Risen reviewed - and our own first impressions

Saw this over at SW and thought you guys might be interested. apparently a German mag has reviewed the game, giving it a score of 86 and calling it, ahem, "ein sehr gutes Rollenspiel". i don't know about you, but i like the sound of that. :D

so are you hyped or are you HYPED?

EDIT - check out the extremely informative review on World of Risen here.

found this after digging around. another encouraging piece of news.

I've definitely got my eye on the game. I like the Gothic games.

although i'm quite interested in this title, i'll admit that i have doubts about certain aspects of the game. to begin with, calling it a successor to the Gothic franchise may be an understatement - chances are good that Risen will be EXTREMELY similar to the Gothic games, especially G3. whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen, but i expect Risen to inherit a good amount of design flaws, and i'm not even talking about the glitches and bugs.

A Norwegian website writes that Risen is "one of the best RPGs ever!" and gives it a 9/10. The reviewers on this site are really good imo, so im pretty hyped.

care to tell us more about the review?

Sure!

The reviewer points out the obvious Gothic style, but he claims that Risen is "better, much better." The story is excellent and the gameplay and graphics are too. He claims that the game somtimes is kinda on the difficult side, but that the difficulty just adds more sense of accomplishment when you have defeated your enemy...

English voiceovers are great, so thats good new for the rest of the world hehe. Much better then previous games where some people claim that the original voices (in german) where much better.

The levelling system is similar to other piranha bytes rpgs. But much more well-made and easy to use then previous games.

Not really much more to report on this review, it basically just praises the hell outta the game, its atmosphere, story, gameplay, action etc.. He points out that you`ll need a pretty decent somputer to run the game smoothly

Here is a link to the review. It`s in norwegian, but i guess the translators work well these days :)

http://gamer.no/article.php?articleId=22472&page=3

BTW forgot to mention that the reviewer didnt experience any bugs or glitches that degraded the experience. Yay!

Didnt want to start a new thread but I stumbled across an english review if anyone is interested, the full review is in the PCGZine #34

http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/reviews/risen.html

No bugs? No major glitches? Its a miracle :o maybe Pirahna Bytes really did learn their lesson from their previous games. Definite pick up for me, now all I have to do is "persuade" my local retailer to sell it to me early :D

I`m gonna wait for a few more reviews, but i think im already pretty convinced that Risen is worth buying. Right now the reviews i`v read are disagreeing on the combat, where one says that it is really challenging and fun with good enemy AI etc, and the other review says it`s "ok".

Can`t wait for the demo to come out so i can find out for myself. Although im a "story is most important" kinda guy, lame combat really just ruin alot of the experience.

I don't understand these devs that make crappy interfaces and controls.

Sounds good...and can't wait! Regarding crappy interfaces and controls...yeah Gothic is known for that. But they are also known for being able to craft richly detailed worlds that feel alive and fun to explore. dnuggs40

I must say, I have been hesitantly optimistic about this game... I wasn't really sure what to expect. I assumed it was going to be another good "idea" wrapped around a clunky game, but it sounds a lot better than that so far. Good news :)

all right boys and girls! heads up! i just discovered a series of actual gameplay footages on youtube, which show the early part of the game. check it out.

as you can see, it is indeed VERY similar to G3 - from visual to interface to actual gameplay mechanics. the game seems to run better than G3 tho.

October 6 worldwide. :)

I think Piranha Bytes is actually using the same engine that powers G3, only with various modifications. this would explain why PB managed to wrap this up in 2 years.

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

Not sure about this one, waiting for a few more reviews

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

dnuggs40

Risen is not a Gothic game.

iirc, Arcania is the fourth and the only Gothic game that's being developed. PB is no longer working on the franchise after it split with Jowood, remember?

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

dnuggs40

From what i remember reading, The original developers of the gothic series are making Risen. Thats why many consider it as the spiritual successor of gothic even though its a new IP.

Gothic 4: Arcania is being developed by another team.

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

spektor_21000

From what i remember reading, The original developers of the gothic series are making Risen. Thats why many consider it as the spiritual successor of gothic even though its a new IP.

Gothic 4: Arcania is being developed by another team.

LOL!

