Risen 3 is coming

[mkreku]

I can't really talk about it since I already have a reputation as a Piranha Bytes fanboi of the worst degree.

 

(I love it though)

[GhostofAnakin]

I don't know if it's a glitch or designed this way or what, but my mage companion sucks in combat because he never actually uses magic.  The dude spends all his time when he's on my boat practicing shooting magic stuff out of his hands, but when I take him along with me he just uses his sword in combat.

 

What's the point of a mage companion if he's not even going to use magic?

[Tigranes]

No idea there, I never use companions in PB games. 

[Freshock]

Been trying to force myself to like Risen 3, but can't seem to do it. Loved the Gothic-games and Risen 1 but couldn't get into Risen 2 and now 3, especially 3 seems to me like it's focused on console gaming and there is just something about the combat and graphics that seems off to me. Hope you guys are having fun with it though. 

[vril]

I am about 16 hours in and am doing all the quests I can before I actually pick a faction.  I've enjoyed it so far quite a bit more than both Risen and Risen 2.  Combat is slightly improved over Risen 2 but still can have some minor issues.  There are a ton of quests on each island.  I know people will say it is really just Risen 2.5 since it reuses a lot of graphical content but with the sheer amount of quest content I really do not care and it was worth the price for that alone..

[BruceVC]

I am about 16 hours in and am doing all the quests I can before I actually pick a faction.  I've enjoyed it so far quite a bit more than both Risen and Risen 2.  Combat is slightly improved over Risen 2 but still can have some minor issues.  There are a ton of quests on each island.  I know people will say it is really just Risen 2.5 since it reuses a lot of graphical content but with the sheer amount of quest content I really do not care and it was worth the price for that alone..

 

That's a good enough endorsement for me

[WorstUsernameEver]

Shameless self-promotion: my Risen 3 review. Edited August 22, 2014 by WorstUsernameEver

[Tigranes]

Generally agree. It is R2+, and it could have been a good game just by fixing the easy combat. The encouraging point is that they improved upon their previous title; the discouraging point is that the ways in which they are improving shows the old PB is well and truly gone. 

 

Not sure what to feel about item progression though. Risen 1 did a superb job of making each upgrade expensive, alluring (oh god I can see it in the shop window) and meaningful (feels different when you smack someone with it). In Risen 2 and 3, the game is easy enough that it hardly matters, and I also found that the majority of R3's melee weapons had very similar stats (30-55 damage or 40-50?), until you craft/find some of the SPESHUL ones that are good for the rest of the game.

[BruceVC]

 have been a good game just by fixing the easy combat. The encouraging point is that they improved upon their previous title; the discouraging point is that the ways in which they are improving shows the old PB is well and truly gone. 

 

Tigranes are you sure that you weren't playing Risen 3 on easy mode? You may have enabled it by accident which would explain why combat was so easy?

[GhostofAnakin]

Minor annoyance.  When challenged to a duel and you have spectators watching you and the other guy duel, not being able to select a target gets frustrating when you go to attack your opponent only to then accidentally hit one of the spectators, who then draws his sword and the entire area turns into me versus all of them.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Tigranes is on the money when it comes to difficulty in Risen 3, it really is too easy. I'm not sure if I agree that Risen 2 is too easy, the first hours were as brutal as any other Piranha Bytes' game due to a mix of systems strongly limiting your abilities and not being familiar with enemy patterns and quirks, which were much more pronounced than in Risen 3.

[Tigranes]

 

 have been a good game just by fixing the easy combat. The encouraging point is that they improved upon their previous title; the discouraging point is that the ways in which they are improving shows the old PB is well and truly gone. 

 

Tigranes are you sure that you weren't playing Risen 3 on easy mode? You may have enabled it by accident which would explain why combat was so easy?

 

 

Uh. No. 

[HoonDing]

The super saiyan ninja animals in PB games are always a hoot.

[GhostofAnakin]

Just started Chapter 3.  I should have waited a bit longer before deciding to become a Voodoo Pirate.

[GhostofAnakin]

I think I ran into my first bug/glitch.  One of my companions has disappeared.  He's not on the ship and I can't locate him on the last island he was accompanying me on.

[mkreku]

I've noticed they can get stuck when you choose a 'path less taken' (ie. you fall down a cliff). Usually a teleport solves it, unless they have left your party (happens when you use the parrot spell), in which case you have to go back and get them.

 

I've plowed 30 hours into this game now, and I still haven't visited Calador and two other smaller islands yet, and I have not chosen a faction to join. I'm on Kila and I must admit I'm having a blast. It's still not as open and free as Gothic 3 was, but it's a great step forwards. Just the 'simple' addition of swimming and a kind of climbing system that resembles the one seen in Gothic/Gothic 2 has made the game so much more enjoyable for me. Exploration is really exploration now. And since this is a Piranha Bytes game, exploration always feels satisfying and rewarding.

 

Also, I love that I'm not sure which quests are main quests and which are side quests. To me, that's a sign that the side quests are well written and implemented.

