Highly Recommended with One Provision – Riven for iPad Review

This app is a port of an old PC game. Like most adventure puzzle games - even those developed today, Riven did NOT have free roaming movement when it was developed, and this port doesn't have it either. It's a port, not a rewrite. Riven was the sequel to a PC game called Myst. The original version of Myst had the same kind of gameplay as this port, but in later years, Cyan released an updated version of Myst with free roaming movement and 3D graphics; this updated version of Myst was called realMyst, and realMyst was the version that was ported to the iPad. Unfortunately, this difference in graphics and movement between realMyst and Riven has led to a number of unfairly negative reviews and ratings for the Riven app due to the number of people who played realMyst as an app and expected the Riven app to have the same kind of free roaming movement. If the lack of free roaming movement will ruin the game for you, don't get this app. Although Riven is a sequel, you don't need to play Myst. However, Myst provides some interesting backstory for Riven, so if story is important to you, you might want to consider playing Myst first. The triumph of Riven's design was not the graphics or sound - though they were cutting edge when the game was first developed - but the integration of the puzzles into the game environment. Instead of using what has become the industry standard for adventure puzzle games in which the player has a random, meaningless puzzle pop up that he must solve in order to access the next screen or area, each "puzzle" in Riven has the player interacting with a realistic environment in which each object has a reason for being there beyond just to give the player puzzles to solve; the objects with which the player interacts in Riven all have a reason for being there to the characters who live in the world of Riven. Unlike most of today's adventure puzzle games which rely heavily on having the player hunt for a dozen or more random, meaningless hidden objects on a static screen in order to get a single useful inventory item that then usually must be applied to every interactive spot until the correct one is found, every object in Riven has meaning and purpose to the inhabitants of Riven. ** SPOILER ** Even the children's toy used to teach a player the symbols for D'ni numbers tells a chilling story of what life is like for Riven villagers. You have to take the time and make the effort to think about the implications of the things around you or you'll miss much of the game's story, but no matter how much time a player spends trying random actions on a difficult puzzle, when the solutions are finally revealed, they make sense. Riven is not a game for the impatient. It rewards people who are willing to take the time and make the effort to study the game's environment and to understand the story that is being unfolded through the environment itself rather than through extensive cutscenes. But that is what makes the game so immersive, despite the lack of free roaming movement. Taken purely from the point of view of story, atmosphere, and puzzles, Riven is the best game I've ever played.
Review by player58z on Riven for iPad.