Overwritten.net
Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: MysterD on Sunday, July 29, 2007, 08:58:43 AM
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NEW - 3-9-2012:
Risen: Steam Version - 3rd party Tages DRM check removed. (http://store.steampowered.com/news/7496/)
OLD:
OWNet -> MysterD's Impressions, some 14 hours into this approximately. (http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=2518.msg95339#msg95339)
As many know, Pirahna Bytes doesn't own Gothic IP brand anymore; their old publisher JoWood does.
Well, Piranha Bytes aka Pluto 13 is working on something new. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=5806)
We'll find out soon enough, as it'll be announced at Germany's upcoming Leipzig Games Convention, which will be held from Aug 23-26.
Piranha Bytes - New RPG to be announced at GC
by Dhruin, 02:18:29
Deep Silver/Koch sent out a press release in their lineup for the Leipzig Games Convention (Aug 23-26) and it includes this tantalising bit:
Deep Silver & Partners press conference on 22/08.
Piranha Bytes meets Deep Silver: The new RPG from Germany for the international market. Live on stage: Piranha Bytes (Mike Hoge and others) and Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media.
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Cool! I hope they take all the good things from Gothic and take it above and beyond.
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Cool! I hope they take all the good things from Gothic and take it above and beyond.
Ditto.
I like the way they sort inventory by type and whatnot.
And I liked the new mouselook-enabled controls.
I'm hoping for it to be a less-buggy game, too.
So, hopefully they won't make the game overly-big and all, so that they can keep the amount of bugs down! :P I haven't been through a lot of G3, but my God -- the world was freakin' huge! It looks like it's even bigger than G2's!
Gothic 1 had it down the best, w/ the world size and the number of bugs. By the final patch, Gothic 1 was a gem. Meanwhile, G3 is getting patched from the "Community." JoWood has decided to have the gamers fix the game.
Hopefully, Pirahna Bytes will have something brand new and cool up their sleeves. I wonder if it'll be another traditional medieval RPG, futuristic RPG, or something else entirely. We'll just have to wait and see....
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New interview about Piranha Bytes/Pluto 13's next RPG w/ IGN (http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/814/814188p1.html)
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Interview here w/ Ralf Marczinczik of Pluto 13/Piranha Bytes on their next project, only known currently as Project RPB. (http://www.pcigre.com/content/view/12577/78/)
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We now know a little bit of what Piranha Bytes is now up to.
Risen is going to be the name of their new upcoming RPG. (http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=90089)
Project RPG = Risen [August 06, 2008, 09:14 am ET] - Viewing Comments
The Project RPB teaser countdown (story (http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=89862)) has expired, and now reveals a new Risen teaser, which consists of a teaser image, and maddeningly, another countdown timer for Piranha Bytes upcoming RPG (thanks mocib). The World of Piranha site has be supplanted by the World of Risen (http://worldofrisen.de/) page, which is entirely in German, but besides offering a German-language forum (http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=418), really only seems to be selling t-shirts at the moment anyway. The countdown currently stands at about two weeks, so more time will probably pass before we get real details on the new RPG project from the folks behind the Gothic series. Update: The following press release offers a bit more, and confirms more information on the game will be released at the Leipzig Games Convention (http://www.gc-germany.com/index.php?lang=2) that will kick off on August 20, coinciding with the end of that countdown:
Deep Silver, the video game label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, and the Piranha Bytes team announce the name of their joint role-play project: Risen.
With Risen, Piranha Bytes introduces a fresh, new setting. The game’s protagonist is shipwrecked after a storm and finds himself on a mysterious island. An active volcano dominates the scene. Ancient temple ruins have recently risen from the ground, and bizarre creatures infest the island.
″Piranha Bytes have already proven their enormous talent for creating both enthralling and profound role-playing worlds. With Risen, the team presents a new exciting scenario providing a great variety of adventures, which will keep players glued in front of their monitors.″ says Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, Managing Director of Koch Media.
Further information about Risen will be presented at the Games Convention.
The new teaser site provides a close up of the glowing volcano. A newsletter provides readers with the latest news. The website is located at: http:\\risen.deepsilver.com (http://risen.deepsilver.com/)
The working title of Risen has been ″Project RPB″.
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RISEN Video and Q&A from GC 2008 with Pluto 13/ Piranha Bytes.
BTW, it's all in German.
So, if you understand German, watch the vid and give it a listen. (http://www.worldofrisen.de/?section=video&id=10&PHPSESSID=5eae7af9ac6bb62e29e079fda76afe94)
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Pixelrage has an interview w/ Ralf Marczinczik of Piranha Bytes on their upcoming Risen.
Not much is told or known, but there's a few small things worth noting:
(http://www.pixelrage.org/articles/Risen-QA-with-Ralf-Marczinczik-Feature-325,0.html)Pixel : Are you still using Genome Engine for rendering ? If not, what sort of engine are you using now.
