Topic: Risen -- Update: Tages DRM check removed from Steam Version

[MysterD]

IGN's impressions w/ Risen so far.

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.

[MysterD]

Risen vs. Gothic 3
PCGamesHardware.com compares the graphical features and the engine between the two games - Risen vs. Gothic 3.

Bite My Review has been posting Risen impressions.
Part 1 - The Beginning
Part 2 - Difficulty of Risen.

[MysterD]

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.

[Xessive]

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.

[MysterD]

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.

[Xessive]

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.

[MysterD]

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).

[MysterD]

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.

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.

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.

EDIT #2 - Oct 7, 2009:
News and Rumors
Some tidbits of news and rumors swirling already around Risen.

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, 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.

[MysterD]

8.6 from IGN for the PC Version of Risen.
IGN Review.

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.

[MysterD]

7.0 from GameSpot
Kevin Van Ord reviewed it.
Written review.

[Xessive]

Hey MyD, how Risen compare to Two Worlds? In terms of product quality, narrative, gameplay mechanics?

[MysterD]

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.

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.

[Xessive]

Thanks for the insight, MyD

[MysterD]

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!

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). 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...

[MysterD]

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...

[MysterD]

Risen: Steam Version - 3rd party Tages DRM check removed.