I've never played Riven nor Myst, because I just can't find a version or remake that wouldn't suck technically, but I just loved Quern, and one or two similar games I found since.
One that stood out to me is "Odyssey - The Story of Science", which is a Myst-like with focus on teaching basics of math and physics through its puzzles.
I've played Quern for several hours but couldn't bring myself to care as much about the puzzles or, more importantly, walking around the world.
It was not too bad, but my memory of Riven is so much stronger. Maybe I should replay it instead, just to walk through this beautiful world again, even without solving all the puzzles (the puzzles are IMO not why you play it). Riven evoked this constant feeling of wonder with the sounds and short cut-scenes adding a lot to the atmosphere.
There was this place where you walk down towards the water with a beast sitting there in the sun, and that scene almost has a smell to it. Or maybe my memory is colouring it all rosy now.
> because I just can't find a version or remake that wouldn't suck technically
the recent myst remake is probably the pinnacle of them... that said the original is well worth playing still and i've played it through a few times now.
I tried it, and it plays atrociously. Extremely inconsistent FPS, sound choppy and cutting off during movement as new assets are loaded, graphical glitches, just horrible. I refunded it pretty quickly.
