Just Finished Risen and...

[Roguey]

So in other words it isn't just hiding behind your shield.

When I think back to what Risen combat was like, 99% of it was circle strafing with my shield up and whacking right after they try to whack me. Sometimes I had to momentarily drop my shield so I could circle strafe really fast. Not much of a difference. It's not dynamic enough and there's not enough variety, much like those stop and pop shooters so many posters on the Codex hate so much, except this time it pretty much is playing virtual whac-a-mole.

You can finish the game with staves, and the gameplay is best when using them. I treat it as extra challenge.

All right, but as for me, I don't like intentionally choosing uninteresting suboptimal weapons.

If TB combat would be better then RTwP then it would be universally consider as better, and used more then RTwP.

That's a flawed analogy because turn-based combat still has a sizable portion of fans and an articulate person can write a lengthy article explaining why TB can be better/equal to RTwP but I've never seen a convincing argument regarding the quality of Risen's last two chapters. The last chapter had some fun puzzles, but the novelty of its simple combat system disappears within the first 10-15 hours or so.

 

[Murk]

The real issue is that few monsters/enemies bypass your shield wall, but some do. They bat it away, stun you, or circle around you. There is a tactical mod that empowers lizards to use more skills and tricks in combat, which I think is nice. The other issue is that most NPCs have pathetic weapons -- no reason Brogar should have a thorn mace instead of a bastard sword or heavier axe, as it turns the fight into a battle of attrition of you whittling their HP down with their high armor rating. I think the only actually challenging NPC fight I encountered, with consideration to my stats/weapon at the time, was Alric in the monastery.

I assume if you found the combat challenging you switched the difficulty to something higher?

 

[Roguey]

It's not a question of difficulty, it's variety. Whether it's a human, skeleton, wolf, boar, bird-thing, wasp, giant cricket, scorpion, lizardman, ogre, or ashbeast they're mostly all taken down in the same way with patterns that just don't feel all that different.

 

[Kraszu]

So in other words it isn't just hiding behind your shield.

All right, but as for me, I don't like intentionally choosing uninteresting suboptimal weapons.

Better gameplay = less interesting?

If TB combat would be better then RTwP then it would be universally consider as better, and used more then RTwP.

That's a flawed analogy because turn-based combat still has a sizable portion of fans and an articulate person can write a lengthy article explaining why TB can be better/equal to RTwP but I've never seen a convincing argument regarding the quality of Risen's last two chapters. The last chapter had some fun puzzles, but the novelty of its simple combat system disappears within the first 10-15 hours or so.

Many people don't find TB arguments convincing either. PB have big fan following so the analogy stays correct. Chapter 3-4 have its problems but you generalize it, and the combat is better before you get power strike for example.

 

[Murk]

It's not a question of difficulty, it's variety. Whether it's a human, skeleton, wolf, boar, bird-thing, wasp, giant cricket, scorpion, lizardman, ogre, or ashbeast they're mostly all taken down in the same way with patterns that just don't feel all that different.

Ah, I see -- yes, there's about 4-5 "patterns" in the game in how to fight enemies -- 2 of which are basically "block, wait till open, strike".

It was a downside but still better than no pattern at all and just hack and slashing through to the end with the occasional potion or spell. Wonder what Risen 2 will bring...

 

[Metro]

Recently, I played Two Worlds II and while is it a fair game, more I played the more I appreciated freedom and scale of G3. Not perfected form of freedom and scale, but there is. Care to enlist some similar but modern RPG? Divinity 2? Not, because it is more focused and more story driven. Risen? Too small and too short. 2w2? No, it seems to have a really big word at the first glance, but at the end of day, world isn't that big (size of Oblivion, I think, maybe smaller) and not much to do within it. Oblivion? Nah. Daggerfall only comes to mind or Morrowind, but they are older games. At the end, more time passed, more greatness I see in G3, despite its obvious and many flaws.

