Despite it's age Riven is a great experience that serves as a fine example of a video game as art.
The events of Riven take place directly after the conclusion of Myst with Atrus sending you to the world of Riven to rescue his wife Catherine and imprison his father Gehn. Those wanting to fully absorb themselves in the world of Riven will find a rich and intriguing backstory giving context to your actions and the state of the island. The plot is mostly advanced by reading journals written by the three central characters and some of these are lengthy reads lasting upwards of thirty minutes of pouring over their handwriting. These journals not only advance the backstory but serve to give you hints or outright solutions to some of the puzzles that comprise the game.
Riven plays exactly like it's predecessor and is an excellent example of both why the point-and-click style of PC games were popular at one point and why they are unpopular now. To those of you that are unfamiliar with point-and-click adventure games Riven's gameplay is solely based around exploration of the world and solving puzzles that you come across in order to access more areas. There is no combat and no real interaction with other characters except for a bit towards the end. This serves to evoke atmosphere as without dialogue or the bustle of humans you find yourself immersed in the exploration of your environment. The only gripes to be had with Riven's gameplay are those inherent in all point-and-click games which is that you'll quite often find yourself stuck with no option but to backtrack to areas previously visited and click on everything until you find something that actually does something. While it's easy to look up a guide those that tough it out and actually find solutions on their own will get the most satisfaction from playing Riven. That said some of the puzzles are rather difficult as they involve clues spread out over the island your currently on, or in some cases the whole world. In this regard Riven is a game you'll need to play with some scrap paper and a pen handy as detailed notes of anything possibly significant reduce the amount of time you spend backtracking and/or scratching you head as you try to figure out what your supposed to do.
Where Myst was a collection of worlds all connected by the island world of Myst Riven almost entirely takes place in the world of Riven which is spread out over five islands connected by a series of trams. It looked amazing in 1997 and despite it's low-rez presentation it still holds up well now. That said some concessions need to be made considering it's genre and the time in which it was made. Riven is not a 3d game; it is a series of images which you must click through to advance through areas. These aren't still images, there are insects buzzing about, the occasional bird flying overhead, the rippling of water, and the whirling of the various devices you come across. If you can get past this you'll find Riven to be a gorgeous world that is a wonder to experience.
Part of why Myst was so revolutionary upon it's release was it's use of ambient sound to immerse the player in their environment. While no longer revolutionary Riven's sound design is still amazingly well done with tons of ambient noise in most areas. Be it the buzz of insects as you walk through a forest, the hum of machinery, or the lapping of waves upon the shore as you try to find your way into a large water tank. If you stop whatever your doing for a moment to listen there is almost always something to listen to. In some areas you'll find yourself treated to some quiet music that often serves to complement the ambient noise of wherever you are. As mentioned before there is minimal interaction between the player and other characters but when people do speak their acting is better then that found in most games released ten years later.
Originally released on five CDs Riven was re-released on a single DVD which is definitely the way to go if your wanting to pick up Riven. The CD version requires you install an ancient (1996) version of Quicktime to run as it doesn't play with more recent releases of the same software. With the CD version you have to swap discs every time you move from one island to another which is quite often. Also I found that as I moved around my disc drive was almost constantly in high gear which produced a distracting amount of noise. To further sweeten the deal the DVD version also features higher quality audio and a fifteen minute making of documentary. Also of note I found that upon installing the game I got no sound during video sequences but after a quick internet search a work-around was found and the game ran just fine after.
If you enjoy point-and-click adventure games and (for some reason) haven't played Riven then you need to play this game. The flaws it has come from it being old software and from the conventions of the point-and-click genre of games. It offers a level of immersion that full 3D titles still struggle to evoke and a features a truly inspired game world. It is a fine example of a video game as art; released years before that debate even started.