Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Reviewing Risen here wouldn’t be right. For one thing, it’s too big and time right now is too short to mainline it in such a way. For a second thing, to mainline it in such a way would probably be the wrong move. This vast German RPG is really not a game designed to be rushed through. For a third thing, it’s the successor to the Gothic games – a series which, in the US and UK at least, hasn’t reviewed anywhere near as rapturously as the reception they’ve won from their fans (with the exception of the much-maligned third). To a fair few people, Risen is the most important game of the year. What’s the reason for this disparity of opinion and enthusiasm? Well, that’s probably another post.

For this post, the first of several, I want to do something else – I simply want to play the game at a leisurely/sporadic pace. As I do so, I’m going to document my experiences, as a mix of narrative and opinion. Narrapinion I’d call it, if I was a massive arsehole.
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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!
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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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Hmm, I’ve seen this sequence of game events somewhere before: shipwrecked up on a beach, where you find some similar washed up loot, then fight something with a stick, and meet a sexy lady. Egad! It seems that the opening sequence of Risen, the new fantasy RPG from former Gothic developers Pirhana Bytes (the new Gothic is being developed by Spellbound, and more on that another time) has happened before. Isn’t it… well isn’t it the start of Age Of Conan? And possibly another RPG I only faintly recall? Perhaps these games took their cue from the same issue of Fantasy Happenings Journal (For Fantasy Professionals), where ideas for fantasy adventures are free. Free to use. And reuse. And… there’s a three part developer walkthrough, and despite my de-Risen of the subject matter (oh, I’m that good) it’s worth taking a look. Whee!
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The guys behind the Gothic games, Piranha Bytes, are having a crack at an entirely new – yet nevertheless rather familiar-looking – fantasy RPG. It’s called Risen, and it’s a medieval fantasy RPG. Nevertheless the developers claim that they are using the opportunity to do something fresh: “The newly won freedom is being utilized; a new mythology leaves room for new and original ideas.” The game will apparently have a “dirty and used” Mediterranean feel to it, and is set on a Volcanic island. So far the visuals do look pretty impressive – I’ve posted a bunch of environment trailers below. Whether the game will end up being a satisfying RPG, however, is far from clear: let’s see some in-game footage!

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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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