Riven

Timely Sequel to a genuine Classic

By Steven Bilodeau

The title that millions have been waiting 4 years to play has finally appeared - Riven: The Sequel to Myst. If you liked the original Myst, you HAVE to get this.

Your journey continues and spans five discs, commencing right where Myst left off: Atrus is trying to find his wife, Catherine, who is trapped in another world - Riven. If you didn't play the original, that's fine. High quality movies will set the scene for newcomers, and will refresh the memories of the two million gamers who have kept Myst on the top-sellers chart longer than any other title.

Riven has more activity and interaction in it than did its predecessor. This is not merely a slide show with a plot, a criticism leveled at Myst. The game world is four times larger and there is a lot more action. Literally, more things are in more motion. Water ripples, characters are more abundant and will interact with you.

There are players who came back to Myst just to look at the scenery. Riven is much more intriguing. The images are photorealistic in their detail and quality. The improvements in technology over four years allowed the producers to create higher resolution scenes using more colours. The resulting world is far more convincing and immersive.

As for gameplay, Riven offers the same combination of puzzle solving and adventure.

I can't think of any reason why Riven won't enjoy the same success as Myst. For all the games that have tried to copy that success story, here is a title that deserves and earns the honour.

Steven Bilodeau is a columnist for the Edmonton Journal. You can find more of his columns at www.southam.com/edmontonjournal/computers/bilodeau.html.

Steven Bilodeau can be reached via e-mail at StevenB@msn.com. And for more computer news, visit JournalExtra, the World Wide Web site of The Edmonton Journal, at http://www.edmontonjournal.com.

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