Riven: The Sequel to Myst on GOG.com Description Included goodies: manual (18 pages) About: Enter a deceptively beautiful world torn asunder by age-old conflicts... Where secrets lie hidden at every turn... And nothing is as it seems. A world of incomparable beauty, intrigue, and betrayal. Riven's story continues where Myst - and its companion novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus - left off. Your friend Atrus sends you to rescue his beloved wife Catherine, trapped on the slowly collapsing Age of Riven by Gehn. Read more About: Enter a deceptively beautiful world torn asunder by age-old conflicts... Where secrets lie hidden at every turn... And nothing is as it seems. A world of incomparable beauty, intrigue, and betrayal. Riven's story continues where Myst - and its companion novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus - left off. Your friend Atrus sends you to rescue his beloved wife Catherine, trapped on the slowly collapsing Age of Riven by Gehn. If you enjoyed Myst, you're bound to enjoy Riven!

One of the most beautiful and acclaimed adventure games of all time Immerse yourself in the one of the most beautiful adventures ever created Challenging riddles and an immersive story USER REVIEWS There are no reviews yet. {{ review.title }} by {{ ::review.author.name }} {{ ::review.author.name }} Sorry, data for given user is currently unavailable. Please, try again later. View wishlist Start conversation Invite to friendsInvite to friendsAccept invitationAccept invitationPending invitation...User since {{ user.formattedDateUserJoined }} Friends since {{ user.formattedDateUserFriended }} Unblock chat User blocked This user's wishlist is not public.You can't chat with this user due to their or your privacy settings.You can't chat with this user because you have blocked him.You can't invite this user because you have blocked him. Read more {{ review.added | toMilis | date:reviewDateformat }} | Is this helpful to you? YesNo Thanks for your vote!

({{review.helpfulVotes}} of {{review.totalVotes}} users found this helpful)report of {{ totalPages }} Riven: The Sequel to Myst (Game) - Giant Bomb The Riven: The Sequel to Myst wiki last edited by MrSensible on 08/13/15 01:27PM View full history Overview Bridge approach from Boiler Island to Temple Island's "Super Dome" Riven: The Sequel to Myst is a puzzle adventure game developed by Cyan Worlds and originally published by Red Orb Entertainment in 1997 as the direct sequel to the highly-successful Myst . Development of Riven took place over more than three years, and the game's scope expanded due to a much larger budget and development team when compared with Myst's. Former Industrial Light & Magic employee Richard Vander Wende also joined Cyan Worlds for the project, lending his own unique aesthetic style to Riven in an effort to visually differentiate the game from the environments of Myst. The game's initial release consisted of five CD-ROMs which were swapped during transitions between certain areas of the game. Due to their relatively-limited storage capacity, several discs were necessary to contain the large amount of streaming video integrated into Riven's various scenes.

Riven was later released on a single DVD-ROM with enhanced visuals, which also eliminated the necessity to swap discs. Riven was a commercial success, becoming the highest-selling game in 1997 despite its late-October release; the game went on to sell roughly 1.5 million copies in the first year after its initial release. Although generally well-received by critics, Riven also garnered some negative criticism in regards to its aging presentation and mechanics, which were largely identical to those of its 1993 predecessor Myst, as well as the obtuse nature of some of its puzzles. Gameplay Like Myst before it, Riven is a first-person point-and-click adventure game set across several pre-rendered environments. Players explore the world of Riven by clicking on different areas of the screen in order to turn, walk, and interact with objects in the environment. Progress is technically non-linear and, aside from sparse conversations with a handful of non-playable characters , completely player-driven. The game does not track any gameplay objectives, requiring players to explore the five islands of Riven with little guidance in order to solve puzzles and eventually arrive at one of a number of possible endings.

