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Risen | Official Thread (PC/PC/PC/360) -- RPG from Gothic creators

Zeliard

Member
This game nails the exploration factor. As someone earlier said, you spot a ruin or a cave and you want to enter and explore that shit immediately. And they're nicely designed, too.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Zeliard said:
I don't know if it's any different in the demo, but loot is pretty obvious in the full version. You generally know what you can pick up and what is static before seeing the text overlays. That's been my experience, at least.

And use D3DOverrider to force vysnc + triple buffering.
Hmm, thanks, I do have D3DOverrider. Do you think triple buffering helps this game out? I don't think I noticed much if any tearing, but I wasn't running Fraps to see what I got. (seemed fairly smooth at 1680x1050, everything max except 4xAA)

And can anyone else confirm that the black screen for a while is normal for the demo? (after the overlay with the Risen thing appears over Windows)
 

BeeDog

Member
Zeliard said:
This game nails the exploration factor. As someone earlier said, you spot a ruin or a cave and you want to enter and explore that shit immediately. And they're nicely designed, too.

Definitely, but more often than not shit in those places fuck you up bad. :lol

There's this cave next to the very first farm (the one to the "right" of the start, near the bridge over the small lake) which I assumed was an easy one, thinking "hey, it's pretty much next to the starting area, what the hell could go wrong?"

Turns out everything. :p Full of Ghouls and some Bog Bodies, they tore me a new asshole pretty damn quick. Love how merciless the PB games are.
 

Blizzard

Banned
Okay, you can edit the config file yourself and change Fullscreen to false, and that lets you do windowed 720p or whatnot. Yay! Unfortunately the windows cursor isn't hidden. Sucks!

You can also change mouse horizontal and vertical sensitivity in there, awesome.

...the multiple loading bars with no descriptive text is also weird since you don't know how long loading will take. Or is that another bug where I'm not seeing text?
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Blizzard said:
I tried a tiny bit of the demo. Is the game supposed to have a black screen for like 15 seconds before the game menu comes up, or does my computer (e8400, ATI 4850, Windows 7 64-bit RC) not work with an intro movie for some reason?

I get this very same problem. I'm using an e8500, ATI 4870 1GB and Windows 7 64-bit RC so we have very similar systems. It usually takes me a minute or two to get in the game which is kind of annoying. The strange thing is that sometimes it doesn't happen at all and it takes me to the menu screen almost immediately.
 

Myr

Banned
The game definitely gets better after a few hours.

The initial opening sections feel markedly eurotrash, although charmingly, but as soon as you get to Harbour Town, and especially the Monastery, the game pretty much feels like the big budget Bioware title you never got. How many chapters are there?

Thinking about sticking with my mage, I fucking hate the Don and his gang of losers. The first time in any RPG I've actually sided with 'the bad guys'.
 

fanboi

Banned
BeeDog said:
Definitely, but more often than not shit in those places fuck you up bad. :lol

There's this cave next to the very first farm (the one to the "right" of the start, near the bridge over the small lake) which I assumed was an easy one, thinking "hey, it's pretty much next to the starting area, what the hell could go wrong?"

Turns out everything. :p Full of Ghouls and some Bog Bodies, they tore me a new asshole pretty damn quick. Love how merciless the PB games are.

YES!

I love it when games let you go free and if you want, you can encounter WAY to powerful enemies... hate it when a game will hold your hand...
 

Durante

Member
Myr said:
Thinking about sticking with my mage, I fucking hate the Don and his gang of losers. The first time in any RPG I've actually sided with 'the bad guys'.
Well, even if you try to join the Don you get to
beat up the most annoying members of his merry band
.
 

MacBosse

Member
Myr said:
Thinking about sticking with my mage, I fucking hate the Don and his gang of losers. The first time in any RPG I've actually sided with 'the bad guys'.

The Don himself is pretty cool but yeah his gang is a sad gang of losers. I joined them solely because of the Don. I have faith in the man.
 
