Risen 3: Titan Lords - Finally Announced

Ehhhhh….

Ever since They released the masterpiece of RPG design that was Gothic 2, every PB game has took a bit of their edge off.

Gothic 3 tried to grab the mainstream by attempting to emulate Oblivion's lame combat.

Risen 1 did away with the deeper faction play since all of the 2.5 factions played the same and saw/did the same things.

Risen 2 did away with the open world aspect and further watered down the combat.

At this rate, Risen 3 will likely be you hitting a button until the game over screen appears.

Originally Posted by DungeonHack
Ever since They released the masterpiece of RPG design that was Gothic 2, every PB game has took a bit of their edge off.

I agree, but Gothic 2 is a pretty tough act to follow.

Originally Posted by DungeonHack
Risen 2 did away with the open world aspect and further watered down the combat.

I don't know if I would say that Risen 2 wasn't open world. It was, but you just didn't have access to all the areas from the beginning. Combat was significantly improved after they patched in the ability to dodge, but it still wasn't on the same level as Risen.

I can give you those points JDR13, but for me, and my tastes, it's too much leeway. A large bit of leeway that PB won't get from me anymore.

Lots of "buts" that get thrown into talk about Risen 2, and I think it just validates the softening of the game's features for PB. They see the longstanding fans accept the mainstreaming and figure they can push the bar further.

Personally, I really liked Risen 2, and I think it's an underrated game. I admit though that part of that is due to my love for tropical settings.

I also don't think that features were softened as much as some claim. Like most PB titles, it's still a very challenging game (compared to aRPGs from other developers), and it still has that great atmosphere that PB is known for. Exploration isn't as satisfying as Risen 1 or the Gothics, but production values were significantly improved. Overall, it was about on par with Risen for me.

I enjoyed Risen 1 somewhat, but found the combat in Risen 2 to be the least enjoyable (especially when fighting animals) in any rpg I've played in years. I hope for my sake at least they drastically change the combat.

Originally Posted by Caidh
I enjoyed Risen 1 somewhat, but found the combat in Risen 2 to be the least enjoyable (especially when fighting animals) in any rpg I've played in years.

It sounds like you played it before the patch. Besides adding the ability to dodge, it also added the ability to block animal/monster attacks.

Wonderful!

I loved the 1:st game, even though it got a bit weak towards the end. I loved the 2:nd game as well, even though I felt it had a great deal of unrealized potential. Personally, I feel that both these games qualify as "Underrated Gems". ;-)

Risen 3 moves immediatly into my "Top 5 Most Wanted" games!

Well the leaked pics do seem a bit Darker and the world design a bit more vertical (and perhaps more of a return to the roots) on a couple of them so I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for this one. Will have to hear more design specifics from them to really get excited but its good seeing things have moved along considerably with this one (may see it in 2015 ?)…

I saw the screens and can't wait to play it

Judging by one of the screens, looks like there will be proper magic once again. Weaponry and armour looks more risen 1 style too: full plate, shields and long swords. So from pirate setting back to Sword&Sorcery. And visually it looks like a risen game, so it should feel familiar enough.

There's no way not to get excited about a PB game for me, even though it's less today than it used to be.

They seem fatigued and tired of doing the same game over and over. But Risen 2 was still more than worth playing - and maybe they'll be happier going back to a darker style.

Seems to me, though, that they should do something very different at this point.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Seems to me, though, that they should do something very different at this point.

Yes, they need to do like Bethesda, switch between two very different settings to keep it interesting and inspirational for themselves. It's good they did 2 games with very bright and tropical settings at least, hopefully this will bring out a lot of darkness and "gothicness" into Risen 3.

Originally Posted by vurt
Yes, they need to do like Bethesda

Absolutely not!

No respawns please, no endless fetch grinder quests and no releasing bug-o-rama!

The third thing happened with G3, I know…

Originally Posted by joxer
Absolutely not!

No respawns please, no endless fetch grinder quests and no releasing bug-o-rama!

Nice try, taking it completely out of context, that's not what i said at all.

Translation of PC gamer article (hopefully it can be posted )

Combat System:

- There will be a Prologue, where you’ll be able to experiment with higher-level skills, after that you’ll continue on level 1.
- Monsters can be blocked
- From the beginning you’ll be able to perform a derp-roll and short-teleports to escape combat
- Big armours and swords, fireball and Lightning
- There will probably be Voodoo Magic again
- stunned enemies can be robbed
- you will have support from party members
- combat system with four different actions and simple combos

Other:
- DLC’s will bring more content
- Roasting meat will happen in a separate window
- Ingame world: mostly middle-european, but Mediterranean and tropical regions aswell
- The whole landmass will be designed completely by hand (not generated)
- Swimming will be possible again
- Just like Risen 2, separated Regions – it will be impossible to travel the whole world without loading screens (Well technically, Gothic 2 DNDR had those aswell)
- Like always several joinable guilds (probably three)
- One those will be the wardens(guards), who will be like the former Paladins
- New enemies: Shadows (Undead, who will rise from Skullcaves)
- The soul of the main char will be eaten by a shadow lord in the beginning (maybe explaining his skill loss)
- After that he will have a soul-value, that can be changed in direction of humanity or demonic entity.
- New hero, the hero from R1&R2 will be playing an important role though.
- Food will again be merged into “Proviant” (don know the English expression here)

Technical:

- Only playable with Steam & no modding tools
- Developed for X360, PS3 and PC. No Next-Gen was mentioned.
- Same engine as Risen 2, with polished Details, but the bad points (whatever they mean) will stay, like rudimentary dialogues. So the engine will look dated compared to Witcher 3 and DA:Inquisition. (Personally, I don’t give a fu about that)

- Expected Release: August 2014

Nice to see that swimming is back again. Also, great to see a mix of several regions. Overall a bit disapointing, not enough to make me even close to "hyped".

This is great news. I thought Risen 2 was really good compared to most open world RPGs, but it was still my least favorite Piranha Bytes game. Coming from any other developer, it would have been a pleasant surprise, but I know Piranha Bytes is capable of more. It is the only PB game I have not bothered replaying. I still have high hopes for Risen 3, though. When it comes to open world RPGs, there are no-one better than PB, IMO.

Kay

Yeah, that sounds pretty underwhelming - but I guess we'll see.

Using the old engine enables PB to concentrate on content and quests - thats a good thing.

Did I say instapreorder? I did?

DLC’s will bring more content

Forgeddit. No preorder just because of this bullshit. Hell now I'm thinking on not buying the game at all.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Seems to me, though, that they should do something very different at this point.

I had not thought about it this way, but I now think you are right. They have rehashed the exact same formula now for the fifth time and the only time they tried to expand creatively they failed.

PB is cursed in a way by having found a winning formula in a very narrow niche, that does not translate well to other genres.

Does sound exactly like Risen 3 indeed

I am sure that I will buy it, eventually. How soon depends on if they can make me a bit more excited as they start showing more things about the game, because for now the "back to the roots" thing doesn't exactly seem prominent or is something I get from the provided info…