 

Technically it's excellent. I've had one crash and that's it. No stuttering, no stuck quests, no weird behaviour, no pop-in and the game runs smooth as silk on my (slightly overpowered for this type of game) Radeon R9 290X. I also happen to think it's a gorgeous game, but I'm not one of you gaming hipsters who have to whine about how everything looks like **** (who the **** cares if the headlights on cars in Watch Dogs don't cast shadows?!). It doesn't have the latest effects, some textures are low res, hair looks like plastic and so on. But stuff moves in the wind, the water looks fantastic, enemies react as they should in combat, vegetation react as you walk through it, lots of little details that make the world lived in everywhere. Stuff like that impresses me much more than perfect skin shaders. It's a game that looks much better in motion than in pictures.

 

It's been a long time since I've played a game that makes me not want to go to bed at night.

[BruceVC]

I've noticed they can get stuck when you choose a 'path less taken' (ie. you fall down a cliff). Usually a teleport solves it, unless they have left your party (happens when you use the parrot spell), in which case you have to go back and get them.

 

I've plowed 30 hours into this game now, and I still haven't visited Calador and two other smaller islands yet, and I have not chosen a faction to join. I'm on Kila and I must admit I'm having a blast. It's still not as open and free as Gothic 3 was, but it's a great step forwards. Just the 'simple' addition of swimming and a kind of climbing system that resembles the one seen in Gothic/Gothic 2 has made the game so much more enjoyable for me. Exploration is really exploration now. And since this is a Piranha Bytes game, exploration always feels satisfying and rewarding.

 

Also, I love that I'm not sure which quests are main quests and which are side quests. To me, that's a sign that the side quests are well written and implemented.

 

Technically it's excellent. I've had one crash and that's it. No stuttering, no stuck quests, no weird behaviour, no pop-in and the game runs smooth as silk on my (slightly overpowered for this type of game) Radeon R9 290X. I also happen to think it's a gorgeous game, but I'm not one of you gaming hipsters who have to whine about how everything looks like **** (who the **** cares if the headlights on cars in Watch Dogs don't cast shadows?!). It doesn't have the latest effects, some textures are low res, hair looks like plastic and so on. But stuff moves in the wind, the water looks fantastic, enemies react as they should in combat, vegetation react as you walk through it, lots of little details that make the world lived in everywhere. Stuff like that impresses me much more than perfect skin shaders. It's a game that looks much better in motion than in pictures.

 

It's been a long time since I've played a game that makes me not want to go to bed at night.

This is another excellent endorsement for the game, these are the types of player reviews I like to read when deciding whether to purchase a game

 

You mention the good and the bad.

[GhostofAnakin]

I found my missing companion.  Apparently he joined one of the guilds and was hanging out with them.  But I don't remember getting any notice of this.  He just kind of vanished on me.

[mkreku]

I think one of my companions just committed suicide just to not have to hang out with me

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm a bit disappointed in the special weapons you find throughout the game.  I found some blade of Mara, but its damage properties were well below my current sword, which is just an upgraded version of a sword you can buy from merchants.

 

Mara's sword is something like damage 35-65, whereas my current sword is 40-105.

[GhostofAnakin]

That Ore Titan was not fun.

[WorstUsernameEver]

That Ore Titan was not fun.

It's a typical Piranha Bytes' gimmick boss. Luckily it's not the final one.

[mkreku]

I'm a bit disappointed in the special weapons you find throughout the game.  I found some blade of Mara, but its damage properties were well below my current sword, which is just an upgraded version of a sword you can buy from merchants.

 

Mara's sword is something like damage 35-65, whereas my current sword is 40-105.

 

I need to go to the same merchants as you! My named sword is only something like 55-85!

 

But I agree. The weapons are really not good this time. I have this musket that's quite good, worth 650 gold and shoots for 65 damage. Then I find this cool named musket, worth 1000 gold, and I check its stats: exactly the same as my no-name musket. So disappointing.

 

It has happened a lot: new weapons, worth more in gold but with way worse stats. The entire equipment table is a mess.

 

I'm still enjoying the game though.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished the game.  That sword I mentioned remained the most powerful throughout the rest of the game.  A bit disappointing that a sword I bought somewhere in late Chapter 2/early Chapter 3 does the most damage (unless I never found any secret uber powerful ones).

 

The final battle gave me mixed feelings.  On one hand, at least the difficulty got upped compared to the rest of the game.  On the other hand, it was due to the "swarm" strategy games use by throwing a bunch of enemies at you at once rather than simply make the boss really tough.  1 versus 1, I didn't have a problem with the final boss.  It just became an issue when he had 3 or 4 henchmen attacking me at the same time.

 

Overall, I enjoyed the game.  I'm going to try another play through as a different specialty class.  There were also a couple of quests I missed the first time.  I'm not sure if I just missed them outright, or whether they're class-specific quests and weren't available to me as a Voodoo Pirate.

[mkreku]

I finally chose faction yesterday. Because I'm lazy and the island I was on at the time had them, I went with Demon Hunters.

 

So far the only thing I've noticed is that my dodge maneuver is now a teleport and my clothes became goth.