I haven't been thinking of the Don and crew as the good guys. It sounds like they were a criminal organization who owned the police and milked the harbor's citizens dry. The White Robes are doing far worse for now, but either side's motivations may end up throwing them into the same shade of gray as time passes. In Gothic 2 & 3 I always ended up picking the lesser evil but never felt certain that I hadn't actually picked the more harmful group.
 

Myr

Banned
Holy shit, I had no idea Gimli and Gollum was in this game :lol

Also, couldn't find anything on IMDB, but is
Sarco, the guy in the hidden room in the brothel
voiced by Malcom McDowell?
 

Yasae

Banned
HK-47 said:
Most rpgs are arcadey and unrealistic in battle. It like complaining that everyone is standing in a line in a TBRPG.
Arcadey in that it relies heavily upon reflexes. Arcadey in that all creatures are adept (not just passively skilled) at dodging my blows. Arcadey in that they combo me to death otherwise. It really does remind me of whack-a-mole.

And this is coupled with animation that's by-hand and missing a few hundred frames. The inhabitants don't have something called, oh.. "Momentum." They can just spam you to kingdom come. It's not overly difficult as long as you're careful, but it's like there's this AI with 3 lines of code dictating its movement and attack patterns. Really, really fake and artificial in a game that's set in open-world terrain. It doesn't fit.

I also know it's a gameplay feature and I haven't liked it since Gothic fucking 3. It's BAD; I thought they would've taken a different direction, but it seems they haven't.
 

G_Berry

Banned
I posted this in the other thread but it got closed....


PC demo is great. Once I turned on AA and vsync anyway.

Runs fantastic too, all settings high 1920x1080. DoF effects are very well done as are textures.

Pity the game is banned here in Australia :(
 

Binabik15

Member
Binabik15 said:
Is this playable with a gamepad on pc? I have a damaged wrist and playing with a mouse really starts to hurt over time :/

Anyone?

Plus, can anyone link me to a torrent for the demo? I´m loading from Gamestar and it´s slooow, but I´m too stupid to find a torrent for the demo, the full game is everywhere. Le sigh.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Yasae said:
Arcadey in that it relies heavily upon reflexes. Arcadey in that all creatures are adept (not just passively skilled) at dodging my blows. Arcadey in that they combo me to death otherwise. It really does remind me of whack-a-mole.

And this is coupled with animation that's by-hand and missing a few hundred frames. The inhabitants don't have something called, oh.. "Momentum." They can just spam you to kingdom come. It's not overly difficult as long as you're careful, but it's like there's this AI with 3 lines of code dictating its movement and attack patterns. Really, really fake and artificial in a game that's set in open-world terrain. It doesn't fit.

I also know it's a gameplay feature and I haven't liked it since Gothic fucking 3. It's BAD; I thought they would've taken a different direction, but it seems they haven't.

I find the combat to be pretty fun once you have mastered an enemies movements and can destroy them fairly easily, but it is extremely frustrating at the beginning and I totally agree with you that it isn't very "good". The combat actually kind of reminds of the Monster Hunter games where you will get your ass kicked unless you learn the enemy's movements at which point they become push-over easy.
 

Durante

Member
Regarding the combat, what actually is "good" combat in action RPGs? I certainly think that Risen's combat is more interesting than Oblivion's, but that wasn't particularly great either. Then there's the Diablo-type attack/skill spam type, but that really wouldn't fit a game like this. Is there some really amazing action RPG combat system I'm unaware of?
 

kinggroin

Banned
Joseph Merrick said:
you can also pickpocket it off the gate guard before entering the city.

You can also fight the guard who stands watch outside the
imprisoned pirate's room
at the furthest end of the harbor. Next to the huge ass boat.
 

Binabik15

Member
Steam is done dl/ing the demo, but starting it gives me a "severe error", something about memory allocation and not being able to create a dump or something.

