| Author | Review |
|---|
Teamlead Taco
306,889
TA Score for this game: 2,309
Posted on 11 September 11 at 20:21 |
This review has 35 positive votes and 3 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
So after playing the game and beating it the first time, and starting a partial 2nd play through to get all the achievements, I read the sole review here and decided that I would go ahead and submit my first review on TA. While I WeisGuy9's review makes some very valid points, some of which I will confirm and back up, the overall tone conveys that this is one of the worst games on the planet and I have to disagree. I have played MUCH worse. In fact, overall, I must say I actually ENJOYED this game.
I'll break it down in to three areas, The Good, the Mediocre and the Bad.
Those of you who know nothing about this game should know that it is a Single Player only WRPG developed by Piranha Bytes - a German developer known for their Gothic series. The game takes place on a fairly large volcanic island and the events will never take you elsewhere. You will explore pretty much every aspect of this island if you choose to beat the game.
The Good
The world/exploration - For me, this was by far the best part of the game. Those of you who enjoy being dropped into a world and exploring should really enjoy this game. Your character is freshly washed up on shore of the island and you go from there. I found the layout of the island to be fantastic and learning my way around and exploring was easily 80% of my enjoyment with this game. The developers did a fantastic job creating a nice environment, and there were many instances where I was pleasantly rewarded for exploring off the beaten path.
The Skill system - As you level, you are given more health, and some learning points. You will then need to find a trainer and pay them to train you in the area you see fit. This includes base stats like strength, or specialized skills like picking pockets or creating scrolls. Trainers cost both money and learning points. I liked the fact that it was open and you were never forced into any one path. It is entirely possible to become a mage in the game, and be a monster with a sword. You will never have enough levels/learning points to max out everything available, so you must choose wisely what you decide to invest in. I will say that you don't really get to choose your character 'class' until well into the game. But to be honest, there really are no character classes. All you really make a decision on is whether your character decides to learn magic or not. Since mages are not restricted in any way, there is almost no reason NOT to go the mage route just so all options are available to you. The only caveat here is that I don't think you can achieve the highest levels of some skills (like swords) as a mage as those trainers will no longer train you.
The difficulty - This may be a turn off for some, but I like my games to be a bit harder. For example, I really, really enjoyed demon's souls on the PS3. I really liked how this game did not hold your hand at all. There are no maps with breadcrumbs to follow, or damn lines on the floor that told you were to go like a good little gamer..none of that hand holding crap. You get dumped on an island, you have no idea where you are, and good luck to you. If you are stupid enough to walk into a pack of wolves in the beginning when you have on rags and a stick for a club, you will certainly die as they circle and kill you. I imagine this is a large turn off for many people, but I loved it. It made me use my brain, and be careful at the start. Only once you start getting better armor/weapons and skills should you go venturing out to kill/explore...and even then, it isn't the smartest move to go wading into 10 enemies at one time. The game was fair, and never cheap.
The Mediocre
The Story - It serves its purpose. It does to a decent job of setting itself up for lots of sequels. I would have to say the story is equivalent with the elderscrolls series, but can't hold a candle to a bioware release.
The Combat - Most reviews/complaints I read center on this. To be fair, at first, I was having a very hard time of it...your character at the start almost seems to have no chance in combat and you will find yourself reloading often. I found it frustrating attacking the mobs only to have them jump away, dodge and counterattack. To be fair to the developer, it was clear that they did not want a stats driven combat system, and developed one that forced you to use your reflexes. As I put more points into strength and sword skills, I found I was able to block, parry, dodge, attack laterally and develop skills to beat my opponents. You can't just button mash and expect to win. You can't just wade into a pack of 6 wolves and annihilate. The AI is good in that wolves attack as a pack and they will try to circle you and make you pay. I found this extremely refreshing compared to most RPG combat. The combat it not for everybody. Many will/do hate it for sure, but I found it to be better than a game like fable. If you want to feel like a badass and just blast everything with little challenge, this is not for you: or else maybe play a mage...
The items/weapons - Really rather basic. Each weapon type has a linear upgrade path which is all about how much damage it does. So there is no real choice to make other than which weapon type you decide to specialize in. I would have liked to make decisions on items with tradeoffs in one area vs another. Armor is practically non-existent in this game, and not really even armor, it is just more like new clothes. Here again, the upgrade path is linear making choices non-existent (unless you decide your armor on how your character looks).
