Riven

Everything about Riven was meant to be better than Myst - bigger, it turns out, than anyone on the team could have imagined. From a visual standpoint alone, Riven surpasses Myst in ways that are incredibly complex and refined. Riven is alive, with animated flora and fauna and live-action footage moving seemlessly in and around comptuer-generated sets and props. In the end, while Myst required only one CD-ROM to hold it, Riven would fill five. It is constructed of approximately 4,000 individual shots, compared to the 2,500 in Myst.

Riven is the name of the island in Gehn's fifth Age book, where Atrus previously conspired with Catherine to entrap his father, whose delusions of grandeur had made him ultimately dangerous to everyone. Catherine, unfortunately, has been tricked into returning to Riven by her sons, who were also seduced by the power of the Age book. And she is now Gehn's prisoner.

Riven's world is a collection of islands. Unlive Myst's world, Riven is inhabited, both by forest-dwelling villagers and a rebel faction opposed to Gehn's heavy-handed rule.

The most important goals of the games are clear from the start: entrap Gehn by enticing him with a false Linking book, rescue Catherine and jump into the fissure of stars at the end. Of course there is an added twist: the Linking book is stolen from you at the very beginning of the game and it is up to you to figure out how to get it back before you encounter Gehn.