Risen 3 user résumé after 6 hours

As you may have noticed, some lucky German guys are already playing Risen 3 as the retailers sold it early. One of the users in World of Risen forums did a short résumé after playing 6 hours, which I've tried to translate:

Graphics:
Coherent and partly really pretty. The starting area is really colorful, but on the islands I've visited later on the areas that are ruled by the Shadows are really gloomy. My PC (Core i5 2500 + GTX 770 + 16 GB DDR3 + Vertex 3 SSD) doesn't have troubles with the details and it has run smoothly the whole time. Though sometimes from afar I see monsters being striped, meaning they're visible only partly. If you're moving by ship this time there's no flickering.
Upshot: At least I am satisfied.

Music:
Mostly coherent. I very much like the music in the main menu.
Upshot: good to very good

NPCs:
The women's faces this time are quite different. I haven't discovered any clones so far. In Gothic 3 and Risen 2 the ladies have been too similar for my taste. Among males the degree of relationship seems to be a little higher. I've met several acquaintances from Risen 2. Patty has changed a lot… You can take along one companion, but sometimes a second one for a short time.
Upshot: Good!

Tutorial:
At first I hadn't realized that I actually was in a tutorial. I tried to draw my weapon as I got into a fight. Nothing happened. Other keys didn't work as well. Frustrating! Only when I went into a certain direction a prompt appeared to try one of the keys (which then had been enabled). It would have been better if all keys were available immediately. (There are guys who first look into the manual which keys you should use, and don't want to be taken by the hand like this.)
Upshot: mediocre

Starting area:
Designed very beautifully, but there has been a tube level feeling. You are guided by your first companion (a lady…) in a certain direction. When I zoomed the map out (first I didn't know this was possible) it became obvious that there's more to see. Here it would perhaps have been better if you immediately got a view of the whole area when looking at the map. Then it's obvious that you can take other ways and ignore the companion's requests for the time being.
Upshot: A little less guidance would have been better. But you know that this doesn't apply to everyone.

Quests:
When you've finished the starting area, the world opens. You can now head for all islands and our new companion lists the numerous possibilities. Nice! At this point I really got appetite to get started. On both of the islands I've visited after that there are a lot of NPCs with quests. A feeling of freedom arose in me, something I've missed in Risen 1 and 2.
Upshot: Very good!

Dialogs:
Muuuuuch better than in Risen 2. The NPCs have more to say, the answers are partly extensive, funny and more cunning. You notice that there's a lot of creativity in them. The NPCs partly get real character.
Upshot: Wonderful!

Combat (difficulty: medium):
In the starting area to my surprise I had hardly any trouble with the enemies. I haven't died a single time. Of course that's as well because I was supported by a companion. On one of the other two islands I've visited I died once, because I refrained from blocking. So if you just click wildly, you rather don't win. It needs blocking in time, dodging in fights with powerful enemies and hitting in the right moment to persist. Blocking doesn't always help to avoid damage, which is good. The feature where your hand lights up when you hit harder seems to be totally superfluous to me. Because you clearly see that (the movement of) your arm is delayed before you reach back. That you can dodge by rolling around is ok. But appareantly the hero has hefty endurance! He can roll around all the time without being hit while the companion does the dirty work (and then gets the fame points as well). It's ok that you can't hit your companion any longer, that spares you a lot of trouble. The automatic aiming for enemies is quite useful for blocking when you're against multiple enemies, but when attacking I anytime want to decide MYSELF, which enemy I attack. Unfortunately often that doesn't work.
Upshot: Better than in Risen 2, but not superb.

Bugs:
I haven't come upon real bugs. Only some dead human bodies disappear too quickly in mysterious ways. That really caught my eye in a temple. You come along, find a body, return two minutes later and the body is gone. In the temple's interior you could hear bird songs and dropping water, although I couldn't see water anywhere.

Conclusions:
I like Risen 3 far more than Risen 2. Today I had real troubles quiting the game. It's been quite a long time… that something like this happend to me. The dialogs in this game imho are the best from all of the Risen series. And the nice feeling of freedom and urge of discovery when you can head for all islands after the starting area, and the realization of how many quests are awaiting I haven't had for a long time in a PB game. That the environment including the monsters is in parts quite colorful doesn't disturb me. There are gloomy areas as well and the shadow beings I've encountered so far are all but colorful. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the game.

@Morrandir - thank you for the translation -> sounds good!

Originally Posted by HiddenX
@Morrandir - thank you for the translation

+1

I actually started to write this and that… But maybe I adore tutorial and hate the music unlike him. Can't know before weekend.

If at least half of his excitment grabs everyone who plays the game, it means we get another RPG gem this year.
Keep them coming!

A side note. The teaser trailer was made by Platige. While very good, it still wasn't stellar like ones they did for The Witcher games. Any word on possible more of it in the game?

