Riven
After the opening animation, leave the cage and
look over the side of the cliff on your right. The guy that got
hit with the dart is laying down there (just in case you were
wondering where he went). Go up the stairs to the start of the
bridge. Turn left and you will see a gold room with large columns
and beetles and stuff. You may want to look in the beetles before
proceeding (tje pictures help explain the plot). The room has two
doors and 5 passageways leading from it. The button to the right
of the entrance rotates the room. Hit the button 4 times (you
will see a cool animation 4 times) and you should be facing a
dark wall with a peephole. Turn around and continue to follow the
stairs down the other side of the hill. Turn left when you reach
the end of the path and you should see a locked gate. Go under
the gate and through the cave. You should see the gold room
again, with the other opening in the room aligned to another
cave, across the room and slightly to the left. If you do not see
this, go back to the button to rotate the room again. Continue to
hit the button and then check the rotation in the cave until you
can get to the other cave. Here is the illustration of the
rotating room:
In the second cave there is a lever on a pipe. Turn it. These
kinds of levers power various items on the islands of riven,
usually by diverting water or steam to the appropriate
device. This particular switch turns on the power to the
telescope (move on that later). Turn around and go to the
entrance back into the rotating room, but don't go in yet. You
should see a switch on your left - these types of switches open
gates and doors. Flip it, do not hit the rotation button, just
the switch. Go back through the rotating room and through the
cave, back up the stairs, to the first rotation button and hit it
4 more times. You should now be able to access the "Back
Door" (see diagram) across the gold room and slightly right.
Go to this door (you cannot open it right now), turn around, and
you should now flip the switch on your left (looks a lot like the
cave switch) Again, do not hit the rotation button. Go back
through the room to the first rotation button and hit it two more
times. Now you should be able to access the big dome, across the
room and slightly left. Now, go across the bridge to the large
domed building.
If you are stuck after reading all this refer to the diagram, get
an idea of the basic structure of the room, and you should be
able to get to where you want to go. Follow the catwalk through
the big dome, down a ramp, until you are outside again. Follow
the catwalk outside until you come to a lever and a pipe much
like the one in the cave - it'll be in a little balcony off to
your left. You'll notice the steam coming out of the top of the
pipe.. flip this lever, and the steam stops (meaning that it has
been diverted to do something useful.. :). Follow the catwalk
some more, through a tunnel, and you'll find another lever
similar to the first two. Flip this lever too. Return back the
way you came, through the big dome and the rotating room and all
that, to the button which rotates the room. Hit the button 3 more
times (so that it connects the back door to where you are), this
will help you later. Now you can go away from the gold room
across the bridge to the other section of island. In the tunnel
across the bridge, go through the door on the left, about midway
through the tunnel. Sit it the chair if you like, it doesn't do
anything right now (well, at least nothing useful to you.. :).
Look around and find the red and gold view portal. Hit the lever
immediatly to the left of the red portal and continue down the
tunnel to your left. You'll find a door at the end of the tunnel,
which looks like it's meant to be 'secret'. Anyhow, go
through it into the room of pillars. (This room and the room with
the chair are important to the plot of the game, but not really
to the gameplay.. do you see any connections with the pictures
inside the beetles?) Leave by way of the large door the switch
near the view portal opened. Hit the blue button next to the
stairs outside to summon your transportation to the next island.
Get in the transport. Hit the lever on the left to turn around
and the switch in the middle to go! These animations are really
cool, so enjoy.. although you do have to switch cd's at the
end of each one..
Get out of your transport and go through the hole in the rocks. Go up the stairs to the chopped forest. On the logging path, keep to the right, and you should find a hole with a cart. Get in the cart, hit the lever to your left and go! This is another really cool animation.. probably cooler than the other one, just 'cause you go underwater.. :)..
