Risen

This game is a gem! The combat looks and feels better in game than it does in gameplay videos (if that makes sense) and the music is great, and the voice acting is surprisingly good. Animations are a bit dated but not bad. The game rewards you with loot, but does not overload you with weapons and gear, I am still running around in tattered clothes and the 1st real sword i found! The best part is the game doesn't "hold your hand" with a mini map and map markers ( i am not a fan of mini maps, too distracting). It makes the game more emmersive and you aren't staring at the upper right hand corner of the screen constantly, you actually have to explore! The landscapes look really good for this old of a game! Why didn't i buy this before? Angry console reviews turned me off from trying it, and now i am so glad i did! All in all: totaly worth the price on sale. Pick it up if you are a fan of rpg's, you won't regret it.

risen 1 review (no spoilers just tips) - genre: action-rpg - released in: 2009 - similar gams: gothic 1, 2, 3 - don't get caught and sent to monastery. even if you want to become a holy warrior or wizard type, you'll miss on lots of quests, experience and money. - go for alchemy it pays off greatly. but don't use strength potions before you max out on strength from your level-up skill points. if you reach 200 strength you'll be killing machine - some people say Sneak is not worth investing in because you can just use a ring which grants you this skill. but some monsters like the powerful ogres who can 1-hit you, they require sneak to beat them and using a ring means you could use that finger for some OTHER ring.. like one which gives you strength or whatever - people say prospecting, i mean mining ore and forging stuff doesn't pay off. i made good rings and amulets which can't be found in stores or anywhere else so for me it was good. also about mining - keep some gold ore for the later chapters when you'll need it to make obsidian weapons - don't eat Wanderlust. it may give you a little experience now (10 points) but later on you'll be able to make potions out of it which is much better - try to kill as many enemies as you can before moving on to next chapter because at beginning of each chapter, more monsters are added and the old ones still exist which means that if you don't kill them now, most likely you won't kill them in the future if they make a herd and become many - try to beat up anyone you can, even friendlies, for experience, their weapon and sometimes other loot. you only have to do this once for each NPC and after you did it, their weapon will be replaced by clubs or wooden spears so you'll recognize easily who needs beating and who don't. you can steal from their bodies too but be careful that nobody sees you (or those present are knocked down as well). sometimes guards are annoying and no matter how many times you beat them, they'll still attack you. it's not nice but i killed most guards in harbor city just for this reason; again, nobody must see you or they won't talk to you anymore and will require you to use a Joke Spell on them to make them friendly again - there are some puzzles in the game but they're pretty easy once you know that you can use a bow / crossbow to hit stone buttons which do certain stuff, or you can levitate above pressure plates that would normally make spikes go up from under you, or you can manipulate levers with Telekineses spell - use lockpicking and pickpocketing they good. in games like baldur's gate 2, if you fail pickpocketing you just have to reload; that's lame. here you can never fail in pickpocketing. you just see the items your victim is carrying then you have to pick one to steal. simple - try to use water barrels or beds to heal you for free instead of using potions - if you play melee i think the best choice is to become Bandit, to be one of the Don's men. they teach you sword and axe fighting and as you progress, you'll be able to use deadlier swords like the bastard type or even two-handed ones in a single hand while the other, you use a shield. sword is fastest weapon of all and when you're fighting multiple opponents you'll really need that speed - even from beginning of game you'll meet different types of enemy who require different tactic. the sea vultures for example are best killed after you put them with backs against a wall so they can't retreat anymore. their attacks are fast but weak man ok? but beware of their distance power attack. sting rats are similar also weak and fast attacks but they don't back off that much, no power attack, so they weaker. wolves are fast so don't run away from them just stay and fight. they usually in packs but they predictable; you can fight even 4-5 at once and if you good and lucky, you won't take a single hit; you must side-step a lot to avoid their attacks. boars make lot of damage they slower than a wolf but dangerous - if you low health in a fight, use healing potions but know that it takes time until you actually drink it so best run away while using it. if you run away from wolves, run in zig-zag so you're harder to hit - there's a glitch in the game: if you attack enemy from behind over and over, each of your attacks will reset their position so they'll constantly keep their backs on you. but watch out that they don't back-step because they'll be at your back in an instant. in harbor city there's a friendly ogre who can teach you axe fighting - i did this to him, i was just trying to beat him for experience but after fight finish, he was dead so i had to reload. i think it's because ogre is enemy by default so that why he die instead of knock down - the buttons for quick load / save are F9 and F10 and they can't be reconfigured. be careful that you don't save your game by mistake when you want to re-load. i don't think you can save while you're dead but you could save near death. i once saved in tomb raider while i was in the air and when i load game, i fall and die - there's day and night cycle in the game but for me torches weren't too useful. it was harder to play at night because of visibility and once you use a torch you can't put it back in inventory; you just drop it while you equip weapons and after a fight, you can pick it up again but still pretty lame - the game says that in order to defeat the last boss you'll need a special weapon: the titan hammer which is actually an axe type of weapon so naturally you'll think you need to level up your axe skills but that's wrong because there are similar weapons for each type: for sword and quarterstaff too. PS: i make good review yes? can i get a witness?...... :-/

The first two Gothic games were unplayable because of the terrible controls and terrible combat system. Risen ist perfect. You can play it with Xbox controller (Xpadder) too! I have all 3 Risen games on all systems and love all Risen games.

I love this game. The story may not be that different, but the game as a hole feels very unique, which is I think a strength not often warranted enough to it. The premise is that your shipwrecked on an Island, with little to no context as to where you are. After spending some time there and getting familiar with the colorful locals, you slowly rebuild your life. You begin with simple sticks and stones, but eventually as you progress, you become more and more powerful. The standard rpg mechanics have their own strange little twist in Risen, and its great. There is atmosphere, and a great soundtrack. The combat itself, is a bit weak, and takes some getting used to. The game is hard. Really hard. Its best to use some sort of guide when you are first beginning because just about anything can and will kill you. I was hours into the game before I could get any sense of control over combat. The quests too, are a bit vague and sometimes difficult to understand what exactly you need to do. But again, this game is a lot of fun, and definitely recommended for anyone looking for an rpg outside the standard fare

I've get this game about 6 years ago and I can clearly say that it was my first RPG game. So when I first tried it I was shocked: a large, beautiful and alive world, tough enemies and hard way to the top. It was interesting just to walk around and find adventures myself, without taking any quests. So time has passed, after Risen I've completed several other RPGs, including Gothic trilogy from the same developer. And now I can say that it looks more like Gothic remake than original series. The same alive fantasy world, the same tough enemies, the same several different sides of conflict and other Gothic features. That's all, Risen doesn't have anything else to give. The story and characters are dull and not memorable, interesting quests end at the second chapter out of four. The caves are interesting at the beginning when you explore the world, but not when it becomes your main quest. In the end I want to say that Gothic parts of the game are made awesome. The number of game bugs is minimal. The combat system makes you think during the battle, the random clicking doesn't work here like in Gothic 3. The last chapters are only 4-5 hours out of 20, so the game is worth playing.