Piranha Bytes RPG teaser site

[HoonDing]

Level 10 fireball = win.

 

I'm currently revisiting a lot of areas and killing a lot of creatures I had to avoid earlier.

[Tigranes]

Fireball's been pretty damn useless so far, though mage still rocks for Speed / Levitate / Berserker / Skeleton runes. Managed to get a +2 amulet so at level 7 fireball now, gonna test it out.

[mkreku]

I only have a level 5 fireball.. But I think it's very useful. For starters, it's unblockable! This means I can go as far away from my enemies as the viewing distance allows and then pepper them with little balls of fire while they're running towards me. Nothing has survived that treatment so far, not even a thunder lizard! I also got my first seal last night so now I can use my runes. Lovely.

[Tigranes]

The cooldown time for fireball means that in closed spaces like Ch3 Temple you can only get a couple off, though. I agree it was of great use in the outdoors where Risen allows you to use the terrain to scope out good battlegrounds.

 

Seal 3 = Open Locks and Speed Run, so I'll go on a full island tour and scope out every little crack. I did a tour in Chapter 2 but back then even skeletons were a massive challenge.

[Tigranes]

Bump. Finished the game, but did most of Chapter 4 in God mode because I knew there wasn't much to look forward to except for endless combat. Verdict is that ending is indeed poor, and the game isn't worth playing past the end of Chapter 2... but that's still good 15-20 hours of solid entertainment. After an entire game based on 'thoughtful action RPG combat', the Zelda-like puzzle battle for the final boss was stupid as well. if only PB had the resources to keep it up.

 

With no RPG to play I might try to start again with the bandit path and see how far I keep my interest...

[HoonDing]

I'm having a similar experience to Gothic 3 with this game... it's a decent enough game, but it's starting to burn me out with all the grinding and I'm beginning to lose interest... I'm somewhere near the end of CHapter 3, I think.

[trulez]

I'm having a similar experience to Gothic 3 with this game... it's a decent enough game, but it's starting to burn me out with all the grinding and I'm beginning to lose interest... I'm somewhere near the end of CHapter 3, I think.

I fixed that by cheating my weaponskills to max. When the combat is even, you kill them in 1-2 strikes or they kill you in 1-2 strikes it's fairly enjoyable. I also found that the spells are best weapons in Risen, freeze your target with Ice and then finish them with Magic Bullet. Magic Bullet also has a knockback feature which makes incoming Ashbeast for example stop on their tracks and not get in melee range.

 

All the "difficult" end game battles are easily won with Magic Bullet alone, or combination of freezing and then shooting magic bullets. Melee is the hardest combat style in Risen, and you should pick up bow/crossbow as early as possible when starting a new game to make the initial enemies easier. You can abuse the AI pathfinding by climbing up to cliffs so the monsters can't reach you and just shoot away until they die.

 

I always enjoy playing melee characters and was sorely disappointed how crippled they are in Risen compared to other disciplines.

[Maria Caliban]

Yep. I figured I couldn't dodge, so I might as well shield it up. I'm in Chapter 3 now, around level 19, and with something like 60-70% defence for physical damage, around 25% for magical. The best shield I've found so far is that of

Lord Patroscon

... looks cool, too.

 

Chapter 3's pretty boring and slow at the moment with all the lizardmen around, I guess after ~20 hours I'm hitting the grind parts. We'll see...

 

You can dodge. I figured it out about five hours before I finished the game.

[mkreku]

Pretty funny play-by-play ovwer at Rock, Paper, Shotgun: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tag/the-risen-report/

[HoonDing]

When the combat is even, you kill them in 1-2 strikes or they kill you in 1-2 strikes it's fairly enjoyable. I also found that the spells are best weapons in Risen, freeze your target with Ice and then finish them with Magic Bullet. Magic Bullet also has a knockback feature which makes incoming Ashbeast for example stop on their tracks and not get in melee range.

Yeah... but the problem is that's pretty much all I have done in the past 10+ hours or so...

 

In fact, the dungeon delving for Ancient Powerful Items reminds me of Morrowind.

Edited October 19, 2009 by virumor

[Baneblade]

I only have a level 5 fireball.. But I think it's very useful. For starters, it's unblockable! This means I can go as far away from my enemies as the viewing distance allows and then pepper them with little balls of fire while they're running towards me. Nothing has survived that treatment so far, not even a thunder lizard! I also got my first seal last night so now I can use my runes. Lovely.

 

So is Magic Bullet, it's shorter casting/cooling time makes it better... really the only combat spell you need.