Ralf Marczinczik : It´s a complete self-made-engine. It has no name - but we can call it Frank, if you like. ;-)
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Pixel : When are we going to see Risen / what is the current status ?
Ralf Marczinczik : We are entering the polishing and debugging phase with alarming speed.
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Pixel : What size is the gameworld going to be ? Is it a long and epic game ?
Ralf Marczinczik : A bit Bigger that Gothic one- but definetly not as big as Gothic 3. And yes - it´s quite an epic journey with long hours to play around...
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IGN's Risen preview. (http://pc.ign.com/articles/966/966064p1.html)
Risen takes place in a medieval Mediterranean-like world, and starts rather dramatically: the main character starts out on a voyage across the sea to a foreign land. However, during the trip, the ship that he is on is smashed to bits, and he finds himself shipwrecked on a mysterious island with the bodies of the crew scattered across the beach. Although separated by water, the island is a vast place and is one that is wracked by conflict. Two radically different factions have set up camp on the island and are fighting each other for control over territory and the spoils found upon the land. Even worse, monsters and other strange incidents are popping up all over the island, making this a very treacherous place to explore.
Instead of being forced in one direction to discover the mysteries of the island and what's going on, I was told that players will have a large amount of flexibility in how you approach everything and everyone. The game, which designers Wizardbox and Piranha Bytes have spent more than two and a half years working on in tandem, has been designed to create a true living world where everything reacts to your actions. For instance, I was told that a player could save a young woman close to the start of the game, and she'll become a companion and aid you with your moves. If you choose to leave her alone, or take her and abandon her later on, the character, and the reactions from other NPCs in the world, will respond to your personal decisions, denying you aid or even attacking you outright. There isn't a particular right or wrong way to play through Risen, and the designers want to allow the flexibility for players to make many more mature choices that aren't solely driven by violence, sex or greed to help them navigate this world. That's not to say that you can't succumb to your baser instincts; In fact, I was told that players that wanted to exercise their homicidal maniac urges could wander from one side of the island to the other slaughtering every single person and creature they meet. It would make things a bit blander storywise, but players could essentially play through the entire game and eventually reach the final boss by being the scourge of the island.
Assuming that you haven't given into your bloodlust, however, you'll find yourself potentially courted by one of the two factions on the island. The first one is the Inquisition, a clerical order that was dispatched to the island to explore the sudden appearance of monsters. The other is an outlaw faction that has been exploring dungeons and selling the artifacts within on the black market. Of course, there's much more to both factions as it would appear, as the Inquisition seems to be taking many of the younger people on the island and forcing them to join their ranks. By contrast, the outlaws seem to be taking the money from their sales and making sure that their faction members are able to live through the dangerous situations on the ground. Players will need to individually choose at some point what side they'd like to eventually belong to and will find that the game will change based on that decision. In fact, the designers mentioned that they're aiming for at least sixty hours of play for each faction, meaning that there will be a large amount of replayability for players to check out within the game.
Part of this replayability will come thanks to the different tasks that you'll be given. For instance, I was told that there will be some missions where you'll have to solve murder mysteries on the island (many of which you'll be able to solve either straightforwardly or in unorthodox ways. Others may cause radical changes on the island. For instance, you may be tasked with clearing a forest from a pack of wolves. By doing so, you may discover that other humans or creatures will take their place, making your life easier or harder. Other missions might have you take advantage of the brawn that a fighter might exhibit, the sneaking that a thief would use, or the magic that a sorcerer would wield. While there aren't specific character classes, players will be able to expand upon their individual decisions to temper the kind of person they become. What's more, players will be able to choose what kind of professions they want to take, which will further tailor their skills.
Regardless of what you decide, there will be a large number of options available to players, ranging from fighting styles in battle to the skills that you can wield. You won't always have to leap into battles and attack every creature or animal that you come across; in fact, you'll be able to pick and choose whether nearby enemies are taking an aggressive posture towards you because you've gotten too close to them, or whether they're distracted because they're focusing on something else. For example, I watched as a character moved around a wolf that was too busy eating the corpse of a fallen farmer to notice his presence. While many of the areas that I saw were outside in the woods or in marshy areas, I was told that there will be a number of areas, like temple ruins or other indoor dungeons, that will be randomly generated to provide a unique experience when players step onto the island.
Although the game was being demonstrated on a PC, I was told that the lead platform for Risen is actually the 360, and that the developers have been spending a large amount of time working on the fight system and the other basic mechanics to ensure that the game works well on both platforms.
There is a rather interesting thing that stands out because of the console focus, which is that there is almost a non-existent HUD to the gameplay. Apart from two bars that represent mana and health for your character, everything is completely removed until you enter battle, at which point the enemy health bar pops up at the center of the screen.