As with its predecessor, Riven also includes a “Zip Mode” for fast transitions through previously-explored areas. Story Riven received praise for its distinctive visual aesthetics The events of Riven directly follow Myst's canonical ending in which the player (unofficially known as " The Stranger ") frees Atrus from an imprisonment which had been orchestrated by his two scheming sons, Sirrus and Achenar . After dealing with his corrupt children, Atrus requests the player's assistance in rescuing his wife Catherine , who had been tricked by their children into returning to her home Age of Riven . Much like Atrus, she became trapped due to the absence of a functional linking book in Riven that would allow her to return to Myst Island . She was eventually captured by Gehn , the megalomanical father of Atrus and original author of the "Fifth Age" of Riven. Thirty years prior to the events of the first game, Atrus was forced to link to Riven by his domineering father and fell in love with a Rivenese native named "Katran". Together, they managed to escape from Gehn's tyranny by trapping him inside his own slowly-collapsing Age of Riven.

Much of the backstory of these three characters is detailed in the Myst franchise's first tie-in novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus. In the thirty years since Atrus and Catherine fled from Riven, Gehn has presented himself as a deity to the Age's indigenous and superstitious inhabitants. He now rules Riven using a combination of fear and his own knowledge of the fallen D'ni empire, including the lost D'ni Art of writing linking books. However, Gehn's grasp of the written Art is highly flawed, and he has long sought to create a functional linking book to free himself from the confines of his deteriorating Age by exploiting its available natural and human resources. Gehn's ruthlessness has also given rise to a resistance movement known as the "Moiety", who seek to free all Rivenese from his rule even as their world degrades due to the flaws inherent in Gehn's D'ni writing style. At the beginning of the game, Atrus hands the player his journal, explaining that it will be sufficient to bring the player up to speed on his history with Gehn, Catherine and Riven.

He also provides the player with a "trap book" similar to those which had been used to ensnare Sirrus and Achenar, with the intention of luring Gehn into it. Because Atrus is preoccupied with rewriting sections of the Riven book in order to delay the Age's destruction, he cannot accompany the player to Riven himself. Atrus is also unwilling to risk Gehn escaping from Riven and admits that the player must link to Riven without any means of returning to Myst. Thus, the player must find a way to signal Atrus once they have trapped Gehn and freed Catherine; afterward, Atrus plans to travel to Riven with a genuine Myst linking book in order to retrieve his wife and the player before the doomed Age collapses completely. Before the player links to Riven, Atrus also reveals the possibility that their success may allow the Stranger to finally return to Earth . Endings There are three primary goals that the player must accomplish in order to reach the game's "good" ending: trap Gehn inside the false linking book, rescue Catherine from her prison and discover a method to signal Atrus.

Signaling Atrus before rescuing Catherine and trapping Gehn will lead to one of the game's several "bad" endings. Gehn's telescope at the sealed Star Fissure During the course of the game, the player will discover the sealed Star Fissure, a tear in the fabric of Riven's reality that purportedly leads back to the Stranger’s point of origin on Earth. In fact, this is the same fissure mentioned by Atrus in the first game's opening narrative, revealing how the Myst linking book originally fell into the Stranger’s possession on Earth. In the game's canon ending, the Stranger is able to trick Gehn into using the trap book, thus capturing him and allowing the Stranger to free Catherine from her island prison. Afterwards, the Stranger reopens the Star Fissure to signal Atrus, triggering a cataclysmic event leading to Riven's imminent collapse. Atrus immediately links to Riven with another linking book in hand before reuniting with Catherine. She explains that after Gehn had been eliminated, Riven's inhabitants were able to escape to the Moiety rebels' secret Age of Tay .

Atrus and Catherine thank the Stranger for all of their help, and Atrus informs them that by jumping into the Star Fissure, the Stranger should be able to safely return home. The couple link back to their home on Myst Island, ensuring that their linking book falls into the Fissure afterward. The Stranger then falls into the starry expanse, presumably returning to the location on Earth from where they had first linked to Myst as depicted in the original game's opening sequence. Ports and Re-releases In addition to the original releases for PC and Mac, Riven was also released on the Sega Saturn , the Sony PlayStation , and the Pocket PC. Riven is currently available for sale through digital storefronts GOG.com and Steam , and a mobile port of Riven is available on Apple iOS mobile devices through the App Store. Soundtrack Riven: The Sequel to Myst for iPad (2013) - MobyGames Not an American user? 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.

