Rezzed, The PC and Indie Games Show. Brighton, 6th-7th July 2012

Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Rise And Shine, It’s Risen Demo Time

By Alec Meer on October 1st, 2009 at 7:29 pm.

METAPHOR FOR SLOW DOWNLOADING. Yes.
Edit-edit – original download links now contain the fixed version too
Edit – fixed, faster downloads are here, here and here. (Thanks, Batolemaeus).

1.09 Gigabytes of vast, highly-anticipated-by-some, German-made roleplaying game await you just here or here. In either case, it’s the earliest stages of what’s a huge, free-roaming and non-didactic game, casting you as a recent shipwreckee, washed ashore on a rather nasty island. Adventures!

Risen is the spiritual sequel to the Gothic series, a trio of dense and ambitious RPGs that have an especially devoted following, yet have never quite found their way into the hearts of the UK/US mainstream. The whispers I’m hearing about Risen, which goes on sale tomorrow, suggests that particular song is likely to remain the same: adored by the devout few, ignored by the many. But, regardless, it’s ma-ha-ha-hassive news in roleplaying land, and anyone with enthusiasm for the whole swords’n'monsters’numbers shebang should, at the very least, take a look at the demo.

A reader email suggests copies of Risen may have made their way to some folk early – anyone got in hand yet? Whaddaya think? Better than the (apparently) disappointing Gothic 3?

Oh, I’ll be frank – in this current, incredibly busy gaming season, this gigantic thing is not looking like something any of RPS will have time to immediately gravitate towards, much as I’m sure we will get around to it in quieter times if word of mouth is all yay-woo-yeah. If you think we are rank idiotholes and should, in fact, currently be shoving other things aside in favour of Risen then don’t tell us off for not talking about it – but tell us why we should be talking about it. It’d be great to have some enthusiastic, inspiring discussion generated about the game that isn’t simply a case of the initiated bitterly grumbling at the uninitiated.

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110 Comments »

  2. 01/10/2009 at 19:33 Batolemaeus says:

    SQUEEEEEEEEEE =^.^=

  3. 01/10/2009 at 19:36 Batolemaeus says:

    Btw., the demo was retracted because they screwed up the installer, apparently.

    At least that’s what they said..

  5. 01/10/2009 at 19:36 butler` says:

    I so wanted this to be good.

  6. 01/10/2009 at 19:38 linfosoma says:

    Please run, please don’t be a buggy mes, please have a readable log book, please!

  7. 01/10/2009 at 19:39 Railick says:

    Anyone know the system specs off the top of their head? I can't get at them from work.

    Also, another ship related entrance? They're using the same Cliche two times in a row :P I don't mind personally.

  9. 01/10/2009 at 19:44 Fat says:

    I was about to go check for a link from Gamershell, but noticed you already provided one. They certainly are FTW for these occasions.

  10. 01/10/2009 at 19:45 Schadenfreude says:

    Haven’t got it yet, but it’s on its way. Probably won’t see it until Monday though (Boo Ireland’s postal service! Boo!!). I’m reasonably confident that I’ll enjoy this seeing as I loved Gothic 3 and that had a hell of a lot wrong with it.

    Just hope the damned thing will actually run.

  11. 01/10/2009 at 19:50 AndrewC says:

    For those wondering – it looks like the best Gothic 3 looked but runs smoother and better than it ever did, even with community patches. I get the feeling that it is achieving this by having each ‘area’ be smaller (and blocked in by canyons and other such horizon blocking scenery), thus less of a burden on the engine. Certainly I came across nothing as open as the field at the beginning of Gothic 3.

    I ran around for an hour and it didn’t crash at all.

    I’d guess getting the game to run on the Xbox 360 is responsible for this (both the smaller visuals and the more stable running. Yay? Boo? Yayboo?).

    The first thing I did was punch an ostrich. It died, which I guess means there’s less of the horrific early-game death than in the previous Gothics. Remember when they made the bloodflies poisonous? Bastards,

    So: pretty enough, decent enough performance and seemingly stable – which is probably enough for the Gothic faithful. I couldn’t say from this short little try whether the quests fall into the MMO grinding hell of Gothic 3. I’m crossing my fingers and buying it tomorrow. Yay games!

    As for the Gothic non-faithful: Ostrich punching. I dunno, I don’t really have anything else.

    • 01/10/2009 at 20:05 Bremze says:

      I’ve heard that the game is a lot less pretty on the xbox 360 because they couldn’t get a consistent frame rate. Most of the screenshots tagged as from the xbox version are actually from the pc version.

