From The RPS Archives
By Alec Meer on January 3rd, 2012.
In 2009, the bulk of RPG commentary on PC was all Dragon Age this, Dragon Age that. Me, I ended up sinking more time into something rougher, readier, odder, 50% glorious and 50% drudgery. Piranha Byte’s spiritual Gothic sequel Risen was a hell of a place to visit for a time. Here’s my fall and rise and fall again on its peril-packed, amoral island of adventure.
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By Adam Smith on December 23rd, 2011.
Not everyone inhabiting Risen 2′s archipelago will be a pirate, although all players will start that way. But what is a pirate without an authoritarian regime to cock a snook at? The Inquisition, now in a world without magic, are “organised very strictly”, which is why they have short haircuts and “walk around in goosestep”. Crikey. They’re just asking for a carefree buccaneer to rob their precious things. Then there are “the natives”, with their shaman, warriors and hunters. Many of them have been enslaved and forced to work on plantations. As for the pirates? They’re “drunk most of the time”.
By Quintin Smith on May 16th, 2011.
Risen 2: Dark Waters! Will it be shit? We just don’t know. We do know that the first Risen was a pleasantly free-form RPG that had tons of potential and that this one is looking piratical. Now there are some new screenshots, showcasing the game’s new firearms and also the fact that giant enemy crabs can be kicked onto their backs so you can get at their weakspots. That’s innovation, right there. Poor crabs.
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By Jim Rossignol on April 13th, 2011.
It is tradition within the walls of Castle Shotgun to frown upon CGI trailers with a big bushel of frowns, but the trailer for Risen 2: Dark Waters has a number of frown-dissolving elements. 1) Pirates. 2) It’s quite pretty. 3) Voodoo. 4) Firearms. 5) It means we’re getting another Risen game, and it features pirates, firearms, and voodoo. All these things are backed up by the announcement from Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes, who say that the game will take place across a number of distinct islands, as your character seeks to persuade pirates to help him battle sea-monsters. The game will also apparently feature “dirty-tricks” in combat, which is either in keeping with the pirate theme, or worrying scatalogical. Either way, I’m on board.
Trailer below decks, etc. (Sigh.)
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By Alec Meer on April 12th, 2011.
I’ve been travelling for 25 hours, and now I’m in Utah. There’s snow, and buildings made from wood. Why do I tell you this? Because I’m knackered and want to have a little moan. Pity me. Weep for me. Tell me you love me.
Cheery news, however: 1) there’s a big pot of coffee right next to me. 2) Gothic creators Piranha Bytes might be getting their original franchise/universe back, having had to hand over the rights to erstwhile publisher JoWood some time ago.
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By Alec Meer on February 21st, 2011.
Also on the comeback trail this week is Piranha Byte’s RPG Risen. Piranha were the chaps behind the Gothic series, but having lost the license in a disagreement with former publishers JoWood went off to make a spiritual sequel instead. While JoWood’s Gothic 4 was about as much fun as eating mildly poisonous cardboard shoes, Risen was 50% a genuinely brilliant game (and 50% a slightly tedious one) – here’s my series of diaries on it, in which you can see my early surliness quickly become excitement. Risen 2 sounds like they’re determined to fully go for it, rather than lurk in an awkward middleground between past successes and future ambition. Pirates! Guns!
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By Alec Meer on September 24th, 2009.
Pirhanha Bytes – the venerated and cheerily mad studio behind the Gothic RPGs – are backbackback with next month’s Risen. I’ve spent a little time with some preview code, and they’ve just released a making-of video. See how I kill two birds with one stone. I am Bird-Killer, killer of birds.
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By Alec Meer on August 6th, 2008.
The Gothic series often gets mentioned in comments here (usually while you lot are slagging off other RPGs), at which point the RPS hivemind has to don a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses and sneak away while no-one’s looking. We are none of us, you see, terribly familiar with the much-adored German RPG series – which just about makes us Antichrists in the eyes of the cRPG devout. I have a dim and distant memory of suffering almost immediate brutal murder when dabbling with Gothic II years ago, but that’s about it. One day, when I have 100 hours to spare, I’ll catch up. One day.
Until then, all I can do is point hopefully at the announcement of Risen, a brand new RPG and setting from Gothic devs Piranha Bytes.
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