Riven is the sequel to Myst. It leads players on a whole new journey of another world called Riven.

There is not as much transporting between ages as there was in Myst. The age of Riven consists of a group of five islands. Most of the game occurs on these islands. Each island is different in its purpose and its geography, but there is a general connection to the nature and the earth on each of them, as shown by the dominant color of brown on them. There is a larger emphasis on nature in Riven since much of the game occurs outdoors, unlike in Myst. There is also much wildlife in Riven. During your travels, you will only encounter two other ages, each with its own theme.

The storyline of Riven is as follows: Atrus sends for you and tells you of his great adversary, his father Gehn, who he hints at in Myst. He tells you that he has trapped Gehn in Riven but is suspicious that he is trying to escape. Gehn has captured Atrus's wife Catherine, a native of Riven, and is trying to use her as bait for Atrus to come to Riven. Atrus then sends you to Riven with his journal and a book to trap Gehn with. You have to find Gehn, trap him, and then free Catherine. Unfortunately a native took your trap book immediately after you land in Riven, so you are faced with another challenge as well.

You are so much more immersed in the storyline in Riven than in Myst. Every action has some affect on the characters in Riven. There is much more of a sense of purpose and a goal than in Myst, in which you are just finding pages to free the brothers. All the objects in Riven have a purpose and every puzzle is another step towards a goal. You have to read many journals in Riven and get a sense of who these people are and what they are trying to do. You become interested in the culture of the local Rivenese, who often run and hide from you. There is much more interaction with the characters, making the game more real.

There are ten different endings to Riven, and only one is the "right" one. That makes your decisions much more critical. A piece of advice: save the game a lot!

Riven comes in 5 CDs, which means a lot of switching between them, but it is all worth it.

System Requirements

PC:

• Windows 95 required
• 100MHz Pentium or faster
• 16MB RAM
• Minimum 75MB hard disk space
• 4X CD-ROM drive or faster
• 640 x 480 display, High Color
• Windows compatible sound device
• Video and sounds cards compatibe with DirectX

Macintosh:

• Mac OS required
• System 7.5 or higher
• 90MHz PowerPC or faster
• 9MB RAM free
• Minimum 65MB hard disk space
• 4X CD-ROM drive or faster
• 640 x 480 display, thousands of colors

Price

Depending on what dealer you go to, the price can vary from $20 to $30.

Buy it now from Amazon.com!