@wolfgrimdark; The "exploit" in Risen 1 more or less just happened even if you did not abuse it on full purpose
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If you ran up to a monster with a companion in tow then the companion and you would engage the monster and you would ideally let the companion tank for you.
Now your companion went down (unconscious), you ran away to save your own skin until the enemy stops chasing you and breaks aggro.
You run back to your companion who lies near the monster's position unconscious or who is just about to get up.
The companions did not trigger monster aggro by themselves but since you are very close to the monster here, the aggro and the fight will resume with a fully healed companion.
That's just how the game worked.
Of course it is also quite tempting to (ab)use such strategies since you will not have to remember to return to an area later in the game if you can clear it right now.
If the game offers you such super-easy opportunities on a silver platter then it is hard to say 'no'.
It is the job of the developers to limit or extort such opportunities.
In that regard, PB have unfortunately failed rather badly in their latest games.
I have cleared the entire world of Risen 2 and 3 in the first chapter and almost the same in Risen 1 (thanks to Fred)… I only had to leave the very high end end-game volcano cave critters for later chapters.
It will be interesting to see whether they will really succeed in making Elex as challenging as they are hoping it will be.
I doubt it when looking at the poor monster AI and poor pathfinding which is exacerbated by the "vertical gameplay" but we'll see…