Now that they own the Gothic lisence again they really dont need 2x Gothics so Risen (the unofficial gothic 4) gets an overhaul.
They never lost the license in the first place. PB/Pluto 13 has always been in possession of the Gothic license. JoWooD only had contractual usage rights of said license but never acquired the actual license itself. Big (legal) difference.
As far as the new game is concerned almost everything sounds pretty good but I'm truly concerned about the following...
- No swimming/diving in a pirate game = WTF?!?
- Climbing (vertical exploration) is more restrictive than in the previous PB games
- Opponents can not be knocked unconscious anymore (instead NPCs are supposed to always die at zero hit points unless they are immortal due to being a quest NPC)
- One of the islands is supposed to be the home of the gnomes and there is a NPC gnome follower (name = Jaffar) as well -> From hints on the website it seems like the gnomes are a very childish race with their own language that resembles the language of four year olds.
I sincerely hope that they won't overdo it. I can live with some silliness and I don't need a !dark!, !gritty!, !mature! RPG from PB (the Gothics and Risen have had their humorous elements as well) but I'm a little concerned that the emphasis on the gnomes might be taken too far.
I think I would have preferred to find out more about the origin of the lizards. If there is one creature type of Risen 1 that they could have dropped entirely and I wouldn't have shed a single tear then it would have been the gnomes. Instead it looks like we're going to not only have to live with them but actually interact with them in a big way... *ugh*...
- No bows/x-bows... seems kind of odd that both weapon types are going to disappear entirely just because of the guns.
- No crystal magic anymore. I'm looking forward to Voodoo a lot since it should allow PB to implement a vast variety of really cool and creative spells but from a continuity point of view the removal of crystal magic is a bit of a nightmare (unless there is a
really good explanation for it)...
- No drinking animation for potions and opening the inventory pauses the game even in the midst of combat.
Yeah. OK.
It's one of those "just don't exploit it" issues but they are making it way too tempting to just open the inventory in the middle of a fight and chug a potion with zero delay. There really should at least be a drinking animation so that you are extremely vulnerable while consuming a potion in the midst of combat.