Riven 2024 Remake Game Review

Cyan have just released the 2024 remake of Riven, the 1997 classic point-and-click adventure game. I bought it, I played it and I love it! Watch to find out why.
Mac App Store:
apps.apple.com/us/app/riven/i...
Other ones:
store.steampowered.com/app/17...
gog.com/en/game/riven
vr.meta.me/s/1THYGRhu7zLdEXP
Cyan:
cyan.com
This video contains trademarks and/or copyrighted works of Cyan. All rights reserved by Cyan. This video is not official and is not endorsed by Cyan
#gamereview #riven #macintosh
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[@Peeps7468]

Great video. Thanks!! I got the original in 1998. The computer wasn’t quite good enough to keep up with some of the videos, but I still adored that game

[@stew.c]

Wow, this looks nuts! I’ve only ever played the original Myst, think I need to get this one!!!

[@martindoherty377]

Your observation right at the end ... no toilet in Katherine's prison cell ... I remember thinking the same thing about Myst, when visiting the sons' rooms. Just beds and some furniture, no bathrooms, wardrobes, closets or food prep areas at all? Although they'd supposedly lived in these places for weeks or months at a time, it was clearly impossible, so they were really just suggestive rather than literal living spaces; building out all that other stuff would not have affected the gameplay (although, they could have been used to show more about the men's characters and activities).

[@BranchusCreations]

I just assumed Sirrus and Achenar had a linking book to "Bathroom Island".

[@jaysgood10]

Have you seen Batman or Superman have to pee?

[@martindoherty377]

@@BranchusCreations That is hilarious and simultaneously an amazing idea, I want one of those.

[@logprb5048]

This is explained in lore, basically Cyan and the Miller brothers actually exist in the lore as present day historians researching the D'ni, and the games Myst and Riven canonically exist in-universe as games made by those fictional versions of the Millers. As such any of the locations or events you see in the games are merely artistic representations of the "real" places and events from history. So Myst not having a bathroom is fine because the "real" Myst island actually had one, it just wasn't put in the game because of artistic license or for simplicity by the "historians" (developers) who made the game.

[@Sonickid1011]

There is a bucket in her prison. I don't think Ghen cares much for Katherins comfort.

[@shaynewhite1]

Intel-Mac users have a workaround - the game works in Windows using Boot Camp. One sort of "continuity-error" is that when Catherine escapes from Prison Island and you go back into the Starry Expanse afterward, the central platform is still aligned to Prison Island. There's no way that would be possible - most likely it would be aligned with Jungle Island.

[@elsa_g]

Thanks for your thorough review!

[@BenC20B]

Nice comprehensive review. Will have to check it out.

[@mistersurrealist]

The environments look absolutely amazing but boy those stiff and ugly 3D characters kinda ruin the immersion. Myst NEEDS real actors, that's one of the aspects of the original games that sold you on the idea of those worlds being real. I adore the originals and certainly appreciate the remakes, but I'd be happier if they went back into the studio and reshot those scenes with real actors and integrated that footage into the game. It IS possible, just lock the player in place whenever an actor is on screen.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

And I agree with you 100%! Those new CGI characters are hideous! I can’t believe they took out the charm of real actors… That is just the worst decision they could’ve ever made in my opinion. Don’t they realize that one of the biggest selling points back in the day was people seeing real people in their video games?!

[@charlesajones77]

There really needs to be a quicker way to access screenshots. You can take pictures with one button, but to look at the pictures you have to exit out of whatever you're doing, pull up the menu and select "notebook". You'll either be doing this a LOT or be writing stuff down by hand.

[@dizzer182]

Pretty sure Brad Dourif is way more well known for playing the part of Charles Lee Ray/Chucky in the Child's play Movies and TV Show.

[@BranchusCreations]

@@dizzer182 I figured most viewers would be too young to remember Child's Play. That movie's 36 years old.

[@canuckchuck8836]

I loved the original Myst! I cannot wait to get my hooks into the remake of Riven.

[@musicjunk8266]

Do you know why the bridge (6:05) can go be raised using the lever (5:28)? It starts off in the down position so I do not understand the purpose for this functionality.

[@BranchusCreations]

I haven't found a functional reason other than giving the user a red herring.

[@musicjunk8266]

@@BranchusCreations Strange. But thanks.

[@theviewerofart]

Lore-wise, the part of Temple Island on the non-temple side of that bridge is off-limits except for Gehn's followers. Presumably it's supposed to suggest that the bridge is raised under normal circumstances to bar entry to Rivenese trespassers! I imagine the Moiety lowered the bridge and jammed whatever mechanism is responsible for raising it again, much like they did with the cage trap.

[@IrdinSilverbow]

Does it work on a MacBook Pro M1 using the laptop’s trackpad or is a mouse required?

[@BranchusCreations]

I haven't tried, but I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work with a trackpad.

[@IrdinSilverbow]

Thank you

[@mitcherny6965]

for VR eyes ONLY...

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Keep hitting the space bar expecting to jump🤣 darn it! This is Riven, not Skyrim

[@BranchusCreations]

😂

[@Quicksilveraus]

Windows users can run this on min spec on 10/11 16 gb ram 780ti / 980 (ti variant), 1080 , 2060 ,30xx , 40xx range easy, boot-camp ftw :)

[@jamessutton2932]

No toilet? Surely you mean, no D'ni?? ;o)

[@BranchusCreations]

😂

[@theaustralianconundrum]

Oh please no................ The agony of Myst and Riven being ALL THERE was for Apple Macintosh computers was SO depressing. My PC friends just laughed at me for such a long time.. What choices they had just blew me away!

[@darkwinter7395]

Marathon? Spectere? Solarian II?

[@BranchusCreations]

There were heaps of games available. The Macintosh Garden is testimony to that.

[@theaustralianconundrum]

@@BranchusCreations Nothing like PC land. That said my recent descent back to Mac OS 8 & 9 iterations on a 9500/200 revealed just how unstable the OS was. That said, I have NOT had a single crash or freeze in any version of Mac OS X in at least the past ten years. Cheers.

[@tokyo_taxi7835]

They should have just cast new actors for the 2024 version. The CGI characters are so disappointing compared to the rest of the care put into the game.