Risen (RPG)

[Fiach]

Since I stopped playing ME3 I have been playing some slightly older games.

Risen is a RPG made by Piranha Bytes, famous for the sterling Gothic RPG series (famous for bugs too, but I would easily shelve 50% of the blame onto the publishers, Jowood). But fully patched the Gothic games are a paragon of excellence in the RPG genre.

Like Gothic, Risen has you start on an Island divided by factions, so you elect to develop your character aligned with a faction and this is done with the usual suspects, Fighter, Mage etc.

The important thing to note about this game is the high quality production from gfx to its voice acting, the voice acting especially as german RPG's are noted for their wooden acting performances.

Anyway, you start the game as a castaway and move to the swamp (Fighters), City (Paladins) or Monastry (Mages), each faction has intersecting quests that you can perform until eventually you have to choose a faction. The quests are well done, pushing and pulling your political alignment until the crunch moment when you make a choice and all your opposing faction quests are cancelled.

One thing to note is that this is a VERY german RPG and the combat is fecking hard initially, you have to move/dodge, block, parry etc. while the controls are fluid and effective with both your own and the enemy's animations adding zest to the fight, when you run into a pack of enemies and they start flanking you, it can get a bit hairy.

What i suggest, if you get the game is go to the swamp first, get some easy levels until you are sent across the map to investigate something, then go to the city, do the "Order" quests there but dont join, then get a recommendation to the Monastry and become a mage. Then you can nuke the crap out of enemies and not have to worry about parrying and blocking. It's interesting that you dont have to use a Stave as a mage, you can just as easily use a sword or axe 9no need for bow as you are already a ranged character.

The game can be as involved as you want it, you can prospect, craft weapons, make potions etc. you can harvest components from dead animals, cook meat, make recpies like steew etc. even brew beer. You can eat food to replenish HP and Mana and drink fluids to do the same.

All in all a quality RPG from a developer I had thought would never make another game after what happened with Gothic 3 (the publisher fired them as they were taking too long, released the game unfinished to the chagrin of its fans. But the game when patched by the community, became one of the very best RPG's available).

On a side note, you can get the Gothic series as a compilation called Gothic Universe that includes some expansions as well, I have seen it sub €10.