    • 02/10/2009 at 08:02 Nerd Rage says:

      I beat an ostrich with a stick, then 20 minutes later a giant moth killed me and reminded my why the old Godzilla movies sucked so bad. Giant moths are ridiculous. Giant preying mantis, that shit is scary. Giant moth? So what? Give me a torch, I’ll burn its wings off. So after that I decided not to try again tonight.

      The smaller, blocked in areas feel kinda cramped to me, and the character handling is pretty horrible. I never thought I would look back at Fallblivion and say, “Wow, this third person camera is terrific!” I can see the potential, already there’s been two moments I thought were pretty cool, both indoors though, a cave and some underground ruins. All the outdoors stuff just feels weird, it’s laid out like you’re indoors, but there’s plants and a day/night cycle and sometimes weather effects. Just something about that makes the outdoor areas feel more claustrophobic than the indoor ones. Maybe that’s just me though. I honestly wish I had more patience, because it seems like it could be cool if I could just get used to it.

  12. 01/10/2009 at 20:03 Rabbitsoup says:

    umm those links are not working for me right now, anyone else?

  13. 01/10/2009 at 20:12 Schmitzkater says:

    Uhh I loved Gothic1 and especially Gothic 2 to the death. Then they went and screwed up Gothic 3.

    Whatever, maybe Risen can be my “real” Gothic 3, arrival by boat seems to be pretty much the same.
    But more closed and thight spaces do not sound that nice any way you spin it, do they?

    • 01/10/2009 at 20:24 AndrewC says:

      I don’t want to overplay the ‘closed and tight’ spaces thing. This is not like Deus Ex 2 or anything. It’s just, judging from the very first bits that I saw, *less* open than Gothic 3.

    • 02/10/2009 at 16:54 Schmitzkater says:

      Finally having played it today, I now actually know what you meant.

      Even though the spaces are a lot less open than some of the big empty fields of Gothic 3, it has still got the open world feeling and the marvellous natural transitions and pathways between the actual places of interest, just like the older Gothics.

      I LOVE it.

  14. 01/10/2009 at 20:23 bob loblaw says:

    well, if you liked gothic 2, you WILL love risen. i’ve played some 6 hours, and the entire beginning is one big hommage to what they did in gothic 2.
    and the closed/tight spaces.. well, they apply if you compare it to the huge open but empty landscape in g3. again, this is about as open as gothic 2. :)

  15. 01/10/2009 at 20:25 Railick says:

    Wait a minute, is Risen a game about the life and times of Edward Risen the inventor of sitting up in bed in the morning (instead of just rolling out of it)

  16. 01/10/2009 at 20:29 dAniel says:

    Beware Users of Geforce 7 Series!
    While the Game runs rather smoothly on my Single-Core (around 30fps w/ all low and 1680*1050)
    the 7er series currently have a grey layer over everything. Developer say Nvidia is working on a fix. So much for QA…

  18. 01/10/2009 at 20:34 woko says:

    Just played it for 5 hours straight…not a single bug, not a single crash, and very smooth performance! :D
    It does feel a LOT like gothic 2…which is a very good thing! The combat is simple but very fun and requires a little skill (there are some very tough fights…or at least I thought they were tough)
    It’s also a really…reallllly….nice looking game, and as someone else said, it’s about as open as gothic 2, the forests in particular are really nice to look at.
    The story also seems good so far, can see myself having lots of hours of fun with this :D

  19. 01/10/2009 at 20:40 kwanchu says:

    Can you tell me if they are doing the same thing as at least gothic 3 as its the only one i played, where you are playing “the” charactar as oppossed to some rpg’s where you get to goof around with their appearance. hope that made sense.

  20. 01/10/2009 at 20:41 Spd from Russia says:

    considering the quality of their previous game – goathic3 – I will wait till it gets released, bugfixed, patched, patched and then community-patched before bothering with it

    • 01/10/2009 at 20:50 Christian says:

      Well…you can always hope they’ve learned from past mistakes. And wasn’t Gothic also developed by someone else?

    • 01/10/2009 at 21:13 dAniel says:

      Risen was developed by Piranha Bytes who made Gothic 1-3, but split up with their Publisher Jowood after/over the Release of Gothic 3. Gothic 4, or Arcania as I believe it’s called, is still in development by Spellbound (Desperados=).