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OXCGN in this Editorial is taking shots here at Risen -- and at the three latest trailers from Risen (which also can be found on this page). (http://oxcgn.com/2009/05/12/risen-should-it-bother-rising-when-game-trailers-confuse-more-than-excite/)
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"Risen takes place in a medieval Mediterranean-like world, and starts rather dramatically: the main character starts out on a voyage across the sea to a foreign land. However, during the trip, the ship that he is on is smashed to bits, and he finds himself shipwrecked on a mysterious island with the bodies of the crew scattered across the beach. As he explores his surroundings, he discovers the entire land is ACTUALLY A BIG FUCKING JAIL."
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Pug, that sounds very similar to...Gothic 1.
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Yes D, that was the joke.
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And a lot of the creatures are the same i.e. giant bipedal non-flying birds!
I think they had a lot of material for a new Gothic title but they decided to do something else:
"What about all the material we've already got?!"
"Screw it, do you think people noticed that Quake and Doom are practically the same game? No. We can pull this off!"
"I guess. Ok, let's do eeet!"
EDIT:
I also just realized that the player character looks a lot like the dude from Gothic.
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Well, they were originally working on a Gothic 3 Expansion -- before JoWood took their IP...
So, maybe PB took their Gothic 3 Expansions assets, modified some of the assets enough, and turned 'em into what became Risen?
Hell, I dunno...
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RPGWatch has a 7-minute video on Risen of gameplay footage that is in German (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=12406).
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So it's Gothic.. again.
Piranha's idea of a "new IP" is just different title and a haircut for the player character.
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Basically, yes -- looks like Gothic 1 all over again; but of course, much prettier.
I hate to say this, but I think Arcania: A Gothic Tale looks more interesting at this point than Risen...
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Yeah, Risen doesn't even look better than Gothic 3, not that it looked great. It seems to have a lot of recycled animations and a lot of the character models in that video look shabby, very poor quality.
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It look like they took Gothic 3 and/or probably the PB Gothic 3 Expansion they were working on (which got canceled by JoWood, so Trine could do their own G3 Expansion: Forsaken Gods) and moved those assets and gave it a new name. And, they just took the story and decided to instead of it being a jail, it's now an island.
I'll probably eventually play Risen, but it won't be anytime soon -- it just doesn't look like anything much new here. You just expect WAY more out of a new IP, you know?
I think I'll be too busy eyeballing Borderlands, Torchlight, Dragon Age: Origins, and Divinity 2 first -- that's just to name a few. All of those games are really speaking to me...
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Deep Silver announces Risen's release date.
October 2nd is the worldwide release date for Risen. (http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=99635)
Risen to Rise in October
[Jul 02, 2009, 10:50 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments
Deep Silver announces an October 2 worldwide release date for Risen, the Windows and Xbox 360 role-playing game from Piranha Bytes that at one time was being developed under the working title Project PPB. Word is that all voice-overs have been recorded and the game is now feature complete.
"We're excited to be able to announce the release date for Risen this far in advance," says Deep Silver. "We've been in beta for a few weeks now and are focusing on stamping out the remaining bugs and optimizing gameplay."
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German version of Risen will only be coming with a disc-check.
Let's hope the USA version and elsewhere gets the same treatment. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7667)
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Some impressions from Foobar of WorldofRisen.de (http://www.worldofrisen.de/article_102.htm)
Page 1 - The Community BBQ (http://www.worldofrisen.de/article_102.htm)
Page 2 - Risen impressions from Foobar (http://www.worldofrisen.de/article_102_2.htm)
NO Click-Fest In Combat
Combat System
One of the things I cannot say that much about. I did not have cheats activated on my system and certainly did not have the time skill my character in any way. So I can only tell what the combat is like on character level 0.
For those who feared that the combat will just like Gothic 3, I can assure you: Just clicking your opponents dead like in Gothic 3 or Diablo does NOT work. Believe me, I really tried.
One of the first quests I took required me to kill five wolves. After spending a lot of my short time with RISEN and loading a quicksave about 4 times, I managed to kill three of them. After that, I gave up because I was out of healing plants and potions and the other two always attacked in a pair. Later, I switched the difficulty setting from "normal" to "easy" and still found many opponents to be quite tough. If the balancing stays the way it is, let me give you an advice for your first time with RISEN: When you're still at level 1 and you find yourself attacked by more than just one creature at a time - run away.
Ranged Combat = You Must Aim
The ranged combat system (including magic) requires you to manually aim at your target. There is no auto-lock. If you want to hit a moving target, you have to aim to where it will be in a second. As you might already know, arrows from a bow will fly in a parabolic curve and bolts from a crossbow and magic projectiles will fly in a straight line.
