Let's Play Risen: UD VI: An explosion or something

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Part I

I'm guessing that many Codexers alreayd have played this one, but what the hell might as well give it a try.
Can't End up badly can it?

: Yes it can, I could die.

: Who are you any way?

: I'm the nameless hero.

: Right, what happened to your beard any way?

: The Jewood people said it was copyrighted and took it.

Naturally as we're doing an LP we will chose No here and enjoy the title screen, and some 16th century poetry along with it.

: Get on with the LP! :evil:

: Oh Alright then, some intro first.

Didn't capture the intro video, but the story goes along somewhat like this.

The Gods used to rule the world, however mankind banished the gods from the world. However in doing so they released something far greater, ancient temples rose from the ground (the title Risen).
And in the intro movie the the Inquisitor is seen fighting great creature and chickening out. On the ship we see the hero...

: Thats me!

: Yes we know, now please don't interrupt the
story.

: Sorry.

... and some chick and the monster sinks the ship and we end up on some beach.
Here watch the movie for your self.

Here we are shipwrecked on some island, with only some corpses for company.

In the true spirit of all RPG heroes everywhere we naturally start looting those dead guys.

Well it seems one of the corpses wasn't dead, incidentally the chick from the intro video. Sorry no necro love for you buddy.

: Hey you don't think I would?
I just loot them! I leave the loving to others, honest.

Well she tells us to see if we can find us a weapon of some sort on the beach, and then this screen pops up. Seems it's in chapters same as Gothic I and II, even the music that plays at the same time is similar to the music from those games.

We find us a sturdy branch, can never go wrong with one of these!

Decent enough for killing a couple of birds any way, and some more corpses to loot.

: Sweet loot! :D

: Don't get too excited it's only scraps.

: Better than nothing! :D

We talk to the chick again and proced with her up the path inland.

Ye gods were trying to find some shelter after being shipwrecked and she wants to stop for a chat! ... women.

Well flower picking is in, sure looks like a Gothic game!

Loot in every corner, everything seems in order here.

: Loot!

After a little while we reach a house, well some civilazation atleast!

Mmm water, with water with healing capabilities like this why would people even need hospitals?

She asks us to search through the house and see if we can find anything usefull. The house is a complete mess and with blood stains in some places.

She asks, us if any one has been here.

[Intelligence]: Looks like no one has been here for a while.

Then she gives us a very hard and epic quest, fry some meat.

The crafting screen looks like this, and we are even able to make batches of items in one go, no frying 50 pieces of meat one at a time like in Gothic 2 yay!

Doing all this stuff we've gained a level.

: I are a mighty hero! :D

Heres the character stat screen.
We are a level 1 castaway(you start at level zero), essentially classless.
Strenght: Improves melee damage
Dexterity: Improves ranged Damage
Wisdom: Higher wisdom alows you to use better magic Runes.

Unlike the Gothic games magic is split into three categories, Runemagic these are mostly utility spells, these spells are only available to mages.
Next is crystal magic, which is damaging magic, available to mages and warriors of the order (sort of paladins).
The third is scrolls they are the same as runes but have only one use each, but all can use them.
Well get more into magic later, as I plan to try the game as a mage.

Mana: Casting spells drain these.
Learning Points: Used to train skills and stats at a trainer. You get 10 each level. Every step in combat skill or crystal magic skill requires 10 of them. And for the rest it's 5 per level.
Also attributes are purchased at 1 pt per level, so 1 strength for 1 LP.
Rest should be self explanatory.

Well we continue on the path inland.

Ah it's one of those ruins, lets go explore!

Inside, nothing very exciting.

Ah a trap! We fell through to the room underneath anf face a dangerous moth!

We loot the room and continue out.

: Wait, how does a moth get into a thousands of years old ruin that been underground for centuries?

: Maybe it came in the same way as we?

: Perhaps maybe but they can fly.

: Hmm... a wizard did it! :D

On our way back out again, well not falling for that trap again!.

: Ohh look over there, a pig! It looks tasty.

: No! Don't!

Too late!

: Ouch! I'll make bacon out of your later for that!. :evil:

Well this is like the gothics got to watch your step or your dead in a heartbeat. Luckily I had just saved before.

Well another house. Looks empty, lets loot!