  21. 01/10/2009 at 20:41 Railick says:

    You played demo for 5 hours? I've never heard of a 5 hour demo :P

  22. 01/10/2009 at 20:48 woko says:

    No i preordered from play.com Rallick, they got it to me 1 day early :)

  23. 01/10/2009 at 20:50 woko says:

    @ Rallick No i preordered from play.com, they got it to me 1 day early :)

    @Spd; had I not already got it I’d say that too, but honestly…its the most stable big open world RPG I’ve ever played on release…that I can think of anyway.

  24. 01/10/2009 at 21:14 Subject 706 says:

    RPS Hivemind, you are rank idiotholes and should be shoving other things aside for Risen, because :

    It is a PC-first game.

    It is not mainstream.

    It is bound to be better than Oblivion.

    It will show if Piranha Bytes can deliver the magic of the old Gothic games again.

    • 01/10/2009 at 22:14 Turin Turambar says:

      Bah, “better than Oblivion”.

      That’s not saying a lot!

    • 01/10/2009 at 23:11 Railick says:

      Some people say Gothic 3 was better than Oblivion, some say Two Worlds was better, so on and so on. Personally I’ve never found any game that even comes slightly close to Oblivion in an way. Gothic 3 was an unplayable generic mess and I have no idea why people loved it so much, maybe because it was German? I dunno.

      I’ve never seen a game come close to Oblivions ability to easily add as many mods to your game as you like without breaking it (it is of course possible to break it, but it is pretty easy to avoid it. If I can do it anyone can) Even the vanilla Oblivion was a great deal of fun to me and I REALLy loved the expansion. From what I’ve seen of Risen it doesn’t come close to holding a candel to Oblivion but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a great game in its own right. I’m just tired of everyone comparing everything under the sun to Oblivion. Why does someting have to be better than Oblivion ? O.o I’ll be happy if this is just better than Gothic 3 which isn’t hard to do.

    • 02/10/2009 at 12:25 Psychopomp says:

      “I’ve never seen a game come close to Oblivions ability to easily add as many mods to your game as you like without breaking it”

      Morrowind. Which incidentally, is also better than Oblivion. Aside from the horrible combat, of course.

    • 02/10/2009 at 15:17 Subject 706 says:

      The comparison with Oblivion is there because it is one of the most (over)hyped RPGs of later years. Congrats for enjoying it though. I did too. For several hours. Until I realized how soulless and boring it became.

  25. 01/10/2009 at 21:14 Lewis says:

    Yeah, I’ve been playing the hell out of this. I’ll tell you what I think at midnight when my review goes live on Reso. There’s a lot to talk about.

  26. 01/10/2009 at 21:37 Greg says:

    My copy arrived today, a little earlier than I expected, but annoyingly, my gaming computer is currently refusing to boot up and won’t be fixed until at least Saturday. Dammit, I want to the the game >_<

  27. 01/10/2009 at 21:38 anotherman7 says:

    Is it good? Is it really good? Please tell me it's good. Gothic 2 is one of my all time favorites.

  28. 01/10/2009 at 22:06 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    Eager to try this out.. if it ever finished to download.

  29. 01/10/2009 at 22:19 Tomelin says:

    So, are the controls typical Gothic-crap, or something reasonable this time ?

  30. 01/10/2009 at 22:26 SirKicksalot says:

    This is great :D I played it for an hour, and it certainly feels special.
    It’s pretty, stylish and friendly. I love the Mediterranean atmosphere. PB always paid a lot of attention to details, and this one continues the trend – the world feels very authentic. I was instantly immersed.
    The controls are fine this time.

    • 01/10/2009 at 22:35 Lewis says:

      Friendly? Really? That’s pretty much the exact opposite to my impressions. It’s such a hostile world – everyone’s either a dick to you, or telling you how terrible their life is.

  31. 01/10/2009 at 22:33 Berthold says:

    I was about 3yrs late to Gothic 1, another 2 to #2 and I have yet to touch G3. So I guess it’ll be a few years till I get to enjoy this, but at the same time I’m giddy as a school girl to hear it retains the feel of Gothic 2. This series is hands down the best RPG I have ever played, and I have played tons. Huzzah!

  32. 01/10/2009 at 22:45 Mr Wonderstuff says:

    Wondering if my ageing pc which ran G3 ok will run this…that fog on 7xxx cards looks awful and I have a 7800gs…just as well they released a demo or its the 360 version for me.

  33. 01/10/2009 at 22:46 DM says:

    While I’d prefer to lose the ‘rank idiotholes’ business, and perhaps leave the Oblivion-sniping to another time, I agree with the overall sentiment.

