Who has played Risen?

[JeffNY35]

This game keeps popping up on various forums. I typically see people on one side of the spectrum, either it is awesome or it sucks.

Thoughts on this game? Buy or avoid? I never played any of the Gothic series.

 

[Dorkenstein]

It's pretty polarizing, like the Gothic games (1 and 2, people seem to unanimously loathe 3 until community patched). I'd seek a demo first, but its a decent game that's at least worth a try.

 

[Darklife]

It was a good game, nothing spectacular, but quite refreshing after all the "innovative new features" games come with nowadays.

 

[mindcycle]

Buy Gothic 2, or the Gothic-Universe collection, first and see if you like it. It can be had for pretty cheap nowadays.

If you get into the Gothic series you'll enjoy Risen. IMO, Gothic 2 is Piranha Byte's best game to date, but Risen is probably a close second.

 

[coloumb]

It's slow at the start - but a lot of fun if you let yourself be immersed in the story [and they actually got the combat mechanics correct in Risen - I hated how the combat was handled in G1, G2, and G3].

BTW - if you find that you enjoyed Risen - you will want to play Gothic 3 with the community patch. G1/G2 are a bit dated - but those were a lot of fun as well [except for the combat - I personally had to bump up my characters stats so they'd kill nearly everything in 1 hit]

 

[Via]

I personally liked it, and while I think it both helps and hurts to have a Gothic background before you play Risen in the end it ends up being a positive.

If you loved Gothic you'll probably find that Risen is not as deep as those games. For example: I was pretty disappointed to find that the swamp camp was just a short jog from the beach where the game starts. At first I felt like I was in a RPG amusement park instead of being trapped in a prison colony (I think it took me a week to even find the mercenary camp in Gothic 1). A person who hasn't played the Gothic games wouldn't have that issue.

But how much depth is too much depth? I've started Gothic 3 many times and enjoyed it (especially with the later updates) but I've never come close to finishing the game. It's just so fricking huge my games always start to lose focus after a certain point. Risen definitely doesn't have that problem. It's much more focused and restricted.

I was pretty shocked to read some of the stupid internet comments say things like "the graphics are worse than Gothic 1". I thought the graphics were good. The game did stutter a bit in the city with my 8800 Ultra.

As far as combat goes: I didn't do magic on my playthrough, I concentrated on swordfighting. Expect lots of tense, slow battles with both you and your opponent defending and trying to counterattack. I never did learn to properly time the move where you stun somebody during their attack, so I had to compete the game without it. All in all the fights were pretty fun.

If you like RPGs and aren't turned off by not being able to customize your character it's definitely worth it, probably my favorite game of 2009 (I didn't play many great games last year).

As a comparison: I liked the Witcher, but I liked Risen a little more.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Its pretty good. If the devs spent more time on hit detection and the combat, it would be awesome. Story is good. Graphics are average to above average. Some good humor thrown in too.

 

[GaryJohnson]

I played it up until the point at which the main quest broke on me then I uninstalled it 😡
(Ignatius wouldn't talk to me so I couldn't complete the mage "initiation" quest)

 

[tweakboy]

I saw my friend playing it. Its very different and original, but the game doesn't dp it for me.. thx gl

 

[tweakboy]

I saw my friend playing it. Its very different and original, but the game doesn't dp it for me.. thx g

 

[Dorkenstein]

^^Two hours later after your first reply, you quote yourself?

OP, if you want to start out with Gothic, the first two are available on Good Old Games for decent prices.

 

[coldmeat]

I tried Risen. I didn't get more than a couple hours in and haven't gone back. I didn't like the combat.