Strap in for a mind-bending nostalgia trip. Riven, the sequel to the groundbreaking adventure game Myst, has been remade for modern Mac hardware – and it’s positively stunning.

Explore five hauntingly beautiful islands – solving dozens of environmental puzzles along the way – to track down a power-hungry villain. Search craggy cliffs and deep caverns, decipher exotic codes and activate ancient machines to escape before this baffling and beautiful world collapses.

What we love: The new way to explore! Wandering Riven’s interconnected islands with full freedom of movement is a much different (and better!) experience than the largely static-screen exploration in the 1997 original. Powered by Unreal Engine 5 and Apple silicon, the game’s astounding graphics reach new levels of realistic fidelity. And several puzzles, such as the notorious fire-marble stumper, have been reimagined to make them more approachable.

Quick tip: The hangman game in the jungle-island schoolhouse will teach you the numbering system used by the villainous Gehn – crucial for solving some later puzzles. Pull the ring, then count how many times the wooden figurine drops down; that number corresponds to the symbol on the base. Repeat until you’ve cracked the code!

Meet the creator: Brothers Rand and Robyn Miller founded Cyan Productions in 1987, working out of their parents’ basement in Spokane, Washington. With the release of Myst in 1993, Cyan became one of the biggest gaming success stories of the ’90s. Now known as Cyan Worlds, the company also created Obduction, Firmament and 2021’s similarly stunning remake of the original Myst.