    Seems a pity to overlook (even if you plan to come back to it later) as it’s certainly a very ‘PC’ game, doesn’t appear made a particuarly large splash outside of Germany (at least in that forum-thread, blog post, every-bloke-and-his-mother-posting-a-review sense of things) and so forth. Would certainly be pleasant to hear an RPS opinion on it.

    Still, if everyone’s busy, or (conjecture) none of you are especially interested/excited by it, nothing much to be done, I suppose.

  34. 01/10/2009 at 23:36 Cvnk says:

    I’m so glad I’m seeing some good reviews in here. In a moment of weakness I went and preordered this (something I never do) because I didn’t think a demo would be coming out so soon. Sounds like I won’t be regretting my hasty decision. Looking forward to getting into this this weekend.

  35. 02/10/2009 at 00:11 Lewis says:

    Yeah, so I’m really unsure about Risen, to the point where I’ve written almost 3000 words of the most impossible nonsense just trying to collect my thoughts more than anything. I didn’t particularly get on with it for the most part, but it does a lot right, and it’s a courageously ambitious and self-assured game. I imagine people that loved the hostility and the scope of the Gothic franchise will feel right at home here, though inevitibly some fans will feel disappointed by it’s slightly more restricted physical scale than Gothic 3. Those arriving from the likes of Oblivion are likely to run a mile at the grittiness of the visually-very-friendly world, and the absolutely excruciating pace at which it all crawls along.

    It’s just too directionless and oddly stifling for my liking, I think, which means its occasional glitchiness, not-great-on-the-360-at-least graphics and nasty interface issues become more noticeable. But that totally might just be me, as I can see there’s a lot to like here.

    An odd one, basically, and having played for around 30 hours and still not being entirely sure, I’m making no bones about my verdict not being definitive. You can read it over at Resolution Magazine, if you’re particularly interested.

  36. 02/10/2009 at 00:11 gulag says:

    Gothic 3 only made a lick of sense once you strapped an 800Mb tumor/community patch to it’s head. After that is was fun/as serious as cancer (take your pick).

    This might fill a gap until Witcher 2 floats along.

  37. 02/10/2009 at 00:17 Lucas says:

    Same old story. Please do something new next time Piranha Bytes.

  38. 02/10/2009 at 02:36 Stick says:

    Does the gameplay, well, work? The last thing I remember about Gothic is being chain-stunned to death by Deathpigs. A lot. Before uninstalling it in a red rage.

    Ah, alright. Demonstration download is go.

  39. 02/10/2009 at 02:53 Patton says:

    The combat works, and its better than in Gothic II.
    Block is atleast in the demo perhaps bit TOO effective, but otherwise the demo was good.
    It looks pretty, it isnt BROWN and from what i could gather from the demo, it will probably be atleast a decent action RPG.

  40. 02/10/2009 at 02:54 Patton says:

    The combat works, and its better than in Gothic II. Controlling the character in combat actually is pretty easy.
    Block is atleast in the demo perhaps bit TOO effective, but otherwise the demo was good.
    It looks pretty, it isnt BROWN and from what i could gather from the demo, it will probably be atleast a decent action RPG.

  41. 02/10/2009 at 02:56 Patton says:

    Also, controlling and moving the character in combat WORKS well.

  42. 02/10/2009 at 02:58 Mr. ThreEye says:

    Beautiful game, but that’s about it. It’s sloooow to get into the story, and the mechanics are really weird.

    I mean, groups of enemies attack me but then they take turns having a stab at me so I only really fight them one at a time. What’s up with that?

    Oh and enemies completely disregard that bitch I found on the beach – they won’t attack her. Then again, she won’t attack them either which is why I’m calling her a bitch.

    “You could help out, you know,” I tried telling her. But nooo, I had to be some kind of big strong Knight in Shining Armor (KiSA) and vanquish all our foes. She wouldn’t lift a finger.

    So I tried handing her the broom I found in a house. Nope, didn’t work. And then she had the NERVE to order me to cook for her?

    I really should’ve killed her, but I’m too much of a KiSA to do that.

    So I left her sitting on a bench, waiting for me to bring her food. I hope she dies of starvation. That would make this game awesome.

    • 02/10/2009 at 09:04 toni says:

      animals do attack Sara when you leave here in a hostile region. enemy AI is hard enough so I’m glad they take turns at stabs.