Stuns
There is a stun effect as in Gothic 1 and 3. Personally, I don't like these stuns because it just makes you loose control over your character. Gothic 2 managed to have a demanding and exciting combat system without a stun effect. Too bad we cannot have one like that in RISEN, too.
Human Encounters
Daniel also showed us that any human you encounter can potentially have the same skills as you. You can see how experienced a fighter is by just looking at his stance when he draws the sword. More experienced fighters can break through your blocks or use more powerful attacks or combos. So be careful.
Graphics
Graphics
The graphics are rather unimportant to me. Hell, I would be content with the old Gothic 2 engine and a new story and setting. But some people might be interested in this and there are some elements which I do care about nonetheless.
The engine does not support anti-aliasing because it uses a method called "deferred shading" to dynamically calculate correct real-time shadows. So you have to give up smooth edges and gain an admittedly impressive lighting if you go through a dark cave with only a torch in your hand. In motion, you don't miss the anti-aliasing that much compared to looking at a static screenshot. But I still would have liked some smoother edges. Perhaps there will be some external solutions for that in time. I guess the driver could always render the frames in a higher resolution and then sample them down to the actually selected resolution. Perhaps with a good graphics card or a "smaller" resolution like 1280x1024 (19" TFT), you can still get a decent framerate.
The engine also uses depth of field wich makes everything in the distance look blurry and in dialogues tries to direct your attention to the people you should watch. Personally, I don't like that. I'm a big fan of a large viewing distance and just love it when I can set the view range of Gothic 2 to 300% and look over the entire mine valley from the pass. But luckily, this depth of field can be disabled in the options.
Other than that, I do not have much to criticise. The graphics are not photorealistic and a bit rustic but it gives the game a unique style. However, keep in mind that I'm not much of a "graphics fetishist". The game looked fine to me but perhaps if you expect a second Crysis you might be disappointed.
Plant Collection
A small marginal note: Some people feared that the collectable plants would stand out too much from the rest of the vegetation, blinking and flashing for your attention (like in G3). I think that's definitely not the case. The plants can be recognized as collectable but they do not stand out. For example, OnKeLDead screwed up one of the tutorial quests because he could not find all ten corn plants on a field of maybe 20 square metres. Collectable plants are drawn a little brighter when you focus them but this can also be disabled in the game options.
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Risen's requirements revealed. (http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=100530)
Risen Specs
[Jul 30, 2009, 10:43 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments
PC Games Hardware has posted the system requirements from Risen, the upcoming RPG from Piranha Bytes. Here goes:
Required Hardware Specifications:
• OS: Win XP
• CPU: 2.0 GHz
• GPU: Direct X 9.1; Pixel Shader 3.0; 256 MB (GeForce 7900 - ATI 1800)
• RAM: 1 GB
• Hard disk: ~2.5 GB
Recommended System Specifications:
• OS Win XP or Vista
• CPU: 3.0 GHz Dual Core
• GPU: Direct X 9.1; Pixel Shader 3.0; 512 MB (GeForce 8800 - ATI Radeon HD 2900)
• RAM: 2 GB
• Hard disk: ~2.5 GB
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Art cover of Risen revealed (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=12789)
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Hmm.. Generic.
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Now there's a shocker.
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Risen's requirements revealed. (http://bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=100530)
This one doesn't mention whether or not Windows 95 is supported.
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Risen has been banned in Australia for sexual content and drugs. (http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_news.phtml?id=081109_5)
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Risen - Voice-Acting PR Release. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7854#1)
We've already posted the headline details but Deep Silver has released an official PR on the voice talent in Risen, which fleshes out some additional roles:
Basingstoke, UK, 12 August, 2009
Risen Voice Talent Cast Revealed
Andy Serkis and John Rhys Davies head notable cast
Deep Silver, the games label of Koch Media, a leading producer and distributor of digital entertainment products, today confirms the A-list voice talent featuring in forthcoming RPG Risen.
One of the busiest actors in the UK, Andy Serkis takes the role of The Inquisitor. Serkis, who has had a long and varied acting career, is best known for his CG character representations Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong in the movie of the same name.
Veteran British actor, John Rhys Davies, who has starred in countless blockbuster movies such as Indiana Jones and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, performs as Don Esteban.
Movie actress Lena Headey, who played Sarah Connor in Terminator TV spin-off Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles take the role of Patty.
“The quality of the voice casting reflects the quality of the game” stated Paul Nicholls, Sales and Marketing Director, Koch Media UK “with such an amazing lineup of talent from movies and TV, there is a voice everyone will recognize; we will attract a new generation of RPG players to the genre”.
Serkis, Rhys-Davies and Headey are joined by a lineup of some of the most recognisable British TV actors; Fincher is played by Torchwood actor Burn Gorman,
Larkrise to Candleford star Brendan Coyle takes the role of Commandant Carlos,
Damian O’Hare who starred in medical drama The Royal plays Olf.
