Preview RPGWatch preview Piranha Bytes' Risen

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Piranha Bytes; Risen

<a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article?articleid=126&ref=0&id=285">GamesCom 2009, RPGWatch, Risen, Pirahna Bytes, quote</a>:
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<blockquote>The game takes place on a volcanic island where recently some of the ancient temples have risen from the ground. These temples, that have turned into ruins over time, were once occupied by warriors and are now unleashing monsters on the island.
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In Risen you can climb up on ledges, roofs and rocks. Unfortunately you cannot swim.
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When asked what in Risen is better compared to the previous Gothics the answer was exploration. They've put much detail into the game and almost everything has been created by hand: every item, chest, contents of that chest, monster, plant, tree etc. There is more emphasis on exploring in the game, like levitating, puzzles, a telekinesis spell with which you can pull levers from a distance or collect items with and a spell that transforms you into a small creature so you can go through small holes.
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As mentioned before, Risen is an open world where you can talk to anyone - but also attack anyone you want - even the friendly people. You can attack a guard, but he will call other guards who will join the fight. If you run away, they will stop chasing you after some time while calling you a coward. If you return within a short time - like 30 seconds - the guard starts attacking you again; if you come back in 5 minutes or so he won't attack again. But if you want to talk to him you'll find out he doesn't want to speak to you anymore. It stays like that unless you have a Joke spell. If you cast this spell on the guard you previously attacked he will laugh at your joke and becomes friendly again. To balance this they've made the 'Joke' spells a rare item and very expensive to buy.</blockquote>
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There's nothing quite like having a meaningful choice only to ruin it with a dose of lameness. <a href="http://www.pcgames.de/aid,693573/Risen-Atmosphaerische-Screenshots-aus-unserer-Vorschau-Version/PC/News/?menu=browser&mode=normal&browsersize=standard&article_id=693573&entity_id=-1&image_id=1182226&page=1#top">See screenshots here</a>.

 

[DefJam101]

spell that transforms you into a small creature so you can go through small holes

:shock:

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

spell that transforms you into a small creature so you can go through small holes

:shock:

The first Gothic had it.

 

[catfood]

If you cast this spell on the guard you previously attacked he will laugh at your joke and becomes friendly again. To balance this they've made the 'Joke' spells a rare item and very expensive to buy.

This spell was called oblivion in Gothic 2 but I guess they thought it wouldn't be such a good idea to use the name now.

Hmm.. oblivion - joke. Yea that fits well.

 

[thesheeep]

The spell is actually a good idea, if rare enough.

But calling it "joke"? I don't know...

"Hey, I just beat you unconscious, but that was just me being silly. Gotcha! haha!"
"Ahhh... nevermind. It was a fun joke!"

 

[Shannow]

If you cast this spell on the guard you previously attacked he will laugh at your joke and becomes friendly again. To balance this they've made the 'Joke' spells a rare item and very expensive to buy.

This spell was called oblivion in Gothic 2 but I guess they thought it wouldn't be such a good idea to use the name now.

Hmm.. oblivion - joke. Yea that fits well.

In German it was "forgetting". If I had done the translation I'd probably have called it "forgetfulness".
I assume it is "joke" now because they can't be too similar to Gothic anymore since JoWood might sue them for plagiarism *facepalm @ capitalism*

In Risen you can climb up on ledges, roofs and rocks. Unfortunately you cannot swim.

Climing yay, no swimming blech. Although I wonder if it truly is "no swimming" or "no diving".
If they get exploration right that'd be great. I doubt they'll ever go back to good combat so exploration and story/dialogue will have to be the focus strengths. G3 was weaker on the dialogues and much weaker in the exploration aspect than the previous games. If they get that right Risen might come near G2. I just hope Rhianna Pratched is just involved in the English dialogues and they keep that out of the pure German version.

There's nothing quite like having a meaningful choice only to ruin it with a dose of lameness.

You have choices, you have consequences. It is much better than
"you stole 50 goldpieces worth of stuff. You go to jail or bribe me now."
"What? How do you know? Nobody saw me! I won't give you gold and I won't go to jail."
*fight*
Either be killed, run away or kill the guard. Over 50 gold... Which makes all the guards forever hostile without any other option than death.
And don't forget that the Gothics and Risen never claimed to be intellectual RPGs that aim to capture true P&P on the pc. They always were simple action-<s>adventures</s>RPGs. If they had better roleplaying elements than "true" RPGs that was just incidental and a sign of how much certain companies whose names start with "B" fail at significant RPG-elements...

 

[dragonfk]

In Risen you can climb up on ledges, roofs and rocks. Unfortunately you cannot swim.