Looks promising

This doesn't tell me anything. Had I done a 'partial review' of Risen 1 after 6 hours I would have said it was an awesome game. Sadly that was only the case for the first half, and with its craptacular last part, the overall game ended being just meh. So I'll wait until he finishes the game and see.

Bring it!

I've cleared my schedule for the next 3-4 days.

Originally Posted by wolfing
Sadly that was only the case for the first half, and with its craptacular last part, the overall game ended being just meh. So I'll wait until he finishes the game and see.

Wow, I have never played a game that took quite the nosedive that the original Risen did. That game was old Gothic revived… and then it was most tedious thing I have ever finished.

The only things that concern me from these early reviews are that they haven't gotten the magic yet, so we don't know how well that is implemented. Second, I have read that maybe all the islands from Risen 2 are back. They wouldn't just put different stuff on the exact same geography, would they? I want to know if the places feel completely different.

Definitely a Risen 2+ thing going on. I am using pc to tv with controller setup, and it sure beats Risen 2 on Xbox 360 in every way. Still, it is essentially some feature upgrades over Risen 2 so far, but I am not far.

What was wrong with the original Risen engine? This setup doesn't feel as good, it doesn't seem like a Gothic-style game with this. Has PB had a lot of turnover since the good old days?

I still don't understand that. I'm assuming the Risen 1 engine was challenging/time consuming to work with or something. It certainly felt very smooth to me, and seemed like it had a lot of potential.

I thought they'd been using the same Genome engine since Gothic 3, albeit modified for each game?

Originally Posted by DPB
I thought they'd been using the same Genome engine since Gothic 3, albeit modified for each game?

I think this is true.

I still have to finish Risen 2. Played it, now and then, but i can't put my soul in it.

Would you recommend buying Risen 3, if someone could not get into Risen 2?

P.S.: loved the original Risen.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
I still have to finish Risen 2. Played it, now and then, but i can't put my soul in it.

Would you recommend buying Risen 3, if someone could not get into Risen 2?

P.S.: loved the original Risen.

Hard to say, really.

I think Risen 3 is much better than Risen 2 - but they also have a lot of things in common.

It depends on what you didn't like about Risen 2. Can you provide any details?

The combat system was my main gripe. Seemed to heavily encourage the firearms use and i wanted a melee or a voodoo approach (this one was a nightmare).

The story seemed all over the place and had a bit of hard time in following it.

Not too many interesting NPC's (not that the original Risen had many, but Risen 2 managed to have even less, way less).

Some poor optimisation and unsolved bugs (though i managed to find a small fan made patch that solved some of the problems i had).

That is the short list.

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
The combat system was my main gripe. Seemed to heavily encourage the firearms use and i wanted a melee or a voodoo approach (this one was a nightmare).

The story seemed all over the place and had a bit of hard time in following it.

Not too many interesting NPC's (not that the original Risen had many, but Risen 2 managed to have even less, way less).

Some poor optimisation and unsolved bugs (though i managed to find a small fan made patch that solved some of the problems i had).

That is the short list.

The combat system is much improved - and doesn't seem to favor one kind of weapon over another to the same degree. I kicked plenty ass with melee weapons - coupled with some powerful buffs.

The story isn't anything special, though, but I never found PB stories particularly memorable. There are a few interesting NPCs, and I seem to have a soft spot for the gnomes - but I have to say I think Gothic and Gothic 2 dialogue is much better. Risen was good, too, but Risen 2 and 3 are both mediocre at best - in that way.

The game performs very well - and is really quite smooth. Much better than Risen 2, in my experience - and I don't remember a single bug.

Make sure you play with the latest patch and on the hardest difficulty setting - as the game balance breaks around halfway through, if you optimise your character.

Certainly, for me, it was a complete pushover shortly after picking my faction.

Well, seems that i should pick it in a sale, then. And i'm glad that they've improved the combat and they've made viable the other options.

Gothic 1 and 2 are my favorite Gothic games (especially G2 with the expansion). I wonder if Piranha will do another Gothic, now that the rights are back to them.

P.S.: thanks for providing the information that i need it.

You're very welcome

I doubt you'll be seeing anything at the level of Gothic or Gothic 2 from PB again. They're still great at certain things, but I'm afraid they lost too many people - and they haven't had the success they deserved. Probably hard to stay passionate doing the same games over and over, and getting bashed harder and harder in the press.

That, somehow, makes me sad. I loved the first two Gothic games. One final game would be lovely

Originally Posted by wolfsrain
Some poor optimisation and unsolved bugs (though i managed to find a small fan made patch that solved some of the problems i had).

There is no such thing in Risen 3 any more nor any 3rd party hacks are needed for Risen 3.

Well, you never really know - and I'm not the most optimistic person on the planet. Maybe they'll be reinvigorated for some reason