A classic of worldbuilding. Even with effectively no interaction with other characters, Riven creates a living world that oozes character, history, and life. There's a very specific kind of enjoyment I get from learning how a new world works, and does this game ever deliver. The ecology of the islands, the living culture of the Rivenese, the dead culture of the D'ni, and the inner workings of the mind of a very evil man. Some puzzles admittedly suck, but so many more are well-integrated tests of your world knowledge and understanding, way better than usual adventure game fare.

There's a lot to be said about Paradox's development and support strategy that I'm just not getting into. I will say that this is a stellar example of a Space Opera themed 4x, and, critically, it delivers the player expression that Paradox is uniquely able to bring to strategy games. The options for generating your own empire are robust, and the development options in game provide a lot of replay value for a variety of playstyles. Some options do feel strictly superior, which isn't ideal balance-wise (hive minds feel like straight up stronger because they can ignore parts of the economy and focus on expansion), but these are hardly the worst examples of that in the genre.