I’m Alan Partridge regular and Star Stories narrator Simon Greenall plays Luis.
Oscar is played by Grange Hill actor Donald McCorkindale while fellow Grange Hill actor and Secret Diaries of a Call Girl star Stuart Organ plays Brogar.
The Archers actress, Louiza Patikas represents Sara and Timothy Watson who has starred in countless TV dramas from Eastenders to Casualty takes the role of Romanov.
All the actors were cast and recorded by award winning London agency Side, with voice direction carried out by Andrew S Walsh.
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Due to a lot of criticism of the Hero's look, PB has gone ahead and changed the look of the Hero. (http://forum.worldofplayers.de/forum/showthread.php?p=10424904#post10424904)
[NEWS] New hero will be shown at the 3rd of September
Daniel Oberlercher from Deep Silver announced in our forum that the hero of RISEN which has been reworked after bad critic by the community will be unveiled at the 3rd of September, 2009, exclusively in our forum.
But there's a catch! The hero will only be shown if we manage to gather at least 400 RISEN-Fans in our forums between 18:00 and 18:30 CEST. So come along and bring your friends!
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Like the criticism was necessary for them to actually do that.
I don't get why they don't just give the players options to make their own hero.
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Someone made the following comment:
Face looks better at cover, but what worries me the most is his haircut. I'd like to see more hair.
How pathetic is your life? Don't you have anything more important to be "worried" about?
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It's not like Risen's Hero is gonna be like tailor-made to be a character. He'll probably be like The Gothic's Nameless Character -- just be a dude you control w/ no real detailed background and whatnot.
I don't really think Risen's Hero needed a new look and all, since he's probably gonna be (purposely) generic and all as a character -- but, whatever floats PB's and Deep Silver's boat, I guess.
Like the criticism was necessary for them to actually do that.
I don't get why they don't just give the players options to make their own hero.
That's not a bad idea.
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From GameReactor - Video Interview on Risen w/ Mike Hoge of Piranha Bytes. (http://www.gamereactor.de/grtv/?id=5518)
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PC version is Golden.
Coming October 2nd.
X360 version delayed until Early 2010. (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60513)
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10 minute video on the making of Risen w/ Piranha Bytes. (http://www.youtube.com/user/DeepSilverUK#play/user/68119035B2D4FCA6/3/D1z9kgoMCyM)
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It seems mildly interesting, but honestly it just feels like the next Gothic. Judging from the interviews it's quite clear that they wanted to stay with the Gothic formula they just wanted a new setting and to experiment with different ideas, like the puzzles.
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It seems mildly interesting, but honestly it just feels like the next Gothic. Judging from the interviews it's quite clear that they wanted to stay with the Gothic formula they just wanted a new setting and to experiment with different ideas, like the puzzles.
For the setting -- seems like all they did was switch from an isolated colony within a magical barrier to say an isolated tropical island w/ a volcano on it.
To me, doesn't sound TOO much different than Gothic 1 at all.
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PC Demo released for Risen.
Around 1.1 GB in size. (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60706)
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IGN's impressions w/ Risen so far. (http://pc.ign.com/articles/103/1031079p1.html)
PB's Most User-Friendly Game
Before describing some of the different avenues of play, I think it's worth noting just how much more user-friendly this game is compared to the studio's previous work. For one thing, you actually get a quest map in this game that marks precisely where your quest giver is and where you're supposed to go, making it much easier to keep track of things once you've taken on a significant amount of responsibility. While I can understand how some of the hardcore RPG gamers who despise direction might not like this kind of thing, you don't have to click over to the quest map if you don't want to.
Performance
For performance, I've been playing on a machine with a Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz CPU, a GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB video card, and 2 GB of RAM. It's not the highest-end rig, but it so far been capable of running the game, with occasional chop, at 1920 x 1200 with everything set to High. The game's lush forested areas and nicely detailed dungeons and mountain towns look great and cater more to fantasy fans who prefer realism in their environments as opposed to magical stones floating on pillows of blue energy with lasers crisscrossing every which way. It's mostly browns and greens and greys, making for a world that feels dirty and authentic.
Conclusion
As for how large the world is, how much there is to do, and how many choices there are to make, I'll have to wait and see. After playing the beginning, though, it seems as though Piranha Bytes' latest has the foundations of what could be a great role-playing experience, particularly for fans of its Gothic games.
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Risen vs. Gothic 3
PCGamesHardware.com compares the graphical features and the engine between the two games - Risen vs. Gothic 3. (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,696454/Risen-versus-Gothic-3-Graphics-comparison-of-the-RPGs/Practice/)
Bite My Review has been posting Risen impressions.
