Risen (PC)

[sirdilznik]

While not nearly as known in North America, the Gothic games have an fervent following in Germany, where they are produced, and rightfully so as Gothic is one of the finest RPG series of the last decade. Having been a long time fan of the Gothic series I was eagerly awaiting this game. It was released in Germany in late 2009 but I had to wait until early 2010 until the North American version came out and by that time Mass Effect 2 came out and I had other priorities. Anyway, long story short, I have now gotten into playing this game.

After the technical disaster that was Gothic 3 I had high hopes and also much apprehension about this game. To be fair it's unfair to assign all the blame about Gothic 3 to developer Piranha Bytes since it was a dispute with publisher JoWood that caused the game to be released as something quite different from what the developers envisioned and way earlier than they intended. My thoughts on Gothic 3 very much mirror my thoughts on NWN 2: Both games were released WAY TOO SOON and at that time were nowhere near worthy of release status, or even BETA status. Frankly I could barely give either game ALPHA status when they came out since they were so ridiculously riddled with bugs, including numerous showstopper bugs. With that in mind both games turned out to be good games after years and years of patching.

Now to get back on topic. I had always wondered what Gothic 3 would have looked like had Piranha Bytes been allowed to make the game as they envisioned and given the proper time. The answer might just be: It would look like Risen. Piranha Bytes has totally redeemed itself with this title and restored their RPG legacy.

While this is not technically a Gothic game as Piranha Bytes no longer hold the license to that IP after their dispute with JoWood, it might as well be. Fans of the Gothic series will be very familiar with the style, controls, and little nuances that made the Gothic series special. For all intensive purposes (other than story) this might as well be Gothic 4 (Ironically the official Gothic 4 will come out later this year made by a different developer and it will be interesting to see how it stacks up against Risen and the previous Gothic games).

While Risen uses the same engine as Gothic 3 it feels way more like Gothic 2 than Gothic 3. That is definitely a good thing as Gothic 2 has been generally considered the best of the series and has an almost religious following in Germany.

So without further ado lets delve into the game:

As mentioned before the game uses the same engine as Gothic 3 but it has been seriously enhanced. The graphics are a bit of a mixed bag but they are overall really good. While the character models aren't up to the standard of such games as Dragon Age and Mass Effect (to compare games that came out around the same time) they are certainly not bad, in fact they look pretty good. On the other hand the landscapes and scenery are absolutely gorgeous (keep in mind my PC can handle the game at maxed out settings). I've often found myself just walking around parts of Faranga Island admiring the scenery. In particular some of the ruins and the coastal scenes are particularly breathtaking. To add to that the environmental effects in the game are terrific. I particularly love the haze/blurring effect on distant areas and how it slowly/gradually fades into a crisp/clean/high resolution view as you advance forward. This is in stark contrast to many other games where you can literally see the line at which the distant low res view becomes higher res, in Risen it fades gradually and looks really natural and just plain terrific. The game also utilizes HDR and Bloom effects really well. When walking out of a darker area into an open area with full sunlight the HDR effects create an almost overpowering aura that fades away as you move forward as if your eyes adjusted to it. Likewise lightning flashes during storms create moments that almost blind you adding more atmospheric depth. Then there are the little touches like waves crashing against a dock wall and creating a mist, the tide rolling in and out, bugs flying around, etc... The attention to detail is terrific.

On the downside the animation could be better. While the combat animations are good and the animations of people perforimnign their everyday duties and/or relaxing are quite good, the animations during conversations are just over done. Granted i don't want to see a character standing like a statue while conversiong, the same 3 or 4 over exaggerated animations over and over during conversations make the people look like a marionette.

Moving on to sound. The audio in this game is quite good. There is a constant musical track playing that changes from area to area and also in certain situations (namely combat). The fading in between tracks is done exceptionally well and the background music is quite good and serves to give a subtle accompaniment to the game while not overpowering it. Likewise the ambient sounds are also quite good giving the island a truly organic feel. The clang of weapons are all appropriate and the sound effect the spells make, while not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, are quite satisfactory. Lastly the voice acting (and EVERYTHING is voice acted in this game) is really quite good. While maybe not up to the standards of Mass Effect or games like Sam & Max & Tales Of Monkey island, it's still pretty dang good and WAY better than any of the previous Gothic games.

Combat in this game is a point of contention. The combat system in Gothic games has been called cumbersome by some in the past, and it's a fair point, but I personally enjoy it once I begin to master the nuances of side stepping, parrying, and counter attacking. Personally I find battles against human/humanoid opponents fairly easy while fighting creatures/monsters can be quite difficult until I learn their patterns and timing and even then challenging.

One of the strong points of the Gothic series has always been it's dialogue/story driven, open, non-linear gameplay. Risen is no exception to the rule. Frankly I spend way more time in the game conversing with people than I do hacking and slashing, and I like it that way. Like the previous Gothic games Risen features multiple factions, three to be exact. Early on you can stay independent and even work multiple sides or work them against each other, but eventually you have to join one of the sides. Again like earlier Gothic games, especially Gothic 2, the relationships between the factions, the interactivity, and your ability to influence the world around you (your actions certainly have consequence on others and on the progression of the story) are masterfully done. The world of Risen is a downtrodden, gritty world with no clear good or evil. All the groups have their good points and bad points and it's up to you to decide who is more in the right, or if you prefer which group will allow you to exploit more people. There are many paths to take through this game and you can explore almost anywhere you want right off the bat... provided you can survive getting there. You can very well wander into an area that has enemies well beyond your means. If that happens I hope you can run fast...

