Risen (Gothic successor)

[Erkki]

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.

You are exempt from my hatred.

I know what you mean by not getting things right, the same flaws/quirks have perpetuated from Gothic 1 to Risen. At least Risen seems less buggy, though. But yeah, I would like to see them make major improvements to some things. Personally I would like to see even more dynamics, characters moving about more with more complex routines, caravans and patrols, a shorter "open crate" animation, a different premise than being the nameless chosen one* etc. All the games so far have had basically the same formula with minor changes.

* I don't know yet if that's the case in Risen, but it seems like it might be.

[racingfreak92]

the graphics and environment looked great, and the little gnomes in the caves were awesome but holy shit, worst combat ever.

I dont even understand how it works. when im blocking i never figured out how to do a counter parry, could charge up my attacks like it told me either, and the side strikes didnt seem to work reliably either.

when blocking i would look for a sign that the AI is open to attack but i couldnt find any clear patterns. if the game had a complete reworking in the combat area i would buy this game but right now, what were they thinking?

[Erkki]

I dont even understand how it works. when im blocking i never figured out how to do a counter parry, could charge up my attacks like it told me either, and the side strikes didnt seem to work reliably either.

when blocking i would look for a sign that the AI is open to attack but i couldnt find any clear patterns. if the game had a complete reworking in the combat area i would buy this game but right now, what were they thinking?

The combat works for me, it is like it is by design and I think it's slightly better than in Gothic. It may take a while to get used to though, and I completely understand that it's not for everyone. I'm still not able to do counter-parries properly, but I've played for 25-30 hours now and they are not essential.

[spindrift]

The only real problem i have with the combat system is the lock-on feature regularly choosing the wrong target when i'm fighting multiple enemies. Why is there even a lock-on in a pc game anyway?.

Also the game does a pretty poor job of easing you into things. The tutorial messages for combat are particularly useless, you get messages telling you to counter parry and charge up attacks before you actually have the ability to do those things (i finally realised that you unlock them if you train the next few levels of Sword).

The art is also weirdly schizophrenic. The technical fidelity of the assets, i mean, not the art direction. There's a tangle of both gorgeous technically accomplished assets, mixed in together with amateurish clunky stuff.

Other than that i'm loving this game a whole lot.

For anyone worried about coming in late on the series - I have never played a Gothic game before and i'm having no great trouble adjusting to most of the systems.

[Erkki]

Finished it. What a crappy ending. And after the credit, a very overt hint at several sequels.

Also, the last few hours of the game sucked bad:

I had nothing left to do in settlements, so I just explored the 5 temples in sequence. They could have spread that out. And at least create some new quests in Harbor Town.

Also, the thing at the end is a fucking boss fight rhythm game. With no feedback on if you are progressing

[Tanukitsune]

I got the game on sale recently... the 360 version... I actually have Gothic 2 & 3, but I've yet to play them....

The RPG genre is the one I'm the strictest in and yet... I kinda love this game for ONE reason...

It's the only RPG where I really feel the progress... I haven't played that much, but I started as a guy who washed up from a sea wreck, using a bloody stick to kill birds and it looked like just about anything could kill me..

The progress in this game seems more noticeable and natural, I've only spent a few hours in the swamp with the bandits, I still feel so weak, but it feels right, it feels like I should feel weak... And I'm slowly feeling confident enough to go explore more...

I'm hoping this will mean I'll love Gothic 2 & 3?

And... it kinda feels like a medieval GTA since I'm selling drugs, booze and hoes (the gardening kind, but still)... :B

But... I should be getting Batman: AA, Infamous and Prototype soon (they were on sale, DUH!) and I know I'm going to drop this game when they arrive...

[Erkki]

It's the only RPG where I really feel the progress... I haven't played that much, but I started as a guy who washed up from a sea wreck, using a bloody stick to kill birds and it looked like just about anything could kill me..

The progress in this game seems more noticeable and natural, I've only spent a few hours in the swamp with the bandits, I still feel so weak, but it feels right, it feels like I should feel weak... And I'm slowly feeling confident enough to go explore more...

I'm hoping this will mean I'll love Gothic 2 & 3?

...

But... I should be getting Batman: AA, Infamous and Prototype soon (they were on sale, DUH!) and I know I'm going to drop this game when they arrive...

Yeah, the Gothic games are pretty much the same in almost every way: progress, selling drugs, different factions, magic, combat, skills, atmosphere, asshole NPCs etc.

Gothic 3 is HUGE. It practically has 3 worlds instead of 1, compared to the other games. But it's the buggiest and it might get boring at some point. I don't recommend playing that considering your backlog and the other games you mentioned

I think Risen is maybe even the best of them. Or maybe Gothic 1 or 2. I am probably most fond of Gothic 1. It was the first RPG that I played that had both somewhat believably behaving NPCs and a good faction/reputation system. But then Gothic 2 improved on that while losing a bit of the charm of the original. And Risen improved on it more, while losing more of the charm...