Part 1 - The Beginning (http://bitemyreview.com/2009/10/risen-live-blog-beginning-the-game-on-the-pc/)
Part 2 - Difficulty of Risen. (http://bitemyreview.com/2009/10/risen-live-blog-advancing-your-way-to-living-for-2-seconds/)
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MyD - Risen Demo Impressions
From what I've played of the Risen DEMO -- this is the way Gothic 3 should've turned out. I'm running the game on 1024x768 w/ everything on High, Depth of Field is ON, and AA cranked up 16x. Game looks really good and runs without any hitches, stutters, or anything what-so-ever. I think PB really took to heart the way Gothic 3 turned out, technically. I wish Gothic 3 turned out this way, in the performance departments. Load times are not super-fast, though they ain't nowhere near "Gothic 3" slow, either -- they take a small bit of time.
Combat feels a lot like Gothic 3. And yes, it's still tough -- just like most Gothic games. Though, not as tough as previous Gothics -- at least, so far. The combat does feel pretty good, I must say -- improved since all the previous Gothic games. You will want to Quicksave a lot. The game even Autosaves a lot, too, it's worth noting -- when you make it to certain areas and all.
Also, your No-Name Warrior automatically starts off w/ higher stats in melee combat than any other ability -- instead making you a nothing w/ no skills what-so-ever when you start the game.
The story, game-world, and presentation are more focused -- especially compared to Gothic 3. Being a PB game, the atmosphere again is outstanding. NPC's are on schedules and doing their thing, which really helps you get sucked into the game.
So far, I'm quite impressed with this.
EDIT:
And, I finished the demo. Yeah, I'm still impressed. This Demo is giving me the feeling that this just has to be the best RPG they've done since Gothic 1. Of course, I'll be only able to tell that once I do get around to buying full version of Risen.
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Just played the demo and here are my impressions:
Firstly, they've done a fantastic job with the environments. From the beach to the thick foliage of the forest to the caverns, the enivronments really do well to immerse the player in the world of Risen. Unfortunately, all of that is broken by terrible character design; models as well as animations.
The nameless player character is passable at first until you see his limbs warp when he moves or kneels. The first character you meet, Sara, is a very oddly proportioned woman; she has robust, extramasculine shoulders but she poses like a stripper, and her head is tiny and looks like a low-poly placeholder. Both characters looks very cheaply constructed. The animations look very rudimentary and seem like they're running at a lower framerate, much like the animations from Gothic 1 (except that was fine becuase everything looked that way then). Furthermore, the clipping issues are abundant! At any given moment any visible character is clipping through some polygons whether it be their own clothes, an object, or the environment around them.
Ok, that settles my gripes with the visuals. On to the controls and game mechanics.. Yeah, this is Gothic 3 with a "new" coat of paint. They seem to have simplified most of the commands and actions, especially the inventory. Basically the game just feels like "what if they did a slightly better job with Gothic 3..."
I can't really comment on the sotry as not much is revealed in the demo but it seems very mildly intriguing.
I am moderately pleased with the performance improvements, but overall, I'm not impressed.
One feature I think they should have added is custom character creation, especially since the main character is so generic and whose appearance has no effect on the game at all; he may as well have been faceless mannequin. The ability to customize the character's appearance would have given Risen a light touch of charm to help immerse the player further.
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Just played the demo and here are my impressions:
Firstly, they've done a fantastic job with the environments. From the beach to the thick foliage of the forest to the caverns, the enivronments really do well to immerse the player in the world of Risen.
Agreed 100%.
Unfortunately, all of that is broken by terrible character design; models as well as animations.
The nameless player character is passable at first until you see his limbs warp when he moves or kneels. The first character you meet, Sara, is a very oddly proportioned woman; she has robust, extramasculine shoulders but she poses like a stripper, and her head is tiny and looks like a low-poly placeholder. Both characters looks very cheaply constructed. The animations look very rudimentary and seem like they're running at a lower framerate, much like the animations from Gothic 1 (except that was fine becuase everything looked that way then). Furthermore, the clipping issues are abundant! At any given moment any visible character is clipping through some polygons whether it be their own clothes, an object, or the environment around them.
Gothic games always had those clipping issues and not-so-great animation, for some reason...
Sara looks like she could kick some ass -- I'm wondering why she didn't do much of anything; well, at least in the demo she didn't do much of anything...
I'm curious -- did you pump it up to its Highest graphical settings? For some reason, the game sets certain things at Low and Medium and High for its default (for me) -- which I thought was odd. When I ran it at those settings, it was running too good to me. So, I pumped it up to Highest settings on everything -- and it still ran pretty much the same.
On to the controls and game mechanics.. Yeah, this is Gothic 3 with a "new" coat of paint. They seem to have simplified most of the commands and actions, especially the inventory. Basically the game just feels like "what if they did a slightly better job with Gothic 3..."
