From the team that brought us the Gothic Series on the PC comes Risen. An Epic Role Playing Game which finds you washed ashore on the island of Faranga after surviving an attack at sea by a enormous Titan, summoned by an Inquisitor who teleported off the ship seconds before the attack. But the island of Faranga is not at peace, The Inquisitor has take hold and mysterious temples have risen across the island. Quickly gathering your bearings you head inland with the only other survivor, Sara.
Before you head off on the great journey that is Risen, a warning. To date there has been no sign of an announced patch to fix a handful of fairly serious bugs in the Xbox 360 version of Risen. These include no adjustment for brightness which is a real killer as the game runs a day/night cycle and as it stands the nights, as well as any indoor/underground areas, are far too dark. Even with a torch or light spell it is just not fun. The other annoying bug I have come to hate is that the game hangs for several seconds every time you defeat an enemy or pick up gold pieces. Very frustrating. And then you get random QA bugs. My favourite being, ‘”Go and find Ethan he will help you”. The problem is, there is no Ethan! It is Vincent who you need. Bugs aside, and hopefully a non-issue soon with the patch, Risen is a grand RPG for any fan of old school RPG’s to sink their teeth into.
Choosing your style of play is determined by what location you decide to align yourself with. Aligning yourself with Don Estaban at the Bandits Camp will allow you to head down the Rogue/Fighter path, while the Monastery will allow you to pursue a more magical lifestyle. Although this does not necessarily stop you from learning skills and abilities that you may typically not learn in your chosen profession. With each level you gain you are awarded ‘Learning Points’. These are spent, along with gold, at Trainers who specialise in certain skills. Until you show devout allegiance to a certain faction many of these Trainers will train you regardless. Obviously though devout allegiance to a faction has it’s own rewards. To help boost you skills and attributes there is many a herb, potion and item of jewellery to be found or, with the right skill, made.
Combat in Risen is in real time and has a particularly steep difficulty level. For much of the early part of the game you will find yourself avoiding many basic woodland creatures because even a simple boar or wolf will rip you apart. Like real life though if you manage to back an enemy into a corner you can generally get the better of it. Ranged combat is useful but with no adjustment for the controller sensitivity, accurate aiming is pretty damn hard in the midst of battle. Many of the human opponents don’t actually die when you initially beat them and you have to perform a lethal blow on their unconscious body. And if a friendly happens to stray into your melee swing they get all upset and turn on you. Thankfully you have a spell, and anyone can use spell scrolls, that will make almost anyone like you, which is useful for returning you to a good standing after looting all the goodies from your neighbours house or bashing you ally on the head during battle.
The amount and variety of side quests is great with some nicely scripted moments and NPC’s that you previously may have helped in some way returning the favour at a later stage. Quests, items and maps are all looked after in a nice system accessed via the d-pad. You have to find or be given maps before they are available but by some form of arcane GPS the location of any quest related NPC will be highlighted on the map. Particularly interesting when told, “Ha ha! You will never find her!”. Ummm, yes I will, she is the green dot here on my map. Just another little bug that you could argue removes the frustration of searching everywhere for people. Along with the multitudes of Trainers and Traders available you can also learn to craft your own weapons and items as well as cooking your own food. Basic at first but with the right ingredients and a recipe you’ll be cooking up a storm in no time.
Compared to the PC version the graphics for the Xbox version have been severely reduced. Many of the textures look very flat and character models very average. Many other features seem to have been reduced as well, most noticeably the grass. Searching for herbs and plants is made very easy with the lack of any other flora to hide them. Now to me a good RPG can transcend graphics and Risen manages to do this but coupled with the number of bugs it will start to really put off those who aren’t hardcore RPG or Gothic fans. The thing is, at certain moments you get a real glimpse of how grand Risen could look, times like sunset with the light streaming through the trees and the waves crashing on the rocks really do look fantastic. Again it is rumoured that textures and character models may be addressed in the patch.
Closing Comments.
Biased by the facts that I am a real RPG junkie and absolutely loved the Gothic Series on the PC, I have really been enjoying Risen sans patch. Once the patch arrives I am sure I will be playing through again. Given the different factions, Risen is one of those games you could play through several times, and I probably will. Obvious comparisons will be with The Elder Scrolls IV:Oblivion and rightly so, but Risen is much more old school with many elements requiring a deeper input from the player. For example meat from a boar has to be cooked, but you need a frying pan and oven or fire. Done right the patch could help Risen surpass Oblivion in many ways but unfortunately I can see the same success for Risen. Hopefully the patch will be out before the NZ release but if it isn’t, I would recommend holding off playing Risen until it is patched. There is a genuinely fantastic RPG here but unfortunately due to its lack of graphical ‘wow’ and annoying bugs many people will be put off playing, and enjoying Risen. C’mon the patch!
Due for release 22/10/2009.
Not a big fan of this flavour of RPG. Have you checked out/are you checking out Demon’s Souls? That game is f**king incredible.
Had high hopes for this on the 360 but as it stands I’m not sure it’s worth buying new. It seems like a piss poor port to the console. Perhaps post patch and in the bargain bin?
This is a very good review. I’ve been playing Risen since it came out and my character has attained level 8, and I’ve upgraded my weapons and armor. The game story line goes linear at the beginning, but the game open up later. Then you can tho what ever you want. For me this game is far better than Oblivion.