"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 Riven: The Sequel to Myst Download (1997 Adventure Game) Riven: The Sequel to Myst Download (1997 Adventure Game) Search a Classic Game: Utility (36) Adventure Games: Download (2.26 GB) Riven: The Sequel to Myst screenshots: Sure, Myst looked nice and I'll credit it for being a fairly original gaming experience, but it lacked substance and made up for it with beautiful artwork. The puzzles were extremely vague, seemingly impossible, even with a walk through or a strategy guide. What little hints the game presented were so obscure that even people with the sharpest sense of observation could miss them. Also, movement was very disorienting because of the click to jump to a new screen location. Sometimes where you jumped to didn't resemble where you thouht you were going and proved to be very frustrating.

Needless to say, my expectations of the sequel Riven were pretty low. After playing Riven, it isn't as disappointing as expected, though it still isn't great. The game plays almost exactly like Myst. There's no 360 degree movement, like 3D shooters, or screen movement like The 7th Guest. You point and click your way with the mouse and you hop from screen to screen. This really isn't any different which is a bad thing, but it works slightly better than Myst. In Riven, screen advances are taken in much smaller steps, meaning that it might take 3 or 4 clicks to travel the length of a hall, whereas Myst would take you to the end of the hall in one click. The new way is much better because you tend to not get disoriented and ask the computer monitor where the heck you are. Also, screen transitions are much smoother and quicker than in Myst. It would have been nice if Riven took place in a 3D world, rather than computer artwork backdrops and screens. But the artwork, it should be mentioned, is absolutely gorgeous. Some of the locations you visit are simply jaw dropping. Congratulations to the guys at Cyan!

One thing Cyan should be faulted for is the puzzles. Much like Myst, the puzzles in Riven usually offer no explanations or any hints as to why you need to do them and what it will do. Most of them are extremely vague and illogical which leads to a very frustrating experience. And again, getting through some of the puzzles with a strategy guide proved futile. The puzzles really hurt this game. It is difficult to understand why the Cyan developers feel the need to make these complex puzzles that completely bewilder most gamers and offer no thoughtful solutions. And this is coming from someone who likes puzzle games. Riven is really for Myst fans only. Though it is better than it's predecessor, non-fans will probably find no redeeming value or enjoyment from the sequel. Graphics: The artwork in Riven is absolutely gorgeous. It really makes you feel like you're in the world. The FMV sequences are nicely done as well. Sound: There really isn't too much sound in this game, only featuring ambient effects. The ambient sounds are wonderful and really pull you into the game. Enjoyment: Unfortunately, the puzzles are extremely difficult and at times seem impossible or illogical.

There are rarely any clues given or any explanation of what the puzzle you're trying to solve does or why you're doing it. This really interferes with the enjoyment of the game. Replay Value: If you ever finish this game there wouldn't be any reason to return to Riven. Riven review - AdventureGamers.com Freeware Riven review The Good: First rate graphics, wonderful immersive sound track, lots of small touches and a vast array of puzzles. The Bad: Some extremely hard puzzles and pixel hunting. Written by Heidi Fournier — May 19, 2002 I can only imaging the intense pressure on the Cyan team as they geared up to create a sequel to the best selling game of all time. It is a typical challenge that you often see. A Company, individual etc. creates something so successful it sets new standards and the world cries for more so plans are made for a sequel. The problem is that many of these follow-up efforts lack the freshness and creativity of the original. Rarely do you get something that surpasses it predecessor in quality and content, however it has been know to happen. Once again you return to help Altrus in this first person perspective game.

This time he enlists your help to save his wife Catherine from his father Gehn. Catherine has become trapped on Riven and you need to rescue her and banish Gehn. This doesn’t sound like much of a story but it barely scratches the surface of what your you will find when you arrive in Riven. For it is a homogenous world complete with religion, culture, language, and myths and in order to save Catherine you will have to learn its numbering system, decipher its myths and explore its vast spaces. The graphics in Riven are so superb that they rival anything I have seen in other games. The attention to detail is phenomenal, individual bugs fly by; hills are made up of stone, dirt and grasses that actually blow in the wind. This is something that you can tell took a great deal of time and care to create, it is also a hallmark of this game. For whether it is the graphics, sound or puzzles everything is given the same attention to detail, the same depth. The motion in the game is done through dissolve transitions which gives you the impression of actually walking through out the game environment. Every building has its on texture and lighting is employed to bring out crisp details in every scene.