What an original way to begin the game. "You awake on a sandy beach to discover that you're the only passenger who survived the shipwreck... your memory has been erased... who are you, what's your purpose... explore the island and try to discover the answer to these mysterious riddles... but first arm yourself... that stick over there looks like it's made of sturdy construction..."

And people had the cojones to suggest that this was going to be better than Dragon Age?

LOL!

What an original way to begin the game. "You awake on a sandy beach to discover that you're the only passenger who survived the shipwreck... your memory has been erased... who are you, what's your purpose... explore the island and try to discover the answer to these mysterious riddles... but first arm yourself... that stick over there looks like it's made of sturdy construction..."

And people had the cojones to suggest that this was going to be better than Dragon Age?

Charles_Dickens

Of course it's going to be better. I'm yet to see a BioWare or Bethesda game better than the Gothic games.

LOL!

What an original way to begin the game. "You awake on a sandy beach to discover that you're the only passenger who survived the shipwreck... your memory has been erased... who are you, what's your purpose... explore the island and try to discover the answer to these mysterious riddles... but first arm yourself... that stick over there looks like it's made of sturdy construction..."

And people had the cojones to suggest that this was going to be better than Dragon Age?

Charles_Dickens

yes, it's cliche - EXACTLY like what is revealed so far on Dragon Age. so i must say i don't know what you're talking about.

but of course, you're welcome to make up your own mind.

I watched some gameplay on YouTube and it looks like this is gonna be something worth checking out.

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

dnuggs40

Watching those Youtube videos...looks good but I hope that was running on a bad PC cause it was stuttering quite a bit.

LOL!

What an original way to begin the game. "You awake on a sandy beach to discover that you're the only passenger who survived the shipwreck... your memory has been erased... who are you, what's your purpose... explore the island and try to discover the answer to these mysterious riddles... but first arm yourself... that stick over there looks like it's made of sturdy construction..."

And people had the cojones to suggest that this was going to be better than Dragon Age?

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

TheCrazed420

Watching those Youtube videos...looks good but I hope that was running on a bad PC cause it was stuttering quite a bit.

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

TheCrazed420

Watching those Youtube videos...looks good but I hope that was running on a bad PC cause it was stuttering quite a bit.

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

Oh crap! I had no idea it was so close. Well...I know what I'll be buying that day :)

*edit*

Just saw "Gothic 4: Arcania" on the related videos tab...what is that? I'm confused...are there 2 gothic games coming out?

Watching those Youtube videos...looks good but I hope that was running on a bad PC cause it was stuttering quite a bit.

i'm bringing this up again to show you World of Risen's very own review. This is likely to be the most in-depth review you'll ever come across for this game, so if you've yet to make up your mind about Risen, i believe you will after reading this. :)

definitely check out the technical section. apparently the performance depends heavily on CPU, which is not really a good news for the average gamers ( not me, that much i know ).

It will probably be just like the Gothic series. A decent RPG wrapped in crap optimization, buggy code and ***** animations. If these guys aren't making any money making these games they should just stop because they just recycling the same **** for almost a decade now.

It will probably be just like the Gothic series. A decent RPG wrapped in crap optimization, buggy code and ***** animations. If these guys aren't making any money making these games they should just stop because they just recycling the same **** for almost a decade now.

ShimmerMan

It will probably be just like the Gothic series. A decent RPG wrapped in crap optimization, buggy code and ***** animations. If these guys aren't making any money making these games they should just stop because they just recycling the same **** for almost a decade now.

ShimmerMan

i fully disagree. firstly, Gothic games definitely sell - maybe not so much in North America but over at Europe it's THE franchise. the World of Risen website is enough proof to show how hotly anticipated it is. secondly, i wouldn't say Piranha Bytes has been "recycling" the same content - it's more like they opt to stay true to their core values when it comes to making rpgs. and that's definitely respectable, especially in an age when rpgs have had to rely on excessive sex and gore to be appealing. lastly, if you would spend a few moment to read the review, you'd realise that Risen is the most polish PB game to date.

Jinroh, is there any solid detail on the engine for Risen?

if it's as you said, the modified Gothic 3, then I think this game will be quite polished by release. Gothic 3 has been patched up pretty well and PB must've figured out the coding issues by now.

this said...I'm not really interested in this game since I'm not into solo RPG and had not much fun playing previous Gothic games. Solo CRPG has to be as good as VtMB to be appealing to me.