Right now I'm a good ways into the game. I previously considered Dragon Age to be easily RPG of the year for 2009. While the North American version of this game didn't come out until 2010, the German version did come out in 2009 so I guess technically it is a 2009 game. At this point I'm not ready to have Risen supersede Dragon Age as 2009 RPG of the year, I need to finish it first. I can say without a doubt that Risen is really giving Dragon Age a run for its money. This is an extremely well crafted RPG that should really appeal to hardcore RPGers. Keep in mind that it's a new game that requires a fairly recent and powerfult PC. Also i have heard bad things about the XBOX 360 port. Virtually all reviews I've seen say something to the effect of "Great game on PC, poor port to XBOX 360" which is really a shame.

So anybody else play this terrific game yet?

[Saxon1974]

Interesting write up sirdilznik, now you make me want to play this game now!

I have not tried it yet but its on my "to-play" list. I liked Gothic 1 ok, Gothic 2 quite a bit and thought 3 was average after the fan made patch. For some reason I always got bored about half way through them and never finished any.

I do like that they give NPC's daily schedules and routines in their games ala Ultima's...really brings the world to life.

[sirdilznik]

I generally always had to take a break from Gothic games about halfway through them or so then come back to them a few weeks or months later. Part of that is the length of the games. You're generally looking at 50+ game hours to complete a Gothic game. Heck, it took me well over 100 hours to complete Gothic 3. Risen seems to be no exception, I've put in close to 30 hours and I'm nowhere near finished, I don't even think I'm halfway through honestly.

For me that's definitely a good thing and it's contrary to the sad trend that seems to be permeating so many major label titles as of late of games becoming shorter and shorter. For example, though I haven't played the game myself, I've heard that the single player campaign in Splinter Cell Conviction is just over 5 hours long. That's just pathetic, I don't care how good or flashy the gameplay is. If I'm dishing out 50 or 60 bucks for a game I expect a MINIMUM of 25 hours of gameplay. Looking at Eschalon Book II, from what I've read we're getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 hours of gameplay. Considering the price tag that's definitely a fair deal, in fact I'd say it's a pretty good deal. It's good to see that at least some companies still give you value for your money.

On a different note one of the things I've always enjoyed about the Gothic series, and now Risen, is that you're not constantly getting new weapons and armor, especially armor. In a Gothic game you will usually go through the whole game and maybe switch armor 3 or 4 times. It makes getting a suit of armor a really big achievement. What's more the armor also serves as a status symbol and represents whatever faction you have joined. NPCs recognize the armor you are wearing and will make comments because of it and treat you differently. This is in stark contrast to Rogue-like games like Diablo (I've always considered Diablo a Rogue-like like Nethack, Angband, Moria, etc...) where new weapons and armor are dispensed like candy.

[llew silverhand]

Thanks for the writeup on this! I tried out the Xbox 360 demo, and didn't think too much of it - perhaps I'll give the PC version a whirl!

[Al3xand3r]

I liked Risen but it was over a bit too quickly (after actually getting to the main plot, the whole length of it was good) without ever really growing to the Epic it hinted off at first, and the ending bits were absolutely dreadful. Now waiting for Drakensang: River of Time to be translated in English for my next RPG fix. It seems like a good improvement over The Dark Eye.

[Evnissyen]

Interesting. Thanks, Sird.

[cook1tj]

I know I'm late to the party but I just had to chime in!

I love RISEN!!

I have never played a Gothic game, so I have no reference points, but this is a solid RPG. First thing that really got me was the atmosphere. I loved the jungle beach you wash up on. The second thing that got me was that I could move THROUGH the jungle that I couldn't see through. I looked at the dense jungle and thought "that's the invisable wall that funnels me down this path" then just like that, my character started making his way into the dense jungle. Amazing. Good voice acting. I really got sucked into the world, and that doesn't happen much for me these days. When I was first walking around I really felt like it was a struggle just to survive and figure out what the hell was even happening. So much better then Final Fantasy XIII that just holdes your hand and funnels you through nice looking scenes.

Sorry, kinda got off on a rant there. I just wanted to say incase anyone was on the fence about Risen, yes it is this good. If you're in the mood for a game of this style, it will not do you wrong.

[ManusDei]

Love that game too, and thinking I should play it again soon

You write about 3 factions ? I could only find two, the Don, the Mages, what would be the third one ?

[kdar1987]

As big fan of Gothic series, and after disappointment with Gothic 3, I found Risen to be very very good. I played as fighter before, but thinking to play as mage, if I will play it again. Just wondering if I will able to run it in Wine.

I think the third function is just sub-function of Mages. Those are Warriors of Order who are working for Mages. You can join them in the Town.

[sirdilznik]

You write about 3 factions ? I could only find two, the Don, the Mages, what would be the third one ?

Yeah I made that part more confusing than it needed to be I guess. I guess I should have wrote two factions since the Mages and the Warriors of the Order are working together on the same side. I kind of consider them as separate groups though since some of the Mages aren't exactly thrilled to be working with the Order and vice versa, also since they represent different career paths or character classes for your character. But yeah there really are only 2 main factions, the people working for the Don and the people working for the Inquisitor.