Not much time on the last island, this one is better. Go to the edge of the platform, look down, then climb down the ladder and make your way out to the switch in the middle of the lake. Turn the lever so it is in line with the middle pipe (towards the bottom-right of screen, leading to the cylindrical building). Then head for the cylindrical building. Go up the stairs, then follow the circular walkway around the side of the building. This leads to a bunch of switches and levers, and a window in to the building. Turn the big wheel first. Then look left and switch the lever where the single pipe switches into two, so that the white dot is on the bottom pipe. Turn to the window again and hit the switch to the right of the window to the up position, then turn the lever on the pipe to your right to the up position also. Now you can enter the building. Go into the building through the door near the stairs (I love how the bolts pop out) and down the ladder in the middle of the room. The screen will get darker as you proceed. Just keep clicking in the center until you see daylight (you're going through a drainage pipe). You will be treated to a nice view as you exit the pipe. Follow the path until you see the building on the hill, then over the fence to the double doors. Go through the double doors, but shut them behind you. There is a path on the right that will be revealed. Follow this path outside and look for a gray lever on the right of the bridge. Hit this lever and return to the double doors. This time take the path you would have taken had you gone straight throught the double doors (i.e., turn left at the double doors). Go up the stairs until you get to the silver ball with holes in it, then look up and climb through the fan vent. This leads you into Ghen's laboratory. (Cool place, eh? Some fun toys here to play with.. I like the kettle-type thing.. :) Read the book on the table and find the five numbers in a row (for how to decipher the Rivenese numbers, and a list of the numbers from 0-24, click here (Purists have emailed me to tell me that it's actually the D'ni number system which Ghen brought to riven. They're right.. :) ) Write down this combination. Leave the lab through the door with the blue button next to it. Hang a right out of the door and keep walking on the VERY long bridge back to big dome island. Hit the lever to lower the last section. Insert disk 2. (what, no ride? :)
Again, follow the catwalk around the inside of
the big dome until it ends. Turn the wheel on the left of the
ramp to extend a section of the catwalk. After crossing the new
section, immediatly turn left and hit a lever, on the right of
the door, before going out on the bridge. This will raise the
bridge in front of you into a ramp. Turn around and go back over
the newly extended section. Take the first right. A section of
the bridge outside will be missing. Turn around and hit the
button to the right of the door, on the outside of the dome. This
will activate an elevator, which will fill in the missing part of
the path. Turn back around and continue along the bridge.
When you get to the end of the path, hit the switch to open the
door (this is the back door, incidentally) and go through the
beetle room - you should come out at the bridge where you started
the game. Hit the first rotation button by the bridge 2 times. Go
back through the gold beetle room and up the ramp which you
raised to the grid. Place the marbles in the grid as shown at
right : . Turn around and click the switch on the left wall.
Pull the switch down and push the white button it was covering.
You will hear a noise, leave the switch down. Go back down the
stairs and back through the Gold Room to the Bridge and the first
rotation button. Hit the button 3 times and go through the gold
room again back into the Big Dome (via, again, the back door).
Follow the catwalk inside as far down as it will go and then go
outside the dome along the bridge, but stop right before the path
goes through the tunnel. Turn right and hit the button on the
wall. You will be lowered. Turn around and go up the stairs and
along the path to the spinning dome. Look through the viewer and
click the button on top when the gold eye is showing. This may
take a couple tries. (usually I just click it a whole lot.. if
it's not working, you might have a technical
problem. ). The Dome will stop and open. Go up to the
dome and enter the code you learned from the book in the
laboratory. Open the book and touch the cool animated picture.
You're in a cage again. (Geez, what is it with this guy and cages? Maybe you look funny.. that could be why the villagers run away too.. :) Turn around to find the button and push it. It's some kind of doorbell or something.. once you push it, you will be rewarded with a seven minute speech by Ghen on how he has changed his ways (you can hit spacebar if you want to skip it.. here's the gist : "I was bad. Now I'm good. Find your book. Here, you can link.") After his speech find the book with the most blocks on it. Open it and touch the picture.
Back away from the linking book and hit the
button on the floor. Turn around from the sphere and go left up
the stairs. Enter the little building and sit down. Hit the
lever on the left (nice view!), hit the lever on the right (to
close the floor on the cone thing), and then the one on the left
again. Go out back down the path past the dome and into the tree.
Pull the lever on the right and an elevator will take you down.
(if you push it down again, it'll take you even further down, a
way to get to the island which we don't need to get to.. it's got
some cool eyecandy in there tho, so you might want to check it
out eventually..).. Get out of the elevator and push the switch
on the left. You can now walk out of the fish's mouth (why would
Ghen have a big wooden fish? Why not just a door?.. hmm... :).
