I first played Riven in the ‘90s as a clueless kid completely unaware of what sort of game it was. It came in one of those chonky retro PC boxes with a whopping five CD-ROMs, and something about it just called to me. We didn’t have the internet back then (the world did, my house just… didn’t) and I sure as hell didn’t solve it all in one playthrough. Every now and then I’d boot it up, try and progress, get frustrated, quit, and then return a month later to chip away at the mystery some more. That was how we did gaming back then.

I haven’t played Riven since and despite only having a vague recollection of things, I was keen to return for its 2024 remake. I was buoyed by an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and the memory of that initial wonder I felt as a child stepping into that digital world. Everything I loved about Riven as a kid is everything I love about Riven as an adult. After being given vague instructions to free Catherine and trap Gehn, you’re ported to another world through a linking book, and from there, you’re pretty much on your own. There’s a keen sense of ‘what am I meant to be doing?’ and you’ll essentially have that through to the end. I’ve never forgotten that feeling of being thrown into a game with such little direction, but that’s one of Riven’s strengths.