Split Direction
I keep seeing everywhere — in reviews for Riven — that the game is supposed to be impossible to play without a walkthrough. Everything I’ve ever read on the game instructs the reader to find a hint book or walkthrough, as the game is, otherwise, too difficult and frustrating to play. The game isn’t made to be played on one’s own ability.
What the hell? Riven’s not a difficult game. All you need is a small amount of patience and the capacity to think. It can become frustrating, yes, but that’s a part of the whole point of the thing. You’re supposed to find and follow the game’s inner logic — and not very complex logic, at that. How hard is it to realize if two objects are shaped in the same, uncommon way that they probably are somehow related? To follow tubes and turn valves to change the flow of steam? There were only two or three small things in the entire game which seriously stumped me, and those were completely my own fault; I just didn’t see something relatively obvious.
Myst, while a little easier, was a little less obvious about things, and, as such, was more annoying to play. Riven is streamlined to the point where, given a couple of weeks and some quiet time alone, a person of average intellect should have little trouble completing it. All you have to do is, to a very small extent, think. I mean, I know how some games can drive a person nuts by their complete lack of logic or near-impossible (and irrelevant) puzzles, but Riven isn’t that way at all. It has a total of one or two “puzzles” in the entire game, if you could call them that; those are solved basically just by being thorough and exploring until enough data has been collected that connections can be made and some picture begins to form.
I mean, really. The typical excuse is “well, I don’t want to spend my life playing a game — I just want to walk around and have fun.” Look — anyone who says that is completely missing the point. If you don’t have any patience and aren’t willing to think, you shouldn’t be playing a game like Riven. It’s not a hard game, but it’s not made for bumble-minded brats. That’s why they make Doom clones. Go net-play or something. If you’re going to play a game, play the fucking game. If you want to turn off clipping, fly, and shoot things, they make these games — play them. Have your fun.