Risen
Available for Xbox 360, PC
Game Developer: Piranha Bytes
Game Publisher: Deep Silver
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Official website: risen.deepsilver.com
Review Summary:
Risen is an action role-playing game that offers a tremendous amount of exploration, quests and character development for many hours of gameplay. It throws some of the traditional barriers of RPGs out (no inventory limits, no invisible walls and barely any loading screens). Players who demand the latest HD graphic visuals and action gameplay may not be impressed with what Risen has to offer. There are some technical pitfalls you may run into as well. What Risen offers best is many hours of gameplay, a unique approach to character development, some beautiful environments, and a story that grows on you throughout the game. Only the persistent will survive the quests and trials of Risen and truly feel a sense of accomplishment in the end.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Read the full review of Risen below.
Risen review
In Risen, you are a unknown castaway who awakens on the volcanic island Faranga. As the mysterious protagonist, you set out from a shipwrecked beach to unearth an island in peril. Risen is named after the rising temples from beneath the island. Whether you decide to join the local bandits or the mages of the Inquisition, you’ll have to save Faranga and its people from the impending doom of what lies beneath.
Risen is an open world third-person RPG. You can switch between three third-person views. You start with a few supplies from what’s left from the shipwreck, but soon you learn the ways of hand-to-hand combat to survive the island’s inhabitants. Some of the adversaries include wolves, stingrats, skeletons, ogres and the unruly locals. There are hand-to-hand combat weapons such as swords, polearms, and clubs to ranged combat weapons like crossbows and magic. I pretty much stuck to, and enjoyed using, the Fireball spell towards the latter part of the game and two-handed swords for close range hacking.
Risen is a very deep RPG. Few role-playing games make you feel like you are developing your character like Risen does. Forget selecting your class and abilities from a menu. You’ll have to develop and direct your character throughout the game. There is a lot of hunting and gathering in Risen, which makes the exploration and character development more believable than in other RPGs. Hunt and cook your prey, pick herbs and conjure up potions, mine minerals and craft enchanted items. You’ll learn to utilize the resources of Faranga to your benefit.
Things became more exiting for me towards the latter part of the game when you develop magic skills and scroll writing abilities. You will be able to do some shape-shifting, from a small Nautilus that can breach barriers through crevasses to a hulking Ash Beast, useful for pounding strong foes. A skeleton warrior can also be conjured up to fight along your side (besides other characters you may meet along your adventures).
Where I experienced quite a bit of frustration was in the quest maps. It isn’t easy to understand where you are at during quests. For example, if a quest has five destination points, they will be marked on the map. But if you complete one, there is no indication that it has been completed. After spending many hours in Risen, I never felt I truly understood the map and quest screens. It was also pretty awkward accessing them.
The biggest thing working against Risen are the technical glitches in the Xbox 360 release I reviewed. Sometimes when you land an ending blow to an enemy, there is an awkward pause, as if the game freezes a second or two. A few times, although not many, some graphics didn’t load in properly. This caused white spots or even my character to appear to be invisible. There was one part in the game where I was even ejected out of the island’s volcano (and survived). Those technical issues didn’t happen to me often, but the brief moments were disrupting enough to overshadow the overall experience in Risen. In other ways, there are some technical bright spots, like the seamless transitions from the overworld into temples and deeper into ruins. There is barely any loading time, except when you gain the ability to teleport and when you enter one of the main locations, Harbour Town.
The environments of Risen are rich, especially the dense forest areas. The sunbeams gleaming through the branches and dust getting whisked up by the winds made it that much more powerful. The soundtrack is a great compliment to the various settings. I really enjoyed it. When you are wandering around the island, it is particularly calming, especially with the ambient rain or waves on the beaches. The voice acting is fairly good as well, which comes up during character dialogue options and NPC interaction.
Games as deep as Risen come around only once every few years. If you enjoy fantasy RPGs like Oblivion, you should consider playing through Risen. It’s not up to the graphical or technical quality of some other RPGs currently available, but it is a long and engrossing adventure. Was I frustrated by the technical glitches? Yes, especially towards the conclusion of the game. Would I recommend Risen? Yes, but to those who like long action-RPG challenges and can overlook some of the lower qualities of the game. Did I enjoy Risen? Yes, enough to complete my playthrough and enjoy doing it. If you are a fan of fantasy action RPGs, Risen will give you many hours of gameplay for the money.
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Screenshots from Risen on Xbox 360:
Thanks to SouthPeak Games for making this review possible.
