There is no reason on earth to play this bug-ridden game unless you're after a trip down memory lane. Controls are awkward, combat is dull, story is cliche, animation is uninspired. Uninstalled when I discovered I had to enter a chamber to continue, because opening a door and entering a room is a near-impossible feat in this game.
I suppose the day will come when I feel a sense of fond nostalgia for this game, but for now I just feel a bit frustrated. If nothing else, Undying is certainly a unique game -- well told story, effective graphics, atmospheric soundtrack, and well done voice work make this game artistically impressive. Unfortunately, the combat system is one of the most cumbersome arrangements I've come across in quite some time -- no hotkeys to speak of, instead a slow cycling through weapons, spells, and inventory (which, granted, works most of the time once you know what's coming). Hit and miss combat spells (some practically useless, weaponry which looks promising but proves largely ineffective, and gimmicky boss battles requiring either hours of trial-and-error (I would imagine) or a peek at a walkthrough for the 'solution'. (On the plus side, medkits are abundant in this game, so possibly the fiddly battle system is by design.) Undying would have made a wonderful adventure/puzzle game -- yes it's fairly linear, but every level grants enough latitude to find the odd goody here and there. I'm told the game is legitimately scary, (games don't scare me half as much as bad controls), and given the excellent production values, immersion would be complete were it not for the frequent reloads owing to another fiddly battle sequence. I finished the game out of sheer stubbornness, but lacking rose-tinted glasses it's hard to recommend this to any but the curious.
Risen is the kind of game you may consider quitting somewhere in the first act, only to find yourself coming down the home stretch and glad you stuck with it. I say that because at some point in the first chapter the game feels a bit like a slog -- lots of tough grinding, quests that have you running to and fro, combat skills that you've poured points into and they're still not good enough Then it dawns on you that you're just toying with the Skeleton Warriors that six hours ago were taking big chunks of your health. You find better swords, you gain the ability to use bastards one-handed so you can equip a shield in the other, and now not only can you go toe-to-toe with Lizard Warriors, you can turn it into a fun dance of strike/counterstrike. As with the Gothic series of epic rpgs, much has been made of Risen's combat system, but once you've put the points into your weapon, you're rewarded with a wonderful set of combat skills that make it entirely possible to come out of a difficult encounter unscathed and with fine form. The game also grants a welcome favor in that the endgame is fairly straightforward -- you're not trudging around the map anymore because you've got teleporter stones, and you're powerful enough to go most anywhere you please, and you're looking forward to it. Five stars, because although it requires a good deal of patience to get your hero on a heroic footing, in the end the game does in fact put the 'epic' in epic rpg.
This is not a full review -- I really couldn't praise this game or summarize it any better than Herzalot and others have already done, and yes, you owe it to yourself to install the community patch as Ubivis has helpfully pointed out. Rather this is to clear up the widespread misconception about the combat system supposedly being a "clickfest", with only one left-button-mashing attack mode. This is simply not true -- page 22 of the manual clearly lists six separate combat moves available to your character, and when you combine these with the AWSD movement keys, your options for combat are in fact quite numerous. In addition, every creature/monster/opponent you face in the game has its own unique style of attacking you --almost always telegraphed ahead by movement and sound -- requiring you to respond with the particular attack most suited for that enemy, making combat one of the more rewarding aspects of this wonderful game Everything other word of praise for the Gothic franchise (we'll pretend Arcania doesn't exist) is richly deserved, as this is without a doubt one of the most ambitious and lovingly crafted games I've ever had the pleasure of playing.