The graphics/voice acting - To be blunt - it is dated. I wouldn't quite call it last gen graphics, but they are not exactly going to win you over. They do the job. For some, it matters more than other. Me, I don't care how pretty my games look. There is one graphic artifact that annoyed me a bit though and that was the draw distance. As you traversed the world, there were plenty of instances where the skyline looked wide open only to eventually be filled in with a hill or volcano as you got closer. Similarly, the land ahead of you would look wide open until you got closer and mobs popped in. It didn't affect game play, but it did ruin from the sense of immersion.
The achievements - Many are story related, and the rest are really “grindy” type achievements. The developer clearly wanted you to play the game more than 2 or 3 times to naturally get all the achievements, but honestly, the game isn't good enough to warrant more than one play through. Luckily, you can abuse the save/reload system to get the majority of the grind achievements, but you will need to plan for them up front.
Technical Issues - The game locked up on me 2 times in what I would call the 'yellow screen of death'. The entire screen would just turn yellow. Sounds would play but I could not longer to anything other than dashboard or power cycle the Xbox. Not shabby for a fairly open world game.
The Bad
It is a PC Port - My most major gripes about this game are that it is clearly a PC port, and the developer did little to fix the some of the problems that come with that...mainly in the way of illegible/unreadable text. If you go to your inventory, good luck trying to figure out how many healing potions you currently have, because the text is tiny and illegible. Likewise, the world map in this game is so small it is absolutely useless to navigate by. You learn to get around some of it, but I will admit that this frustrated/annoyed me all the way to the end of the game.
The controls - Actually, most of them are fine but for the first hour or two, I struggled with the right thumbstick, which controls the camera. I found it to be extremely sensitive and there is no settings that allow you to make it less so. Granted, over time, I got used to it, but I am sure it will put most players off right from the start. Combine that with the initial difficulty and early frustrating combat and it is a recipe for turning off new players from the get go. If you don't make it past your first hour or two of the game, I understand why.
The Pacing - This game takes place on an island. On that island are 3 main towns. You are encouraged to find these towns as fast as possible in the game due to the fact that your character is ill equipped to explore the island at the start. In two of those towns, you will essentially be locked in and not able to leave until you perform a number of quests. While the quests themselves are ok, being forced to do the majority of these types quests early in the game (chapter 1) will make you start to think that this is all this game is about - fetch quests. I assure you that it does get better if you stick it out past chapter 1. You can almost break this game up into 3 sections...
Section 1: Town quests .
Section 2: Explore the island .
Section 3: Explore the dungeons.
Section 1 is very weak compared to sections 2 and 3 and takes entirely too long (hours).
Summary
I will be the first person to admit that I was VERY skeptical of what I had gotten myself into at first. I really found the early town sections of the game to be rather boring and entirely too long. However, once I got past that, moved into chapter 2, and started to realize that combat was NOT all about button mashing, the game really started to grow on me. Will I say this game is better than the established giants in the wrpg field like the elderscrolls series, fable or dragon age? No. I do feel overall, this game is a good mix between fable and the elderscrolls. I found the exploration aspect to be better than fable overall and smaller in scale than the elderscrolls series. If you are big into WRPG games, I would definitely suggest this as a rent (or buy for cheap) type of game. I would never have advised anybody to buy it for 60 bucks though. If you are only minorly interested in WRPG games, than just stick to the big names in the series. I knew nothing about this game going in, and in the end, I will now keep an eye out for the sequel...with some key improvements, this could be a very good wrpg series.
I rated it a 3/5 stars on my list of games played.
 |
TheSecondLetter
92,436
TA Score for this game: 2,309
Posted on 21 January 13 at 18:45 |
This review has 9 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Man, this game has more flaws than you'll know what to do with. But, you may still have a good time if you decide to play it.
Gamers that will enjoy Risen
Explorers should have the most fun with Risen. Risen's world is much smaller than other popular open-world RPGs. However, the developers have placed enough interesting and useful loot throughout the world to encourage you to venture off the main paths. Just be sure to save often because your life may be the price of venturing into areas you're not prepared for skill-wise. Unfortunately, trying to navigate using your maps is ineffective and the hero runs extremely slow. After a few hours of play, I found myself thinking, "I'd almost be willing to pay for DLC that would add a sprint feature."
