Risen (Gothic successor)

[Erkki]

I hadn't heard about this before. Looks about 2 times more interesting to me than the official Gothic sequel (which is developed by Spellbound I think):

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/05/06/fantasy-world-fantasy-risen/

Risen, developed by Piranha Bytes, so I guess it might be the spiritual successor to Gothic. I hope they do a better job with QA this time. And keep the world as small as Gothic 1 or 2 (which were still big). Gothic 3 was so huge that it lost focus and I almost remember it as 2 or 3 separate games.

The environments look really good, but perhaps resemble Gothic even a bit too much.

[castorp]

While I don't have much of an issue with the reappearing environments, I cringe every time I see Piranha Bytes' character animations. They looked shit in Gothic 1 eight years ago but PB still seems to reuse them in every game since then.

But Gothic I & II were both great games, so I'm interested in 'Risen', even if it will be 'just' Gothic IV in the end. I do hope too, Erkki, that they keep the world rather small - never played Gothic III, but by what I read, it sounded more like the unmanageable Morrowind kind of big, than the 'still big, but in the end you know where is what, with lots of places to explore in between' I loved in the first two Gothics.

[gdf]

I got Gothic off of GOG.com. Believe me, I tried, I tried my best, but the control scheme defeated me. There was a lot to like about it, so hopefully Risen can be like that, but less cack-handed to fucking move and do shit in.

[castorp]

I got Gothic off of GOG.com. Believe me, I tried, I tried my best, but the control scheme defeated me. There was a lot to like about it, so hopefully Risen can be like that, but less cack-handed to fucking move and do shit in.

Mh, I know what you mean. Controls were a big pain. If I remember correctly, assigning Ctrl to a thumb-used mouse-button helped a lot, as did maxing the mouse sensitivity. The rest of the game is worth getting over this hurdle, but as you said, you tried, so maybe you two are not supposed to be together.

[MrHoatzin]

I wish you played as one of those little dudes that appear in a cave around a fire in the closing of the trailers.

I really dug Gothic 1. Played it through one and a half times, once as a fighter, half a time as a wizard (it was interesting how the mechanic of the gameplay changed). I bought Gothic 2 as soon as it came out tried to play it many times over the years, but never got past walking down from the tower to the city. I can't remember what it was that pissed me off and made me stop playing time and again.

Give me a good reason to give Gothic 2 another chance. Go!

[brkl]

Getting nerfed to a loser after the demigod you were at the end of Gothic 1?

I really liked 1 and 2. 1 more, I think, though I never finished it (I was in the last dungeon I think). Great atmosphere, even though there's zero characterization and crap plot. But sometimes an immersive world is enough.

[castorp]

Give me a good reason to give Gothic 2 another chance. Go!

Gothic II: it's more of the same! But bigger - and it looks nicer.

I slightly prefer Gothic I over the sequel as well.

[Erkki]

never played Gothic III, but by what I read, it sounded more like the unmanageable Morrowind kind of big, than the 'still big, but in the end you know where is what, with lots of places to explore in between'

I don't think it's as unmanageable as Morrowind -- I pretty much knew what was what for the most part, but the 3 large areas were so different that they felt like different games (even though they were seamlessly connected as far as I remember). That's not necessarily bad, but only the main area (where you start) felt really focused and it would have been a better game with only that part and less bugs and even more interesting stuff in there.

I got Gothic off of GOG.com. Believe me, I tried, I tried my best, but the control scheme defeated me.

With Gothic 1 I really struggled with the controls at first. Then I got the hang of it and never had problems with them since.

I wish you played as one of those little dudes that appear in a cave around a fire in the closing of the trailers.

That might be fun indeed, but then again staring up at people might get old soon. Unfortunately, from one of the videos on the game's site there seems to be another prophesied Nameless Hero in this game.

Give me a good reason to give Gothic 2 another chance. Go!

Hmm... can't think of a very good reason. Gothic 1 was better. And actually a lot of the stuff in Gothic 3 was more interesting to me even as the game as a whole was too spread out. If the community patch (haven't tried it) fixes many issues I would perhaps even recommend it over Gothic 2, but keep in mind that it's quite long and some parts might get boring.

[Erkki]

They've turned the game's website into a Myst-like semi-game.

http://risen.deepsilver.com/

Also, from one of the cinematics there, it appears you won't be playing as one of the little people.

[Erkki]

OMG demo is out already http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/10/01/rise-and-shine-its-risen-demo-time/

This came totally out of the blue for me. Nice, just as I finished the Brütal Legend demo that was too short.

[Erkki]

Metacritic so far

1. PC Games: Risen (2009) 81

Deep Silver

2. Xbox 360: Risen (2009) 57

Deep Silver

Quite odd. Does the Xbox version really suck that much compared to PC. The Eurogamer review giving it 4/10 was discouraging, but the PC reviews are a lot better (haven't read any though).

I played the demo, it runs really slow on my computer. The same clunkiness from earlier Gothic games is still there. Basically seems about the level of quality of Gothic 3, which kind of sucks. It also crashed twice, but that may be due to the occasional overheating problems my computer has.

[Hyetal]

Do you ever get the feeling you're talking to yourself?