Ah we are ambushed by a man wielding a knife inside, gotta watch out where you go.

Well turn out he's a decent guy and just a bit jumpy. After explaining about the shipwreck he says that I should watch out for the inquisitors men, since they will haul off any one they catch outside of the town to the monastery .
Also he says that we should join up with the Don instead over in the swamp camp, but he can show us the way to the town if we want to.

We accept the offer and follow.

He stops after a little while and we make our own way to a small farm where some novices from the monastery work the fields.
The guy here tells us that the Inquisitor and his men are trying to solve the problems caused after the gods where banished.
Asking for some advice, he says that we should perhaps become a warrior of the order, and absolutely stay away from the Don's gang since they are a disorderly lot. And he also mentions higher magic.

: Kewl, I want to throw fireballs and all that! :twisted:

he also offers to trade with us. This is the trade screen. The gold balance is automatically solved when you do the transaction, and all vendors have infinite gold.

In order for one of them to show me the way to town I have to help them at the farm a bit.

One of the guys has a wolf problem. Apperantly the good news it that since they are wolves they atleast don't have swords!

We go a hunting wolves.

Shiny shiny loot!

: My own, my.... precious!

They appear to be in a cave.
And this is where we remember that sword we found in the house earlier, nothing great but better than s stick.

Well thats the last of them, now back to the farm!

Were warned by the guy with the wolf problem that a warrior of the order is at the farm, and would haul us off to the monastery if he catches us! And since we want to be a Mage and not a warrior of the order we don't want that.
You need a recomendation in order to become an apprectince, and not just get hauled there, in which case you become an order recuit.

Well he tells us we can sleep for a few hours in the barn till he goes away.
Here you can see the sleep options aswell, looks just like Gothic :D

Well everything done, and one of the novices lead us to the town!

Finally there!

We meet the gate guard, and toalk to him a bit. He seems to be off the opinion that they brain wash people at the monastery with magic.
Though he will only let us in for 100 gold. Having no other option we gladly pay him ...

: Speak for your self! Thats my hard earned gold! :evil:

: Well maybe not gladley, but we do it any way.

: Hmmp, well I guess so, take my money you blood sucker! :evil:

And we're in!

So thats end off part one.

Does this have any potential and is it worth continuing, or should I just scrap the whole thing?
Also if I go on (which I plan), any requests on what I should do? Well apart from class since I played the game as a fighter, and wanted to try it as a mage when replaying the game for this LP.
Also is the screen resolution alright? I could convert future images into a higher/lower resolution if wanted.

 

[JarlFrank]

I already played the game as a bandit, so you could go the monastery route in your LP.

 

[Black_Willow]

What graphics setting are you using? The game doesn't look too good on your screens.

 

[Black]

The main character always reminded me of Scofield from Prison Break.

 

[Ogg]

Nice idea. LPing a good game is always harder than than LPing a turd but you're doing alright till this point. As for image size, that's good, neither too large nor too small.

Don't forget to tell us how you get beaten up by giant butterflies. There will be no shame.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Don't forget to tell us how you get beaten up by giant butterflies. There will be no shame.

Fucking butterflies. Bitches killed me more times than other enemies. And the screams were unnerving.

Still hatin' the last part of the game, anyways.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

What graphics setting are you using? The game doesn't look too good on your screens.

I've got everything set to max, but the resizing and conversion of the image might reduce the image quality a bit.
I'll try increasing the jpg quality in the next update to 100, think I used 80 in the first one.

Not been killed by butterflies yet, but you never know.
Any way I predict you will see me die from ghouls many a time. Those really had me raging. :D
Started with the next update, should post it this afternoon.

 

[Droog White Smile]

Yeah, the graphics look p. bad.

 

[someone else]

Can you make the dark screenshots brighter?

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Argh forum ate my post! Luckily I saved it in a textfile.

Alright here comes a short update for today, nothing much but noting down what characters say is a bit exhausting. Harbor town is the dialogue heavy part of the game, so if I get past it you should expect to see this finished some time in the not to near future. :D

Part II

Intresting thing this.

The autorun is in Deutsch, though I have the English version was quite a wtf moment when I first poped the disc in the drive. Thought I had gotten the german version somehow, even though they don't sell it here.

