Riven: 9 Differences Between The Original And Remake

Summary

• Riven's remake features improved navigation, 3D character models, and revamped puzzles.
• The shift to a fully explorable world enhances immersion and offers new areas and challenges.
• Quality-of-life improvements, VR accessibility, and enhanced visuals make the game more enjoyable.

Riven is a fantastic puzzle, adventure game released in 1997. You play in first person as the stranger, while exploring the extremely beautiful and complex islands full of amusing puzzles. Due to its striking visuals and phenomenal gameplay, it was well-received by the gaming community back in its days.

Riven (2024): Complete Guide And Walkthrough

Discover all the secrets of Riven with this guide to the 2024 remake!

The remake of Riven by Cyan Worlds comes with massive improvements and changes. But should you start with it, if you've not already played the original Riven?

9 Navigation Style

One of the biggest changes that the Riven remake has made is the change in navigation and exploration style. Instead of using the traditional point-and-click style, riven allows you to freely explore the island.

You can navigate through the detailed Islands in real time, making the experience more immersive. The puzzle solving is much more fun now as you can interact with almost everything in the room. Even though the point-and-click style is pretty great, the 3-D environment and free roam make Riven a much better experience.

8 Character Models

Riven is famous for using live-action, making the experience much more realistic and fun. However, in the 2024 remake of the game, the live-action footage, and the characters are replaced by CGI. There is no doubt that the full-motion video and pre-recorded footage used in the game had its perks, and for many its loss would be a downgrade, but the 3D characters work well with the environment and setting.

FMV-style video games are not well compatible with VR. Therefore the 3D models are definitely the right choice. Cyan Worlds also did a pretty phenomenal job on the voice acting that makes the 3D characters feel more alive.

7 Puzzle Difficulty And Changes

The shift from point-and-click adventure to a fully explorable world has also presented opportunities for a more immersive puzzle-solving experience. Furthermore, the puzzles are tweaked and revamped to fit the overall gameplay. However, if you have played the original Riven, then the puzzles presented in the game might be a bit easier for you.

The changes in the puzzles give the remake its own identity, which is definitely a treat for the fans, as they can enjoy the old puzzles of Riven in a new style. Even though some of the older puzzles have been removed, the new puzzles are just as engaging and offer a fresh experience, especially to returning players of Riven.

6 New And Improved Areas

Riven has featured a lot of environmental changes while keeping the integrity of the original. There are plenty of new areas introduced that feel completely relevant and add more detail to the storyline.

New locations like the Crater Cave with a whole new set of secrets and puzzles to solve are definitely a great addition to the world of Riven in a very gentle and effortless way. Some of the original locations have been changed a bit as well and have a lot of surprises hidden for you to find out.

5 3D Worldbuilding

Instead of using static images, the Riven remake uses a well-designed 3D world with a detailed atmosphere. Cyan Worlds has put a special focus on the exploration ability, which makes traversing around the strange areas of the game an adventure in itself.

Riven (2024): Age 233 Walkthrough

Defeating Gehn and returning to Riven in one piece is no easy feat.

Unreal Engine really enhances the famous original locations and infrastructures, which is no less than eye candy for original Riven fans. The shift from static and pre-rendered images, to fully optimized locations and areas is definitely a welcoming change.

4 Quality Of Life Improvements

There have been several quality-of-life improvements introduced in the recent remake of Riven that have considerably made the game much more accessible, easy, and fun. Now, you can take a screenshot of anything you want during your gameplay and even add in a few pointers that can be crucial for certain puzzles and islands that you will encounter later on.

This makes navigation across various stages and exploring different locations less frustrating. Furthermore, comfort settings, like posture, adjustable player height, and smoother movement have also improved the overall gameplay.

3 VR Accessibility

Many new changes in the remake have been made to make the VR experience better. The puzzle-solving experience feels deeply immersive and the true-to-life graphics make everything feel more realistic than ever in VR. Navigation across different locations also feels pretty good and certain areas feel more alive than ever.

Interacting with wildlife, massive structures, and mysterious places while playing in VR is breathtakingly beautiful. Despite a few issues and bugs with interaction and fast travel, it is definitely worth experiencing Riven in VR.

2 Visuals

The visuals have been significantly improved with refined and smoother graphics, and better lighting. The best part about it is that the improvement in graphics is effortlessly beautiful and the remake manages to keep the integrity of all the original locations by not tweaking it more than required.

Every single frame of Riven feels more vibrant than ever. Cyan Worlds undoubtedly did a very great job of modernizing and improving the graphics without straying away from the original aesthetic Riven is so popular for.

1 Story And Lore

In terms of lore and story, the remake has provided more depth, making it easier to understand certain complex story elements from the original one. There are more hints to the background and lore of the canon story in the remake. While there are a few changes to certain parts of Riven, which are extremely significant to the story progression, the modifications do not seem overwhelming at all.

The minor changes in the story align greatly with the gameplay. Furthermore, there are more details for the lore that you can access easily by, going through in-game notes or reading the Journal of Atrus.

Riven (2024): Achievement / Trophy Guide

Explore all of Riven and see every possible ending to fill your collection of accolades!