Red Orb Performa 5260 Riven: The Sequel to Myst Reviewed by Jonathan Dreyer, MGA Editor In Chief Riven in case you haven't heard, is the sequel to the best-seller Myst. Myst is a game that created a genre, a hard thing to do. But, the question on everyone's mind is Does Riven stand up to Myst? That's a very hard question for me to answer. Technologically Riven is far superior but, what about the other elements that make up a great game you ask, read on. Gameplay Technologically speaking, not much has changed in the gameplay since Myst, it's still the simple point and click interface. You point where you want to go and, click you're there. This time around I found a few problems with this sort of interface, because you aren't always sure of where to click to, say look a a certain piece of wall, where you click could send you packing way past what you where interested in, this could be a cause for a lot of the back tracking you will have to do in this game. But I supposed if it worked once, why mess with it. Gameplay in terms of plot and storyline is a different story. I found the plot/storyline of Riven rather weak or almost non-existent, in Myst I felt I knew what I had to do to move on in the game, in Riven I found the gameplay was almost non-linear. With no real plot or storyline to follow, Riven becomes a non-linear puzzle game, albeit a good one. Graphics & Sound The graphics and sound in Riven have far surpassed my expectations. I had expected graphics better than Myst but not this great, Riven is without a doubt the most visually appealing game I have EVER played. The graphics in Riven will be hard to surpass in any other game this year. I have one complaint though, when a moving door or some other moving object stopped the whole scene seemed to have a slight color change... After the somewhat mediocre sound in Myst, Riven's sounds were quite literally music to my ears. Riven's ambient sound is wonderful, changing with every change of scenery almost. The sound effects in Riven very well done and very professonal, the sounds of moving doors, gears, levers, etc... Interface Riven being made on a Mac means that you won't find any of interface problems you might find in a PC port. Riven has all the Mac menus and command key shortcuts for save and open. One complaint, I thought that the Setup options screen was a bit confusing to be useful. Difficulty The puzzles in Riven are very difficult, I found them more difficult than Myst's puzzles. I thought that there were fewer hints for the puzzles than in Myst. Conclusion I had trouble reviewing this game, I mean it was the most anticipated game of 1997. I felt that the expectations for it were way too high, no game in the world could live up to expectations that high. I believe that Riven did not live up to the expectations set by the months of anticapation, it is a great game still.