Well, I should be doing fun law stuff anyway D:
 
Blizzard said:
Hmm, thanks, I do have D3DOverrider. Do you think triple buffering helps this game out? I don't think I noticed much if any tearing, but I wasn't running Fraps to see what I got. (seemed fairly smooth at 1680x1050, everything max except 4xAA)

And can anyone else confirm that the black screen for a while is normal for the demo? (after the overlay with the Risen thing appears over Windows)

The game seems to use vsync + tripple buffering by default.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Awesome game. Been in marathon mode since I picked it up, have 19 hours clocked already. Same sort of vibe I had with The Witcher, except Risen is a little more explioration focused.

Great exploration and sense of danger. Was really impressed by some of the big quests so far and how involved and multifaceted everything turned out to be. No handholding at all, and critical thinking is often required.
 

dionysus

Yaldog
I am getting kind of annoyed that I am at least 10 hours in and I still haven't been able to get trained in any type of magic.

I'll echo Evilore and say that the quest lines are definitely more intricate and convoluted than your average ARPG and definitely kick the ass of Oblivion's shitty shit quests.

Overall, the pluses are the quests and the exploration and the negative is character progression. I guess I just want to see my character getting more powerful a little quicker. For example, I was 10 hours in before I got my first armor upgrade. I enjoy the lack of hand holding as well.

It is definitely scratching my CRPG itch in a very satisfying manner. Much much better than Bethesda games but not as good as The Witcher.
 

Victrix

*beard*
If you want to use magic you need to either
Join the Order or join the Mages, the first gives you access to scroll making, the latter to scroll making and Rune (spell) usage. If you go Bandit, you can only cast spells from scroll you find/buy
 

mike0513

Banned
My impressions thus far:

The quests range anywhere from completely unnecessarily long (think witcher) to near-perfect. The combat leaves a bit more to be wanted, especially on the defensive side of things (Butterfly Insects should not be harder to kill than human warlords :lol ) The feeling of adventure is incredible, and it has a lot to do with the attention to detail. Every area in the game seems unique and the color palate used is very vibrant (as opposed to Brown, Grey, with a hint of Light Brown). The story is good enough, and the sense of choice is well done as well. The biggest issue I have with the game is its (at times) confusing quest objectives and minor bugs can either hinder or (in some cases) completely ruin the game. Overall though, after 15 hours of gameplay, I would definitely give this game an A-/B+
 

dionysus

Yaldog
Victrix said:
If you want to use magic you need to either
Join the Order or join the Mages, the first gives you access to scroll making, the latter to scroll making and Rune (spell) usage. If you go Bandit, you can only cast spells from scroll you find/buy

Ah shoot. Guess I'll go warrior thief then.
 
Wow, i totally gleaned over this game because I thought it was a low budget crapfest that had a 360 port. Being part of the pc master race, im gonna check this out when I get home. Looks like something im in the mood to play.
 
I'm a bit split of getting this, I'm playing Gothic 2 Gold right now and the demo is basically Gothic streamlined, for the better, and prettier
 

Victrix

*beard*
Two quick navigation tips, since they weren't immediately apparent to me (or I'm blind, whichever)

First, if you're browsing quests, you can click 'Quest Map' over on the right, and for a lot of quests, it shows you either where you're supposed to go, or where NPCs related to the quest are

Second, this ALSO works for the Traders/Trainers, so if you can't remember where someone sells a certain type of item or trains a certain skill, just check your list with the map tab open and it'll mark them on the map for you.
 

syllogism

Member
Prime crotch said:
I'm a bit split of getting this, I'm playing Gothic 2 Gold right now and the demo is basically Gothic streamlined, for the better, and prettier
Gothic 2 is better than Risen, are you playing it for the first time? I don't see any reason to skip Risen if you aren't, otherwise you are probably going to be a bit exhausted by the whole Gothic experience after you finish that.
 
syllogism said:
Gothic 2 is better than Risen, are you playing it for the first time? I don't see any reason to skip Risen if you aren't, otherwise you are probably going to be a bit exhausted by the whole Gothic experience after you finish that.
I'm finding it too big for the kind of experience it offers; there's only three stages of pace in Gothic, "I can't win, must run", "I can barely win" and "I am going to ass rape you now, you fucking goblins" while it's certainly a great game the half-decent combat, and huge scope can make it tiring

Risen though, streamlines most of the issues I have with it
 
Ok I need some help guys. Fairly early in...


