Risen 2 - Five Fixes Will Make It Outstanding

Dhruin

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Second Letter Media writes in with this short article titled 5 Fixes Will Make Risen 2 Oustanding. It comes from a console perspective and I can't say they are the same as my list but here's a sample:
4. Don't Level Cap Me - For the love of our Lord, Europe. Can you please cut it out with the Level Caps that force us to pidgeon hole our character development. If I want a character that is just as strong in magic as he is in sword play, can you please find it in your heart to let me work toward that? Please make Risen the first 360 Euro RPG to break this horrible tradition.
More information.
 
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From the whole article...

1. Fix the Frame rate
Um... w00t? I really, really, don't think this is a major thing. Anyone else?

2. Make a Truly Open World
And how are you supposed to make that? By some random map generator? Ok... What of mobs then? They spawn randomly? Man, This would be worse than random generated Diablo dungeons with endless mob swarms. Yes, I they'd put this into Risen 2, it's de outstanding! Outstanding crap.

3. Eliminate Pointless Collection Quests
Creator of this article should really stop playing RPGs.

4. Don't Level Cap Me
Yea well... A game that doesn't have endless mobs respawn doesn't need a cap. Risen doesn't spawn mobs. Risen 2 won't do that either. Again the article writer doesn't understand different approach to capping levels. If you don't want the level cap, Diablo is for you. Or better, don't play RPG at all - no RPG = no level capping.

5. Fix the Inventory and Character Management Interfaces
Puh-lease... What should they do, dumb it down like Bioware in ME/DA 2?


btw, Risen2 will be outstanding without these rediculous suggestions. PB is on the right track. Always was.
 
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Yes Europe, why can't you remove level caps like great all-american rpgs fallout 3/NV, dragon age 1/2 and ME1/2?????

PS: This and the "decline of the rpg" are quite gut, more lulzy news please.
 
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From what I've read the console version of Risen and the PC version of Risen are completely different games. And the console version was shit. So there's not much use talking about an article that only refers to the console version. I don't mean bad PC to console port...I mean fundamental gameplay elements were completely different. Two different games basically.

This is all 2nd hand, I only played the PC version.

But even so, I think his 5 suggestions are idiotic.
 
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I sort of agree with the collection quests. Atleast it isnt as bad as a Nintendo "Mario" game.
 
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The console version was very similar to the PC version, only less detail and maybe a bit buggier. I don't think the writer has any idea what they are saying.
 
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2. Make a Truly Open World
And how are you supposed to make that? By some random map generator? Ok… What of mobs then? They spawn randomly? Man, This would be worse than random generated Diablo dungeons with endless mob swarms. Yes, I they'd put this into Risen 2, it's de outstanding! Outstanding crap.

I completly agree on this one.
It's good if game is 'open-world' to a degree, but if you want to have it completly open-world, you get gothic3. Yeah it's nice looking, it's has some interesting quest but....it's boring and doesn't have really a red-line so to speak.

As the guy said, to achive this, you would have to have some sort of map/quest generator.

If you want to have good storytelling, you really can't achive that with completly open world game. Last game i played (A bit only) that felt like completly open world (two worlds 2), felt like gothic 3,just even worse; both had some good sides, but overall, they felt like you are put in a world, when quest are generated randomly, and aren't really connected to anything.

That may be completly open world game, but if that is the case, that open world is seriously overrated.


3. Eliminate Pointless Collection Quests
Creator of this article should really stop playing RPGs.

From time to time, i find those quite ok..

Dunno, i can't say i find this review exactly...positive.
 
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That article is console garbage, honestly.
The guy is clearly clueless.
 
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How is Risen's world not open? Just because it wouldn't let you into the monastery? It was off limits and it made sense. Being allowed to just barge into an off limits area unchallenged doesn't make the world 'open' it makes it weak and unconvincing.
 
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About the pointless collection quests, I don't remember well for Risen specifically, but in general it's not a that bad remark.

For sure if you look at it from a larger point of view many quests of many RPG end to be about collecting something. And it can be used in a good way anyway. But in general RPG tend abuse of quests that are simply collecting stuff.

For sure quests that show something more different are always a breeze, well when it's well done.

EDIT: And about Risen not open enough, I think it's also a valid remark. In no way I would compare with Gothic 3 for example, it's just a different scale and setup. But when compared to Gothic 2+NOTR I felt constricted and limited in Risen but much less in Gothic 2+NOTR. Also I read (never played that part) many comments about a long dungeon in final part and that sort of approach won't help feel less confined in a limited world. Don't be wrong I love dungeons games.
 
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for Risen to amount to something, it would take just one fix. Hire brilliant writters, and get them involved in the design process , oh, and it wouldn't hurt to make more suggestive facial expressions. Bloodlines is no1 imo after all this time.
 
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This dude must be the twin brother of that guy from IGN that wrote the article about "decline of RPG games".

Also lol at " follow TW2's model and develop the game for consoles instead of just porting them." I am reading crap like this and then still wonder why the industry is going down...
 
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I Understand The Critiques

Keep in mind, that from my perspective, the game only needed minor tweaks to really be outstanding. There is nothing greatly profound that needed to be fixed for me. Also, this is just an opinion piece. I'm not speaking objectively here.