Right inside the gates we encounter this man named Arno. He says that his wife is sick and that they live out on the street, and asks if we can spare any money.

: Sure, ask the guy in rags for money. Hey he's even better dressed than I am!

Well as the incurable do-gooders that we are and love throwing money at every one as you could see in the last update we give him 25g.

: Thank you.

He also mentions that his sick wife could use some help from master Belschwur, a mage from the monastery.

: A mage! He must know how I can become one. :D

: Right lets go find him.

We proceed in to the city, looks peaceful enough, no boars or terror butterflies in sight.

A little way in we encounter this man by a merchants stall.

: Best fish in the city here. And I've got a special offer, buy one fish and get a second completely free!

: You talk an awfull lot for a fishmonger.

: Yes you see I was with this girl, and she said she liked fish. One thing lead to another, and I ended up with this, and I don't evne like fish. ... but she was so very very beautiful.

: Maybe I can help you sell the stall.

: You could? That would be great. Look for some one that knows alot about fish, or maybe just likes fish.

After having talked with Phil the Fishmongerer we continue on our new epic quest to kill the dragon... save the princess...sell his fish stall.
And theres some one that looks like a mage over there.

: Maybe he wants to buy it?! :D

: I think he might be that Belschwur guy, and how many mages sell fish?

: Well he could be the first!

We go over and talk to him, and find out that he is indeed Master Belschwur. Argh I can't write that name.

He helps the poor people of Harbour Town, and asks if we can help him with this by handing out healing potions to those in need. We get a few extra as thanks.

: Hey lets just run away with the potions! :twisted:

: He said he could give a reccomendation for mage training, might want to actually help him.

: Hmm lets do it that way, my way sounded like more fun though.

Here is the list of people we should give potions to, lets get to it!
Seems like the wife of the first guy we encountered is on the list, so lets make it back there.

On the way we encounter a man named Finn. He's looking for work, and asks if we perhaps have any.

: Want to buy a fish stall?

: No thanks, I don't know anything about fish.

Well he's on the list so we hand him a potion. Thus we continue on saddened by our deferred success on our epic quest bestowed upon us by the mighty fish mongerer.

On our way back to Arno we meet Elias (think that was his name), and hand him a potion. He thanks us and warns us of Costa who apparently rips people off. He also sells some off the stuff he produces.

: Hey mister, wanna buy potato?

: I'm not quite sure I want to.

: They very good potato, please buy.

We take a look at his potato(es), we can't do anything with them without a cooking recipe so we pass.

We then run back to Arno and his wife and give them a potion, overwrote my screen shot though. :evil:
Taking screenshots through the console is a bit of a hassle, might look for a better way in the future.

On our way back into town we stop and notice this dude, dressed the same way as the multi kult machete rape squad the man with the knife up in the abandoned house, so he might be one of the Dons Men.

Turn out he is, and wants to offer us a deal. The merchant Costa hasn't been paying his "protection money" to the Don since the Don has been driven out of town. And Delegado (which is this guys name) wants us to go get it.

: How you do it doesn't matter, just don't kill him. That would make trouble with the white robes.

(the white robes are the warriors of the order, wearing characteristic white clothing you'll see one in the next screen).

: Whats in it for me if I do it?

: You get to keep half the gold, 150 gold that is. Also I can teach you things.

: Such as?

: Give a man a fish and he will stink for a day, teach a man to fish...

: Your going to teach me how to fish?

: In a way, take my advice little fish and join with the don before the big fish eat you up. Help me and I can put in a good word for you.

He also mentions that he needs the gold delivered or he's in trouble with the Don, should prove interesting.

As we walk back we are stopped by this man named Sebastian.

: I saw you talk to Delegado, watch out for him, he lies and extorts people.

He tells us that he is trying to get rid of Delegado, and would like our help. And we tell him about Delegados situation with the Don, and his plan to get money from Costa.

: Pretend to be working for Delegado, then when you have the money give it to me instead, and I will see that I is rutrned to its rightfull owners. When the Don hears that Costa paid and didn't get any from Delegado he will be in a tight spot.
Should help us get rid of him.

: What do I the mighty hero of many epic deeds get for this? Was it not I that nearly sold the fish stall?

: Well you get a reward of 100 gold, and I can put in a good word for you if you want to go to the Monastery to become a mage or a fighter.

