Recent reviews by Olivia

I had fun for the 5 hours Ubisoft allowed me to play with friends before closing the game for the night.

On running the game the day after I was prompted for login details, and upon logging into my account, was told that I do not own the game and to log in using an account I do not have access to.

It turns out the game had very helpfully automatically logged into and linked itself to an old and inaccessible Ubisoft account on first run. Said account has been unrecoverable for probably at least 5 years now due to lost password and dead email account, and should have been unlinked from Steam. I unfortunately did not notice this at the time as it's been a while since I logged into any Ubisoft account, or I'd have at least noticed the username was wrong.

This was only noticeable *after* I'd long passed Steam's 2 hour refund period.

The game will not run via Steam using my existing Ubisoft account, even though I now have the game on both platforms, because it has permanently linked itself to a dead account.

There is no way to log into a different Ubisoft account through the game's launcher, unlike pretty much any other third party game launcher where you can just log in and play so long as both Steam and the account you're logging into own the game. It will only work by logging into one specific Ubisoft account (And in that case, why even have a login prompt? Just save the details after activation!). So instead my game is now permanently unplayable via Steam, and the only way to play it is by buying another copy through Ubisoft's own store and installing it through Ubisoft Connect. and losing all my in-game progress.

On Windows there are apparently a couple hacky workarounds to this issue like flagging certain .exe files to run with administrator privileges or starting Ubisoft Connect first and logging in to the correct account, and then starting the game through Steam. These unfortunately don't work on Linux or SteamDeck due to how game launching is handled and how Proton handles admin privileges.

Ubisoft support have of course been thoroughly unhelpful, simply copy and pasting sections from their support pages and closing my ticket as "resolved" with every non-response, basically telling me "We won't do anything, go away." in the standard tone of corporate cheeriness, repeatedly insisting they can't do anything despite evidently having helped other users with activation issues and game transfers between Ubisoft accounts in the past - there are a number of reddit threads from people who've had success in this (Though of course vastly outnumbered by complaints about terrible customer support experiences which does not surprise me one bit).

As a nice cherry on top Steam support denied me a refund for a game that does not work, because it ran for 5 whole hours instead of breaking before 2, which was very considerate of them. I'm glad I bought it at 90% off.

To summarise, do not buy from Ubisoft. Do not buy ANY game from Ubisoft. They clearly are not able or willing to provide a functional product. I certainly won't be paying for more of their broken products in future.

The 1997 version of Riven is one of my favourite games of all time. I remember I'd sit with my Dad as a small child and watch him play Myst and Riven. Along with my sister we all played and solved Myst 3 and 4 together, gathered round a laptop taking hand-drawn notes and sharing observations and ideas. I've gone back and reinstalled Riven more times than I can count just to wander around and take in the atmosphere. I've finished the game many times over the course of my life, just to re-experience the same magic. Hell, back in college I even figured out how to run it on my old Android phone through ScummVM on a tiny 3.5" screen!

I've been wishing for a 3D version of Riven (Just like the many iterations of realMyst) for longer than I can remember. I kept an eye on the Starry Expanse project blog page for updates for years until the project was shut down and taken over by Cyan, but even then I was excited to see what would happen with official support and Cyan's increased budget and creativity.

And I hate to say it, but this isn't a 3D version of that game. It's a wholly different game wearing Riven's face.

Many of the same locations and landmarks remain, but it's an entirely linear experience now with simplified puzzles that are less naturally integrated into the world (I think as an attempt to appeal to a wider audience). As a result it loses a lot of the feeling of freely exploring a real, lived in world, and slowly discovering its secrets at your own leisure, even despite the enormous graphical upgrade and full VR support.

And speaking of VR, the game has been redesigned to prioritise VR users comfort. Many switches and levers in the world have been moved to a more central location at waist height instead of having little interactable things around the environment encouraging looking around every nook and cranny. Every door now slides smoothly to the side instead of swinging open, just so VR players can't get caught by them or disoriented if they somehow clip through the camera. Instead of climbing under locked gates or through ventilation pipes, those parts have just been removed or redesigned, so now you just walk everywhere. The maglev rides and minecart have also been motion smoothed, and feel less exciting and dangerous. All of this on its own is great for accessibility in VR, but there's no unfortunately way to turn it off in flatscreen mode...

I feel like they've systematically stripped away every little detail that made the original game such a masterpiece, and all of those changes are touted as "fixes" - Like *this* is supposed to be how the game was all along if the original devs weren't constrained by technology or budget or deadlines.

As someone who just wanted to explore the original game in full 3D and VR, and maybe share that same experience with others (Who never played the original, and never could be convinced to play an ancient pre-2000s slideshow game), the way the remake is being talked about as the truest version of Riven immediately crushed those hopes and dreams. At this point I very much doubt that we'll ever get the faithful recreation the Starry Expanse project might have given us.

New players will likely love the new version. As much as this is a big step down from the original, it's still a great game by today's standards. Old players might welcome the changes and the novelty of new puzzles. I unfortunately can't say the same. It's both too different in terms of gameplay, and too similar in terms of aesthetic, for me to truly appreciate the game as its own separate entity. If we'd had both the linear "easy mode" re-imagining alongside a faithful Starry Expanse type remake with randomised puzzles like Myst VR had, I would have played both and probably loved both. But the fact we have this and only this is honestly soul-crushing.

I can't play this. It's such a disappointment. I'm actually ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ heartbroken.