At one point as you watch two seal-like creatures scurry off you can actually see them swimming under the rippling water. The graphics are so immersive that when I first tried the tram system that links the individual islands in Riven I cried out "Whoa!" as I felt my stomach actually react to a steep dive. Each scene in Riven has its own set of unique sounds on top of the extensive and diverse soundtrack. The box right away notifies you that you should be using a top-notch sound system on your computer to fully enjoy the game’s soundtrack. Ambient sounds assigned to doors opening, bridges being lowered are always dead on and really help to flesh out the game. All this detail made me forget I was in my basement with the lights off and not actually in Riven. In the tradition of the adventure genre Riven is a mouse controlled point and click game. This interface works nicely with the animation in the game for as you touch certain objects they seem to come alive allowing you to interact with them. However, this is also where one of the aspects about the game I didn’t like came into play. There was a good deal of pixel hunting at certain times.

I found myself advancing one step running the cursor all over the screen and then repeating the same operation again vainly hoping to identify a hotspot. Most of Riven’s puzzles depend on a player’s ability to immerse them selves in the world’s culture and mythology, explore its vistas and pick up clues. As with Myst you are alone on this world and have only a brief encounter with other characters. Most often you will find your self pulling levers, pushing buttons and catching frogs to solve the mysteries in the game. This is not to say that the story line is linear, quite the contrary, unlike some games that demand you solve certain puzzles in a certain order to advance Riven lets the player work through the vast amount puzzles in almost any order. There is no wrong way to play Riven. One word of caution here however, there were a few puzzles that were so hard to solve that I got so frustrated I started cursing the computer, so be for warned lonely traveller. This game is so good that if I taught a class on interactive fiction I would use it as my example of how to create a great quality game.

With the exception of the a few difficult puzzles and some pixel hunting I can not find any reason I would advise someone not to play Riven. There are just so many positive qualities that sell this game I would not be surprised if it someday surpasses its predecessor in sales. If you haven’t played Riven I strongly suggest you get yourself a copy as soon as possible. Riven: The Sequel to Myst can be purchased at: Affiliate Links Riven: The Sequel to Myst for Windows (1997) - MobyGames 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).") MAT (143763) added Riven: The Sequel to Myst (Windows) on Apr 02, 2000 Riven | Encyclopedia Gamia | Fandom powered by Wikia Walkthrough Riven is a puzzle adventure 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. [3] 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, linked together by special books, Riven takes place almost entirely on the Age of Riven, a world slowly falling apart due to Gehn's destructive rule. 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. [4] Riven was praised by professional reviewers, with the magazine Salon proclaiming that the game approaches the level of art . [5] 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. [6] The best-selling game of 1997 , Riven sold 1.5 million copies in one year. [7] After the game's release, Robyn Miller left Cyan to form his own development studio, ending the professional partnership of the two brothers. [7] Rand stayed at Cyan and continued to work on Myst-related products, [7] 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 . Contents File:Riven-prison.png Like its predecessor, Riven is a point-and-click adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The player explores immersive environments depicted through a large series of computer generated stills, using mouse clicks for movement or to manipulate objects within reach.

[8] By operating mechanical contraptions and deciphering codes and symbols discovered in the surroundings, the vaguely explained goal can eventually be reached. [9] To navigate the world, the player simply clicks in the direction they want to walk or turn. 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. [8] For instance, if the player positions the cursor hand near the side of the screen, it may show a pointing finger, indicating that clicking will turn the view in that direction. [8] 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. [10] Such items can then be examined at any time, [10] [11] and either reveal clues to puzzles or provide information on the game's setting and story. Like Myst, Riven has an optional method of navigation known as Zip Mode, which allows players to skip to areas already explored, but may cause them to miss important clues.

[8] 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. [11] Many puzzles' sole purpose is to advance the backstory. [1] Plot Riven's story continues where Myst and its companion novel, Myst: The Book of Atrus , left off. The player assumes the role of the Stranger , the protagonist of the first game and friend of Atrus . Atrus is the creator of "linking books" that serve as portals to other worlds, known as "Ages"; the ability to write these books is known as the "Art". [12] Atrus needs the Stranger's help to free his wife, Catherine , who is held hostage on the slowly collapsing Age of Riven. Her captor is Gehn , Atrus' manipulative father and self-appointed ruler of Riven.