Strategists will find a combat system that requires a decent amount of tactical proficiency. It's nowhere near the quality of Dark Souls, but simply mashing the trigger button will often get you killed. For all the game's shortcomings, I felt Risen had one of the better action combat systems on console action RPGs.
Audiophiles will be treated to an outstanding ambient soundtrack that fits the mood and feel of the game near perfectly. You may also be surprised by the excellent voice acting handled by such famous actors as John Rhys-Davies.
Gamers that may find Risen disappointing
Builders will most likely be put off by the Risen's leveling and customization system. To the game's credit, it affords you many options for building the hero to your liking. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective), as with most western RPGs, there is a level cap that hinders you from maxing out what's available to you. Also, in order to use your hard-earned skill points, you have to find NPCs that can teach the skills available to you. To make matters worse, you have to pay these clowns to teach you. Yep, and money is scarce in the earlier parts of the game where you need to develop the most. There are also only a handful of armor sets you can earn by running errands for whichever faction you choose. On top of all this, navigating the menus is not intutive and a pain until you learn how to do it properly.
It's also worth mentioning that Risen's magic system is nothing to write home about. Should you choose to develop a mage versus a fighter, you may be slightly disappointed at the lack of spell options.
Bookworms will find a slightly interesting, if disjointed, plot. You'll never really care about any of the characters and the plot never really makes you feel like its events have a real purpose. That said, the character interaction in the game, helped heavily by the great voice acting, is really enjoyable.
Visualists need to look elsewhere. I played through this game 2.5 times and could not find one positive thing to say about the visuals. They are severly lacking from a technical perspective and don't really have much style.
Overall
Despite all these issues, I enjoyed Risen quite a bit on my first and second playthru. Achievers and completionists will probably straddle the fence on funfactor. Risen requires multiple plays to see all the game has to offer and to gather all the achievements. Unfortunately, choosing different factions across multiple plays doesn't really change the overall outcome of the plot. While I enjoyed Risen, its hard for me to fully recommend as there are many other games on PC and major consoles that do what Risen does better than Risen.
|
WeisGuy9
367,606
TA Score for this game: 2,309
Posted on 29 July 11 at 22:15, Edited on 15 September 11 at 10:49 |
This review has 28 positive votes and 30 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
So the burning question in everyone's mind is, "What is Risen like?" Well, the short answer is, "It's a steaming pile of shit!". This game is yet another miserable attempt at an Elder Scrolls clone that fails in spectacular fashion. (Two Worlds, anyone?)
The story apparently centers around a bunch of lizard-inhabited ruins (yes, I said lizards) that have risen from the ground (risen..get it? Get it?) and are somehow threatening the survival of mankind. What it really is, is a never ending fetch quest fest. But for those of you in need of the long answer, let's break it down.
Genre:
RPG
Gameplay:
Let me start off by telling you that this is an obvious PC port, and a very poor one at that. That should tell you a lot of what you need to know. As previously stated, this game is just a very long, slow and boring series of fetch quests. Even the main story line follows this repetitious pattern.
The foes you will face in this game are a truly uninspired mix of porcupines, big storks, wolves, boars, moths (no, that's not a typo), a few oversized worms and lots and lots of lizardmen. To give the developers due credit, there are various incarnations of each type of monster, i.e. Wolf, Hungry Wolf and Black Wolf, Stingrat and Young Stingrat, Lizardman, Lizardman Warrior, and the ever-popular Lizardman Priest. The stork-looking things are called Sea Vultures, btw. Awesome!
Well how about the character leveling system, you ask? Let's talk about that. Your character will acquire levels based on experience accumulated, as with any standard RPG. The only thing that increases with your level, however, is your hit points (or life energy, as they call it). You also will receive 10 Learning Points per level. These points will be used to increase your Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Mana, any of 3 close combat skills, 2 archery skills, 3 magic types, 2 scroll abilities and 4 professions and 4 talents. Now you may be thinking that 10 points per level will let you get on with things fairly quickly. Think again. Any upgrade to any of the above abilities requires either 5 or 10 Learning Points, and most of the abilities have 10 levels, so you will be required to specialize to an extreme degree and forgo learning almost every ability available. In fact, Strength is the only ability that is even worth upgrading at all, although Alchemy and Lockpicking can be helpful.
