For those of you who have seen our review of Myst on the Quest (caption: we gave it a 9) from a couple of years back, you already know that I’m a book-carrying member of the Cyan fan club. In that review, I mentioned that the only real problem with Myst was that it was utterly eclipsed by its sequel, Riven. Now, the unthinkable has happened: Riven has materialised on the Quest and Steam, remade and rethought for VR and modern systems. I’m almost impossibly excited about it, but I promise you, dear viewers, that I will do my best to objectively analyse whether Riven 2024 is worth your time, money, and emotional investment. We will avoid spoilers for the plot or puzzles to the best of our ability.

A Link to the Past

I believe that Riven is one of the most important and successful titles in the history of narrative gaming. It epitomises the principle of “show, don’t tell.” It traps you alone in a beautiful, forbidding world where exploration and understanding are the primary rewards. There are mysteries to be solved, and each machine, lever, and room is an organic part of the world-building, context building upon context in a satisfying, thrillingly non-linear way. The original game was beautiful, intriguing, and immersive despite being presented as a series of static prerendered images. This remains a wonder today. Now, in the age of VR, the promise of Riven should be fully realised.

Age of Wonders

I have seen the opening scenes of the original Riven hundreds of times. I can vouch that Cyan has not only beautifully updated the graphics and gracefully replaced the live actors with motion-captured models, but they have also stayed true to the original performances and body language. The slightly dodgy 3D models of what were once real (but also dodgy) performers were the main sticking point of Myst in VR, but this is thankfully not the case here. When the cutscenes have played out and the game finally opens the door to the world of Riven, you’re free to explore Riven in full 3D for the first time. For me, that is a very emotional moment. It’s the difference between obsessing over a place through photographs for a couple of decades and then finding yourself there for real. I will preempt the rest of my review here and state right now that Cyan has utterly, definitively nailed it.

D’ni, The Champion of the World

The original Riven is a masterpiece. The remake surpasses it in every way, and VR is the definitive way to play it. It’s so much more than just a new way to explore the world; like Myst before it, it’s as if it has been waiting for VR to exist. To virtually stand in beautiful environments that have hitherto only existed as barely animated stills is a dream realised. It actually makes the puzzle-solving so much more rewarding and substantial. A very early puzzle involves working out the rotation of a pentagonal room to make progress. Being able to stand in the room and physically rotate makes the logic of the problem a lot easier to parse. Peering through lenses and gaps for clues is a physical act in VR rather than a button press, and the islands of Riven have been subtly retooled to take advantage of the new possibilities of vantage points and perspectives not available before. The physicality of VR—such as pulling levers, pressing buttons, or opening doors—feels completely fantastic. Reading a book requires physically holding the book and flipping through the pages, which is crucial to the lore and setting. The ability to use both hands on a machine or gadget while looking around, a natural act in real life but impossible in flat gaming, is a necessity in the VR version of Riven.

Cyan Pride

All of this is what one might cautiously and hopefully expect from a developer with a duty of care to its beloved back catalogue. What truly impresses me is that Cyan has been fearless in daring to improve on the original title. They have introduced new approaches to puzzles and new mechanics, altered the topography of islands here and there, and added subtle narrative tweaks and touches that enhance the classic version. All the changes are improvements; some were made not just to bolster gameplay but to make the narrative sing a little more. To new players, everything will seem well-wrought and satisfying. To returning players like me, there are a hundred little improvements and changes that delight, intrigue, and occasionally astonish. Cyan has served their fan base well and provided a wealth of riches for those taking their first steps in this brave new world.

Get the Book Out of Here

Riven is beautiful. The concern with any modern 3D remake would always be whether they could convey the same level of beauty as the original. For a 26-year-old game, Riven still stands up as astonishingly good-looking, the sheer quality of the prerendered world transcending its technical limitations. The folks at Cyan were kind enough to provide us with copies of both the Meta Quest and Steam versions of the game for comparison. Of course, the Quest will never compete with PCVR, and the nature of the game means it can’t draw from the same technical aspects as Red Matter 2. The PC version of Riven is utterly incredible to look at, bringing joyous new life to the game. Even with my gaming laptop running Riven at modest settings for VR’s sake, the graphics are wondrous.