Gehn is himself trapped on Riven, as Atrus and Catherine had previously removed all linking books from the Age; the very last book to be removed, linking to the Age of Myst , was the one they held to escape Riven. In the misbelief that it would be destroyed, they let the book fall into the Star Fissure, a rift leading out of the damaged Age of Riven into a mysterious, spacelike void . Catherine was later tricked into returning to Riven by her sons, whereupon she was taken hostage by Gehn. Eventually, the Stranger discovered the unharmed Myst book, sparking the events of Myst and, some time later, Riven. [12] At the beginning of Riven, Atrus equips the Stranger with a trap book—a snare that functions as a one-man prison, yet looks identical to a linking book—and his personal diary. This diary summarizes the history of events leading to the Stranger's present situation; Atrus cannot explain in depth, as he is engaged in rewriting the descriptive book of Riven, in an attempt to slow its deterioration.

The Stranger must enter the Age with no way of leaving, as they cannot risk sending a real linking book to Riven until Gehn is safely imprisoned, in case he should seize the book and use it to escape his confinement. [11] Instructing the Stranger to capture Gehn in the trap book, find Catherine, and then signal him, Atrus holds out the link book that will transport the Stranger to Riven. Once there, the Stranger explores the islands of Riven, eventually finding Catherine's prison. The Stranger also travels to the Age of the Moiety, rebellious inhabitants of Riven who, under the leadership of Catherine, are attempting to overthrow Gehn's rule. Because of the decay of Riven's structure, the only way to clearly signal Atrus is to bring about a massive disturbance in the Age's stability—accomplished by reopening the Star Fissure, which Gehn had closed. When it opens, Atrus immediately links to Riven to investigate, and meets the Stranger at the brink of the Fissure. Depending on the player's actions, the ending to Riven varies . In the canon ending, the Stranger tricks Gehn into the prison book and releases Catherine.

Atrus and Catherine thank the Stranger, before linking back to the Age of Myst. The Stranger then falls into the Star Fissure, to be taken on the path back to his world. Different player actions can result in the Stranger's entrapment in the prison book, or even his death . Development Cyan started working on Riven in 1993 , immediately after Myst's release. Before development began, when even the name of the game was undecided, the brothers Robyn and Rand Miller said they wanted a "natural flow" from the first game to the sequel. [13] As Myst proved to be a popular and commercial success, the two developers were able to expand their four-person team to a much larger crew of designers, artists, programmers, and sound designers. [1] Development spanned more than four years, and was a much larger undertaking than for the first game; [1] Riven had a budget of between US$ 5 and $10 million, more than ten times the cost of developing Myst. [14] The design for Riven stemmed from a desire to create something different and more dynamic than the romantic style of Myst.

The first stage of development was to create the puzzles, in an attempt to integrate them as smoothly as possible into the areas in the game. The Millers met their co-designer, Richard Vander Wende , at a demonstration of Myst for the Digital World Expo in Los Angeles . [1] Wende had previously worked for ILM , [1] and at Disney as a designer for the animated feature Aladdin . [15] As the third member of Riven's conceptual team, Wende ended up contributing what Robyn Miller described as an "edgier" and complementary vision, that made the game dramatically different than its predecessor. [1] As in Myst, the topology of the islands was originally created as grayscale images, where brightness corresponded to elevation. [1] [15] In Softimage , these maps were turned into the terrain models seen in the game. [15] [16] The large island objects were broken apart to facilitate efficient rendering, which required them to be created using polygonal geometry. [16] All other objects were modeled using B-splines and NURBS . [16] Many of the textures were accumulated during a three-day trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico .

