Risen (PC) Review - PAGE 3

Risen is not perfect, of course. The main gripe, and this is merely tentative as we've not gotten full playtime, is it becomes too easy, at least if you're playing as a mage (keep in mind the game, unlike its predecessors, has selectable difficulties; we picked hard, as we recommend you do). At around level 15, with a level four Magic Bullet spell -- which staves off enemies some while dealing damage -- it was very easy to take down most opponents while running backwards and firing away, frequently without taking a hit. This didn't work with more powerful foes like the Ashbeast (which you can transform into with a rare spell) or the skeletal High Priest, so we can hope the game offers an overall harder difficulty in this vein later on.

A related bug we encountered was with the enemy AI. While normally very well-done, there will be times when if you're standing far enough away from an enemy, or on a level below them, they will not move or attack you -- a rather large exploit for a mage or archer.

There's also the prevalance of bugged quests. On two occasions we were unable to complete quests due to the order in which we'd proceeded (sadly, hacking was necessary), with both of our approaches being very basic -- certainly not the kind of thing you'd expect to get past the programming and QA teams. Many players have reported similar results, too, so we hope Piranha gets on these with a patch in the future. That said, some good advice to follow is for the main quests, do them only one at a time -- don't start one and begin another, finishing the first later, for example. And if you join the Inquisition, complete your basic training before the "killer" quest. Going by this, you shouldn't run into any major trouble, if any at all.

In the grand scheme of things, these are relatively minor complaints, particularly with all the goodies included. Achievements, for example, are integrated into the game (although sadly not with Games for Windows LIVE). There's also the command console; as with previous Gothic  games, this one affords all kinds of fun like a first person mode, various cheats, a free camera to explore the world with, and lots, lots more. Further on that, PB has, as always, made Risen openly tweakable, which should please some, including the modding community. Lastly, Risen has a ~2.1GB install (how, we do not know), is pretty easy on resources, and has a fairly comprehensive manual -- a rarity these days. Did we mention it runs like a dream?

The downside here is the game is largely unsuited for the traditional review format, to which end some publications have already adapted their takes. It's long, easily warrants multiple playthroughs with the different factions and routes you can take, and encourages you to take your time and explore everything. To be frank, due to scheduling and time constraints, our playthrough ran about 30 hours -- a pretty good result offering a solid idea of what the game is like, but for a package so grand, it would've been nice to do it total justice and have completed it. Interestingly, even after three-hour or longer sessions, it was still thrilling to jump back in after breaks.

That said, we can state with great confidence you must own Risen if you love RPGs, and perhaps even if you just appreciate highly believable worlds. PC gamers who've been lamenting the lack of well-done classic titles like this with proper treatment should be overjoyed at the revival of sorts with this one. It's both accessible and "hardcore", and would make an excellent choice for a newcomer to the genre (though it's really recommended to start with Gothic), as well as the hardened veteran.

All told, a thoroughly impressive package its creators have only to be all too proud of. We hope after its clashes with JoWood, Piranha Bytes have found a new home with publisher Deep Silver and will work with them on many games like this in the years to come.