The Quest Log looked like it was ripped out of Gothic 3 -- where it shows you the dialogue w/ important characters to the quest, which can tell you what top to do and where to go. Though, the compass map points you in the right direction, if you want to follow it.
I can't really comment on the story as not much is revealed in the demo but it seems very mildly intriguing.
The story was very interesting, so far, I thought...
One feature I think they should have added is custom character creation, especially since the main character is so generic and whose appearance has no effect on the game at all; he may as well have been faceless mannequin. The ability to customize the character's appearance would have given Risen a light touch of charm to help immerse the player further.
I wouldn't mind having a custom character creation option -- to create the character's look at all. I think the way the game starts w/ your character's abilities, making you a 3-star melee warrior -- is just fine.
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It was auto-set to High for all video settings. I really appreciated how well it ran at the highest visual quality setting, they've certainly put a lot of effort into improving performance.
I think one of the main reasons I'm not impressed is that this is what I expected from Gothic 3, Piranha Bytes haven't really exceeded that level, even in terms of gameplay (at least the gameplay exposed in the demo). To me, it just feels like they're taking another crack at Gothic 3 without the Gothic IP, which I believe JoWood now owns (remember that falling out they had last year?).
It's good that PB are making something of their own, I just wish they were a little more creative about it.
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It was auto-set to High for all video settings. I really appreciated how well it ran at the highest visual quality setting, they've certainly put a lot of effort into improving performance.
Agreed.
I think one of the main reasons I'm not impressed is that this is what I expected from Gothic 3, Piranha Bytes haven't really exceeded that level, even in terms of gameplay (at least the gameplay exposed in the demo). To me, it just feels like they're taking another crack at Gothic 3 without the Gothic IP, which I believe JoWood now owns (remember that falling out they had last year?).
JoWood owns Gothic IP now. JoWood contracted Spellbound to work on Arcania: A Gothic Tale (AKA Gothic 4), which has been delayed into 2010 for more time to polish it up.
From what we saw at E3 and other shows, I think Spellbound is doing a decent job w/ the IP. Arcania looks WAY better than I expected.
With PB doing Risen and Spellbound doing Gothic, I think really we (the gamers) are going to benefit from this all big time.
It's good that PB are making something of their own, I just wish they were a little more creative about it.
Point taken.
I think Risen looks to be a nice foundation for what I hope is a franchise-building IP. Hopefully, PB does a Risen expansion and goes creative with it -- kind of what BethSoft often seems to do w/ expansions (see Bloodmoon compared to Morrowind; Shivering Isles compared to Oblivion).
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Tweaking Risen
PCGamesHardware.com has an article on how to activate some graphical features (such as AA) and re-bind some hard-coded control-keys in Risen by playing with XML files. (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,696728/Risen-Tuning-Tips-Activate-Anti-Aliasing-improve-graphics-and-start-the-game-faster/Practice/)
EDIT:
Risen's selling well digitally
Sales been good for Risen on Steam and D2D last week digitally -- week of 9/27 - 10/3.
#1 on D2D and #4 on Steam. (http://www.actiontrip.com/rei/comments_news.phtml?id=100609_7)
EDIT #3 - Oct. 8th, 2009:
Risen took up TWO slots in Germany for sales, last week - Reg Ed and CE.
Risen is selling VERY well in Germany -- #1 for the Reg Edition and #4 for the Collector's Ed, last week. (http://www.4players.de/4players.php/verkaufscharts/PC-CDROM/media_control.html)
EDIT #2 - Oct 7, 2009:
News and Rumors
Some tidbits of news and rumors swirling already around Risen. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=13392)
Risen - Hotfix, Patch, DLC?
by Gorath, 2009-10-06 19:36:22
Two semi news and a rumor:
* PB and Deep Silver will release a hotfix to solve the fog problem on GeForce 6 & 7 cards. The fix is already in external testing.
* A patch for the XBox 360 conversion is in the works. An official announcement should be coming soon. A couple of print mags report it will primarily polish the graphics. Which is a good idea, if the majority of the reviews is correct.
* Several European sites, for example Gamed.nl (http://www.gamed.nl/view/67034), are reporting DLC is also in the works. This is unconfirmed.
EDIT #4 - Oct 8, 2009:
Risen - Patch 1.01 (Hot Fix) Released
Risen - Patch 1.01 (Hot Fix) released to fix the "gray veil" issues w/ The GeForce 6 and 7 cards. (http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewstory&threadid=102977)
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8.6 from IGN for the PC Version of Risen.
IGN Review. (http://pc.ign.com/articles/103/1033646p1.html)
Stability, Stability, Stability
Finally we arrive at the question of performance and stability, something that may be of particular concern for anyone who played Gothic 3. Using a rig with a Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz CPU, a GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB video card, and 2 GB RAM Risen ran acceptably at high settings and 1920 x 1200 resolution, though with regular framerate hiccups. If you're a stickler for buttery smooth performance, you may be disappointed here.
