A mysterious volcanic island.
The heavy tremors on the island bode ill for its inhabitants. Ancient temples have risen from the ground recently, bizarre creatures are terrorizing the area. Fear and terror is spreading among the population.
The end of all hope?
A group of powerful men who call the...
A mysterious volcanic island.
The heavy tremors on the island bode ill for its inhabitants. Ancient temples have risen from the ground recently, bizarre creatures are terrorizing the area. Fear and terror is spreading among the population.
The end of all hope?
A group of powerful men who call themselves "The Inquisitors" have taken it upon them-selves to put an end to these events. They send an expedition to this remote island, but a storm takes hold of the ship and destroys it at sea.
A hero will come.
As if by a miracle, you survive the shipwreck and are stranded on the volcanic island alone. You find yourself amidst a chaos of rebellion, tyranny, and mystic rituals. It is up to you to decide to which side the pendulum of fate will swing.
Delve into a gritty, raw, and atmospheric fantasy world in which every action has a consequence. In the epic world of Risen, filled with mysterious earthquakes, fearsome monsters, and unimaginable treasures, forge your path with the sword, learn the art of staff fighting, or become a powerful mage.
Alter the destiny of the island by the actions you take.
Please be advised that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility
Recommended system requirements:
Please be advised that Windows 10 operating system will receive frequent hardware driver and software updates following its release; this may affect game compatibility
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interesting predecessor to Skyrim and to a lesser extent The Witcher, but the combat system is horribly unbalanced ..... a 2% increase in your character's dmg ability seems to translate into a 500% increase in the enemies dmg & hitpoint abilities [normal setting] ..... I like a challenge but wowee ... plus the movement BECOMES restrictive in battle .... sidestepping is ... well, prepare to be hit ..... really wanted like this one; will probably play some more but I'm sure something else will grab my attention
I can already see how PB fanboys will downvote my review right into Beliar ream, as if doing that makes mediocre game any better.
If you're new to Gothic and other games from Piranha Bytes, I'd suggest to start with Gothic 1, continue with Gothic 2 NOTR, Archolos (free mod +100 hours of playing) and then, if you developed much unconditional love to PB, try their worst selection: Gothic 3, Risen and step-kid Arcania
what are my complaints? why such low rating?
- old annoying mechanics carried over, I can't take it no more: screen shaking like in older Gothics, can't find free bed without being lectured and booted by peasants (and can't have own bed, like in Gothic 3), annoying weather (constant storms, flickers)
- visually unpleasing. bad LOD, everything blurred to the point of nausea. together with storms, being wandering in a swamp in green mist, I can't recall any other game with such ugly visuals. probably Witcher 1. I'll take old choppy Gothic 1's looks over this travesty.
- combat resembles Gothic 3 (in its stupidity and complexity), going melee is suicidal. as in every PB game it screws you with auto-lock on enemy. when you fight 4 critters they tend to surround you. 1 critter moves aside, game catches it and 3 remaining critters can freely attack you from behind. dodge needs double tap on direction key (folks, you don't mind doing double tap with a stick, right?) parry needs you to tap your shield key right when enemy attacks you. that's a mockery because if you're late you will be kicked in the nuts and will suffer big health loss. but if you keep shield weapon pressed and attack when there's an opening, you'll be fine. archery and magic aren't viable for controller (no aim assist) and that's a drawback since Gothic 3. G1 and G2 had nice system where you can stick projectiles and magic.
- questing, world is tiny and on rails. you have no freedom and have to spend the beginning in bogs, fighting tough enemies or you won't progress in the game.
This game is FULL of gamebreaking bugs.
As a hardcore Gothic fan, I have to say that this game is not worth a penny.
Even in this final version there's A LOT of bugs, even gamebreaking ones. After 20 hours of gameplay I start to think about quitting before finishing.
Not comparable with Gothic 1 and 2, in any way.
Ive played this for about 3 something hours before I gave up and I cant understand how this game can have such a high score.
But let me start off with the nice things.
The graphics are old, but the art design is nice. You may be in a fantasy setting, but it conveys a certain feel of realism.
I didnt quite understand the story or my characters place in it. It starts out with my character being a nobody and having to deal with a lot of more simple, mundane tasks to progress further. I like that approach a lot more than the messiah-chosen one approach. The dialogues/voice acting are generally nice as well.
The hardcore elements are generally nice, yet poorly balanced. I like that I need a torch to be able see in dark places and having to rely heavily on food and other craftable items to sustain my character. The progression system also looked very interesting. When you gain levels you need to pay trainers to level up the skills you want with your available skill points. Yet I dont understand why drinking from a barell restores only some of my health when I can drink as much as I want. It just wastes time.
Now for the bad.
The movement system here is pretty clunky. It may be not so bad by itself, but it fuels the other issues.
Combat here is a problem in that its poorly implemented. You need to dodge and block manually, but enemy NPCs dont give indicators on how many attacks they will do in a row, when they will block or counter, etc. Thus making it very hard for you to properly fight them with your limited arsenal in the beginning.
And this ties into the biggest offender in the game - balance. Almost everything in the game can easily kill you. You have no indicator of seeing the strength difference. This means dying a lot and having to search for ways to grind. YES, SEARCHING FOR WAYS TO GRIND.
From my point of view, thats not fun. At all. The no lifers may find this a worth while investment, but for normal people, look for something else.
This is a game is littered with gamebreaking bugs, some of them will complete halter progress, this game does NOT WORK WITHOUT MODS AND PATCHES....
I am so tired of fan boys praising broken products, nobody learns....
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