The artists took hundreds of photos of wood, adobe, sand, stucco and other materials, which were treated in Photoshop before being mapped onto the 3D geometry . [1] [16] Whereas many computer-generated environments of the time ended up looking smooth, like plastic, [1] the Millers and Wende developed a more gritty and weathered design, with corroded and aged elements, to imply reality. [1] [15] The artists considered how objects would look and function if they were real, where and how they would be worn, and created corresponding details. [16] While bump maps were occasionally used to simulate geometry, even small details such as screws were often individually modeled. [16] Rendering was executed in Mental Ray , using numerous custom-made shaders to produce lifelike lighting, water and landscapes. [16] In total Riven has over three hours of video [15] and almost five thousand images; [1] rendering was a major bottleneck in production despite the use of 18 dedicated workstations . [16] Some scenes consisted of tens of thousands of individual models and textures and more than a hundred virtual light sources. Loading a single island model could take two hours.

[16] Runtime animation effects were created by Mark DeForest, to add flying insects and simple water ripples. [16] Riven combined the pre-rendered backgrounds with live action footage, in order to increase the player's immersion level. [1] [11] Riven was the first game in which any of its designers had directed live actors, and Wende was apprehensive about their use. [1] Rand Miller had to reprise his role of Atrus from Myst, even though he hated acting. [15] All the actors were filmed with a blue screen as a backdrop, which was removed in post-production by chroma key , so that the actors would blend into the virtual environment. [15] Real world stairs, doorways and studio lights had to be meticulously positioned on the live stage to match their CG equivalents. Some sequences were seamlessly cut together with morphing , to allow for partial variations due to the nonlinearity of the gameplay. [16] At the time of Riven's development, publisher Brøderbund was facing falling revenues as development costs rose. Two years into the project, Cyan still had nothing they could show them.

[15] Brøderbund's stock dropped from $60 a share to $22 in 1996 , because of a delay in the publishing of Riven. [4] The plan had been to ship the game in time for the 1996 holiday season; [15] [11] Riven was finally published on October 29, 1997. [2] Even though Riven's sales were expected to be higher than any other game that holiday season , Brøderbund launched a $10 million marketing campaign [4] and developed a retail marketing partnership with Toshiba America. [17] Anticipation for the game was high even among non-gamers, helped by web-based word of mouth and well-placed media coverage. [9] [18] Audio Robyn Miller composed Riven's music, which was later packaged and released by Virgin Records as Riven: The Soundtrack. Miller designed the liner notes and packaging, which included English translations of the language found in the game .

[19] Whereas the music to Myst was, at first, only available by mail-order from Cyan, Virgin Records had bought the rights to release it initially, prompting Miller to make sure that it could stand alone in CD form. [20] The compact disc was released on February 24, 1998, with 54 minutes of music. [21] Miller established three leitmotifs for the game's three central characters, Atrus, Catherine, and Gehn. [22] Gehn's theme is only heard in its complete form near the end of the game, but portions of the melody can be heard throughout Riven, highlighting his control of the Age. [23] Miller tried to let the environment dictate the resulting sound, in order to make the music as immersive as possible. [19] He blended live instrumentation with synthesizers : "By mixing and matching conventional instrumentation, you can create an odd, interesting mood," Miller said.

Ultimately, he wanted the music of Riven to reflect the game itself, which he described as having "a familiar-yet-strange feel to it." [22] Miller described his biggest challenge in writing Riven's music as reconciling the linear, pleasing construction of music with the nonlinearity of the gameplay. As players can freely explore all areas, Miller explained in an interview, "the music can't say anything too specific. If it says something, if it builds in intensity and there starts to be a climax, and people are just standing in a room looking around, and they're thinking 'What's going on in here? Is something about to jump out from behind me?' You can't have the basic parts of music that you'd like to have, you can't have a basic structure. It's all got to be just flowing, and continue to flow." [20] Allmusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine argued that the soundtrack is "appealingly atmospheric", but "lacks definition", and that the music loses impact when separated from the game.

[21] Riven: The Soundtrack tracklist 7.8/10 [28] Being the first sequel of a game as successful as Myst, Riven was eagerly anticipated. [11] On the whole, it was also positively received, with the PC version garnering an average critic score of 84% at GameRankings . [24] The game sold more than 1.5 million units within a year of its release, and was the best-selling game of 1997, [7] despite having only been on the market for less than three months. By 2001, over 4.5 million units had been sold. [29] Jeff Segstack of GameSpot gave the game high marks, explaining that it is "a leisurely paced, all-encompassing, mentally challenging experience. If you enjoyed Myst, you'll thoroughly enjoy Riven." [28] Computer Gaming World stated that the graphics were the best they had seen in any adventure game.

