DLCThe Riven CompanionLoading store offers
Riven
Riven is built around exploration, close observation, and puzzles woven into a mysterious story. At the tracked low, it costs ≈ $11.53 from 
GOG, making this a timely opportunity for anyone who enjoys piecing together clues in an unfamiliar world. Its 92%% positive rating from 2,786 reviews offers additional context, while full controller support gives you a choice of controls. At $20.99 from GOG, Riven is at the site’s tracked historical low; its puzzle-focused adventure also has 92%% positive reviews from 2,786 players.
All-time low ~ $20.99across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $20.992025-04Current Low Across Stores~ $24.49Steamvs. Historical Low+17%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
DLC
01About Riven
Explore a mysterious world on the brink of collapse, moving through jungles and caverns and investigating monumental structures. Riven ties intricate puzzles to a story whose clues are scattered throughout the environment. Observe closely, connect seemingly separate information, and uncover the secrets of the island’s inhabitants and its golden dome. Steam player reviews: 92%% positive from 2,786 reviews.
Credits
R
Developer
Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Publisher
Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$20.992025-04-12 · SteamBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 8 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | — |
| Japanese | Yes | Yes | — |
| Korean | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Portuguese-Brazil | Yes | Yes | — |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Spanish-Latin America | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-20
02Before you buy
Play and controls
Riven is single-player, supports Steam Cloud, and offers full controller support.
Language and audio
The interface is available in multiple languages. English has full audio; the other listed languages have subtitles.
03Frequently asked questions
What kind of world does Riven feature?
You explore a mysterious world of jungles, caverns, and monumental structures.
How do the puzzles work?
Its puzzles are woven into the story; careful observation and connecting scattered clues help you solve them.
What does the remake change?
The remake adds free movement through a real-time 3D environment and expands on the 1997 original’s story.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
Some thirty years ago, my brother and I were two little kids that hopped on our family's humble Macintosh IIci and became enamored and awestruck by an immersive 3D-rendered world that was Myst and then later Riven. It was very different from any of the sprite-filled 16 or 32-bit games at the time and seemingly beyond the scope of what two tiny grade schoolers would comprehend. We'd confuse our teachers as to why we would go to school drawing black triangles on the corners of our composition notebooks, complemented by a rune on front and square drawing on the first page, and then treating them as mystical teleportation books (and yes, with the added sound effects). Or bewilder our family by walking around the house with our hands stretched outright, "clicking" our way across the house. There was also never a shortage of Myst or Riven island drawings, or increasingly ornate Linking Books, strewn about our family and friends homes and classrooms. My brother even created an Atrus outfit for Halloween once. Eventually, my interests turned elsewhere in games, but Riven always maintained an impact on my brother. He even promised me that he would one day work for Cyan. At the time, I kind of shrugged it off as a cute but unrealistic dream. Riven had inspired my brother so much that for Christmas one year he didn't ask for toys or video games like a typical kid would, but instead a complicated 3D modeling software called StrataVision 3D, the very same software used to render scenes in the original Myst. I had no idea what my Dad was thinking to get his grade-school child an expensive piece of software that he may have no idea how to use, let alone for however long, but he did. With only the paperback manual, my brother went on to teach himself how to craft an impressive 3D island-world directly inspired by Temple Island in Riven and navigate it using HyperCard. And throughout his school years he continued to model and draw art for many of his projects because of this. Eventually, as an adult, he finally broke into the gaming industry and I figured that was the end of it. Much more recently, I returned home after living ten years abroad as an expat. I came home to find his computer on and that some kind of game was running on it. I was shocked to find out that he created a welcome home game in Unreal Engine to greet me. And woe and behold, the first thing I'm greeted by is the very island-world that he created as a kid. It was instantly recognizable and only something that we would understand, as we shared it together so many years ago. Somehow he was able to painstakingly port it over from that old 3D software and turned it into a playable adventure world. It was a small game to play through, but it was chock-full of inside jokes and childhood references to Macintosh games or pop culture we once used to enjoy as kids. I was also surprised when he told me that he got into the Starry Expanse Project, who were working on the remake of his favorite