Risen - Review Flood #5

Gorath

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More Risen reviews. Today also from Greece, France, the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium.
PC Games Hardware.de shows Risen tuning tips for those with a fast PC.
  • Krawall.de has mixed feelings. Risen pulls the player in deeply, but has several design weaknesses. They think if you would describe today's roleplayers as "spoiled" and "mollycoddled", Risen is the game for you. - 80% (PC), 75% (Xbox 360)
  • magnus.de calls Risen oldfashioned and technically mature. - 4/5
  • According to Gamed.nl Risen "is a real hardcore RPG". Fans of the genre can have a lot of fun with it, if they can tolerate a couple of bugs. The graphics are generally okay and in some places gorgously beautiful, the controls well chosen. - 80% (XBox 360)
  • Australian site TheGo on the other hand believes you shouldn't bother importing it. Rather play Oblivion instead of this "Fallen MMO-Wannabe". - 4.5/10 (Xbox 360)
  • GameOver from Greece and Babelfish say Risen is "inaccessible for the young persons in the type" but "for those who they love the traditional games of roles [...] Risen it constitutes a experience that should [not be missed]". - 8.0/10 (XBox 360)
  • spieletipps.de writes: "Modernized essence of Gothic and Gothic 2" - 83% (PC)
  • Eurogamer.be thinks it's a rough diamond and a deep, provocative RPG with a couple of issues. - 7/10 (PC)
  • GameZone.de is impressed: "a very well done RPG opus". Weaknesses are story and the hero. - 8.6/10 (PC)
  • ConsoleObsession sees a lot of pros and cons, and concludes Risen is "an absorbing and substantial game" dragged down into mediocrity. - 6/10 (XBox 360)
  • Not a review, rather a short opinion piece in a major publication. The Guardian asks "Should Risen have been released on Xbox 360?" Part of the answer: "Unfortunately the Xbox 360 version is a mess. Details of why below, but what makes this is even more annoying is that the PC version is really rather good."
  • JeuxVideo.fr added an XBox review. What's interesting here is that is has been written by the same guy as the PC review a couple of days ago. As you might remember, he liked the PC version (17/20). Therefore "It is all the more regrettable to note the little of care granted to this version Xbox 360, whose many technical tares penalize the experiment of play obviously." - 13/20 (XBox 360)
  • French site XBoxPassion gives Risen a very positive 15/20. "Risen est un véritable RPG dans l'âme et cela serait une grosse erreur de s'arrêter aux graphisme du titre car derrière ses graphismes dévalorisant se cache un grand jeu." (Xbox 360)
More information.
 
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Wow that Australian review is over the top.

...whore-like copy/paste model with big breasts that does nothing but bark commands [referring to the woman you rescue on the beach when you start the game]...

What? She didn't bark commands.

No matter who you pick [referring to the 3 factions], expect to do dozens of quests right before you even explore one of the Ruins.

Oh no. Do dozens of quests before exploring even one ruin. The horror.

Money is very tough to come by when you're starting off, so you'll often be doing the next best thing: Killing them and looting their corpses.

What? This isn't necessarily the next best thing. And coincidentally, at the beginning of the game, when you are very broke and have a crappy weapon and perhaps no armor - or crappy armor, killing the NPCs is quite difficult.

You will have to keep fights 1-on-1, because the combat system is clumsy and unforgiving

What? This game has better melee combat than Oblivion, which they seem to priase. This game has better melee combat then G1, G2 and G3.

Just like an MMO, you click on something to attack it, right-click to block, continue until something dies.

What? Just like an MMO? If you just click click click in melee combat in this game you will NOT win. This statement is totally false.

If you want to heal, you have to open up your inventory, select the item you want to use, wait a few seconds, and then get back in before the enemy drills you with a critical hit.

Oh no you can't quaf a potion in 1 second and beat every enemy with no armor and a wooden stick. This isn't Diablo. And by the way, you DON'T have to open your inventory, you can stick potions on your hotbar. Oops they forgot to mention that.

If you actually want to get better at something, you have to take training from various specialists on the island. That's right! You have to grind in order to grind. Which, again, hardly matters depending on whether you like to use magic or weapons, becaues Risen offers no customization--you can equip any weapon, learn any spell, master any skill, and become an ultimate being with just a huge wad of money and some experience points.

Hmmm sounds like a lot of RPGs out there that are similar. And by the way, did he just forget that he ranted earlier about how hard it is to get money. So getting that big 'wad' of money is going to take a while before you can master all this stuff right?

But here's a great strategy to those Level 1 Nameless Guys out there: If you are given a job to kill X amount of monsters, let them chase you back to the guy who gave you the assignment, let him kill them, and collect the money and experience anyway!

If an NPC does more damage than you do, then you get no experience. Oopsy. Yeah you can complete the quest and sometimes its helpful to have an NPC help you by dragging a mob back to the NPC... but this is a tactic by design. Not a flaw in the game.

Little did I know that the game has little quicksave barriers that automatically erase your progress and replaces it with the most recent one as soon as you cross it.

Wow that's some spin on the autosave feature. You also get quicksave and the ability to save your game at any time (using any save game name you like). But let's find a way to bitch about the autosave. Sheesh.

Risen is just filled with terrible design choices. These MMO-type flaws could have been forgiven if the world building, plot, and characters weren't all completely unlikeable.

What? Risen is not very comparable to an MMO. No idea why this guy keeps on making this comparison.

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I can apprciate that this reviewer didn't like the game.

But the minor points he criticizes are fantastically spun and exagerated as to be a total joke... and where there are some serious things lacking in this game, he fails to mention them at all.

