Dhruin
SasqWatch
You can grab Risen on Steam for $14.99 at the moment, which is a bargain if you don't already have it.
More information.
More information.
Risen - Steam Sale
- Thread starter Dhruin
- Start date
bemushroomed
outlander
- Joined
- July 15, 2009
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- 673
worth full price imo.. wasnt as good as Gothic2 maybe, but quite close (the first half at least).
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2009
- Messages
- 673
I'll join the chorus: this game is easily worth full price. To save myself some typing, I'll just paste what I wrote when someone asked about Risen on another thread (he seemed especially curious about the combat):
Kay
I thought Risen was pretty awesome. Sure, it was almost a remake of Gothic 2, but it did also refine some things, like combat, and successfully introduced new ones, like puzzle elements. About combat, I found it to be very good…I actually can't think of any RPGs with a better real-time combat system. I've played through the game twice so far, once as a mage and once as a fighter. Both were very satisfying for me.
Magic is quite different from other games. You basically have two types of magic: rune magic and "combat magic". Rune magic is mostly spells that lets you do things like levitate, use telekinesis, or transform into another creature. In other words, it's "utility magic", especially useful for puzzles. "Combat magic" consists of three types of magical attacks, which can be powered up to increase damage and effects. Note that this is from memory, so I may not be 100% accurate:
Fire - high damage, damage over time. Higher levels add splash damage.
Ice - freezes enemies, possibly damage over time. Higher levels lets you freeze more powerful enemies, for a longer period of time. Extremely useful for crowd control, and looks awesome.
Crystal - very fast attack rate (which gets faster with higher levels), it's like a magic machine-gun. I think it might have knock-back. I didn't use it much, since it drained my mana very quickly.
Really, I thought this system was pretty awesome. Sure, having a large number of attack spells can be fun too, but here, they found three basic concepts and refined them. I think the increased focus on these three pays off.
As for melee combat, my memory is somewhat blurrier, but I found that too to be pretty excellent. You need to think about how you position yourself, you need to time your attacks, know when to block and dodge. I thought it felt like a refined version of Gothic 2 combat. Gaining levels with a certain type of weapon mostly unlocks new moves, which I found to be satisfying, as well as making sense. When reaching certain levels, something awesome started to happen though: There are three classes of swords: one-hander, bastard sword, two-hander (normal, big, and ridiculously big). Initially, you need two hands two wield anything larger than a one-hander. However, upon reaching a certain skill level, you will be able to wield bastard swords with one hand. And upon reaching another skill level, you can wield any sword in the game with just one hand. You should be feeling pretty awesome at that point.
Anyway, to sum up about combat: I thought it was excellent. It's satisfying, challenging, and requires player skill and strategy. I got exciting and challenging fights throughout the game both when playing as a mage and as a warrior. In-game skills seem to be refined, and leveling them up feels meaningful.
The rest of the game shows similar polish. The game world is great, beautiful and great fun to explore, as you'd expect from a Piranha Bytes game. It may not rival that of Gothic 3, but on the plus side, they actually managed to finish this game.NPCs are well made and feel interesting and authentic, as they were in the old Gothics. They also have some pretty high class voice actors, most notably John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) and Andy Serkis (Gollum). The story is not bad either. It may not change your life, but it does its job.
Kay
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- Joined
- Aug 19, 2010
- Messages
- 115
LuckyCarbon
RollPGs
I finally picked it up, I had been meaning to for a while now but I haven't been playing games much lately so I'm not burning through titles like I used to.
I enjoyed the demo, played it a few times actually but was never that attached to the game because I knew it was only a demo.
I enjoyed the demo, played it a few times actually but was never that attached to the game because I knew it was only a demo.
Irian
Atheistic Pirate
Honestly, I don't think that the game is worth full price - not even 15$. It became pretty boring pretty soon. The first chapter is nice, but then it does downhill.
