RSS Feeds NGN on Facebook NGN on Twitter NGN on YouTube
Thursday March 28, 2024
Header logo
  1. Index
  2. » Articles
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Risen

Risen Review

This immersive RPG is full of intrigue and wonder, but it's also full of bugs and confusion

Posted by on

Today the game market it so full of huge, high budget super-hyped block buster video games that often a very excellent production can slip under the radar entirely. Risen, the latest offering from German studio Piranha Bites, is a victim of such circumstances. Like many other games developed by smaller European companies is lacks the narrative immediacy and polish of some bigger titles, but more than makes up for this with a great sense of immersion, a ever-present intrigue that makes you want to push further into the game, and utterly gorgeous visuals. While Risen may be a bit rough around the edges, the problems are relatively few and easily overlooked when compared to the overall excellence of the experience.

Risen game
Rags and a stick are all your worldly possessions at the start of the game

Remember the good old days when a RPG would drop you into a huge, daunting world with barely any instruction, forcing you to make a name for yourself and figure things out as you go? Risen returns to this style of introduction, dropping you on a beach with nothing but the cloths on your back and another survivor of the shipwreck you were part of. You don’t really get much background information about why your character was on a ship at sea, but this is a great starting point for the story which slowly expands as you progress. The game keeps you focused by hinting at a larger goal, like meeting The Don in the swamp, one of the first places you get to, then giving you a few smaller tasks to do in the short term. This structure is present throughout the game, and works very well as you will always want to find out more about the major, long term goals. The tremendous sense of intrigue that is present throughout the game lends itself to these mysterious long-term goals, and even though the first chapter is painfully slow paced and often tedious, you never lose sight of the overhead goal and this keeps you focused on progression.

While Risen doesn’t have frequent major choices to make, there are a number of them which can, and will, drastically change the way the game plays out. Soon after you land on the island the game takes place on, you learn there are two opposing factions, The Dons men, a group of bandits and outcasts who call the island home, and The Inquisition, a group of religious ‘mainlanders’ who came over to investigate the mysterious appearance of ruins on the island. You are forced to choose to side with either The Don or The Inquisition by doing quests for either side, and the game will play out very differently depending on which group you side with, warranting at least 2 playthroughs.

Risen game
Many guards will need to be ‘persuaded’ into letting you by their post

The quests in Risen are fantastically varied and often very complex, branching out in all sorts of interesting ways. In this game you will track a man down with the help of a wolf, go on a elaborate, multi part treasure hunt, attempt to place a severed cows head in a merchants bed in reference to The Godfather... just to name a few. Side quests are almost seamlessly integrated with the story quests, and sometimes the story will require you to do a certain number of side quests which help one group or another. Grind quests such as gather x amount of y plant are present in the first chapter, but they are overshadowed easily by the much more interesting quests that you will spend most of your time doing.

Levelling up in Risen happens relatively slowly, and doesn’t affect your character as much as in other games. It increases your maximum health and grants you a certain number of ‘learning points.’ To improve your skills, you have to pay someone to train you in any given area, but you can only train a certain amount because you use up the ‘learning points’ you gain with levels each time you train. Risen is fairly rigid about what you can and cannot do before and after training, you can’t sneak, pick locks/pockets, gut animals, mine for ore, and many other things at all unless you train for it, meaning you have to be very deliberate about what you spend your learning points on. While all characters start out with the exact same skills in the beginning (there is no ‘class’ system), you can customize your character any way you want as you play. If you want to be a close-combat specialist, you need to spend your learning points on strength and swordsmanship upgrades while archers will want to spend points on dexterity and archery upgrades.

Risen game
What would a German game be without gorgeous sun shafts?

Combat is Risen is a bit wonky, but fairly fun and a good blend of RPG and real-time mechanics. You train to use each type of weapon, which affects how your character will fight, long-range combat with bows and crossbows is straightforward, but things get a bit crazier in close quarters brawls. If you are fighting a single-enemy, you will lock on and parry to block his blows then wait for an opportunity to strike back. It is often difficult to determine what a good time to counter-attack is, but eventually you figure out when to strike. When fighting groups of enemies, things get much more challenging. You lock on to the first enemy, but if he dodges you lock on to another one. Often you will become surrounded and overwhelmed, I found the best method of dealing of groups of enemies was to put my back to a wall, but this was not always possible and lead to some overly-challenging fights. Once you become more powerful and unlock more combat moves, this is not so much of a problem, but at the beginning of the game a fight with 2 or more creatures will usually mean certain death. Luckily you are often fighting with at least one other companion, especially in the second half of the game, so the combat is usually fine as long as you get used to the patterns of when to block and when to attack.

When you aren’t fighting, you are either exploring or engaged in dialogue. Exploration is great in this game, as while the island isn’t huge, it’s wonderfully detailed and full of great loot. The best gear is usually at the bottom of a long cave full of horrible monsters, but if you manage to get to it you will be well rewarded. Risen probably has some of the best exploration I’ve ever encountered because money is pretty hard to come by and you can’t buy a lot of good gear from traders, instead you need to explore and adventure if you want the best loot.