His frequent comparison with this game to an MMO is telling to say the least... and his obession with pointing out the size of the female boobies is worrisome.

As far as online reviews go, and the low low LOOOWWW standards these sites adhere to, I give this review a 1/10... a total disservice to any reader who reads it.
 
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I finished Risen today after 50 hours (on hard difficulty level - bandit sword fighter). The first 2 chapters are like Gothic 1 & 2. Chose your team, chose your combat style, learn, do quests, explore the island, seek chests, speak with people ...

The chapters 3 & 4 are for the most time dungeon crawling at its very best: Trapdoors, secret switches, fragile walls, hidden chests and locations, puzzles, death traps ... - pure fun.

It's like Ultima 7 & Ultima Underworld in one game.
 
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It's like Ultima 7 & Ultima Underworld in one game.

I'm feeling the same way so far. It's like playing a successor to the Ultima series.

I find so many similarities, not only in the more obvious sense such as the world simulation, item interaction, and just the basic hand-craftedness of the world. but also with other, little things.

Picking up chicken eggs reminds me of U7 farms where you could also get eggs.

At one of the first farms you encounter... how a member of the inquisition shows up every few days... sorta like how shadow lords appeared at different towns during different phases of the moon in U5.
 
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The dungeons in Risen are not as big as in Ultima Underworld or in Arx Fatalis (in these games you are in one big dungeon), but the dungeon design elements in Risen are similar. The dungeons in Risen are better than in Gothic 1 & 2, because you have to think to find your way through. The waterfall dungeon in particular is a masterpiece.

Good dungeon design was standard in old games (Dungeon Master, Bard Tale, Wizardry, Ultima Underworld…). But nowadays good dungeons in rpgs are so hard to find as water in the wasteland.

With Risen, Drakensang and to some extent in Fallout 3 the dungeons are coming back...
 
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The waterfall dungeon in particular is a masterpiece.
With Risen, Drakensang and to some extent in Fallout 3 the dungeons are coming back…

I must stop reading these threads until I receive my copy :drool:

Damn DHL what's taking so long ? :shakefist:
 
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It's like Ultima 7 & Ultima Underworld in one game.

O_O that would make this game the best game ever.

I've only played until the first town (havent had the time or the interest for games right now), but that sounds incredible if its true, those are my absolute favorite games of all time.
 
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The dungeons in Risen are not as big as in Ultima Underworld or in Arx Fatalis (in these games you are in one big dungeon), but the dungeon design elements in Risen are similar. The dungeons in Risen are better than in Gothic 1 & 2, because you have to think to find your way through. The waterfall dungeon in particular is a masterpiece.

Good dungeon design was standard in old games (Dungeon Master, Bard Tale, Wizardry, Ultima Underworld…). But nowadays good dungeons in rpgs are so hard to find as water in the wasteland.

With Risen, Drakensang and to some extent in Fallout 3 the dungeons are coming back…

This is good news. The little ones I have been in so far are nice + scary. Shame Fallout 3 and Oblivion dungeons felt too "generic". Once you feel like what your playing is created using an algorithm, it loses its appeal (and we can pick this feeling up quite quickly). A hand crafted world you get this far less - and the games are more memorable.
 
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I can apprciate that this reviewer didn't like the game.

But the minor points he criticizes are fantastically spun and exagerated as to be a total joke…

You are too kind to this reviewer. They are outright untruths. Fallout wannabe? Really? He says he had to start all over again from the beginning because his autosave was overwritten, while he says he's had to "mash quickload" before (unless he messed the review up chronologically). They are separate save slots!

He says Risen offers no customization, while the other games (like Oblivion) work much the same way. Even worse, you can max pretty much everything in Oblivion. How does Risen not have customization? It has more: the choices you make differentiate your character further than Oblivion ever did.

I also love how reviewers call NPCs "unlikable" these days. Isn't that completely subjective? You may not like them, but it's only an opinion, not something that's necessarily true. I, for one, see much more depth and character in the NPCs than plenty of mainstream RPGs.

Screw them. I defended games like Oblivion and Mass Effect against the massive attack of hardcore CRPG fans complaining about shallow reviewers giving them 9/10 scores. If this is how reviews are written in this day and age, they are very much useless.

I guess there are still some trustworthy sources, though.
 
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Screw them. I defended games like Oblivion and Mass Effect against the massive attack of hardcore CRPG fans complaining about shallow reviewers giving them 9/10 scores. If this is how reviews are written in this day and age, they are very much useless.

Online reviews tend te be pretty worthless. It's nothing new really. It's just this review sunk to a new low, if that's even possible.
 
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I really appreciate these "Reviews of Reviews". It's a nice "meta-view" of a game's reception. Very helpful.

However, in the end I usually just go with my "gut" -- sometimes for better, sometimes not. (E.g. - Oblivion and Batman Arkham Asylum -- won't say which is which, though :) )
 
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The review floods are pretty hard to compile because the quality of the reviews is so uneven. Some are good, while others are so obviously trash that it's hard not to slaughter them.
 
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Online reviews tend te be pretty worthless. It's nothing new really. It's just this review sunk to a new low, if that's even possible.

Why limit it to online review? Print isn't better.
 
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The review floods are pretty hard to compile because the quality of the reviews is so uneven. Some are good, while others are so obviously trash that it's hard not to slaughter them.

Just wanted to echo rbtroj's thanks. It is so nice to be able to read the encapsulated opinion of a dozen reviews at a time, as they come in, rather than scrounging around for one review here and another there. It is very helpful and much appreciated.
 
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