Also, the ending to Risen sucks badly as do some of the later parts of the game leading up to it, so if you won't finish it but play only 2/3 you'll not miss much. Still, I'd suggest maybe going with Gothic 1 or 2 if you have time for only one of these games.

[Tanukitsune]

Yeah, the Gothic games are pretty much the same in almost every way: progress, selling drugs, different factions, magic, combat, skills, atmosphere, asshole NPCs etc.

Gothic 3 is HUGE. It practically has 3 worlds instead of 1, compared to the other games. But it's the buggiest and it might get boring at some point. I don't recommend playing that considering your backlog and the other games you mentioned

I think Risen is maybe even the best of them. Or maybe Gothic 1 or 2. I am probably most fond of Gothic 1. It was the first RPG that I played that had both somewhat believably behaving NPCs and a good faction/reputation system. But then Gothic 2 improved on that while losing a bit of the charm of the original. And Risen improved on it more, while losing more of the charm...

Also, the ending to Risen sucks badly as do some of the later parts of the game leading up to it, so if you won't finish it but play only 2/3 you'll not miss much. Still, I'd suggest maybe going with Gothic 1 or 2 if you have time for only one of these games.

Just how long is Risen? If it gets ridiculously long it will bore me to death, but I probably won't quit if I've gotten too far...

[Erkki]

I don't remember how long I played but I think 40-50 hours.

[Lechimp]

I've been playing Risen a lot in the past two weeks and have been enjoying it, even though it feels pretty unpolished and has some wacky combat controls. I think I'm starting to get to the point where people have said the game starts to go downhill though. I'm inside some temple behind a waterfall, the design of the temple kind of sucks, and fighting lizard guys over and over is starting to get a little old. Plus I have that feeling that no new quests are going to come from the three main hubs so I'm just going to from temple to temple fighting these guys?

Oh well, it's still a good game. I have the first two Gothic games from when I saw them really cheap and bought them but haven't really played them much. I'll probably play through them after this even though I remember the combat being worse in those games.

[Tanukitsune]

I finally beat it.... I could do a couple of quest because the character had simply disappeared and it really bothered me that...

I couldn't use my magic skills on the boss and it's was rather arcade-y, not to mention that I only got a short cutscene for winning...

But I still enjoyed it, it felt like I actually earn all the money and skills for once...

So... does this mean I'll enjoy Gothic 3 & 2?

[Tanukitsune]

O.K.... I finally tried Gothic 2 & 3....

Gothic 3 would be nice if it weren't for the fact it loads ridiculously slowly, I heard the community patch helps, but apparently Steam already has it as part of the game! And "quick"save is actually MUCH slower than saving manually!

I reduced all setting so low it looks like a PSOne game, it loads only a little bit faster....

And it also takes ages every time I load a save.... I'm sorry, I just can't take these long load times!

As for Gothic 2? I thought it wasn't working at all, but it just takes ages to for the game to load too! It took so long I had almost forgotten about it when the loading screen appeared!

But this isn't the worst loading time I've had...

I tried to install Fallout Tactics the other days and it looks it refused to install.... SEVERAL hours later the setup program opened!

Hopefully Gothic 4 will take less than a millennium to load....

[F4T C4T]

Risen peaked my interest a few months back and after reading a whole bunch about the Gothic series (which has passed me by) and trying a demo I bought this on Steam the other day. I've played it for a few hours now (I'm in the Bandit camp) and so far I've quite enjoyed myself. Can't say much for the dialog/story (I thought at first it was text only as the first time I played there wasn't any speech sound. Turns out it was bugged though as now I can hear all the characters in their mediocre glory) but there's something special about the world I really like. There's a sense of adventure and exploration that a lot of games fail to capture and the first hour or so already has nooks and crannies all over the place. Sometimes very dangerous nooks and crannies filled with wolves and boars.

I'm getting a bit bogged down at the Bandit camp now though. I see what needs to be done and a lot of it relies on me getting good at the combat which is causing me to groan a bit. You need money to get better combat skills and gaining money so far has mostly been by getting in a fight. Losing at combat = death if your opponent is non-human or losing money if they're human. So far I've lost countless gold to those lazy fecking bandits (and the occasional decent sword!).

On the other hand I love the fact that when I get beat by a human they (so far) only knock me out and nick a bit of money instead of outright killing me. That gives the game a completely unique feel. Knowing that these people (so far) have some kind of decency or rather pity. Also it's a little easier to stomach the fact that when they try to help me in combat I will almost certainly end up hitting them and incurring their wrath.

So, flawed and clunky for sure but I'm going to stick with it.

[twmac]

Started playing the X360 version as a build up to the sequel... I knew it was going to look bad on the console but I didn't realise it was going to look this bad. I am in the Harbour Town and it is so utterly bland that it reminds me of Hydelide on the Saturn. It is a blocky, brown mess.

The voice acting is okay and there is a lot of it but I just don't care. And the combat is very average.

Does the story, narrative or world get any more interesting?