    • 02/10/2009 at 11:33 Batolemaeus says:

      Actually, at least in G3, your difficulty level affects how many enemies will attack you at once. On easy it’s one, onw normal it’s two, on hard it’s three.
      Might be the same in Risen.

  43. 02/10/2009 at 04:10 Renzatic says:

    I can’t argue against personal preference, but I can tell you that you probably liked Oblivion better than Gothic 3 because…well…you played Gothic 3. While I didn’t think G3 was all that horrible, it didn’t come close to capturing the magic of the first two games. It lacked alot, and came off merely as halfway decent fun once you looked past the bugs.

    So what makes me think the first two Gothics are better than Oblivion? Simple. G1 & 2 felt like living, breathing worlds with personality filled NPCs. You feel like you’re making your way forward and everything has purpose. When you do something neat and gain recognition across town for what you’ve done, you really do feel like you’ve earned it. In Oblivion, I always felt like I was exploring just to explore. You know, I’m in cave 3, I found a sword, wow that’s a pretty forest, woooooo. Fun for what it is, I guess, and the mods do add alot to the game…but it’s no Gothic.

    And from what I’ve seen, it really looks like Risen is gonna continue the tradition of the first two rather than the 3rd. I couldn’t hope for anything more.

  44. 02/10/2009 at 05:09 damien says:

    played the demo four times through and i’ve got a huge grin on my face as a result.

    when you’re at the beach (save first) wade out to sea as far as you can…

  45. 02/10/2009 at 06:40 Digit says:

    I can’t wait. My usual Aus mirror has the busted demo up. :< So I'm downloading at a very slow pace from a US mirror. Alas, poor Yorric.

  46. 02/10/2009 at 06:57 Davie says:

    It’s not a bad demo, by any means. I haven’t tried the Gothic games, so it’s all new to me. All I’ve got to say is that it seems like standard RPG fare. Certainly fun and worth playing, but I don’t think it’ll blow anything out of the water.
    Also, the demo is stupidly short.

  47. 02/10/2009 at 06:59 catmorbid says:

    Risen feels like Gothic 2 with a modern engine an modern user interface (i.e. no keyboard controls). Simply awesome. I gotta say the combat system automatically felt like maybe the best system in action rpg’s I’ve ever seen: Intuitive but challenging enough to make you on your toes. The monster AI felt great, I especially loved the wolves who act aggressively wild, trying to circle around you and keep moving quickly. The quests in the demo were pretty basic, but the setting certainly seems interesting. I just have to buy this one :D

  48. 02/10/2009 at 07:57 Helm says:

    Really liked Gothic 2 after it was patched to all eternity and I’m one of these people that thought Oblivion was much worse than it, I did my fair share of tourism in both, though. Generally I don’t care much for properly playing single player computer rpgs because what I’m interested in is tactical, rewarding combat (for example Knights of the Challice has been the best game I’ve played this year) but I’m getting this demo, impressions to follow.

  49. 02/10/2009 at 08:13 Digit says:

    Oh wtf… that file finally downloaded and “The zip file is corrupted.”

    Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

  50. 02/10/2009 at 09:03 toni says:

    i live in austria and have the full version for 3 days. It’s from the same template as Gothic1+2 (fortunately NOT Gothic3) and so far it’s a winner. they streamlined everything without giving up features and complexity, the animal AI is very good and you die pretty easily so don’t risk too much in the beginning. Another plus (but certainly MINUS for today’s “need-to-hold-my-hand-all-the-time” gamers) is that they throw you into this world and you, the player are as clueless as the hero you play. No talking heads giving you hourlong tutorials. You can get info if you want or you can just igonre it completely. A REAL GAME, not some extended tutorial with a bossfight at the end. the german humor is toned down and VO are good (can’t talk about the english VOs) and the atmosphere/island/environment is the star of the game. Character animations are bad BUT it take this game every time over DRAGON-rebel-rebel-bitch-bitch-AGE.

  51. 02/10/2009 at 09:12 Helm says:

    …actually no impressions. Demo hanged when I went to the first enemy to attack them. Pure 5 minute ‘music is playing but game is standing still’ Piranha Bytes beauty. Uninstalled.

  52. 02/10/2009 at 10:40 Ninja Dodo says:

    I’d say wait for a patch. Piranha is not known for getting stability right on release.

  53. 02/10/2009 at 10:47 Schadenfreude says:

    Dan Whitehead posted a 4/10 review over on Eurogamer. For the XBox port though, most of the complaints relate to the interface (which isn’t a problem on PC) and the things that made the Gothic games Gothic so little wonder that the comments thread mainly consists of people disagreeing with him.
    Anyhoo, the postman just pushed it through my letterbox so I look forward to playing it.
    EDIT: Ooh. Comes with an extra soundtrack CD. Didn't know that. Anyone know if the music is any good?