- Joined
- October 18, 2006
- Messages
- 3,508
Not quite on the level of G1 and 2, but still really nice. A true PB game. There are some places in the second half of the stroryline that feel a bit contrived and railroaded, but overall I found even the more dungeon-oriented chapters 3 and 4 quite fun.
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
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H
Hindukönig
Guest
As an aspiring game developer, I thank God personally (and I don't even believe in any divine being), that uninformed* people like you do not decide the pricing of games.
* "Uninformed" means ignorant in regard of the achievements of any game developer, even the worst ones. You really remind me of this comic: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/apps
TheGameSquid
Watchdog
Risen is ABSOLUTELY worth the full price. The first two chapters (AKA the bulk of the game) were lovely. The second half of the game was not quite as good, but it still entertained me. It's a high-quality RPG that took me about 60 hours to beat, so it's obviously worth the full price for me, let alone 15$!
- Joined
- August 30, 2006
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- Joined
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- Messages
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Most def worth it! Risen kept me up many a late night - I just loved poking around in every nook and cranny and the combat against foes that always made you pay attention... Can't wait for PB's next project.
Nice price point for me actually, as I haven't picked it up yet but was planning to.
But I'm not terribly familiar with Steam's game policy.
Once downloaded and installed do you have to have an active internet connection to play a SP game through Steam "all" the time?
Say for playing on a laptop where connectivity is intermittent...
But I'm not terribly familiar with Steam's game policy.
Once downloaded and installed do you have to have an active internet connection to play a SP game through Steam "all" the time?
Say for playing on a laptop where connectivity is intermittent...
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2008
- Messages
- 215
D
DArtagnan
Guest
Valve likes to treat EU customers like dirt by doing a 1:1 currency conversion, so buy it from somewhere else if possible.
At least, that's what I do.
Usually direct2drive.co.uk is much cheaper - and even games that require Steam can be bought from there (like Civ5 - for instance).
At least, that's what I do.
Usually direct2drive.co.uk is much cheaper - and even games that require Steam can be bought from there (like Civ5 - for instance).
Irian
Atheistic Pirate
"Achievements"… What are you talking about? Gothic 1 and 2? Past games aren't an argument for the price of a game. Or are you talking about the time invested? Do you think, that the game must be worth this price because the PB people worked so long for it? One can work decades without producing anything that's worth something
So what achievements are you talking about? It is my opinion, that Risen isn't a very good game. It's ok, I guess, much more stable than G3 (ok, that's not hard), but the game itself is pretty… mediocre. I bought it when it came out, but I wouldn't do so again, not even for 15$, as I never played much more than the first chapter (because it became pretty boring then). Exploring the first chapter was nice, but everything after that…
And sorry, as I work in software development and have played computer games since more than 20 years now (including G1 and G2 when they came out here in germany), I'm not what one should normally consider "uninformed"
I may have a different opinion (as I wouldn't buy the game again and only played a part of it, it's simply not worth much for me), but that doesn't make my opinion worse than yours, just different.
H
Hindukönig
Guest
Um, yes? If you really work in software development you should know what a man-month is. And perhaps, how much of these man-months a game needs to be complete - and we are even talking about a nearly bug-free game.
And yes, the team that created it needs to be paid. Just because you didn't like the game mechanics, why do you think the game is generally not "worth" only 15 dollars? That the developers don't deserve something to eat? I think you're just narrowminded.
That's how low people gone regarding appreciation … "mediocre games" aren't even worth 15 dollars. Sad. Just sad. How much would you price a "good game", how much a "bad game"? And: why do you think this opinion of yours is universally (this is how you phrased it in your first post)?
You're forgiven. But I still think you're just ignorant.
——
PS: Regarding Steam using 1:1 currency - isn't it true that a game which is declared as "15$" costs more because of taxes? Just asking.
I've seen this stated quite a number of times. While Risen and Gothic 2 share much of the same feature set, I always remember Gothic 2 being a much longer and generally 'bigger' game. In addition to that, I don't see any real comparision between the storyline and events between the two games, except perhaps how the 'guild' system works.