I've always respected the ambition PB had in the scope of G3's design but they just couldn't pull it off. It ends up feeling like a single player MMO. The faction grind format was the wrong way to go and I think a more elaborate/cohesive system of branching C&C quests linking the regions/story together would have been far superior. I also agree that Risen was small but a lot of that probably had to do with the lessons they learned from G3 -- they wanted to make a 'safe' title to reestablish themselves in the market (especially since it was multiplatform). Thus you end up with a shorter game with streamlined mechanics and story elements/themes heavily borrowed from G1/G2. Risen was not only a 'reboot' in terms of a new story but also getting back to their roots. My hope is that Risen 2 can combine the best parts of G1/G2/Risen and G3.

 

[CorpseZeb]

I've always respected the ambition PB had in the scope of G3's design but they just couldn't pull it off. It ends up feeling like a single player MMO. The faction grind format was the wrong way to go and I think a more elaborate/cohesive system of branching C&C quests linking the regions/story together would have been far superior. I also agree that Risen was small but a lot of that probably had to do with the lessons they learned from G3 -- they wanted to make a 'safe' title to reestablish themselves in the market (especially since it was multiplatform). Thus you end up with a shorter game with streamlined mechanics and story elements/themes heavily borrowed from G1/G2. Risen was not only a 'reboot' in terms of a new story but also getting back to their roots. My hope is that Risen 2 can combine the best parts of G1/G2/Risen and G3.

Yes, unfortunately G3 was unfinished game (because of it size). I'm afraid, G3 was one of the last "dinosaur size" RPG's - so to speak - now we have a mammal era - smaller, more streamlined thingy capable of being survived meteoric of mediocrity gamers taste and non-ambitious developer's scope. So I have a very high hope for Risen 2, too. We shall see.

Ps. Funny fact'o'rama: Daggerfall-Morrowind-Oblivion-Skyrim - from bigger to smaller. Gothic 1-2-3 - from smaller to bigger.

 

[MajorNova]

Ps. Funny fact'o'rama: Daggerfall-Morrowind-Oblivion-Skyrim - from bigger to smaller. Gothic 1-2-3 - from smaller to bigger.

If you wanna be fair about it, generating daggerfall world in some current gen graphics would be such a mammoth task that it would probably never be completed. Game would require 200 gigs to install or something similar, its just not plausible anymore.

Also i'd take quality over quantity any day. Daggerfall had some shitty shit dungeons with impossible quests cause of its randomness. Dont really need fucking huge world to make it enjoyable, its just that current design philosophy is to make everything corridor style and cost effective to develop cause they can get away with it.

 

[CorpseZeb]

If you wanna be fair about it, generating daggerfall world in some current gen graphics would be such a mammoth task that it would probably never be completed. Game would require 200 gigs to install or something similar, its just not plausible anymore.

Also i'd take quality over quantity any day. Daggerfall had some shitty shit dungeons with impossible quests cause of its randomness. Dont really need fucking huge world to make it enjoyable, its just that current design philosophy is to make everything corridor style and cost effective to develop cause they can get away with it.

Yes, of course, size not always matter, but "in old days" developers seem to think that bigger world equals/delivers more immersion for the player. And who knows, what will we get, if they was allowed to continue "size does matter" theory in the practice... but today, on contrary, game worlds are shrinking (DA-DA2, ME-ME2, 2W1-2W2, Morrowind-Oblivion, DX-DXHR, G3-Risen or... akhem, pardon my french, "Arcania", etc.). However, paradoxically enough, thanks to long console development cycle, we have today, not only great tools for streaming content in the real time from the fixed media (HD, DVD, blueray), but also for procedural creating absurdly big worlds (infinite size, in fact) filled with detail graphics. Even so sensible usage of that created universe is another BIG problem. But still... think about Elite or Frontier.

 

[Mastermind]

Ps. Funny fact'o'rama: Daggerfall-Morrowind-Oblivion-Skyrim - from bigger to smaller.

Other than daggerfall they are about the same size. Oblivion just feels smaller because bethesda did not effectively replicate the illusion of size like they did with morrowind.