 

 

Bump. Finished the game, but did most of Chapter 4 in God mode because I knew there wasn't much to look forward to except for endless combat. Verdict is that ending is indeed poor, and the game isn't worth playing past the end of Chapter 2... but that's still good 15-20 hours of solid entertainment. After an entire game based on 'thoughtful action RPG combat', the Zelda-like puzzle battle for the final boss was stupid as well. if only PB had the resources to keep it up.

 

With no RPG to play I might try to start again with the bandit path and see how far I keep my interest...

 

Agreed.

 

Overall the game itself wasn't bad, but it was very short, like ~20h short. Still, VAST improvement over G3.

[HoonDing]

The game flow in Risen reminds me a lot of Divinity 2... excellent opening with quests that can be solved in multiple ways (even choosing between factions, although nothing as major), but then halfway the game sidequests start becoming rarer and the game turns into a pure dungeon delving hack/fireball grindfest.

 

I just hope Risen's ending won't be as hideously atrocious as Divinity 2's.

[mkreku]

Uhm.. don't get your hopes up.

[Morgoth]

It's kinda sad PB didn't take the opportunity to distinguish Risen from the Gothic series too much.

[Enoch]

Played the Demo. Not bad. The combat wasn't nearly as frustrating as I remember Gothic 2 being. I doubt I'll buy it at full price, but I'll keep my eyes open for a sale or price drop sometime in the months to come.

[jaguars4ever]

So far I'm loving this game. It's head and shoulders above the Gothic games IMO. One question though: Is there only save slot apart from the autosave & quicksave?

 

If so, I'm all for that actually, since it adds to the "hardcore" nature of this RPG. However, if it turns out to be anywhere as buggy as the Gothics then perhaps I better back 'em up.

[WorstUsernameEver]

So far I'm loving this game. It's head and shoulders above the Gothic games IMO. One question though: Is there only save slot apart from the autosave & quicksave?

 

If so, I'm all for that actually, since it adds to the "hardcore" nature of this RPG. However, if it turns out to be anywhere as buggy as the Gothics then perhaps I better back 'em up.

 

Uhm, are you playing the console version? I finished Risen a couple of months ago and I remember more than one save slot...

[Tigranes]

For PC there's no save restriction.

 

I was very fond of Risen, if it held up as strong until the end and didn't have the ridiculous action ending it'd be truly class. Challenging, fun to explore, well designed quests.

[WorstUsernameEver]

For PC there's no save restriction.

 

I was very fond of Risen, if it held up as strong until the end and didn't have the ridiculous action ending it'd be truly class. Challenging, fun to explore, well designed quests.

 

Tell you what, I like the dungeon romp in the ending.

Granted, the pacing was ****ed up, but it was mostly good fun.

Then came the final boss and my reaction was ... WHAT THE HELL?

I read something about it on some boards but it didn't prepare me for it

[jaguars4ever]

I can't for the life of me figure out how to save in a different slot (PC version mind you). Sounds retarded, I know.

[Starwars]

For PC there's no save restriction.

 

I was very fond of Risen, if it held up as strong until the end and didn't have the ridiculous action ending it'd be truly class. Challenging, fun to explore, well designed quests.

 

Totally agree here. I would say that the first two chapters (if we include the town in those because it's most likely you'll be doing the quests sooner than later) is some of the best RPG design I've seen. The world feels dangerous, the quests are interesting and the split between the factions is very well done and influences your gameplay depending on who you support. I frickin' loved becoming a mage in the game, it felt like a real ordeal.

[HoonDing]

Even a wannabe mage is forced to take sword training since staves suck bigtime in comparison. I learnt this the hard way when I had to beat some scoundrel to get out of Harbour Town. Took half an hour to slowly chip away his health bar while he could 'kill' Lincoln Burrows in two hits.

 

Melee combat is simply horrible without at least 5 ranks in swords.

[Tigranes]

Staves do suck, yes, but you can get by without any melee combat at all. It's just a bit more annoying.

[Undecaf]

Am I the only one who thinks the melee combat was actually good and exciting? I loved how I couldn't manage with the ordinary buttonsmashing.

[Starwars]

I loved the melee combat in the beginning of the game, feels real tough and the learning curve is there.

 

I think the problem is later in the game when you learn the system, and the game becomes drastically easier. I think the combat system was a really awesome start (way better than most action-RPGs) but I think it could've benefitted from a bit more depth, especially as you get farther into the game. Possibly more enemy types with more differences in attack pattern would've helped a lot as well.

 

But yep, I found combat to be a *lot* better than most action-RPGs generally speaking.