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On the surface, Risen looks and feels very much like the next installment of Gothic, but after a few hours of playing, you’ll soon realise that it’s a much more polished and focused effort than Gothic 3 was. You still play as a nameless character unwillingly thrown into a power struggle between two opposing factions. There is no mandatory character creation at the beginning of the game. You will not be choosing any stereotypical classes or adjusting the height of your character’s nose bridge. After a brief opening cutscene, the game immediately puts you in control of a shipwrecked nobody, virtually leaving you to fend for yourself on what seems to be a seemingly uninhabited island. There is a brief tutorial-like section where another shipwrecked survivor (who conveniently, for our hero, happens to be a pretty maiden) educates you on some of the basic gameplay mechanics and skills. But after that, you’re pretty much on your own.
Gradually, you’ll stumble onto other NPCs and find out more about the mysterious island. All of this feels very natural and not like you’re being cunningly guided by a script. Things start getting complicated when the factions come into play. Siding with either of the two main factions isn’t merely about choosing the good guys over the evil ones or vice versa. The Order of the Flame led by the enigmatic Inquisitor seem like religious zealots converting unwilling people to their side while the rogue bandits led by Don Esteban are money hungry cutthroats for whom the islands’ treasures mean far more than anything else.
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However, each side also has characters who can genuinely feel like good people and you’re never really sure just how good or evil a particular faction is. Given these facts, making your decisions isn’t exactly an easy process. However, in order for the story to progress you will have to eventually pick a side. Unlike most games, Risen actually gives you many chances to think upon your decision. But I’m sure when it’s time to do it, you will make multiple saves and still never be sure if you made the right choice, since everything falls into a morally grey area.
In gameplay terms, your alliance with a faction indirectly translates to how the story unfolds and what type of RPG archetype you will eventually become. The Order allows you to take the path of the mage or become a warrior/caster hybrid, while siding with the Don restricts you to a melee or ranged fighter with emphasis on rogue-like skills such as pickpocketing, lockpicking and sneaking. None of this is clearly spelled out for you and you will have to pay attention to NPC dialog to grasp the finer details. Don’t blame Piranha Bytes if you wanted to become a mage but ended up siding with the Don. Still, the game offers a certain amount of flexibility even after choosing a side. Many of the skills can be learned as long as you find the relevant trainers. However, don’t expect a warrior to learn high-level magic or a mage trying to master sword fighting.
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Speaking of skills, Risen features a simple, yet effective system. It’s a single screen, where you can see all your stats, available skills and abilities, and your proficiency in each. There is a wide range of skills to choose from, such as alchemy, scroll creation, smithing, lockpicking, pickpocketing, prospecting (for ore) among others apart from specialisation in weapon types and offensive magic. Unlike other RPGs, you won’t be spending skill points each time you level up. Instead, the game rewards you with a set amount of “learning points” at each level. These points can be cashed in (along with a certain amount of gold) at various trainers to increase your skill level in a particular area. The trainers can also raise your base stats such as Strength and Dexterity. The system is fairly simple and once you’ve figured it out, you can make your character quite proficient in your skills of choice. And it is highly necessary to train every chance you get because the game can be extremely challenging even for seasoned RPG players.
Risen might come in as a rude shock for those whose experience with RPGs is restricted to games like Oblivion or Fable or those who are used to the somewhat accessible nature of combat in RPGs. The island of Faranga is harsh and unforgiving. The wildlife is ferocious and even the lowliest enemies can take you down in a few hits if you don’t know what you’re doing. Fighting humanoid enemies is even trickier as they will constantly block, parry and counter your every wrong move.
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The combat plays out in real time and while it initially may seem like your typical hack-n-slash RPG, you’ll soon realise that approach won’t get you too far. You will have to block constantly and attack only when you feel like you have an opening. It’s even worse when it comes to dealing with multiple enemies at once as they have a tendency of immediately surrounding you. Even at higher levels, you will not be able to effectively engage mobs of enemies and will have to constantly resort to cheap tactics such as luring them into narrow spaces or leading them to friendly NPCs.
Personally, I am a bit torn about Risen’s combat. On one hand, it feels refreshingly challenging, making each enemy encounter feel far more interesting than a boring grind for XP, but it also feels unbalanced and unfair at times. Using magic can be slightly more effective as the spells become quite damaging once you train enough. However, most enemies will quickly close in on you, so you’ll have to resort to melee or hit-and-run tactics. Same goes for using ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows.
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Risen is also extremely stingy when it comes to weapons and gear. You won’t constantly get new and better equipment. But when you do, you will feel like you have actually ‘earned’ it instead of just having stumbled onto it. Regardless of the difficulty, the combat does manage to add an extra layer of depth to the gameplay. You will rarely venture out into the open world without stocking up on potions and scrolls and equipping your best gear.
Next page: Quests, presentation, and IVG verdict
Risen features an impressive open world design. It may not be as big as some of the other sandbox-style RPGs, but what it lacks in terms of scale, it makes up in quality. Exploration in Risen is one of its most rewarding experiences. The game does not restrict you from wandering into areas populated by high-level enemies and you will end up retreating more often than trying to play hero. Despite that, it’s difficult to resist the urge to explore every single cave, ruin and hidden path. Almost every such area holds useful loot and experience.
