Riverworld is a PC game released in 1998 by Cryo Interactive, based on the series of novels by Philip José Farmer. In the game, the player takes the role of Richard Burton, the nineteenth century explorer. The game begins with a cinematic sequence showing what happens to Burton after he has died – how he comes to enter Riverworld. Riverworld is a real time strategy game, similar to Microsoft's Age of Empires. Although Burton is the central character, it is seen from a third-person perspective, and other people within the game can be moved and controlled.