I'm in the
Bandit camp and doing some of the missions. I've gotten the guys to dig the artifacts again, I got the people to deliver the crates again, and some other various quests. It seems I somehow have to fight that one douche bag since he is trying to take over the camp. I'm not sure how. I just recently found out I need some gold peices of a sword, anyone know where I find them? It just seems at this point I'm stuck on most my quests in the swamp. I go to the red or green quests markers for each quest and no one is adding anything new to the quests.

Also when do you start making more money so you can get more skills and armor? I still have really jack shit except I increased my strength just a bit. Or do I need to leave and do some missions for the other factions?

Thanks in advance.
 

dionysus

Yaldog
slasher_thrasher21 said:
Ok I need some help guys. Fairly early in...


I'm in the
Bandit camp and doing some of the missions. I've gotten the guys to dig the artifacts again, I got the people to deliver the crates again, and some other various quests. It seems I somehow have to fight that one douche bag since he is trying to take over the camp. I'm not sure how. I just recently found out I need some gold peices of a sword, anyone know where I find them? It just seems at this point I'm stuck on most my quests in the swamp. I go to the red or green quests markers for each quest and no one is adding anything new to the quests.

Also when do you start making more money so you can get more skills and armor? I still have really jack shit except I increased my strength just a bit. Or do I need to leave and do some missions for the other factions?

Thanks in advance.

Fight in the arena and loot the bodies of your opponents for at least 3 of the sword pieces. There is another in a chest at the excavation site and I believe one of the workers has the last piece. Alternatively, I think you can pick pocket some of the pieces. A hint for the arena fights, if you run around and shoot them with a bow or crossbow, it is a lot easier than meleeing them.

Also, there are a few bandit quests not physically in the swamp that you can do. Go to the waterfall section for some.
 
dionysus said:
Fight in the arena and loot the bodies of your opponents for at least 3 of the sword pieces. There is another in a chest at the excavation site and I believe one of the workers has the last piece. Alternatively, I think you can pick pocket some of the pieces. A hint for the arena fights, if you run around and shoot them with a bow or crossbow, it is a lot easier than meleeing them.

Also, there are a few bandit quests not physically in the swamp that you can do. Go to the waterfall section for some.

Are you talking about the farm guy in the water for the water fall section?

And thanks, I'll try this later tonight when I return from work. If I remember corrrectly I just have to talk to a guy to get the arena stuff going right?
 
JonStark said:
Sofar I'm liking this game. Will Gothic 4 play the same ? I herd they were two very similar games.
well yeah, this is definitely what the arcania devs are trying to achieve. no idea how similar the games will turn out to be though. piranha bytes have been doing this for such a long time, it's impossible to tell what those completely new guys will be able to do for their first game there. it's the guys that did the desperados/robinhoodlegendofsherwood games, so should be interesting
 
Crye said:
Is this normal? :lol
http://i35.tinypic.com/28u01f6.jpg
Still only demo version but I think it might just be me, wouldn't be the first time my machine decided to go do something awesome. ;p
oh man. that anno bug is the best thing ever

got a nice head bug on konrad after I did the cow head quest. he was so upset his head kept spinning around. was caused by me standing in the stairs and him sitting on a chair in the second floor while trying to shout/talk something. the joke spell fixed his neck, laugh it off you moron :lol

edit: also had a couple of memory related complete program crashes by now. caused by running between the swamp and harbourtown a couple of times. also in one of the runs I went through the entire 'west coast' skeletons part aswell. so the program was probably insanely huge from the memory seepage on that one
 

Victrix

*beard*
Curious, unusually (for pc gaming) I've had precisely 0 crashes since I started playing. I have had a few goofball incidents of warping 8 feet in the air, usually while jumping/levitating around, but other than that... no technical issues whatsoever.

Query, does anyone know where I can find a weapon skill list that shows what the weapon skills unlock from 1-10?
 
