Risen - Video Interview and In-Game Footage

Myrthos

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A video interview and some in-game footage of Risen can be found on the Polish site Gry Online. Don't fear the interview is in English.
Thanks goes again to Avantenor for leading us to this.
More information.
 
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His talk of "accessibility" had me cringe for a second, but Gothic wasn't ever really about stat management anyway. Looked great, hope they can get it out this year.
 
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If what he said was true about the technical part of the game is ready to ship now, then that is quite a feat. It doesn't seem that long ago that they started working on this game. "Everything is handmade" sounds good too. It seems like they really are going back to what made Gothic and Gothic 2 great.

What I didn't like to hear was that the character skills have been moved away from the numbers. I'm not going to say "dumbed down" but from the interview it sure does sound like that. We'll see, but I hope they didn't make it too "accessible for a broader audience."

Still it does look great and it does sound like they really are going back to what made Gothic fun.
 
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Probably "feat based" - you learn new moves from a trainer, instead of learning swordfighting 30% to unlock a special combo.

Gothic 3 had such a system, but it also had certain numbers (hitpoints, mana, strength, hunting, etc). No idea if they've actually removed those numbers - if so, then all feats must be unlocked through quests and chapter progress (i.e a trainer will only teach you either a 1H or 2H combo, which do you choose?).

Not sure though, hopefully we'll get more info soon.
 
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If you spend experience to learn feats, then that sounds like a return to Gothic 1 and Gothic 2. If they go beyond that and DeusExInvisibleWar-ize the thing, then I'm not going to be very excited about it at all.
 
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Probably "feat based" - you learn new moves from a trainer, instead of learning swordfighting 30% to unlock a special combo.

I wouldn't mind that so much. Actually, I wouldn't mind it at all if they went back to the original Gothic way of gaining new skills. It's been a long time since I replayed Gothic, but IIRC the training was first get 1 handed swords, then you can train 2 handed. That worked out well, imo.

What makes me weary of this new system is what he said about you can train in anything you want. It took a community patch for Gothic 3 to fix their system where you could be every class. Mage, fighter and thief in one play through. Hopefully, they took the hint from the community patch and put in prerequisites for training.

I think I might be reading too much into one interview. Like you said we'll just have to wait and see when they release more info on the game.
 
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Of the three Gothics, the character development system most fun for me is the one from Gothic 1. It was also the most simple one, and the one with fewer numbers.

Btw, training in Gothic always cracks me up. Trainer in Gothic is the easiest job ever.

"Show me how to improve my sword skills."
"Sure. You have to focus on your body, not just on your arm. Always put your full body into the swing."
"Okay, thanks."
"No problem. You owe me 2500 gold coins."
 
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"Everything is handmade" sounds good too. It seems like they really are going back to what made Gothic and Gothic 2 great.
Yes, that sounds good, but in the IGN preview there was a line that got me really worried. It went (copy-pasted from IGN, empasis mine), "While many of the areas that I saw were outside in the woods or in marshy areas, I was told that there will be a number of areas, like temple ruins or other indoor dungeons, that will be randomly generated to provide a unique experience when players step onto the island." Now, it could be that the IGN guy just misunderstood what he was told (game journos being what they are nowdays ;)), but if Risen really has randomly generated dungeons, it's going be a major letdown for me.
What I didn't like to hear was that the character skills have been moved away from the numbers. I'm not going to say "dumbed down" but from the interview it sure does sound like that. We'll see, but I hope they didn't make it too "accessible for a broader audience."
I got cold shivers down my spine, when the PR dude started speaking about "moving away from numbers" and "being more accessible", because that does pretty much rhyme with dumbing down to me. It can be a good thing, mind you, but so much depends on the excecution, so I'll reserve my judgement. I know two guys who where turned off of Gothic 2 (despite me raving about it), because of the initial difficulty curve and the clunky interface, so making Risen a bit more accessible is a good thing, but how far it goes (too far?), remains to be seen.