childhood game, Riven. Little did I realize that some thirty years later my brother would come full circle from the dreams and imaginations of his childhood self to end up contributing to the development of the very game that inspired him to break into the gaming industry in the first place. The fact that he achieved his childhood dream and pursued his inspiration due to this game has left me incredibly astonished and proud. Truly, there is no one in life that you will know longer than your own sibling and I only have one. I love him very much and this accomplishment is a memory I will treasure. I am buying this game once more to show how grateful and supportive I am to Starry Expanse and Cyan in remaking such a fantastic world and story to get lost in once again. Thank you for the impact and inspiration you've had on our lives. Edit: Clarifying that he was involved with Starry Expanse not Cyan.Show moreShow less
1 hours at review884 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
TLDR: If this is your first time playing Riven, play the 1997 original instead. It is a masterpiece in a way that this game simply isn't. You can find it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/63610/ If you found the original to be too difficult, this is a solid game that should serve as an alternate, easier way of experiencing the story of Riven. If you've played Riven before, this is a dramatically different game than you played in 1997, but it's still a fun puzzle game that's on par with the original Myst. If that sounds appealing, go for it. Review: Riven is the sequel to Myst, picking up right where the previous game left off. If you've not played Myst yet, I recommend playing that game first. There are many different versions of Myst, and I have a review on the Steam page for the most recent version (simply titled Myst) that should help you decide which version is right for you. Unlike Myst, which has three different remakes, this is the first time that Riven has been remade. As such, playing this version - with updated graphics, free-roam movement, VR support, extra content - seems like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the situation is far more complicated than that. Calling this a "remake" isn't the most accurate description. This game is a dramatically different take on the source material. Though the broad strokes of the original story of Riven are still there, the details have been changed, and the gameplay is almost unrecognizable. Reworking this game so thoroughly was a bold choice. I had always been a fan of the original Riven because it was one of the only puzzle games I've ever seen to create puzzles that integrated perfectly with the environment. Nothing in the world of Riven is an explicit puzzle, rather the puzzles are derived from your lack of knowledge about the cohesive, coherent world that you have invaded. There are no purpose-built test chambers or arbitrary locking systems, rather there are practical mechanisms that aren't documented because you were never supposed to be the one using them. There is a culture that you don't understand because you were never supposed to be visiting them. The game is coherent in a way that almost no other game I have ever played has been. To fundamentally rework Riven without upsetting that intricate weaving of narrative and world-building and gameplay would take some significant effort. I am a firm believer that with enough dedication to that goal someone could make another game like Riven, but it would be no easy task. What did Cyan do to maintain that cohesion in this game? Effectively, they didn't even try, and the result has left me with mixed feelings. The new Riven is far closer to Myst in structure, with a world that is physically believable, visually intriguing, but functionally ridiculous. In that regard, I suppose it resembles most puzzle games. While the puzzles may be somewhat more narratively justified here than they were in Myst, they are nowhere near as perfectly integrated as they were in the original Riven. There are puzzles for puzzles' sake. There are character behaviors that don't make logical sense. There are unconvincing environmental behaviors. All of these in the name of explicit puzzles. For me, this destroys a fundamental appeal of Riven, but what it *doesn't* do is make this game a bad experience. Riven had always been a unique case, and I have enjoyed plenty of puzzle games that had more direct approaches to their puzzles. When taken for what it is, this version of Riven is just that: a very good but fairly standard puzzle game. In my opinion, that's a step back from the incredible work of art that the original game was, but it's not a bad place to be in a vacuum. If you didn't know this was a remake, you'd probably have a good time here. That said, as someone who has played both versions of the game, I see this release somewhat differently. This is not a remake of Riven, it's an easy mode. I have watched many people play through the original game, and often those who stopped before reaching the end did so because they found it too difficult. This is a common sentiment. Riven is generally considered to be an incredibly difficult game. That difficulty largely arises from the indirect nature of its puzzles. Seasoned gamers will come into Riven looking for more traditional puzzles and won't find them. Piecing together the components of the world that will help you