Risen game
If you want to eat, you have to learn to cook!

The dialogue system in Risen is similar to that in The Witcher; you are given a number of dialogue options and all characters are fully voice acted. The writing and voice acting in general is pretty good, considering that this game is developed by a German company. You will meet some very interesting characters in your travels despite the wooden and often identical facial animations, and the island feels dynamic and lived in despite the simplistic NPC and enemy A.I.

When it comes down to it, Risen is not a very polished game. Often the subtitles during dialogue don’t match what the character is actually saying, the names of some characters when viewed are occasionally different from when they are spoken in dialogue (at one point I approached a character called “Dork,” who referred to himself as “Drok”), and there are a unfortunate number of minor glitches and bugs. One time I opened a door to a bedroom, walked through it and inexplicably found myself on the roof of the building with no way down. Luckily none of these bugs are game-breaking, just minor irritations that scratch the surface of what otherwise is a fantastic experience.

Risen game
Black wolves are as tough as they are agile

Visually Risen is fairly spectacular, a bit rough in spots but overall gorgeous. The lighting and landscapes are particularly impressive, with great Crysis-style sun shafts and sprawling, detailed landscapes. Particle effects such as sparks from fire are also very impressive, as are most of the textures. The only sore point in the visual presentation are the facial animations, which are very wooden and look truly last-gen. Luckily you usually are fighting various creatures so this isn’t really a big problem, they just look a bit silly and out of place in what otherwise is a graphically impressive game. I experienced good performance for the most part, although at certain times of day, particularly in crowded areas, my mid-range rig saw a few minor slowdowns and occasionally choppy frame rates. The music in Risen is fairly low-key but works well with the game, adding to the immersion and the atmosphere, which is pretty good, in a minor yet important way. Menu design seems archaic at a glance but is very functional; everything you would ever want to tamper with is right where it should be.

Overall Risen is a great, immersive game with strong role-playing elements and an intriguing story. Great touches like the fact you need to have a frying pan and a fire to fry meat you have taken from animals, and how you actually need to acquire maps instead of automatically having them, coupled with the incredibly detailed environments make the few flaws and blemishes on the games surface seem as insignificant as they really are. Risen is truly a diamond in the rough that should be played by fans of RPG’s who enjoy an immersive, fully realized setting and can get past a few minor cosmetic blemishes.

Our ratings for Risen on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
85
Great lighting, textures and environments make up for poor facial animations, good musical score, basic but highly functional menus.
Gameplay
81
Fun, rewarding exploration, a good number of important decisions and great role playing elements make up for wonky although usually enjoyable combat.
Single Player
86
A lengthy, intriguing story full of interesting characters, very interesting and varied quests, side quests are seamlessly integrated into the experience. Good replay value.
Multiplayer
NR
None
Performance
(Show PC Specs)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo e7200 @ 3.1ghz
GPU: Powercolor Radeon HD 5850 PCS+
RAM: 4GB DDR2
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
PC Specs

75
Good for the most part, some frame rate issues at certain times of day in certain places.
Overall
83
Risen is an incredibly immersive and very entertaining RPG that makes up for its lack of polish with great quests and a truly intriguing story.
Comments
Post Comment
You may not post comments as a guest. Please register or login to your account.
Username:
Password:
Create a new account?
Forgot your password?
#3 Jan 19, 2010 11:12:25 (Jan 19, 2010 11:12)

with_teeth26
 If i recall the whole initial 'swamp' bit is pretty slow going, explore the surrounding areas for quests and loot so that you can level up/buy better gear. Once you beat Brogar in the arena things get much easier. I actually had to lower the difficulty to Easy to get through the Swamp bit. 
#2 Jan 19, 2010 03:59:26 (Jan 19, 2010 03:59)

nutcrackr
I bought the game and played a few hours. I found it very tough going and for some reason haven't been back to it. I did enjoy it though.
#1 Jan 19, 2010 00:04:22 (Jan 19, 2010 00:04)

SpectralShock
I tried the demo and just couldn't get into it for some reason.
Risen
Risen box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of Risen
83%
Great
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
Risen is ranked #284 out of 1957 total reviewed games. It is ranked #16 out of 63 games reviewed in 2009.
283. Torchlight
PC
284. Risen
285. FIFA Manager 10
PC
Related Games
MechWarrior 5: Clans MechWarrior 5: Clans
Platform: PC
Coming: December 2024
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Elex 2 Elex 2
Platform: PC
Released: March 2022
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Elex Elex
Platform: PC
Released: October 2017
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Risen 3: Titan Lords Risen 3: Titan Lords
Platform: PC
Released: August 2014
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Risen 2: Dark Waters Risen 2: Dark Waters
Platform: PC
Released: April 2012
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Screenshots

Risen
11 images added Jan 18, 2010 23:48
Videos
Risen Launch trailer
Posted: Oct 1, 2009 21:19
Advertisement ▼
New Game Network NGN Facebook NGN Twitter NGN Youtube NGN RSS