apusista
Joined Jul 2023
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Reviews1
apusista's rating
We had just got our "PowerMac G3" (around 1998) and having two young sons, I saw a computer game shop and asked if he had any games for Mac, NOT Wolfenstein! He showed me this nice box with this stunning visual (The "Hive") on the cover. The rest as they say, is History... or Mystery 😜 I fell in love.
When it began, we had absolutely no idea what to do, never having played a computer game before, (barring Wolfenstein!) but you stumble upon the first Temple Island puzzle soon enough and figure out that it is VR. Not commonplace back then. Things were where they were supposed to be and remained where you left them. Things worked and they did so very logically! Yet magically! The 'magic' bit came in much later when one figured out what a linking book did, in terms of travel possibilities! We hadn't played Myst but it didn't matter. In fact, it's a better entry point!
What began to hit us right there, was the Graphics, the Art Direction, the Production Design, the Music and the Sounds! It blew our minds... from that "Prayer Room" onwards! (I'm a photographer and amateur musician, my wife is a graphic designer) We'd both interacted with many Creative people in the Ad World and in those days, Creative was the concept guy who was usually a writer and there was the Art Director who could be a graphic designer too! The sheer level of all round creativity on display in RIVEN is frankly, staggering!
The Miller brothers and a third genius who's name I can't remember right now, were mostly behind every aspect of it. How do you think up something like this?! It is totally original, engrossing and dazzling, all at the same time but the story is the backdrop, the most difficult and imaginationly challenging bit of it. (Pardon my English, I wish I could write!)
And then all else, from the Rotating Room with two fixed doors and five destinations. The cable car / roller coaster rides, the lift coming out of the water, the spinning domes, the number system, the ingenuity of each 'puzzle'... (Puzzle is too mundane a word...) The concept of the domes and the linking books, (to me,) fabulous as they are, were the least of it. It was however, HUGELY better than Myst.
Then there were the actors, the creatures, the steam powering everything, the pentagram... As we struggled with the mysteries, the level of creativity, ideas and visuals, would keep hitting us. How, in the mid to late nineties, did they create such a magical place based on real world elements?! The textures, the materials used... even today, the old RIVEN has a charm and feel that cannot be matched! Ever.
Cut to present day and RIVEN lovers have a contemporary version of the great game! I'm pretty old but I was as excited as a child! And it does not disappoint. It is FABULOUS. The animated characters are a big come down from real people, I mean, we are now in the time of Avatar 2, so despite budgetary constraints, they could have been a bit better. Even the two main animals are not as good but other than that, it is really excellent. Technically brilliant, no less. A RIVEN lovers dream come true. Plus some, a LOT actually!
Back then and now, (with today's level of 3D VR) and forever, RIVEN is a feat, a triumph! It's far and out, the best 'computer game' ever designed.
_
When it began, we had absolutely no idea what to do, never having played a computer game before, (barring Wolfenstein!) but you stumble upon the first Temple Island puzzle soon enough and figure out that it is VR. Not commonplace back then. Things were where they were supposed to be and remained where you left them. Things worked and they did so very logically! Yet magically! The 'magic' bit came in much later when one figured out what a linking book did, in terms of travel possibilities! We hadn't played Myst but it didn't matter. In fact, it's a better entry point!
What began to hit us right there, was the Graphics, the Art Direction, the Production Design, the Music and the Sounds! It blew our minds... from that "Prayer Room" onwards! (I'm a photographer and amateur musician, my wife is a graphic designer) We'd both interacted with many Creative people in the Ad World and in those days, Creative was the concept guy who was usually a writer and there was the Art Director who could be a graphic designer too! The sheer level of all round creativity on display in RIVEN is frankly, staggering!
The Miller brothers and a third genius who's name I can't remember right now, were mostly behind every aspect of it. How do you think up something like this?! It is totally original, engrossing and dazzling, all at the same time but the story is the backdrop, the most difficult and imaginationly challenging bit of it. (Pardon my English, I wish I could write!)
And then all else, from the Rotating Room with two fixed doors and five destinations. The cable car / roller coaster rides, the lift coming out of the water, the spinning domes, the number system, the ingenuity of each 'puzzle'... (Puzzle is too mundane a word...) The concept of the domes and the linking books, (to me,) fabulous as they are, were the least of it. It was however, HUGELY better than Myst.
Then there were the actors, the creatures, the steam powering everything, the pentagram... As we struggled with the mysteries, the level of creativity, ideas and visuals, would keep hitting us. How, in the mid to late nineties, did they create such a magical place based on real world elements?! The textures, the materials used... even today, the old RIVEN has a charm and feel that cannot be matched! Ever.
Cut to present day and RIVEN lovers have a contemporary version of the great game! I'm pretty old but I was as excited as a child! And it does not disappoint. It is FABULOUS. The animated characters are a big come down from real people, I mean, we are now in the time of Avatar 2, so despite budgetary constraints, they could have been a bit better. Even the two main animals are not as good but other than that, it is really excellent. Technically brilliant, no less. A RIVEN lovers dream come true. Plus some, a LOT actually!
Back then and now, (with today's level of 3D VR) and forever, RIVEN is a feat, a triumph! It's far and out, the best 'computer game' ever designed.
_