do what you're trying to do is exponentially more difficult if you're thinking of that original Riven as a game and not as a world. This game doesn't require that mental shift. This game presents the player with a far more guided path through far more explicit puzzles. As such, I see it as a welcome alternative for those who enjoyed Myst but couldn't make it through Riven on account of the difficulty. You'll get the broad story arc and be set up to play the later games, but the experience will be far more Myst-like. For returning players, the recommendation is more difficult. If you were looking to buy this game to revisit the world of Riven in VR, you may be disappointed. Myst VR, despite its many alterations, was unmistakably the same world. Riven has some familiar scenes - the rotating room, the fish statue, the view of the crater pool, the giant crystal formation, the overly-designed golden Tardis looking elevator room - but it is fundamentally different. You may find the experience isn't quite what you were hoping for. You won't be able to visit the village, the golden dome, the survey outpost, the frog trap, the submarine, the various linking book domes, etc. in anything resembling their original forms. This might be enough to satisfy your urges, but it's definitely not going to be as incredibly powerful an experience as walking through Myst was just a few years ago. If you're just interested in another Cyan adventure that happens to retell the story of Riven, I think you'll enjoy this. As I said, the game is good, it's just not the outright masterpiece of the original. It can hold its own against Myst for sure, though, and you'll have a fun time getting through the new puzzles. The whole experience took me about 9 hours as a returning player, but I'd say an hour or so of that was just me talking to myself. 8 hours is a reasonable estimate. If you're here just for the new story content, I wouldn't recommend this game. There isn't much, and what is there taps into the novels in a way that's upsettingly unbelievable. Part of me is disappointed in this game. It is a clear downgrade from the original product, and the fact it bears the Riven name and is sold as a remake will undoubtedly cause many people to play this version instead without knowing any better. Given the number of Myst remakes that have happened over the years, perhaps the work put into this product will result in a more faithful remake of Riven at some point in the future, though I wouldn't hold my breath for it. I would love to see such a product. It deserves to exist. Still, another part of me is happy that I have something to point to for those who struggled with that original game. If this is the gateway that gets more people to play Myst III, perhaps it was worth it after all. And of course, I did have a good time with it. If these puzzles comprised Myst VI, I wouldn't be feeling as confused as I do right now. I would be singing the praises of another solid puzzle game in the Myst universe that lives up to the original Myst's standards. The only reason this elicits negative feelings is the fact that it doesn't live up to Riven, the title it bears. If I could rate "mixed" here on Steam, I would. Since I can't, I think "not recommended" is the better option. If I'm recommending against this game for first-time players, I think that's the recommendation that ought to take precedent in my selection.Show moreShow less
9 hours at review196 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Riven Review Wow, I'm impressed! I was expecting a basic remake exactly the same as the original, but Cyan really went out of their way to change things up and add new content. A lot more than I would've expected. There's still the familiar puzzles but the new ones are great too. It felt like playing Riven for the first time again. Not to mention the world looks STUNNING and so immersive. Cons: • New or revamped puzzles means some of the original ones have changed or parts are missing, this might disappoint a small subset of original fans and cause them confusion while playing but I think it's an improvement. • The video actors have been replaced by 3D characters. Although it was done better than the cartoony style in the recent Myst remake, it might still be a negative for some people since it's not as hyper-realistic. Pros: • New or revamped puzzles to keep the original fans busy, I was very excited by the changes. • Beautiful graphics, (Unsurprisingly) a huge upgrade from the original 1997 Riven. • New elements in the environment that help backup the lore more. • As always, fantastic music and sound design, Cyan is known for this. • The game feels immersive, it's easy to forget how long you've been playing. • A lot of depth to the lore, much can be discerned within game but some of it might need to be discovered in the other games in the series and the trilogy of books. All-in-all, whether you're an old fan or new to Cyan games, I highly recommend this game. You can't miss this one if you enjoy puzzle, narrative, or detective games. Hope you enjoy your adventure as much as I did! Fay Everdunes (Just a quick disclosure: I did get to check out this game early to playtest but I paid for the game myself and do not work for Cyan)Show moreShow less
