Risen 3: Titan Lords

Excuuuuse me? Combat was pretty terrible objectively in Risen, and Gothic too. In the times of Gothic all action RPGs had terrible terrible combat, so we got used to it and didn't mind/notice. I suspect people only care now because they're comparing it to stuff like Dark Souls. The strength of Piranha Bytes was always world design, and just about nothing else.

 

Usually I'd say mods will fix it but judging from the anemic modding scene around R2 this will stay in the shitter too.

Hmm. If you compare it to a turn-based mechanics then sure. But narrowly speaking Risen 1 has the best action combat ever devised for an RPG, afaik, and I enjoyed it a lot. The one in Dark Souls might've been better if they hadn't lobotomized it with a controller.

 

Yeah, the story was pretty terrible, but the overall writing quality was good.

Your face is objectively terrible.

 

In Gothic One, I got from awesome scoundrel citadel ruled with iron fist that even trying to visit their bandit lord required a long quest chain and people were treated like they were a nothing, just fresh meat, courtesy of the king. You go to where the base of the water mages is and people are even more miserable, they living basicaly on a huge cave and on semi slave labour, with the population been kept in line by mercenaries paid by the mages and a really awesome third camp, the place where people are doing the better because they are fucking drug dealers and are a cult that worship some creepy God. How a really good fantasy setting became Disney's Pirates of the Caribean HERPA DERPA? Hmm? What happened to you Piranha Bytes? Brain cancer? Stupidity inducing variant of Ebola?

Call me autist but hearing the main character cursing using modern curse words and expressions is really distracting. It even appears that the protagonist was born on some North American ghetto and decided cosplay like a pirate, the batman voice makes me puke too, what a lack of taste. Gothic questlines were always kinda simplistic but they always fit some coherent theme like "Help the asshole bandit lord being even more of a asshole." or "Try to survive by being a better asshole than those around you." Now those "Kill 10 hell dogs minions of pirate LeChuk wannabe." to "Good, you killed 10 hell dogs minions of Pirate Le Chuck wannabe? Congratulations now you gonna kill 10 undead pirates minions of Pirate LeChuck Wannabe." So fucking boring.

Piranha Bytes, I know you don't have access to the Gothic brand but who the hell told you that you need to make a shit ass game because of that? Getting two nerds on meth on a room for a day, brainstoming on a decent setting and background was too expensive for you? Even if the fucking publisher rammed the pirate theme on your ass, there was nothing stopping you to do something decent with it.

 

I say this as someone who loves the Gothic games, and has played every Risen title. I've never found the combat objectionable personally, but I've never found it super engrossing either, so I'm willing to accept that most people don't think its that great.

 

Combat in the first Gothic was a bit clunky I'll give you that but the same system improved in the sequel is quite good, simple but does its job well unless you're engaged with multiple combatants (gets a bit messy then but still manageable with some practice). I always liked (and wish it were implemented more in ARPGs) how improving your skill with a weapon in those games didn't just result in +to damage but made you visibly better with it (faster and smoother weapon swings, better combo, not using two hands to swing a 1H weapon etc.), it felt very rewarding to get your weapon handling to trained and after to master.

Risen 1 for me has terrific combat system, your hits have weight, attacks are fluid, dodging/sidestepping instead of rolling (which I absolutely fucking hate), blocks, parries, counterparries, power attacks, blocking etc. all are incorporated very well and for me melee combat in Risen is joy to engage in. Even the starting combat is fun:





Never played Dark Souls and I sincerely doubt I ever will, don't like using gamepads, consoles or shitty console ports (and as already mentioned, I detest rolling).

 

Dark Souls is better.

 

Risen controls like a shitty console port anyway.

Don't know where you got that idea, but PB have had the full and exclusive rights to the Gothic franchise (excluding Arcania) since 2011. They just wanted to continue with the Risen series instead.

 

Risen isn't a console port and controls fine.

 

ZagorTeNej

Yeah, that's probably the only thing about the combat I ever remember, the idea of proficiency as a skill that makes you better at fighting not in a statistical sense, but a patterns sense. It's a really great idea, and underused in games. The only other case I ever remember was Jedi Academy, and it was equally awesome in that game.

 

Don't forget that enemies attack three times faster than you because for some reason your character wants to dance instead of fight every time he attacks and that the only way to effectively defend against enemy attacks is to block or dodge, because running out of attack range just means enemies warp towards you if they're charging up an attack that has already locked onto you.

Overall, I really want to play the game but I can't be arsed to put up with the shit combat. In most pre-Risen 2 PB the combat was bad, but could be ignored. Risen 2 and 3's combat is just so shit that it really gets in the way of the rest of the game.

 

Zeriel

It's been a while since I played JA, I remember higher lightsaber offense/defense levels allowing you to deflect blaster shots better and giving you a better chance of prevailing in saber locks, I don't remember it affecting your swing patterns unless you mean light and strong styles for 1H lightsaber?