The Lack of Bugs
I am happy to say I didn't experience anything in the way of major bugs. NPCs did what they were supposed to and relocated to the proper places when world-changing events occurred. There are a few inconsistencies with written NPC dialogue and the words they actually speak, and in one case I noticed a quest-critical NPC is named improperly, but otherwise it was a fairly smooth experience for me.
The only times I really got hung up was due to a lack of quest direction as opposed to a glitch, and though I did experience a few crashes, there were very few technical obstacles that blocked my progress. Naturally it's possible others could run into issues I didn't encounter, but compared to Gothic 3, Risen feels more stable and polished.
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7.0 from GameSpot
Kevin Van Ord reviewed it.
Written review. (http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/risen/review.html)
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Hey MyD, how Risen compare to Two Worlds? In terms of product quality, narrative, gameplay mechanics?
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Hey MyD, how Risen compare to Two Worlds? In terms of product quality, narrative, gameplay mechanics?
I don't have Risen's full version yet. I've only played the demo - though, if the demo is any sign of anything, Risen's probably gonna be the much better game. I was quite impressed w/ that demo.
I can't speak on Two Worlds - Multiplayer b/c when I tried it, nobody was playing the damn thing! Okay, so about Two Worlds - Single Player, if you can get it cheap enough, it's fun - but, I had framerate issues when in some of the bigger towns (back when I had a GF 6600; can't speak on how it ran on 8800 GT, since I never put it back in). The game's voice-acting is on and off like a light-switch. I had fun with it and got my PENNY worth with it - around 30 hours w/ it, almost. Narrative is decent enough - but.
One thing I didn't like was there was no strafing - a major WTH? Instead, your character just turned to the left or right, which is okay - but what makes that worse is the camera didn't even follow the character unless you move the mouse to mouselook).
There's A LOT on Two Worlds, in My Thread on it - in which I was one of the only people posting in there. (http://www.overwritten.net/forum/index.php?topic=1235.msg34167#msg34167)
I've seen Gogamer sell Two Worlds for like $2.90 before - so if you don't own it, it's EASILY worth that for the SP alone if you can find it for that in your part of the world. I'd spend $20 or less on it, personally.
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Thanks for the insight, MyD :)
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So, I bought this during the Steam weekend sale ($14.99), some few days ago. I'm already almost 14 hours or so into this game. So far, IMHO, I think this could be PB's best game since the original Gothic, if this all keeps up.
Risen is definitely more polished than Gothic 3 was. G3 felt like Alpha-in-a-box. Even still, with all the Community Patches behind it, G3's load times are trash and the game has performance issues w/ framerate - and none of this is true w/ Risen. Risen runs very well on my system (1024x768, everything on High, AA is cranked up all the way). With Risen, I've yet to run into any game-breaking quest bugs or nasty oddities which any of the previous Gothics offered. Give me time - maybe I'll run into something minor! :P
The combat is not a button-mash affair in Risen. In G3, you could be a low-level character, swing your melee weapon until the cows go home, even on a (much) higher level enemy - and they'd still have no chance - especially if your character had a pumped Dexterity skill. Here in Risen, it's more of a timing thing and you have to also actively block, too. Combat feels much better here in Risen than in Gothic 3.
Risen also feels A LOT like the original Gothic:
an isolated gameworld to traverse (an island, in this case);
seems like every NPC in the world wants to offer you a quest (yes, A LOT to do here);
and the classic Gothic-style living and breathing world and atmosphere in which characters do things (eat apples, sit by campfires, move around on a schedule, etc) are all here in full effect.
The Journal/Quest Log has improved here in Risen. While quests in G3 only gave you all the dialogue you and NPC's have spoken that is important to your quest, Risen will tell you what the quest is about and summarize it up (like most RPG's) and then also have underneath it all give you all the important dialogue you and any NPC's have had pertaining to the quest.
DRM Stuff. So, here's my warning, since I'm sure many Steam users are like me and feel Steam DRM is enough DRM, as is - Steam version of Risen comes equipped w/ additional Tages DRM w/ install limits (which resets itself every 40-something days). (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17035182&postcount=1) Retail version, from what I know, only has a Tages disc check - but good luck at finding the retail version this cheap.
So far - Risen is really, really good. Looks like PB got this one altogether. Now, back to the game...
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FINALLY, finished this game - after playing it more on and off than a light switch and all. And yes, it was pretty good, once all was said and done.
But just like the original Gothic - the ending feels so abrupt and is an obvious set-up for Risen 2.
So, until Risen 2, then, I guess...
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Risen: Steam Version - 3rd party Tages DRM check removed. (http://store.steampowered.com/news/7496/)