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?...... :-/