 

It affected what happened when people of different lightsaber proficiency levels attacked each other.

 

I don't know how long it's been since you played the fuckin thing but parries are up the ass in that piece of shit.
Another retard fuckin thing that I forgot to mention is that the AI has the stupidest fuckin coding I ever saw in any game,it fuckin cheats!The AI reads your fuckin inputs and reacts accordingly,WTF! Mobs attack and dodge the second your finger tickles the LMB,you can exploit it by dodging to the side and the AI attacks forward to make it look like you timed it,if you haven't dodge it would just wait for you to attack.
The worst fuckin part is that Blade of Darkness while not an rpg has combat which is above and beyond anything PB has ever done and that shit came out in 2001! 8 fuckin years before risen.

And for the motherfuckers that say they wont play Dark Souls because it's a shitty port that can only be played with a controller,I understand you and having to get used to a controller is one of the shittiest experiences I ever had in my gaming career but it was fuckin worth it.

 

It's the typical German tone deafness Angthoron was talking about in the DOS review. Very annoying.

 

Larian is Belgian, a big chunk of their staff is from the UK, and the office language is strictly English. And Angthoron just said "tone deafness", not "German tone deafness".

By the way, Gothic 1's use of modern day curse words was hailed as one of its distinctive features in the German press and helped to sell the game.

 

Risen 1 has great combat.

 

Playing R1 right now. Played G1 & G2 within last 4 months. There are multiple standardised ways in which parries can be broken for each game, whether it is a power attack, riposte, or timing. They can keep parrying if you just keep attacking them again and again. What do you expect? They're just going to stop blocking? But wait, you say enemies dodge the second you attack, so which is it, are they dodging or parrying or what? In none of the games do enemies always attack forward when you dodge. E.g. in R1 that is one reliable way of confounding them, but that is often because you dodged just as they attack (pressing WASD twice takes time) - as evidenced by many many occasions where you sidestep and they don't attack you.

You have no fucking idea.

 

Haven't plaid Dark Souls, but suspect this is true. Lot of nostalgiafags here. Combat in both gothics was SHIT. As well as in Risen. I haven't experienced a single arpg where combat is satisfactory and gothic games don't pop up in mind as exceptions. I CAN imagine that Pyranha could make it even worse, though.

Btw, i just recontinued an old save from G1, where protag is in the s.c. ''orc cemetery'' and all i do there is hold LM and swing the sword from left to right. Because all other options are even worse. Snap out of it, gothicfags. Yes, the old games had better atmosphere, but combat was shit as ever.

 

This guy here is either advertising plant or mentally unstable. Suggest moving him to prosperland.

 

I said in the first fuckin post no effective way to break their guard,winding up for a power attack leaves you open for five fuckin hours,most enemies can attack you the second you start initiate a standard attack.
Riposte doesn't break the guard it counters a hit,are you fuckin high?
Timing,right, for some reason I can execute the combo perfectly but the asshole still parries every hit.
I expect them to have a limit on how much they can block or to have a non shitty way to break the block or have a way to get around the block.
But wait a second wolves dodge the second you attack and the porcupine motherfuckers jump on your ass the second you attack.I didn't dodge as they attacked,the attack animation starts and finishes when I am already dodging to the side.
I never dodge an actual attack in this shitty game but I dodged a lot of them,wtf do I mean you ask?Here it is,I never predict an attack by visual cues but! Mobs attack while I am dodging not the other way around,if you can't pick up on that then I don't know what to tell you,I guess you suck at action games.

I do know what I'm fuckin talking about ,you just need to stop sucking this games cock,it's disgusting.

 

Out of all action RPGs ive played Risen 1 had the best combat. It's satisfying, needs some tactics and skill, and the progression is very nice.

 

Alfons

You mean the 'combo' where you hit LMB 3 times in a row? This isn't street fighter, you're just swinging the sword 3 times. If you hit him the first time because of good timing you will liekly hit with one or two more, as expected. If you 'execute the combo perfectly' on a ready and alert enemy of course he's going to block it.

The code has no way of knowing you are doing a sidestep in R1 until you press WSAD a SECOND time, and if the wolf begins attacking when you press the second time, then it is already a bit late. In order for the wolf to attack fast enough to hit you WHILE you are still dodging, it will have had to begin attacking before you have actually completed the keyboard inputs for dodge. Furthermore, the number of times enemies do not attack when you dodge or when you move to the side normally...

Anyway let me get this straight. You complain that there is no effective way to break parrires, you complain power attacks take too long, you complain your combos are blocked by the enemy... but you do know how to use dodge and sidestep to lure enemies into attacking, but at the same time you think this is a stupid cheating AI... and after all that you think you are fucking good at this game, and I must be rubbish at it, because I am arguing that there are actually effective ways to break parries, power attack, etc?

I'm sorry, I had no idea. You must be completely correct!

 

How the fuck did you managed to win the "possibly retarded" tag in 300 posts?

 

That should be self-evident from his posts.