35 hours at review282 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Don't buy if you require the ability to rebind controls Many people will be fine with the default WASD keyboard bindings, but many will not. If you're left-handed or have a non-qwerty keyboard layout, or have other needs that WASD doesn't satisfy, maybe don't buy just yet. I've been looking forward to this release and I am disappointed that I can't play it comfortably.Show moreShow less
0.2 hours at review183 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Remember to shut the door behind youShow moreShow less
0.4 hours at review201 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I really wanted to like this. The original Riven was one of the very first games I played. I replayed it two years ago and I can confidently say that - besides the abysmally low resolution - it has held up well both graphically and in terms of gameplay, given its age. This remake is, unfortunately, a disappointment both in comparison to the original and as a stand-alone game in my opinion. Before I get into why that is, I want to applaud Cyan for this remake because it is clear that a lot of effort went into this game. The graphics are stunning and are a faithful and genuine improvement over the original graphics. The water and animal animations are great. Some aspects of the game were reworked due to the nature of the original being a point and click game and while I am not a huge fan of most of the solutions (see below), it is undeniable that a lot of creativity has been employed to come up with them. All that being said, here is why I think this game falls short: The linearity in this game is crushing. One of the key factors to Riven's success was how most of the game was accessible right from the start and the game put very little effort into putting you on the right track. The remake is the polar opposite: Most of the hints needed to solve a puzzle are collocated and fairly on the nose. I imagine some of this was done to save some backtracking, which takes a lot longer in this iteration (clicking through islands was extremely quick in the original). I can appreciate the idea here, but it takes away a lot of immersion and realism. To further illustrate this point, let's examine the game's two main puzzles and compare them to their original versions: The animal puzzle: While this one was slightly less egregious than the fire marble puzzle, I still can't help but feel that it was dumbed down more than necessary. It is easy to miss the lens and it is easy to miss its purpose. But once you figure out the first animal, it becomes a chore of 1) finding the next totem, 2) finding the corresponding glyph, 3) mapping the number, with 0 variance from one totem to the next. The original was a lot more subtle about this and even though it was one of the less beloved puzzles, I found it to be a lot more believable and exciting to map the eyeballs (some of which were extremely hard to find, like the lake one) to a noise and/or shape. The fire marble puzzle: A single visit to survey island with a trivial puzzle and a very prominently placed page in Gehn's lab are enough to figure out the penultimate puzzle in this game. The original version of this puzzle was quite convoluted. But the convolution required you to think about everything you see across the entire game in a larger context. The domes, the numbering of the islands, the shapes of the islands as well as figuring out the logistics of getting to the second level of the large dome, all come together perfectly to that one moment of extreme tension where the game tells you whether your interpretation of the puzzle is correct. With a lot of that complexity gone, the fire marble puzzle feels just like that: another puzzle. I have to also say that I was not a huge fan of the visuals here: The vibrantly coloured marbles feel very out of place compared to the blue - ochrish hue of the rest of the game and further make the puzzle feel too gamified. Another aspect of the game I disliked was the constant locking of your character and camera. The immersion that a true 3d game brings is dependent on your character actually being able to use all degrees of freedom. A lot of clickable interfaces in this game violate this idea by zooming themselves into view and stopping you from moving your camera or character at all. In doing this, the remake degenerates to a point and click game with slightly better graphics. Some of these locked angles are supposed to help the player better understand cause and effect of the machinery they are manipulating. I found this to be further unnecessary hand holding for the most part. I would have much preferred if the puzzles, wherever possible, let you click buttons, push levers etc while still allowing you to move your character and camera. The rather slow animations when zooming in certainly didn't help here either. One more thing that I can't say I was a big fan of was the starry expanse. Besides powering the linking book to Gehn's age, this was Cyan's solution to speed up some of the longer trips across the islands as well as giving you a way to access Prison Island. I appreciate this solution, although a lot of the routes hardly felt faster, since it takes the domes so long to go into the expanse. Where this area really falls short for me is how out of place it feels. The cosmic and supernatural aspects of the Riven come into play much later in the original game, which made the lead up to the grand finale that much more significant. Similarly to the animal puzzle, the domes themselves felt very gamified and monotonous: Find the dome, punch in the correct number, extend the pier, shoot the marble. 0 variance. All in all, I would love a more faithful remake that keeps most of the puzzles as is or at least keeps them within the spirit of Riven and seamlessly integrates the puzzles into the world rather than making them stick out like a sore thumb.Show moreShow less
