Jesus christ. I wrote up a huge multi-paragraph post on this, then I get distracted by something shiny and close the browser. I'm such a fucking idiot. Here is the angry, frustration-laced condensed edition of LTTP Riven. It will have significantly more swearing than the original.
So, I finished Riven this weekend. Goddamn. It was probably the best adventure game I've ever played...and I've played a lot of adventure games. I love stuff like Monkey Island and The Longest Journey, but to me, this is the best example of the purest and more intimate type of adventure. No dialogue trees, no insane and unpredictable item combinations. Just you, your wits, and the world around you.
So 15 years ago I beat Myst like everyone else with a pulse and was super hyped for Riven. For some dumb reason I never get it, and end up borrowing my friend's Playstation copy but never finish because it was missing a disc but that didn't really matter because I was too dumb to finish it anyway. 3 years ago I bought the 10th anniversary dvd set with myst and exile. Myst and Riven are basically DOA and won't work on any of my hardware. So I play Exile and it's...okay. I guess. Whatever. So Riven sits on my shelf and mocks me for a few years then something snaps and 4 days ago I'm like okay, time to get this shit working! Since I'm not completely stupid anymore I resort to virtualization with XP and VMware and BAM. Works perfectly. Thank fucking god. (No thanks to Microsoft making VPC and XP mode incompatible with Win7 home. Pricks.)
I went into this straight up old-school. No internet, no guides. Just pencil and graph paper. I felt so hardcore. Basically after a few hours I'm thinking, "motherfucker. I let the best damn adventure game go unplayed for 13 FREAKING YEARS." Yeah, it's just an interactive slideshow. Whatever, shut up. It's also the most cohesive, tangible, and lifelike worlds I've ever experienced in a game. EVER. Every single character, every strange device or abstract machine, every symbol has some profound connection with the rest of the world and inexorably, your interaction with the world. You have to play this as though you are actually there. Videogame logic doesn't apply. Early on I found a flimly looking locked wooden door. Videogame logic told me I'd have to find some arbitrary means of unlocking it later instead of just kicking the thing down or crawling through the huge gaping hole in the bottom. Well shit, I come back later and learn that's exactly what you're supposed to do. Just basic stuff like closing doors behind you (something you don't usually do in games) frequently reveals important details or side passages.
What really impressed me about the game was how encompassing the design was. There are only 2 major objectives and related puzzles to achieve them, but the puzzles are huge, sprawling, nonlinear affairs and were so ingrained in the world and culture that just by playing the game the 'right' way - exploring, examining everything and making logical deductions and connections - I was already taking the major steps to solving them before I even knew the full details of what they were. Every symbol, every sound, every unique visual indicator and color must be noted. Nothing is superfluous. A small counting game/contraption in the corner of an empty schoolhouse was enough to teach me the symbols used in the unique base-25 counting system and solve later problems. Just stopping and listening to the animals and insects buzzing around...just absorbing your surroundings will enable you to make important connections later on. You don't come face to face with the villain for a while, but you feel his presence from the very beginning. Every location, character, geographical oddity, strange device or abstract machine is somehow influenced or affected by him and figuring out his connection to everything is a huge part of the game's "big puzzle." The whole time I was playing I was just amazed. It's so rare to see the kind of design that takes everything from the story, the art, and the gameplay into such a cohesive whole. Everyone talks about SotC or Flower, but this is art. I feel an immediate need to start up a new game and just try to find all the little details I missed the first time through.
Myst got ugly and lost it's visual appeal real quick, but Riven is timeless. It's still just as amazing to look at as it was a decade ago. Sure it could probably be done pretty well in real time these days, but that's besides the point. It's not about the technology, it's about the artistry. The world looks and feels like a real place. The sound design is stunning, and full of life and detail. Even the music is flawless, eclectic mix of tribal and orchestral sounds that feels really tranquil and subdued and pops up at just the right points. The Mass Effect composer did the scores for the later games and they're not bad, but dramatic crescendos and choruses sound hilariously out of place in a game like this.
Anyway, I finished it. I have stacks of graph paper full of symbols, charts, notes, coordinates and maps to prove it. It was one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a long time and it really makes me feel like the industry has lost something amazing when games like this disappeared. It's really sad that Cyan left the series to lesser developers in order to chase their silly MMOA pipe dream. This thread probably won't get much attention because people see these games as forgotten and irrelevant relics, but I don't care. It's the best adventure game I've ever played and I had to write something about it. If it makes just one person re/discover this game it'll be worth typing the whole damn thing up twice.
*dies*
