Riven | Official Launch Trailer | Available NOW | 4k 

"It's a little childish and stupid, but then so is high school ..."

You're going to call out sick again, right? Right? :D

@@josephnoe2956 no need to since the release date is the evening of my "weekend" I'm free and clear

Probably why youre STILL in school.

It's time to call in sick again!

At one point I lost one of the discs 😢, man was that a juggle. I think I ended up rebuying the game so I could finish it lol.

I still have my 5 discs with the CD sleeves and everything. Holding on to that treasure for as long as I can.

@@Dublin.655 Me too! 🥰

You too? Me and my siblings were SPELLBOUND

@@JCarey1988 Even though I have the discs (and the booklets), I bought both Myst and Riven from GOG! I can only imagine how immersive it would be on VR 😲

Game wise, at least.

They remade Myst for Quest 2

And by the same people, so it's authentic

Where did the time go....

This remake was technically in the works for 15 years. Of course, once Cyan picked it up this went FAST.

Is this true? I thought Myst held the title until The Sims in 2002. Riven also sold very, very well, but Myst was just a phenomenon unto itself. According to a history of Riven that I read recently by The Digital Antiquarian, Myst returned to the top of the sales charts in 1997 anticipation of the release of Riven (unheard of for a nearly four year old game at that time), and then again *after* Riven's release in 1998. Riven never had a chance to catch up.

The best box art on a store shelf I’ve ever seen

@@bendykst in 1997 Riven sold 1.5 million copies. That was unheard of back then

@@Synthonym if you dont count the original game, yeah, lol

@@bendykst It's funny, Myst was the first game to knock Doom off the top of the game charts :D

Also VR. my Quest 3 is ready. this is a dream come true for me.

realRiven. finally

​@@gamertechkid1490 I remember fifteen to twenty years ago bringing up the possibility on MystCommunity (a webboard that's now defunct), and the idea being written off as never-gonna-happen.

@@outerheaven155 Did you have the Quest 2? That's what I have and I feel like it'd get so hot it'll actually melt my head if I tried playing it on that haha.

@@saitodosan9377 ive got myst installed for my Cv1, quest 2 and quest 3. It gets hot after a while but it never bothered me.

rocking my first new pc in !@#$ 12 years and a 3080 GPU. I will literally buy VR headset for this game.

27 year actually!

Which magazine? I saw it in Popular Magazine. I can still see the ad in my mind.

@@LiquidTurbo I wish I could remember.. my friend showed me it at school and I just remember it looked so good. I couldn’t even run it on our computer at the start.. I had to go and buy more RAM for it! Haha good days

Yes! Me and my boys played Myst and Riven years ago. Many many hours of fun and brain bending puzzles. Looking forward to this release!

and it's in real time now.

I'd love to be like you once again, discovering it for the first time Enjoy your trip !

@@bzurgland Oh! I'm not new to it. I bought it when it was released in 1997. But they're adding many new things to the game, and that's why I'm so surprised. Though, I didn't want to comment what they're adding, to avoid spoilers. :)

Looks like a walking simulator from the trailer.

@@Ragnar452 It's a puzzle

@@Ragnar452 Funny, I seem to recall that a lot of the criticism these games received back in the mid-90s was around the fact that, while pretty, they were very much an "interactive slide show" and "more art than game".

Unreal!

Agreed. Hope someone makes a VR port of it too!

The best thing about Riven is that you don’t solve the individual puzzles, you solve the world and the solutions come naturally after

Because moving in a 3d space it wouldn't be viable, however the viewer for Prison Island looks to be og video.

Ghen looks crap to me T_T

​@@Cynbel_Terreus Yep, that's what I figured. Then again, there's always the option to take a page from Myst IV's book (pardon the pun) and fix the camera angle during cutscenes (I can't think of a single instance in the original Riven that would allow freeroam while a character is on-screen). Not to mention the capabilities of modern AI-powered solutions, which allow upscaling old footage and converting it to a more or less photorealistic 3D character model with animations. Though I can understand if something this experimental would be too risky for a project like Riven. However, from what I understand, Cyan decided to add new dialogue in this version of Riven, in which case neither of the solutions I described would be viable (since two actors from the original cast had sadly passed away). All things considered, I'm pretty happy with what we're getting with this version.

@@Cynbel_Terreus Eh, you could upscale the video and just lock the camera for the cutscene. But 3D models were probably easier and more practical to integrate with the new engine.

@@Dr_Slash People are pointing out the game is supposed to support VR, which means locking the angle goes out the window. A bit of a shame, but an understandable decision.

Same!

Same, 20 years in 3d animation and design thanks to Cyans influence. Different career now, but at home I still tinker.

0:56 The map on survey island has changed - suggests they've changed the solution ...

I wll say what I said to other friends that like these games: I AM NOT READY FOR THE BEAD PUZZLE IN HI-REZ.

Hopefully they've done more to give that puzzle context. But navigating in 3D alone simplifies getting there.

@@alistairkirk3264 I don't want to spoil anything, but I think I see what they're doing with the changed map and the new marble tube at 0:25...

To the tune of "Little White Duck" by Burl Ives There's a little orange tram In Selentic's ca-aves. Little orange tram, Makes you rant and ra-ave. Trying to see who's good and who's bad, But just what a hard time you've had. There's a little orange tram In Selenitic's ca-aves. Tsaink! Dink! Plunk! There's a little black grid In Riven's great dome's cleftway. Little black grid, Makes you rant and ra-ave. On an isle run by Atrus' dad, What a difficult time you've had. There's a little black grid In Riven's great dome's cleftway. Kam! Tick! Rats!