So theres pretty much three options here either give the gold to Delegado, which helps us get accepted in the swamp camp, or give it to Sebastian and helps to get us to the monastery. Though if we want to become a fighter all you have to do is beat beaten up by some warrior of the order outside of town and they will drag you there. In which case one could keep all the money.

We go speak to Costa, seems we has a bodyguard of sorts. So we try to take care of him first.

Here he is, named Fuller. We can challenge him to a fight, though our might hero lost it.

: Ouch!

So we go looking for some way to improve.

We come accross some guy in leather armor of the guards named cutter.
Says that he cain train us for some gold. So we use some of those learning points and some gold to become stronger.

+10 strenght.

: Man I'm feeling Pumped!

Over by Cutter we find a little bar run by a man named Josh, hes on the list, so we give him a potion.

Missing screenshot here, but we also meet a man in the bar named Dirk
who's a treasure hunter.
He mentions that he has a golden bowl that he would be willing to sell for 150 gold, and that his brother is held prisoner in the city. He's also got a second brother. They are triplets!
Having no use of a bowl at the moment and beeing short on funds we decline.

This time we beat up fuller and loot his epic shield of woodeness +3. He also becomes afraid to fight us after doing so.

: Atlast phat lewts! :D

We then proceed to beat up Costa and steal his money bag. With a nice 300 gold. Which was quite easy since Fuller wouldn't help him after the beating.

And doing so we leveled up!

Last bit here got lost so I'm going to be brief.

Any way we give the gold to sebastian, and Delegado run off.
So we go talk to Costa again who seems to be willing to forgive us, we then pay for a bed for Arno's sick wife.

As a thanks they give us this cooking recipie, and some nice exp.

Well the bed might not be good enough for them, but it sure is good enough for us!

: Hey maybe it's got lice!

: What virtual lice?

: Well I'm virtual, they might virtually give me an ich(?). :evil:

Ah you know when you the feeling when you need a scratch. Well anyway we use the bed.

Down on the way to the harbour we meet the carthographer, who we ask to make a map, he doesn't have anyting else to say.

Ah the sea breeze, and the salt air!

Well thats all for now, next update possibly this weekend. :D

@Mighty Mouse: I'll look into making the screenshots brighter for future updates.

 

[JoKa]

R.I.P. ?

 

[Cassidy]

Risen is the sort of game where showing how you killed the first Ghoul and not hiding all of the times you ended dying delivers.

Too bad this LP died though.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Risen is definitely one the best new RPGs I've played the past couple years. I enjoyed the adventure through Harbor Town, the game really makes you work your fucking ass off to find the way back out. Unfortunately, there's no reason to ever go back there once you've finished that area...

Have there been any news or rumors on PB's new unannounced game yet?

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Not that I've heard... but I really enjoyed Risen (well, the first two chapters). Definitely beats the hell out of any other RPG that's been released in the past couple of years.

 

[Monocause]

I still can't finish the game because of major graphics-related glitches.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Risen is the sort of game where showing how you killed the first Ghoul and not hiding all of the times you ended dying delivers.

Too bad this LP died though.

It's not quite dead yet, in fact it is feeling better! I've just been distracted by moding and other stuff. I'll try to start continuing this tomorrow, and I should be able to finish it as long as I get through harbor town. Considering that it is the most dialogue heavy part of the game it is quite arduous to note down all the dialogue or at least the outline of it.
I need to find a better way to do it. If any one got any suggestions regarding that part please share them. And then I can get this show on the road once moar.

 

[DefJam101]

The game is fun but, assuming you have not finished it once already (?), the third and fourth chapters are very, very linear and disappointing.

Also, Warrior of the Order and Mage are the exact same thing, story wise. The only difference is that a Mage gets robes instead of armor. I have not played through as a bandit.

 

[DefJam101]

The game is fun but, assuming you have not finished it once already (?), the third and fourth chapters are very, very linear and disappointing.

That being said the first two chapters contain some of the most compelling and interesting RPG storytelling in the last few years.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Considering that it is the most dialogue heavy part of the game it is quite arduous to note down all the dialogue or at least the outline of it.
I need to find a better way to do it. If any one got any suggestions regarding that part please share them. And then I can get this show on the road once moar.

