Risen 2 - Interview @ RPG Codex

Maybe rather then linear I should have said guided. At the beginning of Gothic 2 you are told to go to the city and it is hard to get lost going there and the rest of the beginning is that way, easy to get to without getting lost but still if you want you can go off in your own direction and risk getting killed. I am a little more hazier about Gothic 3 then Gothic 2 since I more recently replayed it but from what I remember it was harder to get lost in Gothic 3 then any of their other games.

With Risen if you are trying to go to the Don you could easily either turn too soon and get forcefully recruited into the Inquisition or go too far and get killed by wolves. Going the other way toward the city is just as dangerous since if you are not very careful you could run into enemies that are way too powerful for you early in the game. (you don't even need to go far off the beaten path for that )

Yeah, there was somewhat less guidance in the beginning of Risen I agree.

In terms of pure difficulty though, Gothic 2 + NotR was harder early on. I'd say Risen (on hard) was a bit tougher than Gothic 3, but NotR is probably still the most difficult action-rpg I've ever played.

The Witcher 2 was also quite a beast at times.

Let's remember these developers are dealing with an audience who said Morrowind had no direction at all because they didn't want to read or pay attention. I don't blame them for putting in clear direction at the beginning for those who need it, I just want to be able to ignore it.

New Vegas handled this really well I thought. They tell you clearly and multiple times to go South and follow the road to New Vegas, then at Vegas they tell you clearly where and who the factions are and make you visit them all before you can go to the ending sequence. If you want though you can go North, or go away from Vegas, or whatever. It's your decision whether to follow the obvious trail or to get away from it.

What I dislike is having a small area to explore, then another small area opens, and progressively the game becomes more open. Something like Fable or Gothic 4. I dislike that stuff because to me it doesn't even feel like an open-world game at that point, just a level-based game that lets you replay earlier levels if you want.

I sort of see your point, but we don't know how large the later areas will be. I have no reason to believe it will be completely separate smaller areas - and I certainly expect to be allowed to revisit old areas.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is going to be based on your ship. You will be on one of the smaller islands at the beginning and once you get your ship you will be able to explore the rest of the islands. You can't just swim through the ocean between the islands.

Originally Posted by guenthar
I wouldn't be surprised if it is going to be based on your ship. You will be on one of the smaller islands at the beginning and once you get your ship you will be able to explore the rest of the islands. You can't just swim through the ocean between the islands.

Yep, I think that is more or less confirmed.

Originally Posted by DeepO

GOTY, stat!

Originally Posted by guenthar
I wouldn't be surprised if it is going to be based on your ship. You will be on one of the smaller islands at the beginning and once you get your ship you will be able to explore the rest of the islands. You can't just swim through the ocean between the islands.

Yeah, pretty much. Which means it will really depend on how quickly you gain access to the larger islands and if you get them all at once. If you go from one island to the next to the next then the game will feel very linear, even if you can go back to old islands.