    • 02/10/2009 at 11:01 AndrewC says:

      Yeah, everything he says is right, and every problem is probably multiplied by fitting the controls on to a pad. But us Gothic fans (and, maybe, every niche-PC-genre gamer) have already leapt the enjoyment-barrier of obtuse controls many times, so that’s no real problem for us. Same goes for the slow pace and lack of hand-holding. Hell, we’ll probably even say they’re plus points for the game. Us niche-PC-genre gamer are a funny lot.

      It does all suggest that non-fans are not going to be convinced by this new game.

    • 02/10/2009 at 12:03 Dan (WR) says:

      I’m generally non-plussed by reviews nowadays, but I was a little irked by the Eurogamer review’s complaint about levelling. I’m not sure that the staple of hitting a magic experience number and then levelling up stats and skills on the spot is a good thing, and doing something different doesn’t mean you’re giving short shrift to a ‘genre cornerstone’. Finding people to teach you new skills makes more sense, as does having to pay them for their time.

      Also, the line about lifting from past glories seems like a petty kick in the ribs given Bioware/Bethesda/any JRPGs habit of repeating themselves.

    • 02/10/2009 at 12:13 Tei says:

      “Us niche-PC-genre gamer are a funny lot.”

      In a world where everyone else is playing Dance Dance Revolution, we considered ourselves like the real gamers here. If only these people playing Sims stop, and move to Dwarf Fortress…

    • 02/10/2009 at 12:24 AndrewC says:

      It makes more sense to find someone to ‘teach’ you a new level, but is it fun? Or is it an annoyingly pedantic bit of fussy game-mechanics. If you’re already having trouble getting into the game in the first place, this sort of thing does not help. I don’t agree with him, but I know exactly what he means.

      And I love Dance Dance Revolution so much.

    • 02/10/2009 at 12:40 Dan (WR) says:

      Well I grant that it can be a barrier and that’s how the reviewer sees it, but in the overall context of the game it’s perfectly in character. The designers are taking a harsher route all-round and making the world a grittier and more hostile place, rather than creating you as the all-conquering centre of the universe from level 1 onwards.

      I get a bit defensive with games like Gothic, Divine Divinity and the Witcher because it never feels like they get their due from UK-based reviewers. I know you have to work past some poor translations, interfaces and clunky controls but there are some really great elements there. Although… I guess if I was scoring them I’d have to knock off quite a few marks too.

    • 02/10/2009 at 16:47 Schmitzkater says:

      But paying someone to teach you some new ability, or rank up in certain criteria certainly is not a feature newly introduced in Risen, since it has always been a staple of the Gothic series as well.

    • 03/10/2009 at 07:05 Marcin says:

      And amusingly, a feature of some small game called World of Warcraft or some such.

  54. 02/10/2009 at 11:13 neems says:

    Well, my only experience with the Gothic games was installing Gothic 3, ‘playing’ it for ten minutes, uninstalling it and getting my money back.

    So far though, I am really enjoying the demo for this. I’d kill for a frying pan though.

  55. 02/10/2009 at 11:26 Batolemaeus says:

    First impression:
    I’m in love.

    No, honestly. It looks better and runs better at the same time on my hardware. That’s a really great thing. I’m not entirely convinced by the fighting system, but still, it works for me.

    What I’ve seen from the land is just beautiful. The colors, the lighting, it just feels very, very convincing.

  56. 02/10/2009 at 11:46 Kong says:

    Gothic is a milestone of computer gaming. Gothic 3, well…I went buffalo hunting with a stash of swampweed. Good enough for me.
    Risen – Inquisition – nasty Island. Buying is a no-brainer for me.

  57. 02/10/2009 at 11:57 Mr. ThreEye says:

    toni: They do? I tried “running her over” with a few goblins – she stood right in the middle of ‘em and still wasn’t attacked. Hm.. Maybe it was just my ugly face that did it.

  58. 02/10/2009 at 12:03 toro says:

    @Railick: You are obviously a smart self-sufficient troll and I cannot deny the fact that Gothic 3 was worse than Oblivion. But GothicI/II/NOTR are better than Oblivion. What could be the meaning of this? :D

  59. 02/10/2009 at 13:04 Ninja Dodo says:

    Traditional levelling is a relic from gaming of days past, which most RPG-makers seem surprisingly keen to hold on to. Gothic’s (and apparently Risen’s) system of learning a new skill from a person in the game world rather than receiving it magically from the RPG gods is grealy superior in terms of immersion and I don’t see how it could possibly hinder gameplay in any real way.

