Recent reviews by Riven Rifter

Zly.ii: The Hacked Station - A short but enjoyable scifi puzzle adventure game!

If you're looking for a fun scifi puzzle challenge, I definitely recommend this game! It is on the shorter side as it took me about 2hrs 20min to finish on my first playthrough (I first played an older version on Itch.io, my steam playtime is for my replay of the steam version) but it might take you longer depending on how hard you find the puzzles.

I personally found the puzzles to be a good balance of challenging without being too cryptic, and they fit well into the world which I always appreciate in adventure games.

The environments were also cool to explore, and I love the 360 views that I wish more first person point and click games would have.

Riven was the first game I ever “played” at the age of 3, when I was introduced to the original by my father. I was too young to solve any of the puzzles, but I just loved exploring the world which felt like a real place. Now, 21 years later, I have played all the Myst games and I know the islands of Riven as well as I know my home town.

So as you can imagine, leading up to the release of this remake I was very sceptical… How could anything live up to the masterpiece that is Riven? I watched each new teaser and trailer with trained eyes, and meticulously picked apart every detail (literally down to the scratches on the Maglev dashboard).

I was even more sceptical when I took my first steps on temple island in the new game. It looked great graphically, but some differences were as clear as night and day. “Ha!” I thought to myself “see they got that wrong...” Little did I know that just 10 minutes later something would happen that I didn’t expect… The game laughed right back in my face “Nope, you got that wrong!”

I was shocked. This was a new feeling. Or was it? No, I had felt like this before, a long time ago… I felt… like a stranger stranded on Riven.

My opinion of the game changed immediately, and I paused it right there so I could experience the rest of the game with my family. My two brothers, my mother, and my father who had introduced me to Riven, all played through the game with me.
We rediscovered the amazing world, and excitedly solved all the new puzzles. One puzzle in particular (the new Rivenese number system) had us all jumping up in front of the TV and frantically scribbling possible solutions.

I came to realise that Riven 2024 is not so much a “remake” meant to replace the original, but in my opinion it’s more like an adaptation to a new medium. In the same way fans of the Lord of the Rings books can also enjoy the films by Peter Jackson, Riven fans can enjoy this rendition of the world they first fell in love with all those years ago.

There were still one or two things that I missed, or would have liked to have be done differently, but that’s because Cyan was willing to take the risk to offer us something new and special. I can imagine for everyone involved on the project it must have felt like trying to write something new into the Riven descriptive book, at risk of the entire age collapsing at any moment. And I believe they pulled it off, almost everything new or changed still feels like the spirit of Riven, and that’s a huge accomplishment.

In conclusion, I feel this is a new masterpiece that can proudly stand next to its inspiration. While I’ve emphasised the changes, it’s still a very faithful reconstruction of Riven, and while I played I was grinning like a little kid, giddily running up and down every path feeling like I had actually travelled to the place I know and love.
If you’ve been on the fence of whether or not to risk diving into this game, I encourage you to reach out and link to this breathtaking new world, you won’t regret it.

Thank you everyone at Cyan who worked on this game for creating something truly spectacular both for old and new fans to enjoy. The Myst games inspired me to make my own worlds and pursue game development, and hopefully this title will also inspire a new generation.

Where to start... I guess with the game's strongest quality that makes it a must play for any LOTR fan despite any negatives the game has - Explore every corner of Tolkien's Middle Earth on an absolutely massive map! And when I say every corner, I mean EVERY corner, including iconic places from the books such as Tom Bombadil's house and the Barrow Downs.

Giant map of Tolkien's Middle Earth.
Regular maintenance and updates, even 16 years later! (2023)
1000's of main story and side quests.
While not always lore accurate, you can tell a lot of effort has gone into staying true to Tolkien's vision
Although there are in app purchases (this is a free to play game), you can actually buy everything by grinding for the premium currency.
Character and outfit customisation, house customisation, crafting, guilds, pets... All the best features an MMO could offer!

There really aren't a lot of negitiaves if you like this type of RPG MMO, but some aspects of gameplay does consist of tasks that you have to grind, and they can get very repetitive, such as killing 200 wolves.
The graphics aren't the worst, and are pretty good for 2007, but there are places where the game's age does show.
There is quite a strong learning curve to how everything works for new players, and not everything get's explained.
The multiplayer experience isn't always the best due to the levelling system often leaving you with big level gaps that aren't balanced when you try to play with friends on a lower level.


All in all it's not for everyone, but any major fan of LOTR should give it a try, even if to just wonder around the map a bit to see all the sights of the rich world that is Tolkien's Middle Earth!

A very short, but beautiful adventure puzzle game with a cute story and interesting art style.

Still one of my favourite games, a classic which has inspired a whole genre.