RIVEN (1997)the sequel to the iconic point-and-click puzzle-adventure MYSTERY (1993), just got the VR treatment in its new remake. Unlike myst which sometimes felt a little too playful and obtuse, Riven it plays much more like a modern title, which is pretty much true in every sense of the word thanks to Quest and SteamVR support. Granted, you’ll have to look past some of the VR implementation issues that keep it from feeling like true native VR, but however you play, you’re left with a fascinating world to explore that’s both riddled with puzzles and undeniably beautiful .
RIVEN Details:
Available at: Quest 2/3, SteamVR
Reviewed on: Task 3, Task 3 via link
Date of publication: June 25, 2024
Price: 35 dollars
Ddeveloper: Azure worlds
Gameplay
I know Riven pretty well now that I’ve shuffled past him five PlayStation 1 discs several times as a child. But this is my first time coming back as an adult, so it’s kind of a chance to not only relive a bit of the past, but rediscover puzzles long forgotten, this time in an immersive first-person view on a VR headset.
Although I really can’t stop nostalgically coloring some of my experiences with the new 3D rendering Riven, I’ve spent enough time in VR to know where things fit on the VR port continuum. Some games feel unnecessarily forced to work with VR, some are indistinguishable from native VR, and somewhere in the middle are great games that still feel like ports, but that’s okay because they bring enough to the table on their own. That’s where Riven fits – great game that works pretty well in VR.
If you’re playing it for the first time, you’re obviously in for an azure experience of deciphering codes, shuffling puzzle pieces, and visiting (and possibly revisiting) locations, doors, and mysterious backdrops to figure it out. from the surrounding world. That’s reason enough to play if you’ve never had the chance. Riven’s the puzzle can be challenging for the uninitiated, but in the end more rewarding than Myst thanks to a bunch of environmental storytelling that feels less formulaic and more organic. More about it in Immersion section.
However, if you’ve played before, many of the game’s puzzles and gadgets are slightly modified from the originals, likely due to the spatial nature of the real-time 3D graphics as opposed to the original’s single frame point-and-click, which was a lot. more static in how its interactive elements. A 27-year-old guide that works with the original can still be useful to help you with the broad strokes, but you’ll definitely notice differences here and there, with some puzzle elements being simplified or complicated in new ways separate from the original. .
One thing that hasn’t changed is that it still exists tone walking and traversing around, which is only a feature of the game thanks to its wide and varied puzzles. You’ll spend a lot of time going around one of the five islands in the game, after turning on something multiple times to go back to puzzle around the map to see what it did. Then again, that’s just old-school charm and a hands-off approach Riven brings to the table.
Not only that, but with an old-school approach to game design, you can rely on your own spatial memory. There are no map markers, markers, or “helpful” NPCs to guide you—an aspect of the game that still makes it one of my favorite experiences.
And unlike myst you can travel quite an impressive distance in the game with only a few hard roadblocks to stop you, so progression will feel very natural. then again Riven is popular for being more organic in level design and less formulaic than Myst overall it feels much less like a jumble of toys and more like modern Cyan titles Obduction (2016) and Firmament (2023).
Know Riven’s In retrospect, I really shouldn’t have complained about load times – they’re definitely faster than trawling through a broken jewel case filled with PS1 discs – however, on Quest you’ll be sitting there for a while waiting for levels to load, the longest of which is the initial splash screen that the game prompts, that it “may take a few minutes” (it does). From there, whether on Quest or SteamVR, vehicle transitions will constantly throw up 10-second loading screens, which doesn’t sound like much, but it happens on both sides of island transfers.
Another minor thing: there’s no practical way to jot down notes to remember clues or outline solutions, which is exactly what you’ll need to do to decode things. You can take a screenshot using the in-game camera system and that’s it. I just wish there was a spatial pencil so I could mark the letters I found or somehow prevent myself from taking off my headphones and writing something down.
Immersion
I had the opportunity to play both Quest 3 natively and the PC VR version. Here’s a split between the two that’s anyone’s guess.
In the Quest version, you’ll notice a ton of low-res textures and geometry that dynamically load the closer you get to them. Sometimes things are in their place, sometimes Riven may be one of the nicest games on the Quest platform. That is, if there aren’t any NPCs around that are bloated and a little too cartoony for the game’s lush natural setting.
Cyan also seems to be constantly throwing Quest’s full toolbox of performance tricks at you, including what feels like always-on asynchronous spacewarp and glaringly obvious fixed foveated rendering.
Since it was primarily developed for the PC crowd with flat screens, the PC VR version is visually quite a step ahead of the native Quest 3. Even on the “Epic” setting, however, you have to notice some oddly applied shaders that make shadows they dance and move when they shouldn’t, as well as inconsistencies in how the shaders work in the two eyes, leading to some pretty visible shadow mismatches. and lighting. Still. chunk-loading areas are mostly minimal and textures are quite high, which rightly makes it a more graphically demanding version of the game.
As Myst, Riven suffers from mediocre item interaction, which is a shame considering how many items are scattered around the game. I often found myself trying to interact with something, only to find that I hadn’t pressed it correctly, or it wasn’t interactive at all, making it more of a guessing game than it should have been. Here I am fruitlessly grabbing a weird banana and kiwi thing and then trying to grab a weirdly unusable pencil on the same desk. I wish I could use the damn pencil again.
However, there is a physical inventory where you can keep the various books you collect throughout the game, even if you can’t use them for anything else.
Whether you’re on Quest or SteamVR, there’s something that never fails, coming into an abyss or turning a corner to find a new, breathtaking scene before you. Riven it’s about natural beauty, laced with megalithic structures that don’t feel nearly as desolate and lonely as Myst did.
There’s wildlife, sprawling villages, shrines, and plenty of environmental narrative to dig into, putting exploration at the fore. There are even inhabitants of the world, although they are too shy to communicate with such an obvious outsider.
Comfort
Riven it offers a full range of comfort options in addition to some quality-of-life options that make things a little easier but probably less immersive as a result. Travel between the islands is always done in some sort of vehicle, which can be a bit annoying for some as it is fast and a bit jerky.
However, you can turn off vehicle transitions entirely, essentially allowing you to jump straight to the next island’s train station, or turn on the option to dirty the windows, which helps ground the vehicle cockpit a bit more. The game also offers similar options for instantly overcoming stairs and ladders that are otherwise climbed manually.
Check out the full comfort checklist below:
“RIVEN” comfort setting – June 25, 2024 |
|
Rotation |
|
| Artificial turning | |
| Clicking | ✔ |
| Quick turnaround | ✖ |
| Smooth rotation | ✔ |
Movement |
|
| Artificial movement | |
| Teleport-movement | ✔ |
| Dash-move | ✖ |
| Smooth movement | ✔ |
| Blinders | ✔ |
| Based on the head | ✔ |
| Driver based | ✔ |
| Interchangeable motion arm | ✔ |
Deportment |
|
| Standing mode | ✔ |
| Sitting mode | ✔ |
| Artificial crouching | ✖ |
| Really crouch down | ✔ |
Accessibility |
|
| subtitles | |
| Languages |
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish |
| Dialogue audio | |
| Languages | English |
| Adjustable difficulty | ✖ |
| Two hands required | ✖ |
| Real crouching required | ✖ |
| Necessary hearing | ✖ |
| Adjustable player height | ✔ |