The Quest version is an eyebrow-raisingly decent attempt to convey the same content with some caveats. Firstly, of course, the textures take a hit, but some more so than others. It’s still a beautiful game, but some environments are a little fuzzy and muted. There’s occasionally a bit of glitching and pop-in, but nothing too aggravating. In some areas, the foveated rendering (the pixelation around areas towards the edge of the Quest lenses) is noticeable and a little distracting. But it’s the water that’s actually problematic, noticeably devoid of splashing effects at best and, in one area in particular, flat and glitchy, making the surrounding geometry appear off. The rest of the game is so lovely to look at, and these issues really stand out. They could be better realised. Overall, while the Quest version is never going to reach photorealism, it’s a beautiful thing.

The Cries of Strange Birds

The audio is my favourite part of Riven’s presentation. The sound design is peerless, from the atmospheric ambience of different locations to the creaking of boards and old metal and the clanking of ancient machinery. The fact that most of it remains unchanged from the original game is a testament to the effort and care lavished on every detail over a quarter of a century ago. Sound plays a possibly more significant role in the success of Riven than the visuals, and this becomes even more apparent in VR. Put on some headphones, and you can lose yourself entirely in this alien yet relatable and familiar world.

Special mention must go to the music, a score that manages to be creepy, mysterious, and soothing all at once. Music is sparing and subtle but essential to the game’s fabric, underpinning everything with an unsettling, nagging sense of dread and wonder.

Familiar Patterns of Decay

There are a few things that could be improved in the current Quest version of the game. The glitches and pop-ins are a little concerning, detracting slightly from the game’s polish. While the use of VR is wonderful, and the additions to the game are completely welcome, the new inventory satchel could have been more organically realised. Many VR games use an over-the-shoulder motion to retrieve backpacks, which would be preferable to the button press here, making its absence a curious omission.

Loading times can be distracting and are the main thing that breaks immersion. While the lengthy initial loading process can be easily forgiven and forgotten, the long pause to take an in-game screenshot and bring up the menu is a drag. This might sound spoiled coming from someone who played through the original game multiple times and had to endure physically changing CD-ROMs between every island. However, the (short) loading screens during travel are unwelcome and jarring in VR. At least there’s a pleasant animation to watch while it loads.

My final gripe is that there needs to be a way to annotate the screenshots you take. A virtual pen to scribble on the screenshots and keep notes would have been a most welcome addition.

And So, I Close

Riven on the Meta Quest is, by far, the best puzzle and exploration game on the platform. It easily joins Resident Evil 4 on the winner’s podium for beloved older classics, given a new lease of life in VR. The care lavished upon Riven is considerable, presenting thoughtful armchair adventurers with a nourishing and immersive experience that will linger in the heart and mind long after leaving the headset. It’s been my favourite virtual world for half a century, and VR is the best and greatest way to experience it.

As the game begins, you’re tasked with becoming a vampire slayer, put into a castle that houses 9 vampires, and told that many before you have failed. You’re guided by a mysterious mentor, who tells you about the history of the vampires you’re trying to dust as they slumber and teaches you how to get past their defenses. A pry bar, clippers, and a hook made from a finger bone are among the many tools within reach, but a stake through the heart is the only way to end it.

The game relies on a spooky atmosphere and requires a good deal of patience as any sound you make risks waking up the vampire whose defenses you’re trying to get past. Tension builds as you cautiously lift bars, remove nails, and clip wires to find the vampire’s heart. Your silence and precision are key as you avoid awakening the beasts who will drain your life instantly.

COFFIN UP THE MECHANICS

As the game begins, you’re given a short but effective tutorial level. After that, the pattern is fairly consistent: solve a 3-dimensional puzzle that shows you the shapes you’ll have to make to penetrate the final defensive layer of each vampire, teleport to the vampire’s coffin, and then slowly unlock the coffin and make your way, as stealthily as possible, past their defenses.

The defenses do pile on, starting with bars that need to be slowly and carefully removed, to nails that must slowly be pried loose, to wires pulsing with electricity that you need to cut, to little voodoo watchers that’ll awaken every now and then and sound an alert if they sense any movement.

