Risen Completed the game - random thoughts

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DArtagnan

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Completed the game at ~40 hours.

These are mixed comments on the game, and isn't necessarily a review. As is usual for my style, it will probably sound too critical so keep in mind that my overall opinion of the game is very high.

Overall, I think it's a great game. I was ready to call it perhaps the best game i've ever played, until around the time I hit chapter 3 - and the game slowly devolved into merely a very good to great game.

The main issue, for me, is that it goes from a near-perfect freeform game, to a relatively rigid linear game WAY too soon. Basically half the game is almost totally on rails barring the rather pointless "choice" of what to do in what order - and the world is simply not large enough or varied enough to go exploring when you're at that stage. It might just be my playstyle, but I have a feeling I've discovered 90-95% of all the secret stuff on my first playthrough. Being reasonably thorough, it's still a big no-no for a game with this HUGE potential to feel as if you've seen what there is to see in the world on your first playthrough way before the end.

Now, don't get me wrong, it's still fantastic and the world is brilliantly realised.

To me, it feels mostly like Gothic 1 - with the difference being more focus on dungeons and the linear aspect of Chapter 3 and beyond.

But with that negative aspect aside, I think the rest of the game is just brilliant. The melee system is truly terrific and I think it's the best of any Gothic so far. It's deep, intricate, and very challenging throughout. But if you take the time to learn each encounter and how it behaves, you eventually master it and you're able to defeat most enemies with relative ease as long as their numbers are limited.

Technically, I think this game blows away EVERY other freeform CRPG. It runs incredibly smoothly and is largely bug-free aside from a handful of dialogue oddities and I encountered 1 or 2 quest related bugs. But beyond that, this game has performed better than the VAST majority of even the most polished games out there. At least on my rig, it rivals a Blizzard title for stability and polish.

The sensation of progress is spot-on and could hardly be better. It's wonderful to start out really weak and then slowly work your way towards being a bad-ass. However, I never really felt I was THAT bad-ass, because the enemies toward the end remain pretty tough and a few slipups will kill you really fast. I'm not sure how it would be for mages (I was 100% fighter bandit camp dude) - but I suspect they might have an easier time. I was beefed up towards the end, and I really didn't have more ways to improve gear/skills and I used up all my attribute potions correctly. Again, I think the problem is that the endgame is simply too long and too big a part of the experience. The world needed more quests that were not tied to the main storyline, and it probably could do with a larger landmass.

The dungeons, while overall great, were too samey ala Gothic. I love puzzles and traps, but really there wasn't enough variety. I prefer dungeons to have multiple settings or atmospheres, so I was pretty disappointed to discover that pretty much all underground content was identical in appearance and was all based on the style of the main antagonists.

The storyline was fine and the NPCs very Gothic-style - which to me is great. I love down-to-earth "realistic" setups much more than over-the-top stuff which we tend to witness in american or japanese style stories. That said, the background lore was too sparse and I felt too many questions were left unanswered.

The engine is really wonderful, and i truly hope the game will be a big success so they can build upon this game. I'm really in awe of the lighting system, for instance, especially during mornings and thunderstorms. It's amazing to watch how everything lights up when lightning strikes. It's really impressive that they got this to run so incredibly smooth with absolutely no stuttering except for minimal ones upon saving. Also, the pause when you save a game is so neglible that it's hard to believe the same guys did Gothic 3 as it's basically the opposite experience. Teleporting was also incredibly fast and comfortable.

If I have one technical niggle, it's the way certain ambient sounds loop profoundly bad. This is especially evident during rainy weather and it can be heard from the moment you start the game on the beach. I fiddled with everything I could, so I think I can rule out it being a problem with my system, and if you listen at the beginning you can clearly hear the "rainy" sound stop and start over all the time, which I found so distracting I had to turn the ambient volume way down.

Overall verdict? Great game and I'd say it's probably the best freeform game when all things are considered. I'd give it 8.8 - and it could have been 9.5 with the problems I mentioned fixed.

