When a game requiring that you spend hours and hours working on problems ranging anywhere from the meaning of mysterious images seen through peepholes in a revolving room to the operation of an underwater vehicle, or demands periods of concentration akin to that reached by a chess grand master, the last thing you need is to be subjected to a musical phrase that repeats itself every two minutes, over and over again until you can't stand it anymore.

Luckily the makers of Riven place a high value on the importance of an expertly designed and well produced soundtrack, and really seem to have the music/ambience ratio down to a fine art. It's in all the right places and never gets in the way, which ultimately helps the player get through the game while being aided, rather than distracted by, the music.

When entering a particular room or situation for the first time a unique musical phrase generally accompanies the event, and rather than repeat over and over again until the player moves somewhere else, it either fades away or just ends. Other than the occasional sound effects, subtle atmospherics and maybe a simple melody while moving from one area to another, there's really nothing that will break your concentration while attempting to solve the many puzzles within the visually mindblowing world of Riven.

As Riven was being developed at CYAN the graphics and QuickTime video files were shipped to Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori.

Working in their state of the art digital MIDI studio on the top floor of an old Chicago loft they created a total of 45 minutes of music which is now contained on the five disks that make up the Riven CD-ROM set.

So for anyone even vaguely interested in spending some time working their way through a series of deserted islands full of amazing machinery with breathtaking scenery enhanced by a distinctive and haunting soundtrack you'll just have to go and check out Riven.

Rating - 980,862 (out of a possible 1,000,000)

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