Elapsed Time: Seven Days
Well, I finished Riven tonight. I started it last Wednesday, so it took me seven days. Not bad!
When I played MYST several years ago, I played for a couple of weeks and then got stuck and put it on the shelf for several months. When I came back, I solved the points where I was stuck and wrapped it up in a few days. So I guess I did substantially better with this one.
MYST had a very disappointing, anticlimactic ending, so much so that I almost didn't believe I was done! Partly this was because I figured once I had solved the initial puzzles, then the real fun would begin. In fact, the "initial" puzzles were the real fun. Still, MYST came closer than any other computer game to making me feel like I was really there.
Riven is technically much more advanced, and has a better ending - in part because you basically know all along what will happen at the end, you just need to get to it. However, it didn't have the "gosh wow" factor of MYST. I think this was partly because Riven is less aural then MYST; the sound effect are less present and there's much less of the cool music. And partly it's just because Riven was following a tough act.
Still, it absorbed much of my life for a week, and was certainly worth the forty bucks or whatever I paid for it. Now I'll probably lend it out to friends.
I still have Galapagos to work on, but I don't think I want to play more games for a while now. Time to do other things with my life. Besides, I gave a copy of the demo to a friend at work, and he likes it quite a bit, so I think I'll lend him the CD-ROM.
Anyway, it was a nice accomplishment. I will probably go back into the game to re-play a few scenes just to see them again. Plus, I ordered some gear including the Riven soundtrack CD, and mugs from both games. (I need more mugs anyway, and I already have one MYST mug which I like.)
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