Oh, and I loathe the kind of boss fight witnessed at the end - but that's par for the course. I much prefer simply really tough fights - rather than the trial-and-error crap they always throw at you. It wasn't bad, and I only died 3-4 times figuring out the "puzzle" but I could have done without it. Thankfully, I was spared the horde of minor enemies they usually litter the very end-game with, and you face the end boss at the appropriate time, so there is that.

Go buy this now, if you haven't already.
 
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Agree with you about your verdict.

However i do not have time with endgames like this so now i know what happend and i consider this game finish. The endgame was one of the worst i think. Just frustrating. Don't get any feedback from the titan.

I will not fight it, its just not worth my time. (Nor frustration)

Besides that. A really great game!
 
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Just completed the game at ~40 hours as well.
Played on hard, as a sword fighting bandit, spent half of the game time in first chapter, finished at level 28.

I agree with most of your points.

It´s really a pity last two chapters are such a railroad almost without any optional or branching stuff.
While I think that Ch4 dungeons were generally well done (the one behind the waterfall in particular), lack of monster variety and npcs really made it way too repetitive and the story was non existent by then.
The ending was pretty anticlimactic.

Also, while I´m aware that Gothic games were never lore heavy, in Risen this is way "underdone" imo. More background info adding depth to the world would be welcomed and I´m sure the sparse main quest would benefit from it as well. There´s just not enough depth which becomes evident by the start of Ch3.

While npcs generally feel quite as lively as the ones from first two Gothics, there really isn´t any similarly memorable as, say, Diego or Gorn. May be a lack of models or something. In a good PB tradition, women suck altogether :).

My last gripe about the game is in regards to the overall monster variety.
Fighting hordes of the same opponents can be a bit tiresome at times.
I know PB had to play it safe this time, but really, does each and every monster have to be an equivalent of a Gothic one? I didn´t mind the other "transferred" stuff, but this just felt a bit awkward. The game lacks surprises here.

I don´t feel like replaying Risen in the near future since I too think I´ve experienced most of the content on the first playthrough, bar the faction stuff.
Add-on, or even better, add-in would be nice, especially if it´d resolve some of the later game´s shortcomings.

All that said, I had mostly a great fun playing Risen.

First two chapters are pretty much flawless mix of questing and exploration.

Skill system is simple but effective, putting points in a weapon skill really makes a difference, alchemy and smithing are nicely tied to exploration and offer some strategic opportunities and the implementation of pick pocketing is probably the best I´ve seen.

World design and often unforgiving monster placement is of the good old Gothic quality. Some views are just gorgeous and returning to kill ex-unkillable enemies is rewarding. Risen´s world feels more-or-less like NotR made into a full game.

Puzzles are mostly interesting and reasonably challenging and even though they´ve become repetitive in the end, it was a great throwback to oldschool dungeon romps.

Audio aspects are well done. I liked main protagonist´s voice and voice acting was generally above average. Nothing truly outstanding but certainly nothing cringe worthy.
Music is pure Gothic and it fits the environments really well.

Overall laid back and somewhat down-to-earth feel is PB´s staple and it´s great to be a part of adventure without epicness and heroism behind every corner.
I´m also glad PB haven´t forgotten about humor and Risen has quite a good share of it. Probably my favorite bit was gaining +5 exp for reading the accountant book. Idiot achievement was rude though :).

Inventory and GUI are the best PB has come with yet.

Fighting system is PB¨s best yet too. Involving and fairly complex.
However, multiple opponent encounters should probably be further tinkered with, since combat in such situations felt sometimes quite random. Especially against monsters in the first half of the game, but later against lizardmen as well, due to their high damage output.
Or that was just me being clumsy, the amount of reloading I had to resort to was certainly unhealthy :).

On my medium rig, performance was great all around and the much needed save/reload was lightning fast.

At last but not least, the game is almost bug-free.

Anyway, solid 8/10 in my book.
 
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Agree with all the above - 8/10. I would love another using same engine and a new island. And as well written as Plansescape: torment ;-)
 
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If only it had the feeling Gothic 2 had. I nearly finished Risen but seeing how repetitive it became, i couldn't force myself to grind on. Restarted to join a different party, only to find almost everything to be the same. Reading about the lame end-boss made me quit entirely. What a reward for all that grinding! I don't get where the "high replay value" claims come from?

