btimofte
12-07-2011, 10:07 AM
A little rough around the edges, and with a somehow rushed final chapter, but pure Piranha Bytes awesomeness in a very Gothic 2-like fashion.
In fact, despise it flaws, it's probably my favorite RPG in recent years.
No one, simply NO ONE, can handle open world games as good as they do. Unlike games like Obivion or Two Worlds 2, with huge worlds that feel quite empty and monotone, the landscape in Risen is not very big, but it's interesting and filled with unique content in every damn square meter.
Also, their quest design is top notch, far from the (barely) interactive TV shows Bioware is used to offer us, there are not corridor levels and hot spots in a "click here to complete this" fashion, in Risen every damn quest is all about dynamic environment and achieving your goals in the way you want.
For instance in Harbor Town, one of the three main quest hubs in the game, you have a dozen of quests where two factions are competing, and for every goal someone asks you to achieve, you can find someone else asking you to do the very opposite.
Let's say someone asks you to steal something. It's up to you to choose if beat and rob your target, corrupt him (or his friends) to buy your thing, steal your item from his chest when he's sleeping, or gather some proof and denounce your "employer" to the local authority.
And it's not just about having those options, but about making them challenging and interesting, too. Cause everything has a trade off. One way to act could require a skill you haven't trained yet (and your skill points are quite scarce and valuable) or an heavier exploration/planning phase, etc.
Also, the game is quite unforgiving, there's no hand holding. Combat is tough, there's no autoscaling so in every moment you can be incautious and cross some stronger human enemy or monster. Let's say you cross your path with a bully who asks you money as a toll for whatever reason. There's a good chance that if you haven't level up enough, the one pretending money from you is more than able to beat the crap out of you.
So it's really rewarding to level up and becoming increasingly confident about yourself and so on.
Last but not least, there are few short but cleverly designed dungeons in the game, filled with dangerous monsters, few interesting puzzles and *actual* deadly traps, things which putted together give you that genuine "I'm like Indiana Jones in the Cursed Temple" feeling.
Of course, if your ideal action RPG is crap like Fable and its idiot-proof philosophy, or your model of dungeon design is stuff like Mass Effect with a long corridor with "exciting" puzzles like "click anywhere the cursor changes its shape", you can ignore Risen and join the casual bandwagon of people complaining cause it's "unforgiving and unpolished.
In fact, despise it flaws, it's probably my favorite RPG in recent years.
No one, simply NO ONE, can handle open world games as good as they do. Unlike games like Obivion or Two Worlds 2, with huge worlds that feel quite empty and monotone, the landscape in Risen is not very big, but it's interesting and filled with unique content in every damn square meter.
Also, their quest design is top notch, far from the (barely) interactive TV shows Bioware is used to offer us, there are not corridor levels and hot spots in a "click here to complete this" fashion, in Risen every damn quest is all about dynamic environment and achieving your goals in the way you want.
For instance in Harbor Town, one of the three main quest hubs in the game, you have a dozen of quests where two factions are competing, and for every goal someone asks you to achieve, you can find someone else asking you to do the very opposite.
Let's say someone asks you to steal something. It's up to you to choose if beat and rob your target, corrupt him (or his friends) to buy your thing, steal your item from his chest when he's sleeping, or gather some proof and denounce your "employer" to the local authority.
And it's not just about having those options, but about making them challenging and interesting, too. Cause everything has a trade off. One way to act could require a skill you haven't trained yet (and your skill points are quite scarce and valuable) or an heavier exploration/planning phase, etc.
Also, the game is quite unforgiving, there's no hand holding. Combat is tough, there's no autoscaling so in every moment you can be incautious and cross some stronger human enemy or monster. Let's say you cross your path with a bully who asks you money as a toll for whatever reason. There's a good chance that if you haven't level up enough, the one pretending money from you is more than able to beat the crap out of you.
So it's really rewarding to level up and becoming increasingly confident about yourself and so on.
Last but not least, there are few short but cleverly designed dungeons in the game, filled with dangerous monsters, few interesting puzzles and *actual* deadly traps, things which putted together give you that genuine "I'm like Indiana Jones in the Cursed Temple" feeling.
Of course, if your ideal action RPG is crap like Fable and its idiot-proof philosophy, or your model of dungeon design is stuff like Mass Effect with a long corridor with "exciting" puzzles like "click anywhere the cursor changes its shape", you can ignore Risen and join the casual bandwagon of people complaining cause it's "unforgiving and unpolished.