Follow the path and you will see a little kid. Follow her by
taking the path on the right and up the stairs. Go through the
gate and hang another right. Keep following the path, the
villagers will always run from you. (are we ugly? I dunno..) Go
up the ladders to the houses and keep going until you see an
altar and a submarine type machine. Hit the lever next to the
submarine and go back through the town to the gate you came
through. Don't go back through the gate, continue on the path and
down the stairs (you should recognize this area). You will see an
animation of the loch-ness looking sea creatures. (As a side
note, the longer you wait between moving, the closer you can get
to them. If you wait until they stop looking around, then click
on them, you get really close). Stay on the path and you should
come to some ladders. Go down the ladders to the submarine. The
lever on top that moves in an arc turns the submarine around, the
lever that slides from side to side determines if the submarine
will take the left track or the right track. The lever on the
right makes you move forward to the next junction. Here is the
Map:
If you don't want to follow my directions here, all you need to
do is go to the switches, flip them all up, then to go the cone
and get out - you can skip down to the orange submarine (yellow
doesn't show up well). If you do want explicit directions, read
on.. Turn around and go forward. Make sure the sliding lever is
on the right and go forward again. Open the hatch and climb the
ladders up to the switch building. Move all the levers to the up
position and go back to the submarine. Turn around, go forward,
turn around, slide the lever to the left, go forward. Get out of
the submarine, go into the
pyramid and pull the triangle thing in front of you. Click on the
seat that lowers. (having trouble? maybe you didn't close the floor). You will see a
prison. Open the door by turning the crank to the right of the
prison cell. Go into the cell and open the drain of the floor.
Touch the water and a passage will open. Keep going down the dark
tunnel until you reach the water. Screw in the light on the left,
turn around and go back down the tunnel slowly, turning on a
light in each frame, they are sometimes difficult to see. Once
you reach the end, turn around and go back down the tunnel. You
will notice a door on your right - open it and go through. Push
down the stones you see in this order :
Touch the book that comes out. You will get a nice view of the rebel base, the only nighttime shot in Riven. Turn around, and you'll see a wooden guy holding the linking book back to Riven.. head for the book. You'll get darted, and brought into the rebel base.. Wander around your cell for a bit and enjoy the view out the window and the door. Eventually a lady will come in and give you Catherine's journal and the prison book you lost in the beginning. The books will disappear into your inventory as soon as you click them.. your inventory is the black bar along the bottom of your screen - if you hold your mouse cursor down there, they'll appear. Catherine's journal is the small red book, the prison book is the green one. Look through the journal for a series of five numbers. You will need these later. The lady will return later with a linking book for you to go through. (note - don't go through the green book here, 'cause it's a prison book. Well, I guess if you want to see another ending then you can.. you should wait for the book with the crystal thing on it, with a picture of the stones, if you want to beat the game though.. :)
You will return to the room with the stones. Go back down the tunnel and pull the wire to open the passage back to the cell. Exit the cell and go right. Lower the ladder and go down it. Turn around and go back the way you came after lowering the submarine. Except, stop were all the trees are cut down and take the mine car ride again. (This is cool anyway.. :). Remember where those double doors were? Go there. Except, close the doors behind you and go left this time - down the stairs to a door. Open this door, go through, and close it behind you. Go down the tunnel that was behind the door and open the spinning dome by clicking on the button on top of the viewer when the gold eye comes around. Enter the same password are for the other dome, which you got from Ghen's lab, and link back to Ghen's house.
You'll talk to Ghen again. Go into the prison book when he askes you to, he will take your place when he goes through later. After capturing Ghen, find the hole in the floor and go down to Ghen's bedroom. There in a silver timepiece on his dresser. It makes five sounds in a row, either a ding, a clank, or a creak. (or whatever you want to call them..) Write these down. Go back up the ladder and pull the handle just clockwise of the hole, to lower the cage. Then go and click on the book with one block.
Once away from the dome follow the path to the end. You will see a device in the elevator with three buttons and a switch. Each of the switches makes a noise, and the noises that they make match the noises the silver thing in Ghen's bedroom makes. Push the right buttons in the right order and move the lever on top on the buttons to free Catherine. Catherine will talk to you and run off. (at this point, your path is pretty much set.. you've effectively won, we'll just help you get through to the end). Go back to the dome and link back to Ghen's house. At Ghen's house go through the book with five blocks (the only book which doesn't have the linking page ripped out).
Once out of the dome follow the path to the end.
Hit the button, get on the elevator, and hit the button again.
Turn right once at the top and follow the path outside and then
through the big dome. When you reach the door, lower the bridge
with the lever and go across. Go through the gold room and out
the other side. Take a right down the stairs to where you began.
Go to the telescope thing and look down at the manhole cover.
Enter the combination from Catherine's journal and pull the
handle to open it (the code is entered by hitting the buttons in
the order of the code). Remove the stop from the left support
column and flip the lever on the right down and hit the button to
lower the telescope as far as it will go. Oops! Then watch the
fun, you've won!