BF2S Forums [Risen] A quite enjoyable single player RPG.

Vilham wrote:

wait a sec... is this basically the lastest version of gothic?

Yeah, Piranha Bytes, the developer, split up in argument with its publisher, JoWood. Since the latter has the rights though, it is called differently and the monsters slightly differ too. But if you have played any of the Gothic games, you know what to do the second you start playing.
After playing through it, I can safely say it is what Gothic 3 should have been.

Vilham wrote:

sick. Might have to give this a look. Really enjoyed gothic 3 even if the combat wasn't great at times.

Combat in this is more challenging than it was in G3. Still not as tough as in G1 or 2 but whereas you just rhythmically clicked attack in Gothic 3, you have to make clever use of blocking and parades in Risen. Very fluent, very well done.

Also it has practically no bugs. The one Timmah mentioned with the "teleport door" and one crash are the only things I encountered. Nowhere near the clusterfuck that was the last Gothic

Vilham wrote:

Haha, yeah gothic three was just click, click, click, click for combat and yeah shit tons of bugs. Still a really fun game though tbh.

True, fun it was, but it was so huge, I lost interest somewhere in the northern region. Had to go for the Ancient Power Armor parts or something. Not much left to do if I remember correctly, but the whole middle of Myrtana was on a rage of killing me partly due to bugs.

Jebus wrote:

Just played this for about 30 minutes. I liked.


Had a real Oblivion feeling when I played it. I guess there's some kind of character development/leveling system too? Any pointers on that so I don't fuck up?

The system differs as in you don´t spend points on a chart but have to look up trainers to learn. You get 10LP with every level up.
What to learn depends on what you want to become later on. If you´re gonna be a mage or fighter of the order, you should spend your points into strength and dexterity.
If you gonna keep with the bandits you only need strenght.
That´s where your first points should go into.

As for the talents, well you kinda need all of them no matter what profession you take. There might be no need to learn forging if you become a mage, cause you can only forge swords and they use staffs.

If you gonna become a mage, focus on one element to max out (magic, fire or ice) and a second to alternate.


But tbh, you can´t really fuck up, cause the system isn´t that complex. After you got some levels and some decent equipment, the fighting should become pretty manageable with the right timing.

AussieReaper wrote:

Sisco10 wrote:

http://www.abload.de/img/screenshot07c92x.jpg

The Borg?

Picards long lost hidden Borg clone stepbrother.
Resistence is futile.

Jebus wrote:

Sisco10 wrote:

Jebus wrote:

Just played this for about 30 minutes. I liked.


Had a real Oblivion feeling when I played it. I guess there's some kind of character development/leveling system too? Any pointers on that so I don't fuck up?

The system differs as in you don´t spend points on a chart but have to look up trainers to learn. You get 10LP with every level up.
What to learn depends on what you want to become later on. If you´re gonna be a mage or fighter of the order, you should spend your points into strength and dexterity.
If you gonna keep with the bandits you only need strenght.
That´s where your first points should go into.

As for the talents, well you kinda need all of them no matter what profession you take. There might be no need to learn forging if you become a mage, cause you can only forge swords and they use staffs.

If you gonna become a mage, focus on one element to max out (magic, fire or ice) and a second to alternate.


But tbh, you can´t really fuck up, cause the system isn´t that complex. After you got some levels and some decent equipment, the fighting should become pretty manageable with the right timing.

Okay, but I heard you can become mage of the order and some kind of 'regular' mage (which you become without getting sent to the monastery...) What are the differences?

There are two branches of magic in Risen. One is based on Crystals the other on Runes. If you become Fighter of the Order, you are limited to using crystal based magic. That is Fire, Ice and Magic.
The other spells require you to learn the seals in order to be able to use the runes. Inferno, Summon Skeleton, Nautilus etc all come in runes. Only mages are able to learn the required seal stages to use the runes, all others are limited to useing scrolls.

You get sent to the monastery either way, it´s easy to miss the transition into becoming a "full" mage.

The Mages and the Order work side by side, although from a political point of view, the Mages are neutral.

Jebus wrote:

Which one makes the monsters explode the most? :]

Fire kicks some ass, esp in higher levels due to its AOE. Inferno deserves his name too .
Kicking names and taking ass is best done as a mage, just make sure you increase your mana steadily.

Jebus wrote:

Awesome game. I'm in harbour town at the moment, trying to do all the quests. So far, I'm really loving this game, I actually feel quite connected with the character lol. The storyline is awesome and I like how can you always make different choices on how to progress in the game.

As I want to become a mage this time playing through, I guess I have to favor the order in Harbour Town so I can become a novice?

Glad you enjoy it. IIRC, you need to work for the order to be let into the volcano castle. If you favor the bandits, you automatically join their ranks. It will get you into the fortress, too, but under a different banner.

Jebus wrote:

I just reached Chapter Two. I'm always uncertain what to chose for levelups, but I decided to go with mana right now. I still have to make a choice between fire/ice/'projectile'? magic.. Also, no regen is pretty lame, but meh.. Still love it

Yeah, go with mana. You´ll need plenty of it. Do train the staff fighting a little too, together with strength and dexterity. Even later on it still happens that some enemy gets close to you, and especially with the lizard dudes, it could get nasty.

Magic 'something' (dunno the english word, as I played it in german ) has a high rate of fire and deals good damage in higher levels, but ice seems like a must have, due to its immobilizing ability. Keeps them nasty critters away from you

Jebus wrote:

Just finished the game. It was enjoying while it lasted but it was time for it to come to an end if you know what I mean. Trekking through all the dungeons again was becoming a drag. I think it's a good 30-40 hours of gameplay. The combat could really use some brushing up though. Melee combat is so imbalanced for the player that you're better off with only concentrating on magic and ranged combat.

Also, sadly, there are a few game-breaking bugs present in the game. I've had to fiddle quite a bit with the console to get the game going again, or I would've been stuck forever.

All in all, a nice game, and I can't believe I wasted another 30 hours of my life playing a game :p

Yeah, the constant running through tunnels at the end did become a bit tedious. Melee is pretty tough towards te end, but I found it to be managable. Magic is kickass though, true.
Which magic branch did you choose in the end?
And sorry to hear about you having bugs. I encountered nothing of that sort. The door bug in the house that teleported you one floor above (and could be avoided by running or jumping through the door) and one crash were the only problems I encountered, rest went really smooth.

If they improve on the downsides of this game, which they will cause Piranha Bytes listens carefully to the community, the successor could be pretty damn awesome!

Jebus wrote:

I chose fire. But in the end I used the console to level all my skills to the max level to make those dungeons a bit more enjoyable. This really is a great game with an awesome storyline, I hope there will a Risen 2 sometimes that continues this story

I bet that kicked some lizardboy asses!