Risen 3 is absolutely beautiful, taking you from tropical islands to abandoned ancient ruins to a volcanic lava-spewing hellscape. The world is completely open right from the start. Each area has enemies in a range of difficulty. The world is stuffed from end to end with hidden areas, rewards, quests, monsters and loot. You can go where you want, when you want, and it's always worthwhile. In terms of world building, Piranha Bytes has done a great job! Character development works well. You have many choices for what skills to invest in, and different character builds play differently. The experience ("glory") system lets you train abilities at any time in a way that is fluid, fun, and engaging. You do have to choose a faction eventually: guardians/mages, demon hunters, or voodoo pirates. The spells from other factions are available as scrolls for use by anyone, so you don't miss out on much by choosing one over the other. Any of the three factions are viable. Combat is varied and generally fun. You can fight with swords, guns, thrown/shooting weapons, magic spells, or a mix. The options play differently and all _work_. This is quite an achievement! This game is a solid 4.5 stars. I'm rounding up because the game gets so much right. The downsides: There's not much customization for the main character's appearance. He looks how he looks, and you either like it or you don't. About halfway through the game, there is a lot of slogging through small combats and minor quests to progress. You keep earning glory points, and there's enough to invest them in to keep improving your character in interesting ways, but it's still a lot of effort. The two boss battles are downright painful to get through. Ultimately, this game stays true to its Piranha Bytes roots while smoothing over many rough edges of earlier titles. If you like any of the Gothic or Risen series, you'll probably like this.
Gothic 2 is a big, open-world RPG in the best sense. Other people have lives, different responses based on which faction you join, and _everything_ is scripted and voiced. This is a marked step up from other RPGs. The world itself is varied and interesting, with dangerous monsters lurking just off the beaten path and tons of things to do. Be as good (or as bad) as you want! Will you shake down farmers for their money? Will you be a virtuous paladin? Will you join the mages? The game lets you play your character, your way, for the most part. Vurt's Gothic II Graphics Overhaul makes this look great, especially for its age. Unfortunately, someone convinced the developers that a game must be punishingly hard to be fun. Not even cheating can save it. Load up your character up with weapons, armor, health, and abilities. Try to kill the off-path monsters in the first world. Some of them will be one-shot kills that get oddly strong hits in before they go. Others will stomp your fully-cheat-loaded butt into the ground. Unfortunately, this includes people/things you have to beat up for quests. To be blunt: if I put 20 hours into a game, I expect to gain enough power to beat stuff up. On that score, Gothic 2 doesn't deliver. And it's a pity, because the world looks amazing.
For single-player users, this game if Fun with a capital F. This game gets the fun of computer racing pitch-perfect! Driving around varied tracks, adjusting for steering and sliding as your car gets knackered, watching your engine burst into flames . . . this game sucks you in and makes you want to play another track! The FOv2 for GOG mod is recommended. The v2 game is still basically stock, but there are some graphical tweaks and bug fixes that are worthwhile. Unfortunately, multiplayer for this game game doesn't work on modern versions of Windows. I have Windows 8.1 64 bit, he has Windows 10 64 bit. For both of us, trying to host or join a multiplayer game just crashes the program completely. We've tried the recommended fixes: fov2 plus FlatOutNet still has exactly the same problem. Since we can't use this game for multiplayer, minus 1 star. However, this game is still highly recommended for single-player use!
Exploration starts small at first, but builds rapidly and never quite stops through the end. Just when you think you've explored everything, you find a new area, and another, and another. Each area feels and looks different - terrain, plant life, and building structures all change. Every graphic and item has been placed there by the programmer, and he's put in a world's worth of subtle touches. Stay alert for the small things. You walk into a dining hall full of angry ghosts. Kill them! But before you leave with your loot, notice that the table is still set with plates and goblets, and there are piles of bones on the floor near the chairs. People came for dinner, died here, and their spirits stayed to haunt the place. You find a body in some monster's den. The dead person has a tunic, pants, a dagger and a lantern. Whoops, someone went to check things out and never came back. There's a LOT of stuff like that if you watch for it. The stash of board games in newly-built army barracks, a pillow and blanket in a wizard's bedroom, gloves and pots in a garden shed . . . Character dialog is a real strength of Spiderweb Software. It's clear these other people have personalities and interests, even if you only see a small part of their lives. It's not "a mayor's aide in a small city", it's Bruce in Blosk who says all the right things about his boss but manages to sound unconvincing. The Avernum series is known for old-school graphics and a moderate amount of descriptive text. If you're uncertain, download the demo from the Spiderweb Software web site and try before buying. For people who enjoy this style of game, A2:CS and the whole series is highly recommended.