10.5 hours at review97 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Other developers should take note. This is how you remake a game.Show moreShow less
1 hours at review196 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Sorry I am single issue voting on this one. Pixel hunting was the original sin of early puzzle games, and this Riven remake has somehow brought it back. Not having an option to highlight interactible objects is simply unforgiveable. Additionally, the game seems to delight in wasting your time....transition animations are excrutiatingly slow seemingly on purpose. Doors take way too long to slide, elevators take way too long to arrive, vehicles take way too long to move. The unlocked "fast travel" system is the slowest fast travel I have ever seen in any game.Show moreShow less
8.5 hours at review32 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Playing this one for you Ross. You would’ve loved this.Show moreShow less
0.4 hours at review181 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The 1997 version of Riven is one of my favourite games of all time. I remember I'd sit with my Dad as a small child and watch him play Myst and Riven. Along with my sister we all played and solved Myst 3 and 4 together, gathered round a laptop taking hand-drawn notes and sharing observations and ideas. I've gone back and reinstalled Riven more times than I can count just to wander around and take in the atmosphere. I've finished the game many times over the course of my life, just to re-experience the same magic. Hell, back in college I even figured out how to run it on my old Android phone through ScummVM on a tiny 3.5" screen! I've been wishing for a 3D version of Riven (Just like the many iterations of realMyst) for longer than I can remember. I kept an eye on the Starry Expanse project blog page for updates for years until the project was shut down and taken over by Cyan, but even then I was excited to see what would happen with official support and Cyan's increased budget and creativity. And I hate to say it, but this isn't a 3D version of that game. It's a wholly different game wearing Riven's face. Many of the same locations and landmarks remain, but it's an entirely linear experience now with simplified puzzles that are less naturally integrated into the world (I think as an attempt to appeal to a wider audience). As a result it loses a lot of the feeling of freely exploring a real, lived in world, and slowly discovering its secrets at your own leisure, even despite the enormous graphical upgrade and full VR support. And speaking of VR, the game has been redesigned to prioritise VR users comfort. Many switches and levers in the world have been moved to a more central location at waist height instead of having little interactable things around the environment encouraging looking around every nook and cranny. Every door now slides smoothly to the side instead of swinging open, just so VR players can't get caught by them or disoriented if they somehow clip through the camera. Instead of climbing under locked gates or through ventilation pipes, those parts have just been removed or redesigned, so now you just walk everywhere. The maglev rides and minecart have also been motion smoothed, and feel less exciting and dangerous. All of this on its own is great for accessibility in VR, but there's no unfortunately way to turn it off in flatscreen mode... I feel like they've systematically stripped away every little detail that made the original game such a masterpiece, and all of those changes are touted as "fixes" - Like *this* is supposed to be how the game was all along if the original devs weren't constrained by technology or budget or deadlines. As someone who just wanted to explore the original game in full 3D and VR, and maybe share that same experience with others (Who never played the original, and never could be convinced to play an ancient pre-2000s slideshow game), the way the remake is being talked about as the truest version of Riven immediately crushed those hopes and dreams. At this point I very much doubt that we'll ever get the faithful recreation the Starry Expanse project might have given us. New players will likely love the new version. As much as this is a big step down from the original, it's still a great game by today's standards. Old players might welcome the changes and the novelty of new puzzles. I unfortunately can't say the same. It's both too different in terms of gameplay, and too similar in terms of aesthetic, for me to truly appreciate the game as its own separate entity. If we'd had both the linear "easy mode" re-imagining alongside a faithful Starry Expanse type remake with randomised puzzles like Myst VR had, I would have played both and probably loved both. But the fact we have this and only this is honestly soul-crushing. I can't play this. It's such a disappointment. I'm actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ heartbroken.Show moreShow less
0.6 hours at review28 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.