Oh well, despite my hestitation and nervousness about the direction Risen is going, it still is on top of my Most Anticipated (Non-Indie) Game of 2009 list.
 
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It's quite possible the PR guy went a bit overboard selling the game to the mainstream gaming sites.

Automatic content generation was something PB tried with G3. Obviously it didn't work and PB changed that plan in the middle of the project.
 
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Yes, that sounds good, but in the IGN preview there was a line that got me really worried. It went (copy-pasted from IGN, empasis mine), "While many of the areas that I saw were outside in the woods or in marshy areas, I was told that there will be a number of areas, like temple ruins or other indoor dungeons, that will be randomly generated to provide a unique experience when players step onto the island." Now, it could be that the IGN guy just misunderstood what he was told (game journos being what they are nowdays ;)), but if Risen really has randomly generated dungeons, it's going be a major letdown for me

Look here:

I wanted to point out that there is also now a small firstlook on IGN about Risen fresh from the GDC in San Francisco. Before you head over there for a quick read I would like to say that some information in the article seemingly got lost in translation - so they mistook the unique dungeons for randomly generated ones. Which is kind of a nice compliment, but the dungeons are not randomly generated in Risen. But anyway, its a good start for the GDC
s_064.gif

It's clear that it was just a misunderstanding,
 
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Somebody might want to clarify those "accessible" remarks.
 
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If you spend experience to learn feats, then that sounds like a return to Gothic 1 and Gothic 2. If they go beyond that and DeusExInvisibleWar-ize the thing, then I'm not going to be very excited about it at all.

Now that you mention DW2, I have my opportunity to say: I recently bought it for an amazing 3 euro (!!) and I think the game is just great. Then again, I never really played the first one.

Oh, and about the Risen interview: it sounded like standard PR fare. I wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
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"We moved away from the Gothic setting, to a more bright and colorful one"
translated
"Everyone loves WOW and even Diablo 3 did it so we have to as well"

"We still wanted to care about the hardcore players, but we are trying to make the game more accessible for all"

translated

"We dumbed down the combat to make it easer we removed stats to make it less complicated, and we do not give a shit about the hardcore players, just as long as the game sells as many copies as possible"
 
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Jesus, gritty settings are a la mode now, a teenager trend or something, every freakin' developer yells how mature and gritty/dark their game is... The maturity never I repeat never comes from colors, gore or boobies so Piranhas are actually being original.
 
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I dont' get that "brighter and more colorful" thing since the gameplay videos that have been shown off look exactly like Gothic 3. If somebody told me that this was a Gothic 3 expansion pack based on its appearance, I would believe it.

"We dumbed down the combat to make it easer we removed stats to make it less complicated, and we do not give a shit about the hardcore players, just as long as the game sells as many copies as possible"

Funny thing is, they probably won't sell much more this way.

Who is it that spreads this myth to game developers and marketers that "games with stats don't sell"? Why do so many people believe this bullshit which is so easily proven false?
 
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What the lad meant is

doberlec said:
The system is not not simpler than in the previous - its even more detailed. But we have removed the numbers from the interface where they didn't make any sense anyway and we're going back again to give the player more subtle hints on how he stand with factions and the progress in the game etc.
 
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Jesus, gritty settings are a la mode now, a teenager trend or something, every freakin' developer yells how mature and gritty/dark their game is... The maturity never I repeat never comes from colors, gore or boobies so Piranhas are actually being original.

Funny. Because I recall you complaining about Diablo 3 being too colorful and not dark and gritty enough. So was that Blizzard-bashing or is this Risen-fanboism? :p No offense. :p
 
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Funny. Because I recall you complaining about Diablo 3 being too colorful and not dark and gritty enough. So was that Blizzard-bashing or is this Risen-fanboism? :p No offense. :p

Good question with a simple answer. Diablo is already an established IP with a special dark art direction, so by changing it they're going againts the already established series, but oh well who cares as longs as we kill loads of zombies. :p
Risen on the other hand is a brand new IP. :]

Damn is it so obvious who I am. :lol:
 
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