Risen - Hands On Impressions @ GearDiary.Com

magerette

magerette

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RPGWatch's Mike Anderson (txa1265) has done a quick first impressions piece over at geardiary.com on Risen:
If you ask most gamers to think back to ‘that one game’, the one that captures their imagination to this day, that they can play again and again – and do replay every year without fail, they will quickly come up with one. Perhaps not their first, nor their favorite, it is a game that holds a very special place in their heart for some reason or other.

So I consider myself fortunate that I immediately have two games that spring to mind. Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 and Gothic 2. It is interesting that despite gaming for over 30 years now, my ‘touchstone’ games are both from this decade. As with most things, we always hope that new games will recapture that same feeling – but neither Jedi Academy nor Gothic 3 lived up to their predecessors...

So it was with some trepidation that I invested a significant hope in the new release from Gothic developer Piranha Bytes called ‘Risen’. While I will be providing a full review in the coming weeks, Risen is a huge game that will take me dozens of hours to finish – and likely more due to my ‘completist’ mentality and need to replay as all three main class types, so I wanted to give some initial thoughts. Read on to find out more.
Click to expand...
More information.
 
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Go go txa1265! :D

We are waiting for the full review!
 
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Thank you Mike for taking them to task for not having this on the shelf- some of us like to have the physical box and manual. I will do steam for some things but would like the copy of this. I notice there are all kinds of reviews in Europe but not much here probably due to not getting their copy
 
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Risen takes the best out of Gothic 1, 2 and 3 and puts it into a new world with a new hero. While it does have some of the same shortcomings, both technical and by design, and adds some of its own, it does much better in most areas than all three games that came before. It's like txa said, we all hope for new games that are capable of reproducing what we felt when we played our favourites, those games that to this day evoke special memories and emotions. I feel Risen is one such game.
 
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I tried to install the demo off steam today, but it doesnt even start. No erro message, just nothing happening. Bwaaaaah :bigcry:
 
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Did you wait long enough? It can take a minute.
 
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yeah, i thought the same thing too at first.. then it finally started, albiet w/ an ear piercing shriek and all sound went dead.

Love the game so far, but it pretty much demanded me update my entire audio/video system's drivers to run it. You might want to do the same before you even try to install it, save yourself some potential headaches. Literally!
 
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Well I downloaded the demo from 4Players.de again and that works fine. First time I really had trouble with a Steam download. Stutters a bit, guess my machine finally starts to showi its age...
 
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Very nice snippet txa, thanks.

I agree with most of the things you said, but a note on combat: I think that just
saying that it is improved in regards to G3 is an understatement. My first take on it
from the demo was that its G2 combat with more mobility but in truth it is far more
than that.

I think it has much more depth than anything PB has done to day in that area (i.e the
blocking/attack interrupt and stun are very well done this time imo) and I believe that
it will easily adapt to either the newcomers to PB's style of game (playing on easy) or
to us returning customers that want the rewarding experience we knew in G1-2
(playing on hard where player skill and adapting strategies per enemy allow you to
defeat foes far above you level, oh and an even harder setting wouldn't hurt for
subsequent replays either !).

I had a very satisfying time i.e beating Craig at lvl 4. It took a couple of reloads but I
soon got the hang of some of the possibilities the new system has to offer (had to get
rid of the click click mentality my 200+ hours of G3 left me with and stop being stupid
before I could take him :biggrin: )….

Ok Fanboy gush over, Back to Work ;)
 
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