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Dude, DD released in 2002, lets say I played for a full year. Do you know how many freaking games I have gone through in 6 years??!?!?

Seriously.

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Is it possible for someone to comment on Risen without comparing to Gothic games? I'm sure it provides a great frame of reference, but one has to actually have played those games to get it (not just talking about you, swordscythe, but even professional reviewers just assume all have played Gothic games and will understand when most of their reviews are taken up by comparisons).

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Risen is an RPG in an open world, though not a really big one. It's more "hardcore" than other recent RPGs because it doesn't hold your hand as much, after the first 15-30 minutes a character tells you about the different factions that are on the island and then it's up to you to decide what you want to do. There are dialogues with multiple answers possible, tons of quests and consequences for your choices. It's made to have somewhat realistic feel to it, from the way NPCs go about their daily lives to how fragile your character is.

The combat system rewards quick thinking and good reflexes, since the only thing that is determined by stats is the amount of damage you do and the different moves you can make, if you want to block an attack you to press the right mouse button at the right moment. You have to time counterparries to destabilize your opponent or circle around him if you want to go through his own defense. If you end up fighting multiple enemies make sure they don't surround you and if they do get out of there fast cause you're wide open to attacks and a couple of hits will take you down. So, yeah, as I said, combat rewards quick thinking and good reflexes.

There is not a whole lot of loot to collect, you'll only change armor about once per chapter and there's something like 5 chapters in the game (I haven't finished it yet). So loot and gear is not what drives this game. What will suck you in is the atmosphere, after some time you really start caring about the island you're on and the people on it that'll you just want to keep playing and do stuff for people. Also, the island is so full of hidden stuff that you're almost guaranteed to find something of use or interesting, be it cool herbs for alchemy or a wonderful view, everytime you decide to just go out and explore.

There is even more than just this that makes the game great, but I don't feel like writing about every little detail that enhances the experience. If you're not afraid of a combat system that's difficult to master and you like getting lost in an immersive world, give the game a try. You might find progress slow compared to other games, but I think it is worth every minute spent on it.


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Nice review. Thanks, Rythok smile


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Originally Posted by flixerflax
Is it possible for someone to comment on Risen without comparing to Gothic games? I'm sure it provides a great frame of reference, but one has to actually have played those games to get it (not just talking about you, swordscythe, but even professional reviewers just assume all have played Gothic games and will understand when most of their reviews are taken up by comparisons).



Well Risen is one of those games that is not easy for a newstarter in this RPG business. You are droped in an island, you start colecting stuff and you follow the instructions of an NPC for about 10 minutes. Then, you are given the first choice to pick between 2 factions you know nothing about, hinted that one is "evil" and one is "good", but the NPC that hints that, is a member of the "good" faction so you imidiately start geting suspicious about who is good or bad. You go a little blind on that decision and you start slowly deciding who are your favorites.

Unfortunately, when you finaly choose what faction you most like, you realize that each faction has a speciality (mage/melee/hybrid). Imagine that based on the plot, you decide you like the rebels, but you dont realy like melee combat and rather be a mage - Then you realize you can't be a full mage in the rebel faction.

THis is, for me, one of the major flaws of the game. YOu should pick the faction you most like based on choice and the plot, not on wich class you want to pick up. For example, i sympathize with the rebels but i just love being a mage = impossible in this game.


So basicaly its a game that you have to make choices, but you are given very little information on some of them, like character development. Its a game that is interesting for people who have played a lot of RPGs and like "open-world", but people more oriented towards action-RPG will probably feel overly lost.

The game also has a very lacking side wich is upgrades in gear. You have a couple full sets of armor, with pre-defined stats and then upgrades are far-and-between. The number of weapons are also limited somewhat, in contrast the amount of herbs/reagents for potions/stats is immense.


On the other hand, character interaction and questing is imho very good. The dialogs are witty and lively and push you forward to continue questing. When you complete a step in a quest, the world sometimes changes, dialogs are diferent to reflect the changes and you feel that you are actualy shaping things around you making you think "hum, i wonder what happen if i do this now".