G2 had replay value because every faction treated you different. Here you can befriend the outlaws at the swamp as well as the zealots of the monastery. Sneaking around there as the Don's errand boy didn't seem to get anybodys attention even when i ransacked the whole Monastery. I expected to be escorted to the Inquisitor with a tight squad of warriors all the way from the gate. Instead; "Nah, you're free the roam the Holy Halls, pick whatever is at your hands' reach."

During the second attempt at playing, offering to work for the Don in Harbour Town while wearing Recruit robes got next to no attention. Dumbasses, of course i'll double-cross you since i'm a warrior-in-training for the Inquisition! But i guess everyone roleplays in their own way. I stick to one path at a time instead of reaping the maximum possible quest rewards no matter how conflicting they are. Suppose that affects my views on the game.

All in all, an atmospheric and visually quite a pleasant game (sunset, sunrise, night time). Worth the time in any case, for the first two chapters…
 
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Basically:

Risen Chapter 1-2 = ~95% score game.

Risen Chapter 3-4 = ~70% score game.

TES = ~60-80% score games if they're all taken into account.

IMO.
 
Basically:

Risen Chapter 1-2 = ~95% score game.

Risen Chapter 3-4 = ~70% score game.

TES = ~60-80% score games if they're all taken into account.

IMO.

Immersion- and atmosphere-wise, agreed. But freedom of exploration, gear choices, character development, factions, etc. i think i prowled through Risen's offerings in a few days whereas i don't think i've seen every location or piece of unique armor in Morrowind even to this day.
 
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Immersion- and atmosphere-wise, agreed. But freedom of exploration, gear choices, character development, factions, etc. i think i prowled through Risen's offerings in a few days whereas i don't think i've seen every location or piece of unique armor in Morrowind even to this day.

There were great parts of all TES games - but in each instance there were problems so huge as to overshadow the great parts quite severely, as I see it.

As for Morrowind, I found the NPCs, combat, cookie-cutter dungeons, and character system absolutely dreadful - which is a huge problem in a CRPG of that nature. Tons of other problems, but those were the big issues for me. The character system, which is so praised by many people, is basically the same except minor differences across the series - and I always DESPISED it. So that's a very subjective factor.
 
There were great parts of all TES games - but in each instance there were problems so huge as to overshadow the great parts quite severely, as I see it.

As for Morrowind, I found the NPCs, combat, cookie-cutter dungeons, and character system absolutely dreadful - which is a huge problem in a CRPG of that nature. Tons of other problems, but those were the big issues for me. The character system, which is so praised by many people, is basically the same except minor differences across the series - and I always DESPISED it. So that's a very subjective factor.

Subjective indeed. I liked the variety of choices. More often than once i ended up ditching a character only because a brand new idea popped in my head, that doesn't happen with games like Risen. Then again, who likes that and who doesn't… The stick-figurine combat was dreadful, yes, and not just because of animations. But i pushed all of that aside just to see the world, especially when filled by mods. Very rewarding adventuring.
 
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Subjective indeed. I liked the variety of choices. More often than once i ended up ditching a character only because a brand new idea popped in my head, that doesn't happen with games like Risen. Then again, who likes that and who doesn't… The stick-figurine combat was dreadful, yes, and not just because of animations. But i pushed all of that aside just to see the world, especially when filled by mods. Very rewarding adventuring.

It might just be me, but I have a very hard time getting excited by the message "Blade skill increased from 33 to 34" with absolutely no discernable difference whatsoever.

In Morrowind it's especially bad, because there are no new moves or powers in combat, just a number scaling upwards whenever the comparison between skill and inherent weapon damage warrants it. As I recall, they even had a "feature" where between the tiny handful of attacks, it would automatically use the most efficient one so you could effectively witness the exact same attack throughout the entire game.

It's a nice idea to have spell creation and item creation, but given the dreadfully boring effects and no sense of discovery in that way - it's basically a wasted effort.

I adore the idea of that level of customization, but if you're going to give players that kind of power - you gotta make it exciting. Even if you can create ten zillion spells, who among us would bother to select more than a dozen to fit our purpose and just scale them as our power grew. It's MUCH more interesting to have developer designed spells with cool names and effects that you're dying to discover.

