The magnificent Riven remake has been given new life with a major visual upgrade

Videogames wouldn’t be what they are today without Myst and Riven. Both of these classic puzzle games helped define the PC as the home of delightful, intelligent, and challenging experiences that reached beyond the screen and followed you wherever you went. Just like how we wouldn’t have the modern FPS without Doom, we wouldn’t have esoteric games without Riven. Now, almost a year after Cyan Worlds brought us back with the Riven remake, it’s overhauled the gorgeous experience to look and play better than ever.

We wouldn’t have Blue Prince, The Witness, or Outer Wilds without Riven. Cyan’s 1997 classic mastered the art of slowly unfolding as you play, with layers of lore and puzzles peeling back as you get to grips with the enigmatic world around you. You have very little in the way of guidance, everything’s connected, and challenges can take days to solve. It’s a puzzle game unlike any other, and laid the groundwork for some of the most stimulating experiences available today.

Now, Cyan has suddenly made Riven even better. In a new Steam update the team adds ray tracing support for Windows and Mac, turning the already stunning revamp into an even better looking game. Riven is brimming with calm waterways, illuminated caves, and the constant heat of a gleaming sun, so ray tracing brings every light source and reflection into a new age.

That’s not all Cyan has done, though. Riven now supports auto-setting supersampling options based on your scalability choices, so your crisp visuals should look even smoother going forward. If you use Windows and have the right hardware, you can now play Riven with DLSS 4.0, Intel XeSS, and TSR supersampling as well.

Some smaller parts of Riven look better, too. Gehn’s clothing now has cloth simulations on Windows and Mac, and the Survey Island elevator’s lighting setup has been vastly improved to bring it in line with the original game. You can also look a bit further behind you on the boat in Tay, and will be met with a confirmation window when deleting a photo in your notebook, in case you actually want to keep it.

Cyan’s new Riven remake patch also has some major and minor bug fixes, but the improvements to lighting, supersampling, and ray tracing steal the show. Miri already delivered a glowing verdict in their Riven remake review last year, but now that foundation looks slicker than ever before.

We’ve also got the best single-player games and old games you can play on PC today, if the Riven remake isn’t enough for you.

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