Risen How good is the story/characters?

I haven't played the game yet but from what I have read it seems Risen is bit weak on the story side.

What do people who have played the game think of the story? Is it the run of the mill fantasy story like save the world? (which is not bad in itself when done correctly!) Or is there something more interesting going on? How are the characters? Do they have "personalities"? Did you "care" what is happening to the wrold and the characters in it?

Try to avoid spoilers please!

thx

edit:
Meant to post this on the "main" section of the forum and not in the spoiler section!

The surface storyline is normal or average - the deeper subliminal path is not too obvious - it has to be searched for and is excellently orchestrated. Quick-play gamers may not grasp the root direction for some time, if at all - you have to think what you are doing and why.

The overall "plot" is pretty so-so and definitely nothing too amazing. But I wouldn't call it weak as such.

However, the NPCs are typical Gothic style, which means they pretty much all have human motivations and behavior that you can relate to easily, and for someone like myself that's very preferable to the extreme nature of most NPCs in modern CRPGs. Fallout 3 was particularly bad in this sense, as they all seemed to be either totally insane or just bad caricatures of actual human beings.

You could argue that Bioware writing is better, based on it being very emotionally manipulative - but that's a matter of taste. If you can get yourself caught up in the somewhat juvenile clichés of a Bioware game, then that style is most likely a lot more involving than Gothic.

It all comes down to preference, and I find it hard to give an objective opinion on things like this.

I was myself absorbed in the characters of KotOR - for instance, and I distinctly remember being emotionally involved, which is extremely rare for me to experience when playing a game. So, there's something to be said for a variety of styles.

But in terms of immersion, I MUCH prefer the realistic and sound psychological approach - as in plausible characters - of Gothic style writing.