My first ever game was called The Manhole... By a tiny studio called Cyan... ;)

I'll have to check your channel then.

And 80 ;-)

OMG yes yes yes!

Likewise, hopefully they will make it an option to toggle on/off in settings like they did on their most recent Myst remake.

So glad they were able to salvage the original audio instead of getting someone else to record the lines.

Same, was counting on them doing some AI upscaling of the video or something, but maybe it wasn't practical. Oh well, still looks good.

"high key"? HAHAHA! Saying "low key" is dumb enough.... but you dont say "high key" to show opposite, genius! Thats not even a thing! So embarrassing! smh

@@thecalloftheroad I'm glad at least that they've finally managed to create a decent looking 3D human. The 3D versions of Atrus, Sirrus, and Achenar in the Myst remake were horrifying.

Yeah, my immediate kneejerk reaction was a bit negative, but on closer inspection it's a great job they've done. It's not like Myst VR where you can immediately list all the major issues. If you dropped this down to the resolution of the original game, I'd dare say he would look real.

It was a bit of the same for me... I feel like it's almost perfect or almost there...I think it's lighting too, maybe something that can be perfected eventually.

Shedding a few tears over here too. This is amazing but if I had a magic wand...I'd rather be in the basement with 4 siblings, swapping CD's and scribbling notes on spare printer paper.

God bless you. Minecraft is awesome too btw ;)

Have you ever played the original The Longest Journey?

It's hyper immersive. Wish these guys would make an RPG with atmosphere this thick.

I think you were completely “mesmerised.” 🤔😊

I agree. The world is very convincing! Puzzle are perfectly integrated in the context. This is a sublime example of game design. I have never seen something similar in games like this. Never.

Amazingly this game felt and sounded so real. You could almost "feel" the heat of the area sometimes. And yet, it was all still images, but you'd "turn" to go different ways. Amazing to see it finally become "real time". Still my favorite of the series.

I envy you! I’d like to meet Rend too, but from Italy it’s quite hard.

I have just played it on my Steamdeck. At low settings with HDR is AMAZING! I can’t wait to play it in VR!!!

And I will probably not mind the occasional bugs which force you to replay the entire game from the beginning.

Unfortunately in a VR supported game there's no good way around that. Even in that tiny little space he would be noticeable as perfectly flat if they just used the old footage. Not an ideal situation to work with, but I can tell they're doing what they can to keep his original performance alive.

@@kantackistan ohhhh yeah. I keep forgetting it's for VR. There is a non VR option too, right?... I hope? Lol

@@Macil2018 There is, but they also have the additional issue where they've also expanded the game to be even bigger, so even if not for VR, they would have had to use 3D models for the new content. So even if they didn't have VR support they'd have had to use models to avoid the flat characters clashing with the 3D ones.

I would be perfectly happy to have a flat FMV playing in front of me instead, I don't care if it looks goofy as hell. I'm sure someone will make a mod...

@@kemanorel3110 all the same I'm sure it's going to be spectacular!

Indeed... the original really focused on just Riven itself, and even that took 5 CDs... now they're free to make whatever they want without memory limitations... i hope they also expand Age 233. :D

Tag us when you publish your song(s)! For reference, we have a Fan-Made Content Policy to help clarify our position on fans making stuff with Cyan's IP (and to be clear... WE LOVE IT!!!) cyan.com/fan-made-content-policy/

Thank you, ​@@Cyan-Official! I'll be sure to look at it before publishing, I'll make it in good taste, if ever!

​@@Cyan-Official Great! Inspired by a JoshScorcher video a couple of months ago, I've been working on a villain song from the perspective of Ymur (with some Don't-Become-A-Monster input from Hersha), with the working title "The Terahnee Child of Today".

@@Cyan-Official obviously Cyan aint capitalist factories like Ea and other big names that constantly cease fan made projects

Back in the day this stunned my father speechless with its graphics. He had no idea a computer could show something as good as 5-CD Riven.

duuude, it's Riven, how can the number of discs be anything other than 5

That was one of my biggest concerns, I have to admit.

And by that you mean "like ass". I know it would ruin people's nostalgia to recast the actor, but fuck nostalgia. Everyone complained about the actors in Myst VR being computer animated to the point where fans modded the original footage back in, and part of the charm of Myst's lore was that they used real actors.

@@PikaLink91 It looked noticeably better than Myst, but that was a very low bar to clear and it's still not very good. I think these will probably end up being passable.

@@PikaLink91 it's got nothing to do with nostalgia. there are countless reasons why 3D characters make more sense in a high resolution, roamable 3D game, especially with VR support. It's far from looking ass, (like Myst 2021 did) though I get the reaction after being used to seeing a literal real man for 25 years. Some lighting tweaks and he could look extremely realistic. The anatomy and level of detail are great, the movement is real performance capture data... by all objective measures they've done well. I didn't like it on first glance but it holds up quite well to scrutiny. It's a praiseworthy effort. It's also worth remembering that Myst mainly had characters only visible on the pages of books. Riven's cast all move around the 3D space.

Gehn looks alright-ish. So far we don't know what happened to Sheila Goold's Catherine performance. She sadly passed away in 2017. I really hope they manage to keep her original performance, at least in the non-VR version.

I doubt there will be, as cool a feature as it is it introduces a lot of issues with keeping the visuals consistent, especially for keeping puzzles readable (remember how realMyst Masterpiece Edition's solution was that really ugly generic flashlight?)

@monkeywithocd Well, the RealMyst games had them. Also, remember the geothermal fog and lava glow in Riven. That might light up some areas or create some awesome effects...

Same here, except that it's a few mixes of music from all six games.