It all fosters a careful exercise in patience and slow, purposeful movement, all while in a slightly spooky atmosphere that VR veterans will find entertaining but the less adept might feel terrifying.

If you’re worried about jump scares, well, they’re tempered. In fact, Pete and I have slightly different views on the scares. I don’t consider the jump scares true jump scares since they occur only when you fail, so I consider them a death screen, and because they’re predictable (you can always tell when you’ve messed up), I don’t find them particularly scary and they don’t startle me. I love Pete, but he has the fortitude of a little baby and still thinks they’re jump scares. Clearly, your horror mileage may vary.

Overall, the game is slick and well-made, a testament to Schell Games, and honestly, after their work on the I Expect You to Die series, we expected no less than a classy execution. See what I did there?

FANG-TASTIC VISUALS

Graphically speaking, Schell Games are as sharp as they’ve always been. The castle environments are cool, well-stylized, and look great. The game’s visual presentation effectively captures the eerie, gothic atmosphere of a vampire’s lair, with dimly lit corridors, ancient stone walls, and ominous coffins.

The attention to detail in the various tools and traps you encounter adds to the immersion, making each interaction feel tactile and real. While the overall aesthetic leans more towards a cartoonish, Transylvania-inspired style rather than photorealism, it works well for the game’s tone and gameplay. Nice and spooky, in a fun, approachable way.

SOUNDS LIKE A SCREAM

The sound is equally great, with the voice acting by your mentor being quite sinister and superb, and the ambient audio of the castle environments lending everything a creepy atmosphere. You can hear spiders crawling, you can hear the occasional bat fly by, startling you a little, you can feel echoing footsteps in the distance making you look around in concern while you’re trying to slowly, carefully pry a nail loose while worrying that another nail is sympathetically coming out of the coffin with it, and might drop to the floor and wake up a damn bloodsucker.

BLOODY NITPICKS

There’s not much to complain about with Silent Slayer, but you know us better than that. We’re the nitpicking reviewers, so here it goes. The game might feel a little short; there are less than a dozen vampires to kill, and once you get past the first five, the rest just build on the first, without really adding any more game mechanics. On the other hand, it’s priced at $19.99, so you can’t really complain about the longevity you get. Still – it would have been great to keep adding on more mechanics as the game reached its conclusion rather than just piling on mechanics that have already been introduced.

The 3D puzzles are also somewhat useless. I mean, some are more challenging than others to assemble, but the conceit that solving them reveals the shapes you need to cast to defeat the vampires is rendered useless by the fact that you’re guided through the shapes by arrows that show up before the kill, so the actual utility of the puzzles is nullified.

Another issue is that once you’ve gotten used to the fact that you only get caught if you fail twice in a row, the game becomes a bit too easy. As long as you’re patient, it’s hard to fail.

But again, like I said, I’m nitpicking. At the end of the day, this is a unique game, with great graphics, great audio, an interesting conceit, and cool mechanics. It’s well-priced and knows not to wear out its welcome.

FANGS FOR THE MEMORIES

Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire is a solid new title from Schell Games. While not as deep as their I Expect You to Die installments, it’s fun and offers a nicely spooky and tactile VR experience well-suited to both VR veterans and VR newbies since the player doesn’t really move around the environment and there’s no cause for motion sickness. It’s Operation in VR, and that’s not a bad thing at all, so long as you know what you’re getting into.

So let’s get that out of the way, and excuse me for having implied otherwise; Moss and now Moss: Book 2 are not platformers; they are narrative-driven action adventures with some casual combat, light puzzles, and exploration.  

Here There Be Powers

For those who haven’t played the first, Book 1 was about Quill meeting ‘the reader’, that’s you, helping her on a grand adventure as she saved her uncle and defeated a deadly serpent. 

Book 2 starts immediately afterwards and quickly becomes Moss meets Avengers Endgame as we find out there was an eviler boss behind the first boss. He’s trying to collect all five coloured ‘glasses’ to become all-powerful. Quill and her uncle decide the best course of action is to capture the glasses herself because, you know – we’re the good guys, and we can handle ultimate power…

Obviously.

Moral digressions aside, the first thing you’ll notice about Moss: Book 2 is that it’s endearingly pretty; graphics are great, the art direction is excellent, and the animations, especially of your main character, Quill, are a joy to behold.