    If I were making an RPG I would do away with visible statistics entirely. To hell with XP.

  60. 02/10/2009 at 14:16 lefishy says:

    I played this for a few minutes before I felt self conscious playing a game in the library… got just past the frying pan before I quit but I really enjoyed what I saw… this is pretty open world right? Because I am desperate for a classic open world RPG.

  61. 02/10/2009 at 14:26 Luís Magalhães says:

    I’ve spent a couple of hours with the demo, and so far I can’t see how this can be considered good combat. The timing feels weird and the movement / dodge / parry all seem slightly unresponsive. And the framerate jerks sometimes, it’s usually pleasant but still weirds me out when I’m used to playing games that look much better at a smooth 60fps.

    I can see there’s a lot to love here; at times the world can look really pretty and it’s crafted in a very natural, believable way. I’m just worries combat versus two or more opponents will be hopelessly annoying.

  62. 02/10/2009 at 14:31 Luís Magalhães says:

    P.S.: I also don’t like how the realism of the game is at odds with the RPG mechanics. Case in point: a boar that can kill a man with three humps yet can take over a dozen sword cuts before it dies.

    Sure, I wouldn’t think twice about it it this was a Final Fantasy-like cutesy Japanese RPG – it’s not supposed to make sense! But put me in a very realistic setting, and there are certain expectations.

    (Not that it’s exclusively Risen’s problem. Oblivion and many, many others keep doing this as well.)

  63. 02/10/2009 at 18:54 suibhne says:

    That Eurogamer review is a bit of an embarrassment, innit. EG seems to be going the way of Gamespy, writing about gamepad controls in a PC game review.
    Yes, I realize that the review is technically headlined for PC and XBox 360 – but the 360 version isn't out till 2010 and there's nary a mention of traditional PC controls, i.e. mouse and keyboard. It appears that the reviewer played an early review copy of the 360 version, but I'm a bit baffled that EG would pay cash money to review one version that's not out for 3-6 months, while ignoring the version that's actually been released. Sigh.
    (EDIT: Is it only Stateside that the 360 version won't be out till next year? That still doesn't change my basic gripe, that publications like EG seem all too happy to review a game on console and then pronounce that review relevant for the PC version as well – even when much f the review's griping is leveled at the interface.)

  64. 02/10/2009 at 19:31 Railick says:

    I'm not a troll, I'm dwarf :P Geeze.
    For what it's worth I did buy each Gothic game as it came out and tried to play each one of them. I found them all to be unplayable after a very short peroid of time and stopped playing them but never returned them. I loved the idea of Gothic but could never stand to play the game. I will certainly give Risen a try if and when I can make sure it will work on my computer. As far as paying people to train you, Daggerfall,Morrowind, and Oblivion did that and also had the much more realistic concept of skills going up as you used them (hence learning from doing ect) and stats increasing based on the skills you used, nothing new even when Gothic 1 was made ;) Sorry
    I did like Morrowind but enjoyed Oblivion much more. I've never played any other game that had such a powerful editor and fantasic world with which to tinker with. Being able to make your own floating castle in the sky with an army waiting for you to return from your missions , a dragon landing pad and all the crap you need to enchant/create spells/make potions/ and display your loot is just fantastic. Yes, you can do that in Morrowind but I like Oblivion's setting and combat system better ;)

    Shadowcat “It hammers at my retinas like an evil woodpecker of pure energy”

  65. 02/10/2009 at 20:10 Hmm says:

    FINALLY a PC RPG not dumbed down for consoles. Reviewers expected another Fable, so Risen turned out to be too difficult to them. GOOD.

  66. 02/10/2009 at 20:11 Wounder says:

    Oddly, although the game’s being posted as available to play, it shows as “not yet released” on Steam. There’s a minor furor in process on the Steam forums.

    Actually, that last sentence is redundant. There’s a minor furor on the Steam forums that’s related to this specific issue.

  67. 02/10/2009 at 20:47 Luís Magalhães says:

    People are complaining? ON THE INTERNET?

  68. 02/10/2009 at 22:27 Tei says:

    Crap. I just buy the game. Note to self: check the steam forums first for a game.