Generaly the good stuff like questing, exploration, feeling that you are part of a group drives you forward pass the bad combat (imho - some people love it), the repetitive mob encounters (you get tired of boars, moths, wolfs after a while), the shortage of upgrades in gear and the somewhat weird character leveling system (you gain general points when you level up, you exchange them for stats or skill levels).

Kinda like...

"UUUUU, a new nice quest! bahhh, its on the other end of the map.... uuuuuu nice swamp atmosphere! bahhhh, another stupid worm to fight, UUUUUU there's a camp there, bahhhh only a chest with 5 coins, uuuuuuuuuuuu a secret place with a locked chest, bahhhhhhh i didnt level lockpicking yet cause i needed to up my strenght to use this sword."


smile lots of ups and downs.






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Originally Posted by KnightPT
PLaying Risen now.

Quite enjoyable as a mage class. Terrible as a melee class. The melee combat system is not realy for me, veryyyyy frustrating. Mage class, on the other hand, is a gigantic blast.

I'm playing Risen too, and I agree with you completely.

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You think there isn't enough gear? I think there is more than enough, at least in the way of plants, documents and extras. There are loads of weapons too. If there's anything that's lacking, it's armor, but that's a Gothic tradition, to award different armor sets based on your faction choice, and award only a new set when you rise in rank. I was kinda sad about the fact I only found two different helms. Oh, and there aren't too many shields either.

One of the pluses I didn't mention was the crafting system. Gothic II had a good crafting system, but Risen's is just far superior. You can make rings and amulets with gold and gems you find, and you can make weapons with ore you find. Even better; once in a while you find a piece of a weapon, which you can forge into a new weapon yourself (provided you know blacksmithing). Opposed to Gothic II, they decided to have you spend less Learning Points on skills, so you can combine i.e. Blacksmithing, Lockpicking and Alchemy while still being good at combat.

Basically, if you haven't played Gothic games, I'd advise it to you if you like RPG's with depth and a non-black and white view on good and evil, and if you can stand what some would call "twitch-based combat"(meaning it's not point-and-click, but still quite tactical) from a 3rd person perspective. Kind of like ED, but with tactical movement instead of skills. Basically, you can fight 3 good fighters at the same time and come out without getting hit, but it's very unlikely. It's no fight-to-fight action RPG. You really have to take your time for it.

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Risen does seem to have a very black & white view on good and evil, though. The "bad guys" are shown to just hate humans without being given any reasons/motivations to do so...

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Nah, the human foes all have their certain rightful point of view. Not just the factions, but you may even make friends with the lowest of criminals and pirates. Of course, the animals and the lizardmen attack you on sight, but I doubt they lack reason to slay humans. 'Sides, anyone would be cranky after spending countless ages buried in a temple.

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Hmm, in the waiting for Divinity 2...
Ever since it was announced as existing, i`ve played almost everything that has come out up till now. Fallout 3, Trine, NFS Underpantycover, NFS Shi(f)t, Risen, DMC 4, [prototype], Dark Sector, Batman Arkham Asylum, Sherlock Holmes VS. Jack the Ripper, NFS Porsche Unleashed, Street Figher 4and Resident Evil 5. I gave DD a go not too long ago aswell, but somehow it wasnt the right timing, so i droped that.


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Eagerly awayting Dragon Age atm, playing a little torchlight after a hard days' work just to steam out some vent smile



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Yep, I think Dragon Age will hold my attention probably for the rest of the year. smile

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Man, I really need to pick up that Dragon Age: Origins on the PC soon...

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King's Bounty ... smile


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Before Divinity II : Ego Draconis came out I play Divine Divinity most of the time, but also puzzle games and BD and somem adventure games like Mist....

I have buy recently Risen and Oblivion too... biggrin
So I have for hours and hours gameplay, also still with Divinity II !



On 7th of february 2015 : I start a new adventure in the Divinity world of Original Sin,
it's a Fantastic Freaking Fabulous Funny ... it's my All Time Favorite One !
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