One of the great modern remakes of a PC classic that actually adds to and enhances the original in a lot of surprising, smart, and fun ways. Even better than the Myst remake, which I also really enjoyed. A gorgeous and ear-pleasing experience in VR or not, I loved the visuals and music and sounds throughout. This game not only holds up but still stands as a shining example of puzzle, narrative, and world design that doesn't get copied and referenced nearly enough. You can really tell that Cyan is taking notes from modern games with some of their changes to the mechanics and level design to make playing Riven for the first time a much less confusing and more accessible experience. Definitely recommend picking up the Companion guide as well if you're not super confident in your deductive reasoning skills (like me) but still want to experience all the joys and friction this game has to offer. There are certainly some areas that could use improvement, like how unnoticeable certain important objects and paths are as well as some minor optimization issues (and I really miss the FMVs), but the problems are minimal and don't detract much at all from the overall experience. Figuring out the overarching puzzles and plot threads of Riven will almost certainly make you feel like a genius and look at the world a little differently than you did before. If you're a fan of walking sims and puzzle games, you simply have to play this one.

A very tightly-written and well-paced 3-hour, walking sim-esque experience, the true horror of which may only unfold for you after your first playthrough. Wrong Organ's narrative rewards careful attention to the dialogue and your surroundings but doesn't get mired down in genre tropes like jump scares, creepy animatronics, finicky gadgets and puzzles, boss fights, or chase sequences, although those are all present to a degree. I have some small nitpicks about the somewhat jarring nature of the perspective changes, the lack of voice acting (the addition of which could really elevate the text), and the sometimes too-quaint, more game-y elements, but they barely tarnish an otherwise shining example of what horror games can be in the current post-PT, retro PSX aesthetics era. The game is elevated most by its allegorical nature and use of literary and cinematic devices in tandem with gameplay, like the nonlinear way the story is told and recontextualized on repeat playthroughs, which is still fairly unique in the video games sphere outside of niche interactive fiction (and there are certainly nods to other great video game stories here as well like The Beginner's Guide and Thirty Flights of Loving). I particularly enjoyed the craftsmanship and level of detail in the environments as well as the many references to horror classics like The Shining and Event Horizon. First and foremost a character study, one can analyze the game on several levels, and I predict it will stand the test of time in that regard, like Alien or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre before it. I would give it an unequivocal recommendation.