    Yea. I suppose we are about to visit a new horror tale of buggy programming, DRM and more buggy programming, from the same authors of Gothic aka “I eat your savegames”.

    The warez version is everywhere, so Is only paying people that have to wait. This going to be fun :-(

  69. 02/10/2009 at 22:38 Railick says:

    From what I've heard Tei, or rather read, it is actually not very buggy at all. someone said they played it for 5 hours straight with no bugs or crashs. Of course the worst bugs take weeks and months to come up. The ones that pop up at the end of the game require you to restart the entire thing to get around them : P Gothic 3 had quiet a few of those , quests that you couldn't finish people that wouldn't show up ect. Heck Morrowind had tons of them too. I remember plaiying morrowind when the character I was suposed to talk to to finish my quest LITERALLY floated up into the air and disappearing into the ceiling just before I could talk to her O.o

    I was playing Daggerfall and fell through the floor of a dungeon on my way to meet the Wurm King. I got REALLY lucky and fell through the ground, landing ontop of a tunnel that lead right into the wurm kings throne room skipping all the bad guys lol. I just kept jumping up and down on the invisible floor until it let me fall through the roof and into the room ;P

  70. 02/10/2009 at 22:51 Tei says:

    Is downloading now :-)

  71. 02/10/2009 at 23:00 Railick says:

    woot! Let me know what you think.

  72. 02/10/2009 at 23:50 Wounder says:

    Yep, download seems to be working. Something that came up in one of the threads struck me as odd. Someone fed up with waiting (and rational, despite what I may be suggesting) called his credit company and had the game charged back to Valve. Folks immediately chimed in with variations on “your account will be hammered because of that!”

    Anyone have any (clearly unpleasant) experience along those lines? It seems rather terrible to lose your entire catalog of games for one offense. Punishment != crime, for given values of the words “punishment” and “crime.”

  73. 03/10/2009 at 02:56 Tooya says:

    It’s weird that everyone seems so divided on this game…personally I think it’s absolutely fantastic, really nice combat, nice graphics…great story (so far) and I really like the pacing and the general gothic2…ness. The magic system seems awesome too…could very well be my RPG of the year depending on how dragon age turns out…
    Just my opinion.

  74. 03/10/2009 at 13:12 Tei says:

    Is a good RPG. Is a good tiny RPG with some of the good things of Gothic, and some of the bad. But for some reason the bad things are not bad, and some other of the bads (like the interface) are like the way I like it. Maybe the problem with any Gothic game (like Risen) is that are somewhat “80′s”.
    I like it, and I am having fun playing it. I am in the hunterd camp, doing quest and leveling. A thing that I like about this game, is that after 5 hours playing, the combat is not trivilized, a normal moster can kill me.
    I have played it from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. So yes… Is one of these games that can make you avoid sleeping one night :-)
    Thanks Piraña guys! :-)

  75. 03/10/2009 at 13:54 Paul Moloney says:

    I thought Gothic 3 was a pile of broken drivel, so I pleasantly surprised to find that the Risen demo not only works, but is rather engrossing. Will definitely finish the demo and if am still interested by the end, will pick up the game. As Katy Perry might have sung, I kissed a Piranha Bytes game and I liked it.

    P.

  76. 03/10/2009 at 22:12 Ravenger says:

    I tried the demo and quite liked it, then found out that the Steam version has Tages limited activation DRM, so I guess that’s off my ‘to buy’ list. It’s not even listed in the game’s system requirements.

    When will Valve get a clue and start banning third party DRM, or at least ensure that as soon as they list a game they list the DRM so that customers can make an informed choice?

    • 03/10/2009 at 22:33 Heliocentric says:

      The best way to handle games with tages is gamersgate. They’ll be willing to keep on handing out activations, so it hardly matters they can’t be reset.

    • 04/10/2009 at 07:35 Vinraith says:

      What Heliocentric said. GG guarantees you’ll never run out of activations, so they’re my go-to service for games with stupid DRM.

  77. 05/10/2009 at 00:34 Urthman says:

    I’m really curious now how JoWood’s Gothic 4 (or Arcania: A Gothic Tale I guess it’s called) is going to compare. It’s hard to imagine how Arcania could be any more Gothic-like than Risen.

    Will the real Gothic 4 please stand up? (Or will Arcania just be Gothic 5?)

    (Yeah, I know JoWood’s is the one with the continued story and characters…)

  78. 07/10/2009 at 13:13 dogsolitude_uk says:

    Downloading the demo now… Will give it a crack this evo and let you know how I get on…

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