Risen First Impressions

Been playing game since last night :)

Not much to add, but my performance concerns were completely unfounded - so much for taking what people say at face value ;-)

I have a 2.4 Ghz core 2 duo, 8800GTX, 4GB ram Vista- 32bit - runs very smoothly at 1600x1200 with everything maxed out. Hardly any load time - a very brief jerk and then the next area is ready - awesome.

Good to hear! I'll finally be playing it this evening on similar hardware...

It's a bit tempting, though, for me to say: "I told you so" ;)
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
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All you guys and your first impressions. I'm sooo envious. I'm not even sure when mine will get here yet. Going down to the store this weekend. I ordered it, but never recieved a date on when it would arrive.

Oh well, you guys have fun and I'm going to avoid this area until I can give my 'first impressions' as well ;)
 
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As far as unbindable keys are concerned. WHY. why. WWWWWWHY are the quick load and quick save keys right next to each other? I can't bind them to something else? I already got screwed once when I quick loaded when I meant to save.
 
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I have JUST started. Actually came here to quickly ask if HP regenerates on it's own.

Graphics look very nice to me when I put them on highest settings. (But very crappy on the default it comes with). SE definitely better than the previous Gothics.

I had to laugh when I had my first conversation.. The characters still make those funny arm gestures that they did in the Gothic games! ;D LOL

I don't really like this new interface, but will probly soon get used to it.
 
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Nov 23, 2007
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I have JUST started. Actually came here to quickly ask if HP regenerates on it's own.

Nope, but you can rest, or take your time drink water. Water is free HP but only regains a small amount at a time.
 
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As far as unbindable keys are concerned. WHY. why. WWWWWWHY are the quick load and quick save keys right next to each other? I can't bind them to something else? I already got screwed once when I quick loaded when I meant to save.

If you have Vista go to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\Risen. Now edit the ConfigUser.xml (for example with Notepad). Then change the quick save entry to e.g.:

Key_F5="QuickSave_0"

... for quicksaving via "F5" instead of "F8".
 
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If you have Vista go to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\Risen. Now edit the ConfigUser.xml (for example with Notepad). Then change the quick save entry to e.g.:

Key_F5="QuickSave_0"

… for quicksaving via "F5" instead of "F8".

To add to this, make a backup of your edited configuser.xml. The reason is that if you used a invalid key string, like "Key_,", which is actually "Key_COMMA" then your whole key binding settings will be reset.

On another note:
I am now afraid of walking into hallways w/ high ceilings... Though it is always funny to see myself getting "swatted like a fly" by falling pillars...
To bad traps can't be triggered by mobs :(

Don't sell your "Telekinesses (sp?)" or "Nautilus Transformation" Scrolls. Just don't do it, you WILL NEED THEM.
 
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If you have Vista go to C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\Risen. Now edit the ConfigUser.xml (for example with Notepad). Then change the quick save entry to e.g.:

Key_F5="QuickSave_0"

… for quicksaving via "F5" instead of "F8".


If you have Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserName]\Local Settings\Application Data\Risen
 
Only played the demo so won't comment on the big things… but some small ones:

Can anyone tell me how to look back over my shoulder? I've attached keys to the action, but nothing happens.
Does the demo really have the same bug as G3 did - it doesn't remember you've inverted the mouse… unless you actually reopen that option screen. Does the full game do this too?
There's a cave near the start which has a very strange lighting effect when lightning flashes.. is that just me? (Nvidia 260).

I fired up the G3 demo to compare framerates, and where G3 runs at 40-60, the Risen demo is more like 40. However Risen lacks the pauses that G3 still has, even though I'm now running it on an Intel SSD. (They're less of an issue than they were when I ran it at the time though.)

I'm particularly impressed the demo has no logo videos to click through - is it too much to hope for that that's true of the full game as well? But they lose points for their loading progress bar... which is kind of useless.
 
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Oct 29, 2006
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Can anyone tell me how to look back over my shoulder? I've attached keys to the action, but nothing happens.


I was wondering about that as well, it's not working for me either….

