Risen 3: Titan Lords - Review Roundup

[Couchpotato]

Risen 3: Titan Lords should be available for all US members today, and it seems the first batch of reviews have been released, So here they are in no particular order.

PC Gamer - 83/100

Combat quibbles and muddy graphics do little to spoil the fun of this enjoyable RPG.

Game Informer - 7/10

While Risen 3 doesn’t have great combat or an enthralling story, there’s a lot of content to delve into for those hungry for an open-world action/RPG, and that might be enough to entice fans to give it a try.

Strategy Informer - 8/10

Despite still having a few issues Risen 3: Titan Lords is a vast improvement on Risen 2. The combat could be better but doesn't cripple the game this time, the world is more interesting and easier to get around, and there's tons of stuff to do.

Escapist Magazine - 2/5

Bloated in the mission department, threadbare everywhere else, Risen 3: Titan Lords is cobbled together from rehashed material, and the series' many flaws are enhanced a hundredfold in the process.

Twinfinite - 2/5

Nestled beneath the banal exterior of Risen 3 is a great fantasy RPG. Multiple factions and characters which could add masses of character to the game but do little more than drain it away from the world.

Hardcore Gamer - 2.5/5

Risen 3: Titan Lords is a clunky mess of a game that fails to capitalize on the potential it has put forth. While the concept sounds alluring, and it’s chock-full of charm, it’s weighed down by stodgy design and a lack of polish.

More information.

 

[joxer]

Escapist Magazine - 2/5

Comes from a magazine that says Skyrim is #1 RPG in last 5 years.

I'm skipping that review and will now dive into others.

EDIT:
gameinformer site is down currently, if you want to check that review, try later.

EDIT2:
SI review contains a huge hint/spoiler at the end, read at your own risk (it's not blurred). It's PC game review.
Twinfinite review is for the console version. Skipped, I'm waiting for Angry Joe's console review.

EDIT3:
Hardcore Games is hardly hardcore, the reasonong behind his low score is:

It doesn’t help that the voice acting and script are horrid

...

Nice pics to see in all of them, notthing new to learn about the game we didn't know, feels as a case of love/hate but no middleground game.
I wish friday was sooner.

 

[Melvil]

Reading those reviews makes it seem like people who have enjoyed the series for years will enjoy this game, while everyone else, READ -> Mainstream Gamers, will not.

 

[bazmod]

sounds like its going to be great can't wait for mine to unlock on friday! Lets face it Piranha Bytes games have always got hammered in reviews so I don't really care about the scores. The fact that places seem to be saying its better than Risen 2 is enough for me to know I'll love it

 

[Moriendor]

More reviews in German and English can be found in this post at WoR.

 

[Embolus]

Now there's a swash of conflicted reviews if there ever was.. honestly, it's what I've expected. Gothic/Risen has always been love or hate. By that logic I should really dig this game, apparently it's the same beat as previous entries. History repeats.

 

[Gorath]

I would take all these early reviews with a grain of salt. Unless something else is explicitly mentioned in the text you can safely assume the author played the game for less than 10 hours. Risen 3 is a B title outside of Germany and Eastern Europe. This usually means the review budget is low.

 

[HiddenX]

A Gothic or Risen game (made by PB) was/is never mainstream (outside of Germany).

 

[Gorath]

A Gothic or Risen game (made by PB) was/is never mainstream (outside of Germany).

Yes. The first two Gothics got slaughtered during the first 4 weeks.

 

[booboo]

Well, I'm looking forward regardless of the negativity - would love to play all weekend, but have to set an exam grrrrr!!!! (I hope I don't take out my frustration on the poor students )

 

[Moriendor]

I would take all these early reviews with a grain of salt. Unless something else is explicitly mentioned in the text you can safely assume the author played the game for less than 10 hours.

Not sure how early DS shipped review copies to the international press but the German mags must have had their copies for a long time already.
Gamestar and PC Games both had beta tests in their last issue and somewhere in the comments an editor confirmed that the Gamestar testing editor Jochen Gebauer (who is an old time PB fan) spent 100+ hours playing through all three factions in Risen 3.
So at least those guys know what they are talking about .

 

[TheMadGamer]

More reviews in German and English can be found in this post at WoR.

Thank you for that link. Although I can't read German, I can read the scores and they are favorable. I tend to put more weight into the European press scores since the American media is generally shit - 'It's not as pretty as Crisis and I can't learn the UI in 1/16th of a second...'

 

[Moriendor]

Well, I'm looking forward regardless of the negativity

What negativity? The vast majority of the PC(!) reviews is positive at about 8/10 average.

They all seem to criticize roughly the same things:
- poor and weird story, boring quests and shallow (N)PC(s)
- subpar combat system
- dated looks
- Same old (no innovation and more a Risen 2.5 than a Risen 3)

And they also seem to like the same things:
- Motivating character building
- Enjoyable ship combat mini game
- Fun exploration because of lots of diversity between the islands
- Typical PB game (rough dialogs etc.)

 

[booboo]

Well, negativity as in 'not all the reviews are glowing'. Not that I have read them (the reviews) in any detail, I have just picked up on comments here and there and superficially scanned some of the listed reviews. But I am happy with the bits if gameplay footage etc I've seen...

 

[lostforever]

I think PB's games are like bitter ales so they are an acquired taste and not for everyone. There are plenty of lagers out there for the everyone else!

Right now I am having a blast with Risen 2 (not finished but 30 hours in) and many people here and elsewhere thought it was crap game. I think its not good as their previous offering but its still better than the so called game of the generation! So to me, if Risen 3 is good as or better than Risen 2 then I will be a happy man!

 

[lostforever]

What negativity? The vast majority of the PC(!) reviews is positive at about 8/10 average.

They all seem to criticize roughly the same things:
- poor and weird story, boring quests and shallow (N)PC(s)
- subpar combat system
- dated looks
- Same old (no innovation and more a Risen 2.5 than a Risen 3)

And they also seem to like the same things:
- Motivating character building
- Enjoyable ship combat mini game
- Fun exploration because of lots of diversity between the islands
- Typical PB game (rough dialogs etc.)

I read an reviews where one of the main complaint was that the relationship between Patty and the main hero (her half brother) was borderline incestuous! I think we can ignore many of these so called reviews and their complaints lol

 

[mercy]

Uh-oh. Will need to check how much Gothic 1 and Risen 1 fun is there.

 

[Moorkh]

Did they manage to squeeze in some female NPCs this time around? Aside from ...Patty... *shudder*

 

[zahratustra]

I could have said say that they managed to squeeze in few prostitutes but I will not…

 

[lostforever]

I was one of those people who mentioned about lack of female NPCs before but I take that back after playing Risen 2, there were plenty of female NPCs in R2!