Risen - Review @ GameBanshee

[Dhruin]

Brother None pens a review of Risen over at GameBanshee. The game gets some praise but also some criticism - particularly of the last chapters - on the way to a score of 7.4/10. Here's a sample:

But to continue on in the story, Harbour Town is really what the first chapter is about – though I should note the experience of players in the first two chapters can be pretty different depending on what faction you choose to approach first. Harbour Town is a good showcase of what Risen's strengths and weaknesses are: it is a well-designed, goodly sized location with interesting human conflict, convincing NPCs and a variation of quests with real choices to make on whose side you pick. Various skills, especially thievery, can come in handy to offer alternative solutions to different quests, and often a bit of quick thinking by the PC can help find an alternate path. Also, the story here really focuses on inter-personal and inter-factional relationships, the strength of which was explained in the setting & world segment of this review.

However – and this is a big however – Risen takes a definite step back from the likes of Gothic 2 when it comes to depth of quest design. Even if you dig around for alternatives, a shockingly large number of quests in Harbour Town come down to “beat him up and take his stuff or intimidate him”, which is fairly ludicrous considering how often you are warned that this is a well-ordered town that you can not just mess around in (people are generally too forgiving of being beaten up through the game). A good example of this is a quest in which you need to retrieve 5 pieces of armour. If you have the pickpocket skill, you're free to resolve the quest using it. Otherwise, you either have to pay the NPCs an exorbitant amount of money you likely won't have – and by paying that money also miss out on free XP and loot given by beating them up – or, indeed, beat them up and take it, to no negative consequence. Why am I just allowed to do that and get away scot-free? Why can't I trade the armour piece for a favour or a personal item of theirs I nicked earlier? Why can't I get help in retrieving the armour pieces? Why can't I side with the aggrieved holders of the armour pieces and gang up on their boss with their help?

More information.

 

[Dhruin]

Just thought I'd point out that the title of this news post should say GameBanshee, not GameTrailers.

 

[Wulf]

Definitely as good an evaluation as you can get, no fluff and nonsense, no filler padding, factual consise and to the point, much better than some 'flavour-of-the-week' style bloggers - thank you Brother none for maintaining some traditional review normality.

 

[JDR13]

However – and this is a big however – Risen takes a definite step back from the likes of Gothic 2 when it comes to depth of quest design.

Absolutely.....

 

[ToddMcF2002]

I'm guessing PB decided the quest design had to be simple given the console release.

 

[BillSeurer]

I'm guessing PB decided the quest design had to be simple given the console release.

Oh good grief. Gothic 2's quests weren't THAT complicated, certainly nothing an XBox 360 or PS3 couldn't handle.

 

[Moriendor]

Oh good grief. Gothic 2's quests weren't THAT complicated, certainly nothing an XBox 360 or PS3 couldn't handle.

Fully agree. Besides, PB didn't even do the console ports/versions themselves. A company called Wizarbox was responsible for the porting. PB made it clear in interviews that their attitude towards the portability or compatibility with consoles during Risen's development has always been of the "Let them [=Wizarbox] figure it out" type.
In other words and in plain English: They didn't really give a shit about the console versions. PB made the game that they wanted to. On the PC. End of story.

 

[Brother None]

I'm guessing PB decided the quest design had to be simple given the console release.

I don't know, but I don't think so. PB just wanted to make their game more accessible overall, for whatever reason. I think that's fine when it comes to polishing interface and combat, obviously, but I have my doubts about their design approach regarding quest resolution or character systems.

Particularly, I feel like Risen is too inbetween two worlds. It doesn't hit all of the right hardcore notes Gothic I/II did (though it hits quite a few), but it's definitely still difficult enough to scare away people who grew up playing Oblivion and Fable. That just seems pointless to me, though I do wonder; is that just me?

 

[Corwin]

I think they were a little scared after G3 and wanted something safer. Gunshy comes to mind!!

 

[ToddMcF2002]

Well, the did shields properly and that goes a long way in my book. Risen certainly gets kudos for great combat.

 

[Gothmog]

I agree with alot of Brother's points above but still see Risen as something of a classic, albeit a flawed classic. And unlike G3, a game I never disliked FWIW, I believe Risen could be improved with a NOTR-type add-on or add-in. The final boss fight is incontestably broken or a poor design choice but what can they do … the damage is done. My first PB game was vanilla G2 and that boss fight was also anticlimatic, although not as bad as Risen's.