with you next month. As it says
in the message from the creators:
Riven was designed to be an immersive experience. So, shut the door, turn down
the lights, turn up the sound, sit in a comfortable chair, and let yourself be drawn
into the world of Riven.
And, for goodness sake, use a pair of headphones or a good pair of speakers!
Stumped? Ask Deb for a hint at: timc@radiks.net
RIVEN, The Sequel To MYST
CYAN Productions and
REDORB Entertainment,
a division of Broderbund Software, Inc.
Price at Software etc./Babbages, Inc. $49.99
Rated Kids to Adults
Windows 95, 100 MHz Pentium
16mb ram
Minimum 75 mb hard disk space
4X CD-ROM drive
Video and Sound compatible with DirectX
Mac OS required, System 7.5 or higher
90 MHz Power PC, 9mb ram free
---
This article published in the December, 1997 Central Iowa Computer User on the game
RIVEN.
Tim Cook, Editor -- Central Iowa Computer User
Join the Central Iowa Computer User's Group today
http://george.ecity.net/ciacug
USER GROUP EDITORS: Articles
posted in this area have been cleared for publication in your newsletters. We do
encourage you to contact the author for additional details and/or updates. Please
ALWAYS credit the original author!