Review | Risen
I wandered off to find another faction. They put me to work on a farm for a bit, then told me I should go to Harbour Town. I did. I arrived at the gates and the guards beat me to a pulp. They told me I should stay well away. I had no idea what to do. It turned out I’d actually not been paying attention when someone told me to sneak ’round the back instead of waltzing up to the main gates. But it also meant that I’d got hopelessly lost. This was a good ten hours after starting the game. I erased my save file, and started again.
//A world at war
Risen is not afraid to confuse, worry or even readily insult its audience. I quite respect that, but I’m less sure of whether it works. The most instant issue with its unfriendliness is a lack of compulsion to explore. Head out into the wild and you’ll be ravaged by hungry wolves and gargantuan moths. Inadvertently annoy a faction and its members will beat you to within an inch of your life the next time you meet them. So it becomes more immediately rewarding to play it safe, take on straight-forward fetch quests, and fail to play all that creatively. Quickly, Risen starts to feel oddly cold and spartan.
This is where I can’t decide if it’s my fault or the game’s. Perhaps if I’d been a little more courageous, a little more willing to take big risks, it would have been a less sluggish, meandering experience. Perhaps if I’d been more assured in the path I was carving, I wouldn’t have needed to restart the game twice before actually getting enough of a sense of the world to continue past the first few hours. Perhaps, if I’d not spent so much time soaking up the strikingly unpleasant atmosphere, I’d have got to that point a lot more quickly anyway.
If I’d have known what I was doing, you know? Risen seems to make it very difficult for you to know what you’re doing.
And that has a couple of effects. One’s good, the other’s not so good, and they kind of conflict a little too roughly. Firstly, it’s a real atmosphere builder. I’ve mentioned Risen’s oppressiveness a lot here, but it’s worth drilling it home, as it’s pretty much central to everything. There’s a really agreeable contrast between the vividly colourful world and the unpleasant populace that inhabits it, and Risen’s lack of early guidance makes the place all the more alien.
Which kind of works, because the atmosphere means it’s easy enough to ignore the other side of the issue, which is that Risen completely leaves you in the dark in a few important areas. The story, most obviously, but that’s fair enough, and makes sense in the context of its presentation. In a more mechanistic sense, it’s less okay. How does the levelling work, for example? The game never even points in the direction of explaining that, leaving you to figure it out for yourself when you finally gain enough experience to see what the game does to thrust you up through the system. How about the well-meaning but clumsy subcategorisation of quests under small, incomprehensible symbols? Turns out those are representative of the different villages, towns and regions of the world, but you’ll not know until you’ve been to more than one, which could be a good few hours.
The interface is really shaky. The basic heads-up display is neat enough, but the rest is tucked away in an unnecessary amount of menus and sub-menus. There are multiple versions of the game map, for example, and it almost always takes a number of button presses to get to the one you require. There’s no journal, Risen instead opting for basic quest titles and an alarmingly full, word-for-word record of all your conversations pertaining to it – but never having the decency to efficiently summarise. Even having a little symbol that told you, yes, this is an important quest that will aid your progression in the game would work wonders. There isn’t one, so you’re never quite sure what’s best to be doing, and often prodding various characters for minor jobs in the hope that, eventually, something’s going to happen.
Eventually something does happen, and Risen’s lore is a fairly interesting one. Ancient, mysterious temples have emerged from the ground, filled with powerful and valuable artefacts that are horrendously dividing the island’s inhabitants. The sense of a community in disarray, oppressed by a variety of groups who claim to be trying to hold it all together, is strong. Only stilted character designs, repetitive voice work and stiff animation let it down.
Yet it sort of struggles to remain interesting for extended periods of time, and in between key happenings you’re left a little too stranded and flummoxed. For my liking, at least – I can think of plenty of people I personally know who’ll love the amount to which you’re left to think and fend for yourself. But I can’t help but feel it lacks direction and urgency, and takes an infuriatingly long time to reach its point. The very beginning is intriguing, but it doesn’t amount to much at all for an age. If you’re the type that requires an immediate hook, look elsewhere. If you think you’re not, and you don’t, Risen’s first ten-or-so hours might change your mind.
//Getting it wrong
Okay, there are some things – beyond the interface – that are very obviously wrong with Risen.
[Continues...]
Well, great review first off Lewis, and it has actually made me interested in Risen, a game I had nary given a glance to before! It sounds like a game I would enjoy and hate (maybe a bit too strong a word) in equal amounts, and thus I know I would end up wondering if it was £30 down the drain.
Perhaps I should have paid attention to the game more before hand eh?
Ah, the usual confusion that occurs when a mainstream gaming site reviewer comes across a Pirahna Bites game. The same occurred with their previous series, Gothic (well G1 and G2, G3 was a bit off and was a buggy mess), before the split with the publisher lost them the rights. It might look like Oblivion (and btw, PB was doing open-world a long time before that – they actually started around the same time that Bethesda released Daggerfall), but it is made for a far more hardcore audience. In PB games, wildlife is DANGEROUS, far more dangerous than, say, a low-level guard – just like in real life. If you’re expecting the Bethesda tropes where almost no-one lies, people will help you and send you on quests for no apparent reason, and wildlife is exterminated so easily you wonder how it doesn’t become extinct, then you’re in for a shock. In PB games everyone has a motive, people life and deceive, and you can’t expect to fight against wildly superior numbers of foes (no leaving the vault and immediately blasting the heads off 5 experienced raiders) and win – well, not until you are MUCH more experienced. PB games have more of the traditional rpg feel in that you start off very weak, and eventually become very strong. Having said that, they aren’t a ‘hardcore rpg’ in the sense of, say, Fallout (the 1st two, not the action-rpg FO3) or Arcanum, with stat-driven combat and complex character/party builds – they are very much action-rpgs with a sole player-character and real-time combat. But they’re as close to those old games that we’re likely to see, sadly enough.
