![]() ![]() As I played through the game I took notes on each of the sounds that came out of the wooden eyes but, it never occurred to me that they corresponded to animal sounds. Just based on which animals I actually saw on the island, I was able to guess 4 of the 5 pictures I would ultimately have to use however, identifying which animal made which sound was daunting. The animal circle, or Satan’s Baby Choo-Choo as I like to call it, requires you to learn the Riven numerical system, recognize the sounds of multiple fictional animals (apparently there are silhouettes you can use as well, but I couldn’t see them for 3 of the 5 animals), and select the proper animal pictures, in order, from a circle of over 20 animals (most of which you’ve never seen before). However, all of that work ultimately led to an intensely frustrating experience that made me want to quit the game. They both require information that is stretched across the entire game world and each piece of information is behind multiple puzzles. The animal circle puzzle and the marble puzzle are the two most elaborate puzzles I’ve ever seen in an adventure game. This game goes through tremendous pains to set up two puzzles. I don't know how many times I saw those things, but if you played their call now I still wouldn't recognize it.Ģ. I love this story despite its somewhat clunky delivery and pacing problems. Her journal, full of self-doubt mixed with belief in her ultimate goal, was quite a read. I also really enjoyed Catherine’s struggle with being the messiah in her own society’s religious dogma. ![]() I enjoyed that he thought that he could convince the main character to trust him, despite the monstrous aloofness he displays in all of his journals and artifices. Ghen’s lack of self-awareness and complete belief in his own intelligence is believable and terrifying. It is incredible that the game features a clear critique of power fantasies, couched in a story of an indigenous uprising overthrowing a narcissistic colonizer. Ghen essentially wrote an escapist fantasy where he ruled as a god over a disempowered populous using book-based technologies and giant fish monsters that they could not oppose. I really enjoyed the game’s explanation for why the world of Riven is as flawed and obsessed with the number five as it is: it is an age that was written by Ghen, a man who is a flawed writer and is obsessed with the number five. The story of Riven is largely about designing, creating, and writing and as a writer I love a good story about the power/danger of the pen. Now once you get to the story, it touches on ideas and themes that games rarely cover. I’m finding that I have less and less time to play games nowadays and spending days beating my head against puzzles, only to be rewarded with a text log, just does did not do it for me, so I used a guide for some puzzles. If I had no other games to play or other commitments, I might feel differently about the pacing. ![]() After beating any of the large puzzles that dot the story, you often have to spend 10-20 minutes reading and carefully scribbling notes about what you could possibly do next. Even worse, the journals are all quite long. It’s unfortunate that the bulk of the locations in the game are hidden behind puzzles that can range from run-of-the-mill unintuitive to Rube Goldberg-ian unintuative. Finally using that telescope was awesome, even if I got the bad ending the first time. That environmental storytelling is oftentimes reinforced and expanded upon by journals that you find later in the game. Though things like the Moiety knives, the five pointed star, and the hangman toy, Riven’s environment conveys a lot of information about Gehn’s rule over the islands and the resistance that rose up against him. Riven tells its story through both journal entries and environmental cues and, thanks to the obtuseness of its puzzles, each form of storytelling is undercut. Riven has a great story, but it can be really poorly paced if you get stuck on any puzzles. Also some of the intermediate steps are super convoluted and boring so let’s skip to the good stuff: the takeaways.ġ. I really wanted to see the ending so I powered through and I’m afraid some of the intermediate steps were lost in the shuffle. I thought I would continue narrating my revelations and frustrations with the game however, in the intervening days I beat the game. When I left off my last blog post I had every intention of continuing the blow by blow of my playthrough of Riven. ![]()
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