I tried the demo a few days ago and right out of the gate (or should I say ocean har-har), like you, I got slapped in the face with Gothic 3. But I persevered, gave it a half hearted go. And I don't totally regret that. Kinda.

It ran smoothly enough for me, the gameplay was okayish, but I wonder if the age of Gothic II has passed? I don't know if we really need another game like this. Then again, the demo was pretty short, so maybe after it opens up and you get all these cool open world possibilities it'll get better.

No matter which way I spin it, I don't think I can justify a purchase.

Side-note: What graphics card and CPU do you have? And what graphics driver were you using when you ran the demo?

[Erkki]

Do you ever get the feeling you're talking to yourself?

No.

Side-note: What graphics card and CPU do you have? And what graphics driver were you using when you ran the demo?

Dual Core Opteron 185 (2.61 GHz), 2GB RAM, GeForce 8800 GTS. Seems to be enough for most games, although the system is two years or so old.

[Hyetal]

It doesn't surprise me that a game this similar to Gothic 3 runs poorly on lots of systems. It does make me frown in a sad manner, though.

Oh, and my system is nearly 3 years old. Pretty much the same as yours, so that probably doesn't affect anything, no matter how much it should.

[Erkki]

Ok, this crashing seems to be no fault of Risen: my CPU temperature is rising to 100 degrees Celsius while playing games. Must buy new thermal paste, I think.

[Hyetal]

Ouuuch. That might be an idea, yeah. A buddy of mine was having the same problem, though his was rising to about 120. I actually gulped when I saw it. After applying new thermal paste and cleaning out his case it sank to about 35 while idling, and 45-55 on full load.

Which I thought was incredibly weird. But I don't question good news. Not much, anyway.

[Lu]

This game isn't done yet. The world isn't too bad looking and it has decent atmosphere and attention to detail... The actual gameplay systems are absolutely horrid; the combat in specific.

I would be embarrassed to ship a game like this. I wonder what happened there... Or what keeps happening, because to my knowledge the Gothic games had a similar lack of polish. I've never actually played any of the Gothic games, so if I'm wrong, please set me straight.

[MrHoatzin]

The first one was awesome, the second one I never could get into, the third one I played a demo for at E3 in 2005, it was a weird demo in as far as you had your dude in some sort of idyllic, but repeating and featureless shrubby/foresty plot of land and you got to run through some grazing wildlife with no clipping, and then stumble upon some dudes duking it out and ignoring you altogether...

The allegedly "broken" combat system is actually a feature, not a bug, though one would think they'd figure out how to do the funky controls more compellingly by now. Allegedly, they're supposed to discourage button mashing and allow for a more deliberate control of the sword. Silly Krauts.

[Erkki]

The combat in Risen is definitely more broken than in Gothic.

You automatically lock on an enemy that gets close, but as the enemy moves around you, the lock doesn't follow so you'll be striking in the wrong direction.

PS. Applied new thermal paste, CPU now idling at around 40 degrees, was 55 previously. I hope I'll be able to play this demo properly now.

[Lu]

The allegedly "broken" combat system is actually a feature, not a bug, though one would think they'd figure out how to do the funky controls more compellingly by now. Allegedly, they're supposed to discourage button mashing and allow for a more deliberate control of the sword. Silly Krauts.

If they say that it was intended to work this way then they're either delusional or lying. Then, I guess developers usually try to justify their choices as valid around the time of release...

It's a shame. I really love games with a big world, open to exploration. I wouldn't mind exploring this one either, but with so many good (and better) games coming out this month alone -- I'm thinking that this one isn't worth the price of admission.

[Erkki]

I caved in after reading the RPS posts* and bought it. Also, I did enjoy the demo, and it ran well enough after turning off shadows.

* which is odd, since so far it's almost the exact same experience I had with the demo so I didn't really learn anything new.

[Erkki]

Hey, the combat is not bad at all (if you think the Gothic combat is ok). In the demo it felt bad, but the creatures were using dodge moves, that's why they got around the lock-on. It started making sense when I fought with a human -- he could use all the same moves that I could. And apparently so can all the creatures.

I like it. Just made my way into town, trying to do some work for opposing factions without getting too caught up with either before finding out more about them.

Risen feels pretty much like a Gothic game so far. Even not a sequel to the last one, but more like a Gothic 1.5 or so. They even have reefers.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Erkki

[MrHoatzin]

They even have reefers.

This is the most archaic thing I've heard in a long while. ¬¬

[Erkki]

I'm going to hate all of you if none of you RPG players will buy this because better marketed big publisher AAA titles demand your money. And I already hate you for not playing The Witcher. You don't know what's good for you.

Disclaimer: Risen may not be for all tastes.

[Lu]

I'm going to hate all of you if none of you RPG players will buy this because better marketed big publisher AAA titles demand your money. And I already hate you for not playing The Witcher. You don't know what's good for you.

Disclaimer: Risen may not be for all tastes.

How about this: I will not buy this game because I don't support a developer that fails to get things right after 3 previous games that were much in the same style as this one.

The Witcher, on the other hand, is still great. The Enhanced Edition was such a generous package. Still my favourite RPG in recent years. Everyone should buy it and then play it.

Please don't hate me.