Riven : the Sequel to MYST

(Cyan/Broderbund, 1997)

The debate still continues to this very day, whether MYST was worth half the whoopla it received, or even if it was a real game. So you can imagine the added controversy over its eventual sequel, Riven. On the plus side, Riven had a more intriguing story, where your newfound friend in the original game asks for your help in finding his wife. As short notes you read in the original game implied, she's been kidnapped by the madman who caused most of Myst's problems in the first place, and trapped in yet another world. Oddly, however, your "friend" didn't bother to tell you how to use any number of additional machines that, once again, you don't know how to operate at all (a typical Myst "puzzle"). After dozens of Myst clones in three years' time, there really wasn't anything new to the genre introduced here. Other companies had met and even exceeded the quality of the original Myst game, including Zork Nemesis, Jewels of the Oracle, and, to a lesser extent, Shivers. This sequel was okay, yet not great.

Rating : Small Crater.

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