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Eventually, you’ll be able to obtain a fairly nicely rendered map of the whole island, but the game never makes going from point A to B as simple as following a big fat arrow or a blip on a radar. While the game does mark most quest objectives on your map, you’ll still have to do a fair amount of “map reading” in order to find what you’re looking for. Players who are used to the handy GPS-style navigation systems from other games might get frustrated with this, but it’s clear that Risen doesn’t want to be too friendly. I personally loved the way the exploration is handled in the game.
So it has a fairly well-realiaed game world and some innovative gameplay mechanics, but what would an RPG be without interesting and fun quests to make it all worthwhile? Thankfully, Risen doesn’t disappoint in the quests department. There’s a wide range of quests and jobs you can undertake from all the game’s major hubs and other small settlements you may happen to bump into along the way. The quests themselves are quite entertaining and have multiple resolutions. Many of them give you vague hints about what you need to do and you won’t be making much progress until you actually spend time thinking about what the NPCs have to say. This is one of my major complaints about RPGs today. Most of them tell you exactly what you need to do/where you need to go while conveniently marking areas on your map. Many of the quests are also interconnected and at times you’ll end up failing a related quest based on what you choose to do in another one, all without warning. There are also a fair number of standard fetch/kill quests which are useful for making money and gathering extra loot.
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The downside to the quests however is the rather poorly designed dialog system. It’s very barebones and looks quite unpolished for a 2009 RPG. Longer lines of dialog frequently get cut off by a vertical scrollbar (on all resolutions) and there is a fair amount of typos in the written text. All dialog in the game in fully voiced but the voice acting itself is just about okay. Most NPCs speak in a thick British accent, but you’ll come across quite a few lazily delivered lines. It’s nothing that completely ruins the experience, but does detract from the overall feel of the game.
There are also a few glitches that may cause quests to become unsolvable. I personally did not come across any game breaking bugs; just a couple of glitches that rendered some of my side quests impossible to complete. It’s advisable to save often, especially since the PC version offers a handy quick save system which can also be abused during combat. Load times are also generally pretty fast, which is a major improvement over Gothic 3.
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Visually, Risen is one of the best looking PC games of 2009. It may not be a stand out technical marvel, but it still looks gorgeous. The tropical island itself looks like a mixture of Crysis, Fable and Oblivion. The towns and interior areas also look very impressive with lots of detail. The homes actually look lived in and some of the underground caves and ruins are genuinely creepy and atmospheric. The dynamic day/night cycle and stunning weather effects also add a lot to the atmosphere. Exploring a ruin infested by skeletons in moonlight for example isn’t the same as doing the same during the day.
The character models however look quite dated. There are only a few NPC character models which are recycled for various characters. The animations during combat look very nice. For example, a wolf behaves exactly how a real animal would in a fight, but during dialog you’ll frequently see some jerky animations with characters making stupid hand gestures from time to time. The game ran quite well maxed out at 1680 x 1050 with 8xAA on my 8800 GT-powered PC but there are a few performance hitches and frame rate drops every now and then, especially in populated areas. It’s still quite smooth and playable for most part.
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Another area where Risen really deserves credit is the audio department. Whether it’s the ambient sounds while you’re exploring the outdoors or the musical cues while combat or exploration, Risen’s audio rarely falters. I must point out that the main menu theme however sounds eerily similar to that of Fallout 3.
If you choose to take your time with it, Risen can easily last for more than 40 to 50 hours. It’s one of those games which can be as long as you let it be. You can skim through quests if you like or just wander off the beaten path and go looking for adventure; it’s up to you. Yet the main narrative never seems to lose focus and you won’t feel like you’ve abandoned the story for side quests and random exploration. That’s a tricky thing to achieve, since open world games typically tend to lose the narrative somewhere along the way. But Risen maintains a great balance between story and freedom.
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Conclusion
Probably the worst thing about Risen is that it came out way too close to Bioware’s RPG juggernaut Dragon Age: Origins. It’s a real shame, because it’s certainly one of the better RPGs in recent times, probably the best medieval-themed RPG I’ve played since 2007’s The Witcher, and quite possibly the best PC RPG of 2009 so far. Its victory may be short lived, but for what it’s worth, Piranha Bytes has definitely succeeded in creating a worthy successor to the Gothic series. It has its fair share of problems, but I’m sure most RPG enthusiasts can look past those and find an extremely immersive and challenging experience.
(+) Fully realised immersive game world
(+) Decent story with realistic moral themes and consequences
(+) Nice variety of interconnected quests
(+) Lush visuals and great ambient sound & music
(+) Character development is addictive and rewarding
(-) Combat is a hit or a miss and can be frustrating
(-) Glitches can prevent you from completing certain quests
(-) Dialog system could have been better
(-) Presentation is a bit rough around the edges
Title: Risen
Developer/Publisher: Piranha Bytes/Deep Silver
Genre: RPG
Rating: 16+
Platforms: PC ($49.99 on Steam), Xbox 360 (not available in India)
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