Riven: The Sequel to Myst

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Description

After the Stranger has rescued Atrus, the master of "linking books", from the imprisonment caused by his sons, a new task awaits the hero. Atrus's wife, Catherine, has been taken by Gehn, his own father. Gehn has appointed himself as the one to rule the Age of Riven, and has driven his world to collapse. Now he holds Catherine hostage on Riven, hoping that his son will restore the book link to the Age and free him from there. The Stranger is requested by Atrus to travel to Riven and find a way to rescue Catherine.

Riven is a sequel to Myst, and is very similar to its predecessor in gameplay style, controls, and visual presentation. The game world is presented as a series of computer-generated still screens; the player explores it in a point-and-click fashion. Interaction with the environment is possible only when said environment is highlighted as a "hot spot", and is also performed by simple clicking. Like its predecessor, Riven is heavy on puzzles, which rarely include using inventory items, but usually involve understanding and manipulating the complex environments and machinery of the game world.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "迷霧之島II" -- Chinese spelling (traditional)
• "神秘岛II - 星空断层" -- Chinese spelling (simplified)
• "Riven: La Suite De Myst" -- French title
• "Riven: Il Seguito Di Myst" -- Italian title
• "Riven: A Sequência de Myst" -- Brazilian title
• "Myst 2" -- Informal name
• "リヴン 　ザ　シークェル　トゥー　ミスト" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Gameplay feature: Multiple endings
• Live action cut-scenes
• Myst series
• Theme: Steampunk

User Reviews

Ahhh Riven. How I long to re-visit thy beautiful cyan sky	Windows	Tal Cohen (33)
The most difficult game of the trilogy... But oh, so rewarding!	Windows	Dave Schenet (138)
Myst times 5.....	Windows	Chris Martin (1204)
Let's get sucked up by a world so beautiful, it's creepy.	Windows	Rensch (218)
A wonderful game that should be in every gamers shelf	Windows	Djinn (21)
an amazing game that kept me up at night wondering.	Windows	Herschel Hoffman (8)
Perfect	Windows	the_needle2.0 (11)
Belongs in any adventure gamer's permanent library	Windows	jo h. (5)
RIVEN / I'm sure, this is the place were I came from! RIVEN IS HOME!	PlayStation	Dani Mittler-Coe (3)
Better than Myst (but still the same anyway)	PlayStation	Grant McLellan (622)

Critic Reviews

Just Adventure	Macintosh	Aug 21, 2002	A	100
PC Player (Germany)	Windows	Nov, 1997		100
PC Jeux	Windows	Oct, 1997	90 out of 100	90
RPGFan	Windows	Jul 15, 2008	86 out of 100	86
Electric Playground	Macintosh	Jan 09, 1998	8.5 out of 10	85
Meristation	Windows	Sep 07, 1998	8.4 out of 10	84
Adventure Classic Gaming	Windows	Nov 09, 1997	4 out of 5	80
Computer Gaming World (CGW)	Macintosh	Jan, 1998		70
PSM	PlayStation	Mar, 1998	3 out of 5	60
PC Games (Germany)	Windows	Nov 05, 1997	55 out of 100	55

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Trivia

Saturn version

While the Mac, Windows and Playstation versions were released on five CDs, the Sega Saturn version was released on only four. The layout is as follows:

Disc 1: Intro, Temple Island
Disc 2: Jungle Island, Tay
Disc 3: Book Assembly Island, Survey Island
Disc 4: Prison Island, 233rd Age

The bad endings originally on Disc 5 are now on every disc.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for this game was composed and performed by Robyn Miller. Also, this soundtrack contains recently recovered d'ni archaeological information. Release date is 1998.

Tracklist:

1. Link
2. Atrus Theme
3. Gateroom
4. Jungle Totem
5. Survey Island Theme
6. Temple
7. Village Entrance Theme
8. Moeity Caves
9. Moeity Theme
10. Boat Ride
11. Moeity Prison
12. The Red Cave
13. Wahrk Room
14. Catherine's Prelude
15. Catherine's Theme
16. Catherine's Freedom
17. Gehn Speaks
18. Gehn's Theme
19. Fissure
20. Bonus Track

Awards

• Computer Gaming World
  • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #12 Top Vaporware Title in Computer Game History

Information also contributed by MAT and Techademus

Related Web Sites

• Riven: The Sequel to Myst (official website)
• Acclaim website (Official Acclaim site for Riven.)
• GameFAQs (Walkthroughs and tips for Riven.)
• Riven EPK (archived) (Electronic press kit for the game featuring in game footage, behind the scenes look and more.)
• Riven UHS Hints (A collection of hints for the game provided by the Universal Hint System (UHS). UHS hints are structured in such a way as not to give away the answer immediately but, instead, to provide the player with increasingly more revealing hints before finally providing a complete solution.)
• Riven X (archived) (An open source project that allows Macintosh users to run both the CD and DVD versions of Riven on their modern operating systems. )
• The Myst Guidebook (The Riven subsection of the Guidebook fansite that provides information about the game and a brief background on the game's production in addition to game hints and a walkthrough.)
• The Starry Expanse Project (A fan-organized project attempting re-create Riven as a realtime 3D game in a fashion similar to realMYST. The project is currently still active.)
• Zarf's Review (An unscored review of the Macintosh version of Riven by IF-creator Andrew Plotkin (November, 1997).")