[30] Laura Miller of Salon declared that "Art [...] is what Riven approaches," and praised the gameplay as having "a graceful elegance that reminds [her] of a masterfully constructed novel." [5] The game's sound and graphics were consistently praised. [9] [12] [18] [28] [27] Nevertheless, several publications found fault with aspects of Riven. Computer Gaming World felt that the gameplay was too similar to the original Myst, making Riven the "same game with a new title"; the magazine also criticized the minimal character interaction. [30] Gaming magazine Edge felt that although Riven was a good game, the solitary atmosphere and lack of mobility was steadily becoming outdated, as games like Super Mario 64 sacrificed graphical fidelity for an increase in freedom. They stated "the question is whether Cyan can incorporate its almost Tolkien-esque world-building skills into a more cutting-edge game vehicle next time." [6] Even long-time players of the Myst games, such as Heidi Fournier of Adventure Gamers , felt that a few puzzles were too difficult; [26] Computer and Video Games , meanwhile, believed that the story clues were too symbolic and scant, which made following the plot difficult.

[31] Despite the success of the game, the Miller brothers eventually pursued other projects. Robyn Miller said: "I think it would be a detriment to always, for the rest of our lives, be creating Myst-like projects. […] We're going to change, evolve and grow, just like any person does in any manner." [13] Robyn would leave Cyan to form a new development company called Land of Point; [32] Wende would also leave to pursue other projects. [7] The next video game entry in the Myst franchise would be 2001's Myst III: Exile , which was not developed by Cyan or published by Broderbund; Presto Studios took over development, and Ubisoft published. [33] References Adventure Legends Cyan Productions, Red Orb Entertainment / Brøderbund Software, Inc. 1997 Riven is the sequel to the highly successful computer game Myst and was 4 years in development. It was distributed initially on five compact discs and later released on a single DVD-ROM with a 14 minute making-of video and higher quality graphics.

The Myst style of gameplay in which the player clicked on objects within prerendered still images and videos was maintained in this sequel, however it was enhanced with many animated scenes. It is widely regarded by players of Myst and other adventure games to be the most artistically beautiful and heuristically difficult game in the Myst franchise. Like its predecessor, Riven is a point-and-click adventure game taking place in a first-person perspective. Players explore interactive worlds using the mouse to click on items shown on the screen. Riven continues the story of Myst. We are introduced to Atrus' father, Gehn, who is a little, well, crazy. He has kidnapped Catherine, Atrus' wife, and imprisoned her somewhere in Riven, a place made up of several islands in the middle of the ocean. Atrus has enlisted us to help him rescue Catherine and capture Gehn. Again we must solve numerous puzzles and delve deep into D'ni history to complete our quest. Players can interact with objects such as switches or items in this manner. The cursor changes in appearance depending on what a player is pointing at.

For example, when the player positions the cursor near the edge of the screen, the pointer changes from the shape of a pointing hand to a bent finger; likewise, the cursor changes when the player can look up or manipulate an object. Like Myst, Riven has an optional method of moving known as "Zip Mode". This allows players to skip to areas already explored, but can lead to players missing important clues. Riven: The Sequel to MYST on Steam About This Game Prepare to enter a world "torn asunder" by timeless, unresolved conflicts--a world of incomparable beauty, intrigue, and betrayal. Prepare to go to Riven. Journey through vast, awe-inspiring landscapes, where clouds sit nestled in a deep blue sky and the rolling sea waters shimmer from bright morning sunlight. But be forewarned: nothing is quite as it seems. Reclusive beings and mysterious creatures populate the land. Deep, dark secrets lay hidden at every turn. Your utmost powers of observation and reason are required to complete a most elusive task. You must let Riven become your world. Only then may the truth be discovered and a world saved.

Riven stands as a story for all time, a story that evokes a sense of awe, wonder, and profound purpose. Prepare to go to Riven--a world unlike any you've ever known. System Requirements OS: Vista / Windows 7 (unofficially supported) Processor: 800mhz Pentium 3 or greater Memory: 256MB RAM

Question: What was the predecessor to the computer game Riven?
Answer: Myst