How We Do

Quill starts the game with a limited set of powers, essentially those she had by the end of the first game, but quickly gets a couple of new capabilities that help solve new varieties of puzzles and traversals. I like the hammer. 

In a sense, Moss: Book 2 does everything a sequel is expected to do; it ups the ante, introduces new locations, features new mechanics, and continues the story. 

I’ve already mentioned the graphics and animations, but a special mention has to go to the audio department. Both the voice acting and the game’s soundtrack are perfect. They are emotionally resonant, compelling and engaging and make light load of the suspension of disbelief that drives the heart of any such fairy tale. 

I Sense Ye Have Issues

The question Moss doesn’t address well and that most third-person games in VR stumble upon is – why is it in VR?

There are, both here and in Lucky’s Tale, some mechanics that take advantage of VR, and there was a nasty Beat Saber clone buried in Ven’s Bowels, but they always feel like tacked-on mini-games or VR-101 interactions that engage with the medium but do not need it to breath. I’ll admit that Moss is well integrated on this level, with you as the reader holding back enemies or dragging them to use them as weights while navigating Quill with your thumb sticks. It’s immersive, sure – but is it ‘VR-native’ gameplay? That’s for you to decide, I guess. I’ll shrug my shoulders – the question of what games work best in VR is a complex one that might be worth tackling in a podcast but shouldn’t impact this review.

An enormous waste, in my view, is made of a character you’re introduced to halfway, and you get to play as her briefly, with a new move set determined by her weapon, a spinning blade. But then, she quickly meets up with Quill, hands over her blade, giving Quill that move set, and is never heard of again. I wish Polyarc had used her to allow players to explore different stories or introduce new locations. 

But hey. 

The Mouse Is Amousing

The gameplay in Moss: Book 2 is fun throughout but not particularly challenging. I finished it in about five hours, which wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t selling for $40. If there’s anything really wrong with Moss: Book 2 is that it’s priced as a full standalone title when it really feels like a great DLC that would’ve been ridiculously easy to recommend to fans if it were sold at half the current asking price. 

Moss: Book 2 is a worthy successor to Moss. The graphics, animations, voice acting, and music score are all wonderful, even if the plot is forgettable. If you enjoyed the first, you’ll most certainly enjoy the second, if you don’t mind the price. 

Time Stall is loosely inspired by Quicksilver’s classic Pentagon kitchen scene from X-Men: Days of Future Past, where Quicksilver neutralizes all kinds of threats in slow motion. The game will have players operating freely inside a semi-frozen moment in time while solving physics and time-based action puzzles in order to save everyone aboard a space cruise from certain doom.

Time Stall is being released on the 15th of August and will be available at the Oculus Store!

Remember to enable notifications (if you’re on a desktop you’ll see a little bell on the bottom right of the screen!) to get a message when we publish our Time Stall review!

We’re getting our copy as soon as the game is out, and our very own Tim Wilson will be quick with a review shortly after. So keep an eye out! So far, we like the concept a lot, and we’re hoping the game delivers!

What We Already Know

Heres the info straight from Force Field Entertainment:

Players take on the role of the Volunteer Safety Human aboard the Fantastic Leap, Earth’s first (and only) crowdfunded luxury escape cruise. After failing to meet its funding goals, many cost-saving corners were cut, leaving the ship and its robotic crew with more than a few safety concerns. Now it’s up to the player to save the ship from imminent disaster…over and over again. Luckily, there’s no wrong way to save the day and even the failures can lead to hilarious and sometimes deadly outcomes. 

“Designed with complete freedom in mind, Time Stall is a room-scale experience where you can freely roam through an action scene almost frozen in time, manipulating the trajectory of hazardous objects, as such the game is ideal for an untethered headset,” said Martin de Ronde, Force Field’s Chief Creative Officer. “Time Stall is a unique room-scale action-puzzler built exclusively for Oculus Quest.”

Here are some screenshots:

And here’s the trailer!

About the developer

Force Field is an independent studio founded in 2015. Its founders are game industry veterans having previously founded Guerilla Games (creators of Horizon: Zero Dawn!) and held executive positions at leading games companies such as Atari and Disney.