A few other items of note include the fact that the game world is fairly large and you don't acquire any means of fast travel until near the end of the game. Here's the really great thing about it, though. You'll start acquiring teleport orbs to take you instantly to various localities. The trick is that you normally have to go there, complete the mission for that area, and then you get the teleport orb now that you don't really have any use for it anymore. Any type of offensive magic ability in the game is absolutely worthless since they not only require large amounts of mana (which you won't have), but they also have a significantly lengthy "recharge" period between each use and the aiming mechanics are total shit. In general, you will find that anything useful to you will not be acquired, or not be available to you, until you no longer really need it anymore.
Rating: 1/5 stars
Controls:
Now let's talk combat - the meat and potatoes of any RPG. It is truly unfortunate that this holds true for this game as well, because the combat mechanics are utterly and truly abhorrent. The slightest movement of the stick causes you to turn and spin wildly in all directions, blocking or dodging is an exercise in futility, and enemies continuously block and parry the single attack that you have. More commonly, they just keep hopping backwards out of your reach. So for God's sake, whenever you enter combat be sure that there is a cliff wall, a big rock, or at least a large tree in the vicinity that you can back them up into so that you can attempt to land a hit or two in between their endless strings of blocks and parries. The combat is so completely fun-less that you will probably find yourself hunting down the most menial fetch quests in order to gain experience, just so you don't have to fight anything. I actually caught myself looking for conversation options that said "If you want, you can shit in my hand and I'll carry it to the outhouse for only 50 experience."
The menu system is frustrating, annoying and inconvenient. There is, however, one advantage. You can open the menu in the middle of combat and your foes will stop attacking you and just stand there while you proceed to chow down on 30 or 40 pieces of fried meat and drumsticks to replenish your health. But beware! Closing the menu requires pressing the "B" button, which also puts your weapon away or causes you to drop anything you may be holding. Great, huh?
Rating: 1/5 stars
Sound:
There is nothing really wrong with the music in this game, although I found a bit too calming and relaxing for this type of game. It made me almost as sleepy as the gameplay.
The voice acting, however, is another matter entirely. We're talking absolutely horrid voice talent here. I hesitate to even use the phrase voice talent at all. Every monotone actor in the game sounded just as tired as the rest of this awful mess.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Graphics:
I only encountered one instance of the game actually freezing up, but again, we're talking real crap here. The graphics in this game hark back to 1st gen gaming systems and are really not much better than Pac-Man or Galaga. You'll be seeing plentiful amounts of artifacts, jumping, jittering, seeing through walls, falling through the world, disconnected limbs and numerous other glitchy behaviors.
One thing I'd like to point out in particular, though, is something that the developers obviously thought was a very clever idea. See, the whole thing about the temples that have risen from the ground (get it? Risen?) is that this was caused by devastating earthquakes. Thus, the developers thought it would be a great idea to have earthquakes that make the screen shake quite liberally....about every 20 seconds. This will quite literally give you a skull-crushing headache after about an hour. Awesome!
Rating: 1/5 stars
Co-op:
None
Multiplayer:
None
Replayability:
Are you kidding me?
Rating: 1/5 stars
ScoHo Info:
This game has the standard 50 achievements, with a decent mix of story-related, task-related and side quest achievements. Don't plan on a quick or easy 1000, though. Completing this piece of shit will require at least 1 1/2 playthroughs, probably 2 full playthroughs. The only saving grace here is that stats are tracked independently of your game state or save data, thus allowing you to use the save/reload trick for a large number of the achievements. In other words, to kill "X" number of monsters you can find a group of 10, save your game, kill them, reload your save and then wash, rinse and repeat until the achievement pops. You can use this trick for the achievements related to any abilities that you don't want to waste your Learning Points on, as well.
Rating: 4/5 stars
If you are looking to boost your TA ratio, go ahead and give this one a go. However, you definitely want a rental or a used copy of this game as it probably won't be one that you'll be wanting to add to your collection. If you want a fun RPG, give it a pass. By the time I completed this POS, I was ready to drive knitting needles through my testicles.
Overall Rating: 1/5 stars
Smiley Rating:  of    
 |