While not working or watching TV (Burn Notice *heart*) I’ve been playing quite a lot Risen lately. Risen is from the same people who brought us the Gothic games, Piranha Bytes.
Risen, just like Gothic games, is a single player fantasy themed RPG and as expected it shares many things with Gothic. Is it better than Gothic? Not easy to answer. Should you buy and play it?
If you like RPGs then I’d say yes. But there are some things which one should keep in mind before you buy it, or while you play it. First of all I’ve seen many people say that they game is unplayable unless it’ll be patched. I’ve played now for close to 20 hours and I must say that this simply isn’t true.
The game hasn’t crashed on me so far, and I haven’t run into any serious bugs so far. Sure the odd graphical glitch here and there, but nothing that has hindered me in any way or form.
Secondly, and most importantly in my opinion, Risen can be unforgivingly hard game. Especially early on, and if you’re one of those people who like to rush through the story. You can quickly end up being a in a place doing a quest which there’s just no way that you’ll be able to finish. Instead you should take your time, improve your character and get better equipment.
Finally, and this has to do with the point above. The combat system isn’t bugged as many people like to think. Each enemy fights differently, there are some which you can defeat by constant button mashing, but most can’t be beaten in such manner.
You must observe how your enemy fights and then think what the best way to beat them would be.
If you keep those things in mind when you give Risen a chance you’ll see that it’s actually a very lovely game. Sure, I’ve wanted to throw my mouse and hit my keyboard a few times while playing it, but in the end I’ve had great time playing it so far.
And as you can see from the pictures it’s a very good looking game as well, especially if you have a PC which can handle it (my 4 year old-slightly-upgraded PC can handle it quite well). To sum things up, if you like fantasy themed RPGs and can forgive minor faults then you’ll enjoy Risen a fair bit.