That's why I consider Risen infinitely better in that regard, because spells and attack moves were great in terms of rewarding progress.

I have a hard time imagining a more hollow and non imaginative way of providing character progress than what I've witnessed in TES - but as I said, that's subjective.
 
My intention was not to show which series are better but which i like the most and this is TES , Gothics style of gameplay is just not right for me.
Risen IS limited and restrictive , the whole "trainers" thing exist to restrict you to name just one .
Also what i really HATE in games is when they force you into main quests , at least in TES you can safely say "Frack the world and it's problems i'm gonna be an inglorious thief"



Edit: It isn't fair comparing a 2009 game with a 2002 one
 
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It's all about gamers' preferences. That's why it's so nice to have a large and variable offering of RPG's with more to come. Some of us like both TES and Gothic, plus a little hack and slash Diablo or Titan Quest on top of the soup. Basically anything with swords and fireballs work for me. :)
 
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My intention was not to show which series are better but which i like the most and this is TES , Gothics style of gameplay is just not right for me.
Risen IS limited and restrictive , the whole "trainers" thing exist to restrict you to name just one .
Also what i really HATE in games is when they force you into main quests , at least in TES you can safely say "Frack the world and it's problems i'm gonna be an inglorious thief"



Edit: It isn't fair comparing a 2009 game with a 2002 one

Fair?

This isn't about justice - this is about opinions. In my opinion Gothic 1 is better than all TES games as well, including the latest one.
 
Fair?

This isn't about justice - this is about opinions. In my opinion Gothic 1 is better than all TES games as well, including the latest one.

The latest one was the worst , still playing as an assassin/sniper with a bow was very nice and at least going archery skill from 33 to 34 gave you something (more chances to hit / damage ) in Risen going from bow 1 to bow 3 gives you nothing .

It isn't fair comparing animations , AI and the rest between Risen and Morrowind .
The less choices Devs are doing for me the better , as i mentioned above i hate hand holding & "do quest A to move into quest B" . I am playing X-universe sci-fi games since X-BTF (1999) and never did any of the main quests .
Spell/Charactere/Weapon creation rocks , pre-set kind of stuff get old very fast.
 
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The latest one was the worst , still playing as an assassin/sniper with a bow was very nice and at least going archery skill from 33 to 34 gave you something (more chances to hit / damage ) in Risen going from bow 1 to bow 3 gives you nothing .

I'm pretty sure the bow thing is a bug, but even so - why ignore all the other skills where each point gives you something significant? That almost makes me think you WANT to dislike the game rather than look it at with a reasonable lack of bias.
 
I'm pretty sure the bow thing is a bug, but even so - why ignore all the other skills where each point gives you something significant? That almost makes me think you WANT to dislike the game rather than look it at with a reasonable lack of bias.

Why being preoccupied ? The last thing i want for my gaming life is to post how much better stupid Oblivion is from a game i was really waiting for.

I am mostly playing archers and thiefs but sword 2 only gave me a tricky move that takes a lot of time to practice and many reloads to master , i don't think this is a bug.
 
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Why being preoccupied ? The last thing i want for my gaming life is to post how much better stupid Oblivion is from a game i was really waiting for.

I'm not sure what you mean with being preoccupied? Are you referring to me or yourself? If you think I'm being preoccupied by trying to make sense of your posts, then forgive me for not seeing a reasonable alternative. I can't just ignore what you're saying, as that would be rather rude of me.

I am mostly playing archers and thiefs but sword 2 only gave me a tricky move that takes a lot of time to practice and many reloads to master , i don't think this is a bug.

No, I don't think sword skill is bugged either?
 
Apologies for not being clear, i meant that i was not pre-occupied against Risen and i was looking forward to enjoy it .
I don't think that my posts are rude , we are just having a civilised disagreement which is the purpose of forums.
 
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Apologies for not being clear, i meant that i was not pre-occupied against Risen and i was looking forward to enjoy it .
I don't think that my posts are rude , we are just having a civilised disagreement which is the purpose of forums.

I agree completely, and I didn't mean to say your posts are rude :)
 
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