Only give us the important or interesting/funny parts of the dialogues. Best way to do it is enable subtitles and screencap the conversation. The rest you could just make do with giving a short description and then move on. No need to go copying down every single thing someone says, that would take forever and quickly burn you out.

 

[Black]

I think I played the mage wrong. From the start I tried to spec in the magic missile spell but I was out of mana all the time. Was it me ditching melee completely? Or was it me not making enough mana potions?
Also, I think you made a mistake in going straight into harbour city. Personally regardless of who I side with, I'd go to the swamp and do everything you can there. Then head to the city.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Yeah, the 3 crystal spells can eat your mana up pretty fast. Best thing to do is to equip those enchanted rings and amulets that boost mana (such as the Ring of Energy or Amulet of the Sorcerer), as well as make a lot of those potions that permanently increase mana by 5. Even then, you're still going to have to carry a fuckton of regular mana pots.

It's also good to at least get a few ranks in a melee skill too. I recall my mage had bought 3 ranks in Staff Combat and could get to rank 5 by temporarily replacing my energy rings with two Rings of Staff Combat only when out of mana, allowing me to do counter attacks and longer combos to fall back on when necessary.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

I've already played trough the game once, so I know the ending and yes it is bad. Must continue though! Starting on the next update, will post on the next page.

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Forward to the next page!

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Can we reach the next page?

Yes we can, short update for today.

Part III: Hard hats required!


First stop of the day, the local watering hole, and I'm broke.

Inside we meet this fella, Ingvar who isn't doing much but drinking. We'll get back to him later nothing interesting here at the moment.

There are couple of other patrons in the bar at the moment, the first is Dytr, one of the treasure hunting triplets. Who offers to sell me a bowl. Yeah I'll buy that gold bowl with out a use for 300 gold sounds good. On second thought perhaps not.

And then we find another due named Nico, well he is a fisherman and is interest in the fish stall. Though he has no gold typical.
And he is all like, "buy this artifact from me then I can use the gold to buy the fish stall". Whats with all these artifacts people are trying sell to me?

Next we meet this buxom bar wench named Patty.

: Dude, she's shaped odd.

: Yeah, PB has never been that good at modeling women.

: Wait who are you? :shock:

: I'm the LP dude.

: No your not.
This is him:

Your just some imposter! An imposter I say!

: Whatever lets continue.
She also mentions that she is looking for her father all innocent like. And is trying to get out of the city for some reason.

We sell some shit at least we're not broke now. Interestingly knifes are not for fighting, remember that next you pull a knife in a fight

Having a look at the upper floor of the tavern, ahh the bloom! Run away.

But the lure of potato was to great, so we braved the bloom irradiated upperfloor.

Continuing down the harbour. Well those look... safe? I put on my robe and hard hat.

Unlike jrpgs things are actually guarded in Risen, that Ogre down there will beat the shit out of you if you try to enter the ware house. And he trains you in axes we found out. But since we're going mage we are not interested in this.

Fun fact, In risen maces count as axes. Oblivion's Blunt axes vs Risen's sharp maces, which is better and why discuss!!!

Ah there is an Honest face if I ever saw one! He opffers us a deal, however doesn't want to discuss it with us near the guard over there in the background.
So we follow this totally honest fellow.

We follow him to a dark and not suspicious alley. Oh apparently not we go to the bloom ridden water front. He wants us to get him some artefact's, three gold bowls, one of which Dytar sold, and 5 armor plates.

: Ah ancient armor plates! We could make awesome armor out of this!

: Well he said they where more ceremonial, so not really.

Well he is that guard in the background named Carasco, and also wants the Plates, and the Bowls.
Ah choice and consequence!
Also he is another warehouse guard, there are an army of them! But with an the amount of artefact around. And he gives us the reason for all the guards.
Carasco: People that wander in tend to wander off with things that don't belong to them.
Makes sense really.
"looks like some armor plates walked out last week" he continues.
So he wants those plates to save his ass, well for the proper compensation we might just get them for him.

Well lets just if we can finds those plates, for the inquisition! Well he pays less than the the totally trustworthy guy, but since we want to go mage...

 

[Der_Unbekannte]

Can we reach the next page?

Obviously we did it! gogo update!