Risen - Review Flood #3

Today's articles show a couple of trends. English reviews are very critical of the XBox 360 conversion, but they often neither put it into the context of the PC version nor do they mention for how many hours the game was played. German scores for the PC version are still overwhelmingly positive. The conversion is generally assessed as an equally good game, significantly held back by ugly graphics and an overall bad technical performance. Tests in other languages are somewhere in between.
It's easy to form a view on Risen for PC due the demo released yesterday. The XBox 360 situation on the other hand is less clear. Are the German testers too uncritical? Or are the early English reviews rush jobs by unmotivated, badly paid reviewers? Hard to say without first hand experience.
Videogameszone.de posted a gallery with screenshots highlighting the visual differences between both version.
PC Games.de offers tuning tips in German.
<ul>Golem.de thinks Risen is a risk-free buy for Gothic fans.
GameStar put their print article online.
Spanish site MeriStation gives 8/10.
DemoNews added a score: 86%
GameZ.nl and Babelfish find strength and weaknesses, but still say: "be you a devotee of traditional RPG with fantasy-setting or Gothic-games in particular, then this a must is absolutely. " - 81%
GamersGlobal.de rates Risen with an enthusiastic 8.5/10. "Risen does so much right that minor inconsitencies carry no wight."
SpazioGames.it gives Risen an 8.0, I think for the PC version. It could also be a combined score though.
Spanish site 3DJuegos reviewed both versions. 6.7/10 for PC, 6.5/10 on XBox 360.
The highly critical 4Players.de doesn't like Risen (PC) and hates the conversion. 74% resp. 64%. Too bad a Deep Silver representative said they only received their review sample two days ago.
Resolution Magazine writes about both version, but gives only one score. The author's 6/10 is worth a read. "Risen’s a brave, self-assured game that I’m sure a lot of people are going to really dig. […]I’m not so taken, but my increasingly frazzled mind through endless streams of instant-gratification blockbusters might have something to do with that. Or maybe I’m just losing patience with minor flaws. Or maybe I’m just weird."
Eurogamer.net reviews the XBox 360 version, also lists the PC platform and dishes out a 4/10. People in the comments thread are not amused. As you might remember Eurogamer.de gave 8/10 and 7/10.
StrategyInformer strives for a balanced conclusion: "Lacking in polish and attention to detail, Risen still stands up as an absorbing and hugely playable RPG title. The PC version is inarguably superior to its console counterpart, this Xbox 360 iteration feeling somewhat unfinished and unrefined. Yet, for a sophomore console effort, Piranha Bytes has done a solid enough job in adapting an intricate role-player for Xbox 360, which bodes well should the dev decide to bring future releases to the platform." - 6.3/10
GamingXP.de added an article on the XBox 360 game. They mention the usual technical issues. - 80%
videogamer thinks "The issue is enjoyment. If Piranha Bytes hadn't designed Risen while giving accessibility the finger, then it would have…More information.

The links are sorted. First PC, then mixed, then XBox 360.

Pleasant to read that most negative reviews are X-Box.

Hopefully, sales will be strong enough that next time they will be able to make a pc only version.

Reading some of the xbox-reviews I think some of the reviewers are are still watching Teletubbies and have never played a real rpg before

Originally Posted by vanedor
Pleasant to read that most negative reviews are X-Box.

Hopefully, sales will be strong enough that next time they will be able to make a pc only version.

The days of expensive PC exclusives are over.

It's hard to believe the disastrous Xbox reviews won't have a negative impact on PC sales.

Originally Posted by Gorath
It's hard to believe the disastrous Xbox reviews won't have a negative impact on PC sales.

Reminds me of what happened with Two Worlds.

The comments by RealGamer could really be applied to just about any RPG in recent times. /shrug

I hope pb gets enough money to stay alive for a sequel. I hope PC playrs do buy this game. Luckily many seem to have noticed it and are buying. Not that it costs much now that tax free places are plenty atleast in here.

Even Finland recently got their own tax-free mailorder place from Åland. You can now order from there just like from play.com. The prices are cheap. My first game arrived from there today and inside the envelop was the islands own flag:

From what I've played it deserves 87-90% or so which is great for a P.B. game. They did great on this one.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
The comments by RealGamer could really be applied to just about any RPG in recent times. /shrug

It's complete BS. The original Gothic came out before most of the listed games.

lol!
this "realgamer" review is a huge joke.

this guy has absolutley no idea what hes talking about.

My Advice, wait for the REAL reviews, like the ones which will eventually come from this site!!

The person who did the Resolution Magazine review is an idiot. He didn't even pay attention to what the npcs were saying. He didn't even know that an npc would bring him to the back gate of Harbor Town even though he did the quests on the farm. He also didn't even know that the Order will attack anyone outside the town when he was specifically told. He also didn't know how to train his skills which is pretty easy to figure out if you talk to npcs and pay attention.

I also sent a message to the editor RealGamer since the reviewer out right lied about features of the game being stolen from other games. The mentioned features are similar to Gothic 1 and 2 which predate the games the reviewer accused them of stealing from.

Originally Posted by Gorath
It's complete BS. The original Gothic came out before most of the listed games.

truth, basically it could be claimed that all those games stole from gothic, and seriosuly who can play through oblivion 50 times??! I barely survived one playthrough and that was because I felt like I ought to say I played it not because the story was interesting…
from whta I've seen of Risen it's awesome. I loved how the wolf I fought attacked me from different sides, what the heck is he talking about? waiting to throw themselves at hte point of your sword? did he fight only young enemies?!
I registered to RealGamer just to post a comment on thier stupid review only to find out you can't comment on that site… how can I tell the guy who wrote the review he's an idiot if I can't comment on it…

Someone slap me pls for buying anything from the Gothic-lineage at release day. HARDER! >.<

I have the same bug like almost all Nvidia 79xx and some others: the entire game has a FUGLY grey fog over everything. It looks terrible. Now they are "working on it".

NOW. AGAIN. Well, I'll be damned if I EVER EVER EVER again buy something even remote connected to Gothic earler than 1 year later from the grab bag for €10. *__*
Blast it!

Can you return the game? Technical error admited by the publisher, misleading minimum requirements, blabla. Gewährleistung durch den Händler.

Originally Posted by Gorath


Can you return the game? Technical error admited by the publisher, misleading minimum requirements, blabla. Gewährleistung durch den Händler.

I dunno… but I want to play the game. Oh well… prolly in months, when PB is bankrupt and some other "fan patch" remedies it. Never again…

Think about it. You can always buy it again when the problem is solved.

Originally Posted by elikal
I have the same bug like almost all Nvidia 79xx and some others: the entire game has a FUGLY grey fog over everything. It looks terrible. Now they are "working on it".

Have the same problem with my 7950GT
Luckyly though I tried the demo first and saw the problems there. So I didn't bought the game.
I will probably buy a new PC when Windows 7 comes and then I will grab Risen.

for this kind of problems, changing driver version might do.
one of you will have to try various old drivers (incl. betas), or you both wait for the next version.
it's easier messing with nvidia drivers than ati, so i would give it a try asap if interested in the game.