From the whole article…


1. Fix the Frame rate
Um… w00t? I really, really, don't think this is a major thing. Anyone else?
Keep in Mind I only played this on 360. I'm sure PC got this right. It's definitely not the worst framerate I've seen on a 360 RPG, but other games have found a way to square it away, so I think they set the bar.

2. Make a Truly Open World
And how are you supposed to make that? By some random map generator? Ok… What of mobs then? They spawn randomly? Man, This would be worse than random generated Diablo dungeons with endless mob swarms. Yes, I they'd put this into Risen 2, it's de outstanding! Outstanding crap.

One of the things that hindered Risen from being what I'd call "Open World" was the terrain. it allowed the game to funnel you in certain directions instead of allowing you to truly explore in a fashion that felt free to me. If you compare it to games like Oblivion or Morrowind, it felt a bit more confined.


3. Eliminate Pointless Collection Quests
Creator of this article should really stop playing RPGs.

Hahaha. This is something I wish RPGs would get away from. Risen actually wasn't as bad with it as many other titles have been.

4. Don't Level Cap Me
Yea well… A game that doesn't have endless mobs respawn doesn't need a cap. Risen doesn't spawn mobs. Risen 2 won't do that either. Again the article writer doesn't understand different approach to capping levels. If you don't want the level cap, Diablo is for you. Or better, don't play RPG at all - no RPG = no level capping.

That would read better if it said, "Don't level cap me at 30." All RPGs have some level cap. The reason they don't get talked about as much in other titles is that the cap is usually higher than most gamers ever reach. I think the Euro and American standard of Capping at 30 hinders character development. Bioware would probably be the worst offender to me.

Fighting and working to Build characters and make them powerful is where I find the most joy in RPGs. Games that lock me down into pigeon holes like these are less enjoyable to play.

That said, my tongue-in-cheek "please stop this horrible tradition" comment is not meant to imply that I think the concept doesn't have merit. I get that many gamers like that approach and I respect it.


5. Fix the Inventory and Character Management Interfaces
Puh-lease… What should they do, dumb it down like Bioware in ME/DA 2?

No need to dumb down at all. Keep in mind that, again, this is only based on the 360 experience. It just needs to be refocused to work better from the console perspective. On PC, I'm sure there were no problems.

btw, Risen2 will be outstanding without these rediculous suggestions. PB is on the right track. Always was.

No argument here. I really dug Risen. These addressing these few gripes would just make it that much sweeter for me. It would take it from great to outstanding.
 
About the pointless collection quests, I don't remember well for Risen specifically, but in general it's not a that bad remark.

For sure if you look at it from a larger point of view many quests of many RPG end to be about collecting something. And it can be used in a good way anyway. But in general RPG tend abuse of quests that are simply collecting stuff.

For sure quests that show something more different are always a breeze, well when it's well done.

EDIT: And about Risen not open enough, I think it's also a valid remark. In no way I would compare with Gothic 3 for example, it's just a different scale and setup. But when compared to Gothic 2+NOTR I felt constricted and limited in Risen but much less in Gothic 2+NOTR. Also I read (never played that part) many comments about a long dungeon in final part and that sort of approach won't help feel less confined in a limited world. Don't be wrong I love dungeons games.

Good points across the board.
 
TSL, there'll always be flamers. Ignore them, and address normal posts :)
While I don't agree with your article, I haven't played much of Risen, and what I did play was on PC. So, I don't know how it was for you. Try the PC version maybe ?
 
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Geez… you people need to fucking chill out. Did you even read the article, or did you guys just feel like bashing someone?

He starts out by saying…

Risen was my favorite RPG in 2010 (check out the review here). I had alotta fun during both of my playthrus (I'm an achievement ho). Unfortunately, there were a few things that held Risen back from being a truly great RPG (at least on the 360).

So it was his favorite RPG in 2010, despite his observations (All of which I think are valid to a degree. ), and he clearly mentions that he played it on the 360, not the PC, which is why he experienced the framerate issues.

I thought Risen was plenty "open" enough, but the rest of his complaints are perfectly understandable.
 
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TSL: I agree with the "no more fetch-quests" argument. I'll expand on that further by saying that I love it when side-quests have an interesting story that give these tasks meaning. I think it is far better to have fewer side-quests that are well-written instead of many side-quests that are of the "fed-ex deliveryman" variety. I also agree that the world didn't feel open enough; there were too many barriers and areas where the player got "funneled" for an open-world game. I don't mind this sort of thing in other games, but it feels a bit off to have exploration elements be limited in this manner for a game that is advertised as an open-world RPG.

Other than that, the performance and interface problems you mention are non-existent on the PC version. If you are able to, I would highly recommend re-playing Risen on the PC as Pladio suggested.

edit: Ah, forgot about the level cap issue. Yeah, I don't quite understand why level caps - at least, low level caps that are set at 30 or lower - are needed in the first place, other than to serve as a form of balancing that prevents players from becoming extremely over-powered. I think a good compromise would be to raise the level cap to 50 and make it difficult to reach that level.
 
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