Completed the game - random thoughts

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.

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!

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.