Riven

Played at my dad's parents' house in Gold Beach. Dad and Grandpa and I would puzzle over this. I still think the coherence of this world stands out within the series, including working the number 5 into the game in all sorts of little ways. Launched my ongoing interest in this series.

I also played through the 2024 remake a few days after it came out, and was pleased at how the game holds up, although past experience made it quite a bit easier (~10 hours to good ending). There are concessions to VR and also several new puzzles and a couple of changes meant to elbow returning players.

In both versions, a major strength of the game is that there seems to be an in-world reason for everything. The puzzles and environments are plenty contrived, but they also tell the story if you're paying attention.