I'm also a little surprised there's no option to look around in first-person.
 
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Yes - removing sprinting & endurance, the camera options, first person mode... they do seem to have scaled back a bit in these ways..

If Steam would unlock the game I paid them for, I could form an opinion on the actual game. Just found a shield in the demo, which makes parrying a bit more useful... quite enjoying the combat actually.
 
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I've played some of the demo and am looking forward to my boxed copy arriving hopefully on Monday.

I can run it on my laptop Core 2 Duo 2.1 Ghz, 2GB RAM, 512MB Geforce 8600M GT in 1440x900 (which, according to my calculations is 1% lower than 1280x1024 in terms of total number of pixels) with everything set to low except draw distance which is medium. Antistropic Filtering turned off (the setting I am using is called linear. IDK what AF or linear filtering do and don't care much. Game looks fine to me and runs around 25 - 30 FPS, so I'm happy. Voice acting seems much better than Gothic so far, haha.

It seems like a very good game so far, very very playable, so much better than Gothic in that regard. My first attempt at playing Gothic ended with me quitting the game in disgust with a save file titled 'this is s**t' and another called 'still s**t'. Risen feels smooth and intuitive.\

It would be cool if they remade Gothic 1 and 2 with Risen's engine and controls. Shame it probably won't ever happen given PB don't own the rights :(
 
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I don't get why some people complaint about the landscapes/graphics , i find them very good .

Battle isn't super and people still swing 4-5kg swords like slinger but it looks improved from G3 , i fought a guy and i could still hit him even if he was in defensive position , this also happen to me against some animals , very strange.

Hero's body is okay , other guys have normal bodies as well but the devs in PB must be sexists or something , poor girl's breasts look terrible .
 
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Nope, but you can rest, or take your time drink water. Water is free HP but only regains a small amount at a time.

Thanks, I saw that now - at least they have water barrels standing around here and there. Reason I asked is because suddenly you can't eat fish or meat raw at all any more, and healing plants are incredibly scarce. I used to pick tons and tons of those plants in the Gothics. In this game mana- restoring plants seem to be more abundant than HP restoring ones.

Yes - removing sprinting & endurance, the camera options, first person mode… they do seem to have scaled back a bit in these ways..
It does seem as if they have scaled down in some respects yes. Besides the above, there are definitely less "feelies" as in you cannot read books, or open all containers, there's less plants to pick, and less random loot lying around, etc.
(Hey, I like random loot! Like a lucky packet….)

On the other hand, the game does give a rather realistic "feel", I suppose.

For me, so far the game does run a lot smoother than G3 ever did, and I haven't encountered any bugs so far, so if the game proves to be largely bug-free, maybe G3's mess wasn't quite so much PB's fault as one might have believed, huh?

…which makes one wonder what we have in store for us with Arcania…….

At least Jowood didn't pull a silly stunt such as trying to get G4 out of the door before Deep Silver got Risen out, and that seems to me a good sign.

There's a cave near the start which has a very strange lighting effect when lightning flashes.. is that just me?

If you mean it looks as if lightning runs a circle within the cave, it did it for me too, but I thought it was supposed to do that.

You'll still find that those danged storms are blooming irritating. Whenever the storms go, you can't see properly and before I had wised up on what's what, I accidentally walked right into group of beasties without my weapon ready, so I turned to run away a bit so I could recover, and ran right into another group of beasties which I didn't see due to the storm and lightning effects.

I fought valiantly, but since the other beasties were also still chasing, my poor hero didn't make it. :'( In this game, when the beasties kill you, they eat you….. :-/

Btw, is it just me, or is blocking way more effective than it was in the Gothics? I actually don't even remember blocking in Gothic. (Admittedly I used ranged weapons a lot in the Gothics)

I must say that I like the blocking animation, when the creature attacks and bites into your weapon… -to no effect…MWAHAHAHAHAAA
 
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You can read book from your inventory and also bookstands. You can also open containers(packages) from inventory.