Risen2009-10-0510-29-49-59.jpg


Risen2009-10-0510-37-25-84.jpg


Risen2009-10-0510-43-19-45.jpg


Risen2009-10-0510-45-46-59.jpg


Game is soooo nice looking. Comparisons to Oblivion have to be a joke. Even with modded textures and stuff, the lighting and shadows in Risen are far beyond what that game is capable of.

That's not even considering the artistic elements, with the larger varieties of flora and the sculpted world that doesn't look like it was made in a terrain generator.
 

BioNut

Banned
Loving this game so far.

The biggest negative I have found is the lack of any relationship formation (friendship/romance) leads you to not care about any of the NPCs. They end up being quest vendors that give you something to do and then when you are done are all like, "Big gulps huh? Whelp, see you later."

This is extremely apparent when you get
Patty out of the city, help her dig up all of the treasures, save her life and get back her fathers map. The whole time you actually feel attached to the NPC because of her story and her fathers story and then at the end she gives you some vague idea of what she will do in the future and then tosses up a duce while she trots back to her tavern. From that point on she will only sell you shit. I mean, no more idle chatter or anything interesting.

Or there is Sara, the girl you survived the ship wreck with. You help her get a place on that farm and she doesn't speak to you again the whole game, lol.

Nobody is friendly to you in this game save doug and sam
but they soon become nothing more than vendors as well.
 
Victrix said:
Curious, unusually (for pc gaming) I've had precisely 0 crashes since I started playing. I have had a few goofball incidents of warping 8 feet in the air, usually while jumping/levitating around, but other than that... no technical issues whatsoever.
oh yeah, that's another bug I've had-- in a couple of the houses, if you stand in the doorway and swing the camera around it will sometimes warp your guy on top of the house. heh.
 

BioNut

Banned
Confidence Man said:
Game is soooo nice looking. Comparisons to Oblivion have to be a joke. Even with modded textures and stuff, the lighting and shadows in Risen are far beyond what that game is capable of.

That's not even considering the artistic elements, with the larger varieties of flora and the sculpted world that doesn't look like it was made in a terrain generator.

I don't like the DOF in this game. It it is a little too oppressive and the distance it starts isn't far enough away.

I mean if I walk outside my site doesn't blur that bad when looking long distances.

Beautiful pics though.
 
BioNut said:
I don't like the DOF in this game. It it is a little too oppressive and the distance it starts isn't far enough away.

I mean if I walk outside my site doesn't blur that bad when looking long distances.

Beautiful pics though.

Then turn it off? Its a PC game, you don't have to suffer effects you don't like.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
BioNut said:
Loving this game so far.

The biggest negative I have found is the lack of any relationship formation (friendship/romance) leads you to not care about any of the NPCs. They end up being quest vendors that give you something to do and then when you are done are all like, "Big gulps huh? Whelp, see you later."

This is extremely apparent when you get
Patty out of the city, help her dig up all of the treasures, save her life and get back her fathers map. The whole time you actually feel attached to the NPC because of her story and her fathers story and then at the end she gives you some vague idea of what she will do in the future and then tosses up a duce while she trots back to her tavern. From that point on she will only sell you shit. I mean, no more idle chatter or anything interesting.

Or there is Sara, the girl you survived the ship wreck with. You help her get a place on that farm and she doesn't speak to you again the whole game, lol.

Nobody is friendly to you in this game save doug and sam
but they soon become nothing more than vendors as well.

Chapter 4 semi-spoiler:
Patty makes an appearance in chapter 4 and helps you fight

I'm in Chapter 4 now... and almost level 25. I found an awesome Titan's Axe that has 120 bashing damage and I think it might be the best weapon in the game or at least have the highest attack power. I might be wrong, though!

I gotta say... Chapter 3 was kind of disappointing and short, but there was some cool story bits in it near the end! Is anyone else near the end of the game?
 
When do you start coming across more gold? I can't beleive they want 500 for some bandit armor at the swamp. I haven't even accumilated that much gold in my 3 hours of playing.
 
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