Don’t play it on the 360, it was terribly raped.
If you find it too difficult on PC, then it’s just not for you, just Gothic 1 and 2 fans.
[...] How Possibly To Do Good Games Journalism, Maybe – Part 3: On Being A Tard Jump to Comments Hey! Remember two days ago? Before yesterday, when I didn’t post anything here, due to Comrade Richardson pouring goodness-knows-how-many tins down my throat the night before? Remember that? I said I was reviewing Risen! Well, I reviewed Risen! [...]
You obviously played the Xbox 360 version which is inferior to the PC version. Also you obviously didn’t pay attention and talk with everyone like you are supposed to in all rpgs. (You would have been guided to the rear gate of Harbor Town otherwise)
If you would have spoken to everyone you would have found trainers that will train your skills. I am in harbor town and have found several very easily. (take the right path after entering from the rear gate and go down the steps and there is someone that will train your sword skill and strength) The further you are from the beaten path the stronger the enemies are.
You also need to gain the peoples trust before they will treat you decently. (for the most part) You shouldn’t even compare this game to Oblivion or most other games since this game actually has choices and consequences and has far more depth and a better story then most other games.
“I erased my save file, and started again.”
You did WHAT? Sorry, but why? So you didn’t know what to do – why didn’t you just try to find out? Explore? It’s not like the other path into the town was hidden.
I just find it odd that you threw away ten hours’ worth of progress and experience because you didn’t know what to do next. Imagine doing that in Monkey Island. “Hm, I can’t figure out how to get that navigator’s head, I’d better just start from the beginning again”.
Sorry about rambling, I just… well, the thing is, if that’s how you play Risen, no wonder you don’t like it. This is a game that expects you to make some mistakes along the way, but that’s all right. You learn to live with the consequences.
(and it’s approx. 16 times friendlier than The Void in this respect – The Void kills you later on because you screwed up earlier, Risen doesn’t. Yeah, I know, different games, just pointing it out since you reviewed both, and seemed more ready to forgive The Void for its unfriendliness)
Makes sense to address a few points.
1. I know it takes an opposing approach to Oblivion and as such is only cosmetically similar. That’s pretty much what I said in the review, right? I know that’s not exactly what was opposing on here but someone’s been following me round the internet suggesting as much.
2. Since the time of writing, it has become apparent that the complaints regarding certain technical and presentational issues are isolated to the Xbox 360 version of the game. We were not provided with a PC version, and had no access to one until release day, by which point the review was already published. This is worth keeping in mind.
3. People seem to be completely misreading my comments about the harshness of the world and its characters, which I said I really liked about the game. At no point did I say it was too difficult – the closest I came was to say the early difficulty removes the compulsion to explore, which I was unsure about.
4. “You obviously weren’t paying attention.” This is true. Hence why I say in the review: “I wasn’t paying attention.” I was illustrating a point about how tuned in you have to be.
5. I spoke to quite a lot of people, actually, in various regions of the world. Yes, in Harbour Town, it did become apparent how the levelling system worked. But only eventually – I didn’t initially twig. Maybe that was me expecting something different for whatever reason, or maybe the game just never had the courtesy to properly explain it.
6. I started again a couple of times after becoming more knowledgeable of how the world worked, and wanted to try my hand at the early decisions again, seeing how things would pan out with that extra wisdom.
7. I rather liked the game. That’s one that people seem to be missing. There are elements I really don’t like, and perhaps that’s because I’m not entirely the target market (despite being a long-time RPG fan), but then not a lot of people are. I can only write what I think, based on my impressions, for the readership of this site. If you’re a huge Gothic fan who had Risen on pre-order and knew they were going to adore it, well, this review kinda wasn’t for you, y’know?
Hope that clears some stuff up. Thanks to everyone for reading.
(Oh, to expand on 7: that said, I did try to approach this from all angles. That *was* the angle. Hence the conclusion. Hence the recommendation to read lots of reviews and see which fits. Hence the admission that I’m not sure how to judge the game. All in the name of clarity and fairness, eh?)
Lewis’s review makes Risen sound nothing short of fascinating. I’m really tempted to pick up the PC version.
After reading the review and the comments I’m really tempted to get Risen, its sounds really interesting and obvious passion fan have for it, based on the comments, makes the temptation even stronger.
Can anyone tell me what are the main differences are between the PC and 360 versions? Why is the 360 version considered inferior?
Texture detail is enormously higher on the PC, for a start. Other than that, the interface issues on the 360 version can be pretty much eradicated by assigning shortcut keys, thus eliminating the need for trawling around various sub-menus to get to where you want.
On of the best reviews i’ve read in a long time.
I’ve got an understanding of the game and is what i wanted.
Thanks a lot Lewis
I’ve actually picked this game up now and I’m about 7 or 8 hours in and all I’ve been doing is side quests, I’ve barely even touched on what’s really going on in the main story, and yet I can’t put it down. There’s an addictive quality to it that I just can’t explain, there’s a bunch of really obvious flaws in it, mentioned in the review, but it really appeals to me for some reason.
Greg – AAAAAhhh, now you know what we felt when we played Gothic 1 8 years ago and Gothic 2 and its expansion 6 years ago : ).Piranha Bytes are the best fantasy world builders in the industry.
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.
[...] matter; personal preference is key. Greg’s up first, delighting in a quirky RPG that scored only 6/10 here at Resolution, and split opinion more than almost any other title in [...]