Blocking is much more effective, in fact you can just keeping blocking and most creatures can't hurt you at all. Ghouls and boars do NOT fall into that category :p
 
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Oct 18, 2006
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My impressions after about 8 hours:
It's amazingly good so far (I'm still at the bandit camp doing quests, and have done some random exploring as well)

Like people have said, it's very much like Gothic 2, but improved. Piranha Bytes finally did it, and created a great game, after some more or less flawed ones. I'm just hoping it doesn't fall apart towards the end, like some games tend to do. But after 8 hours, it's great.

Some things I like:
+ NPCs are interesting.
+ exploring feels rewarding, and the world feels very organic and is well designed.
+ combat system is quite good
+ challenging, but not too difficult. Balance is just right.
+ Good voice acting, and the writing isn't bad at all (but maybe not excellent)
+ Not too much handholding
+ Graphics are good enough, and sometimes beautiful

Dislike:

- characters heads are a bit ugly
- You can't customize your characters appearance and gender at the start
 
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I played several hours last night. I went into town, unlike all you horrible bandit people.

++Sunrise, Sunset! I love the weather graphics. The first storm was a bit strange in that the sun came out while lightning was still flashing but I was so impressed by the 'god rays' that I didn't care.
++ You can change your difficulty level on the fly!
+ Good save system. Fast, too.
+ Combat is fun so far, though I haven't fought much.
+ Exploration was fun and rewarding but now it's gotten weak in town. I'm assuming it will get good again once I get outside again.
+ Characters and region story are interesting.
+ Voice acting on the whole is quite good (in English, anyway).
+ Graphics look great to me.

- The quests so far have been a tad weak. (Jeez, another detective quest? Can we outlaw those for the next 5 years, please?)
- Every now and again, the main character's voice acting will sound pathetic. I get the feeling he got handed a big list of "Who is {NPC name}?" lines which he did one after the other.
- There's just one or two female models so far. It's very strange to see Sara's clones all over the place. There are quite a few repeated male models, too, but at least there's enough of them to suspend disbelief a bit.
- I ran into one serious pathing issue where a Sara-clone was supposed to go around a building. She couldn't do it. She would get hung up on one of the pillars, suddenly zip up to the top of the pillar, then fall back down - over and over. I managed to work around it by walking between her and the building. I've seen other NPCs dancing on the walls around town, too.
- Your ability to just walk through thick brush is handy but very immersion breaking.
- Some dialog trees seem off whack. I'll click a question and my character will ask something else. Something that sounds like a response to the answer I would have gotten if I had asked what I clicked on.
- Journal breaks when large fonts are selected. (That's a trivial bug to repeat, though, so I expect a patch for it soon.)

I should hate the jumping animation but, honestly, it's just too funny! Luckily, I play in a location where I'm free to shout "weee hawwww" as I leap through the air. ;)

Being able to change difficulty is a huge plus to me. In the past, Gothic difficulty levels were translated badly. They would say "Easy, Medium, Hard" when, in fact, they meant to say "Medium, Hard, I Found An Exploit". It's always hard to guess how difficult a game is going to be until you've played it for awhile so I hate it when a game forces me to pick before I've done anything then makes me restart if I want to change my mind.
 
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Just completed it. Took about 3x10 hours or so. Keep in mind that when you play a lot at the same time, you end up reducing the overall time spent since you're more efficient (never spend any time wondering where to go or what quest needs to be done etc). I'd probably spend 40-50 hours or so if I divided the playing into more sessions. I completed all sidequests except a few that got cancelled (I picked the opposing side of the quest giver).

My character was 26 at the end of the game, maxed out Strength + Swords, with a few other abilities.

All in all I'm very satisfied, and look forward to starting a mage game now - ended up finding a lot of very interesting runes, but couldn't use them as a bandit. Should be good fun.

I won't write a review/preview/summary sort of thing for Risen; it's a game most should experience, so there's little point in spoiling anything. If there's anything specific, just ask.

PS. I hate Ashbeasts.
 
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@Maylander: Was there option to dual wield? Answer with spoiler tags...
 
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No.

The message was not long enough to be posted, so I added this line..
 
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