Climing yay, no swimming blech. Although I wonder if it truly is "no swimming" or "no diving".

I believe it's only "no diving" because previewer mentions that if you go out to far into the sea, a big sea monster will catch you and deliver back to the shore.

You cannot get off the island. You can go into the ocean but if you go too far a sea monster will appear, it will grab you and throw you back on the beach. Fortunately it won't kill you as they figured that was too much of a penalty.

Awkward.

There is also a short preview on polish gaming site Gamecorner. Previewer actually played the game for several hours. He was disapointed because it's too similar to Gothic series. But although I generally like him (his a hardcore oldschool player) he says stupid things. Like he slams the game because he considers PB to stopped progressing with the genre; "they act like there was no Oblivion, KOTOR or Fable since Gothic".

 

[ghostdog]

There's nothing quite like having a meaningful choice only to ruin it with a dose of lameness.

Meaningful choice ? give me a break.


Anyway all I want from risen is to be as good as the first two Gothics.

 

[Shannow]

There is also a short preview on polish gaming site Gamecorner. Previewer actually played the game for several hours. He was disapointed because it's too similar to Gothic series. But although I generally like him (his a hardcore oldschool player) he says stupid things. Like he slams the game because he considers PB to stopped progressing with the genre; "they act like there was no Oblivion, KOTOR or Fable since Gothic".

Good! That has been the best info about Risen yet

 

[Jasede]

"hardcore oldschool player", yeah ok

 

[Ch1ef]

I wonder if there will be boars :twisted:

 

[RaXz]

The boars could be replacing the orcs as the main enemy, with the Dark Boar risen to power as the archenemy. Afterall, they were the most feared creatures in Gothic 3.

 

[JarlFrank]

In Risen you can climb up on ledges, roofs and rocks. Unfortunately you cannot swim.

Climing yay, no swimming blech. Although I wonder if it truly is "no swimming" or "no diving".

I believe it's only "no diving" because previewer mentions that if you go out to far into the sea, a big sea monster will catch you and deliver back to the shore.

You cannot get off the island. You can go into the ocean but if you go too far a sea monster will appear, it will grab you and throw you back on the beach. Fortunately it won't kill you as they figured that was too much of a penalty.

Awkward.

I wonder what happens when you swim out too far in Gothic 3. Never tried it because I was too lazy and haven't read anything on the net about it.

 

[coaster]

I wonder what happens when you swim out too far in Gothic 3. Never tried it because I was too lazy and haven't read anything on the net about it.

Invisible wall, IIRC. No fun movie, alas.

 

[Azrael the cat]

The boars could be replacing the orcs as the main enemy, with the Dark Boar risen to power as the archenemy. Afterall, they were the most feared creatures in Gothic 3.

They weren't exactly chumps in G2, either. Those 4-legged fiends are obviously just biding their time, waiting for the orcs and humans to wear themselves thin with war so they can sweep in and steal their pigslop.

 

[dragonfk]

"hardcore oldschool player", yeah ok

Everybody who loves Wizardry series and recommends games like "Titans of Steel - Warring Suns" in a mainstream gaming portal deserves, IMHO, to be called hardcore oldschool player.

Other recommended games by him Alternatywy. I track his review records from years back. He's like a polish Yahtzee but with much better taste.

 

[Shannow]

The boars could be replacing the orcs as the main enemy, with the Dark Boar risen to power as the archenemy. Afterall, they were the most feared creatures in Gothic 3.

They weren't exactly chumps in G2, either. Those 4-legged fiends are obviously just biding their time, waiting for the orcs and humans to wear themselves thin with war so they can sweep in and steal their pigslop.

???

 

[Ch1ef]

The boars could be replacing the orcs as the main enemy, with the Dark Boar risen to power as the archenemy. Afterall, they were the most feared creatures in Gothic 3.

They weren't exactly chumps in G2, either. Those 4-legged fiends are obviously just biding their time, waiting for the orcs and humans to wear themselves thin with war so they can sweep in and steal their pigslop.

???

 

[Jaesun]

Piranha Bytes finished working on the game some weeks ago and handed it over to the QA department of Deep Silver.

ooops. Guess we will have to wait for the community patch before playing.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

"they act like there was no Oblivion, KOTOR or Fable since Gothic".

He also mentioned Bloodlines there, you selective reading fuck.

Anyhow, I want it to be like the Gothics. I want the same formula, albeit improved. All the stuff they're mentioning as "new" in the preview newsposted at the prestigious Codex magazine is simply old Gothic stuff rehashed and renamed due to copyright issues, the "Joke" spell included (it was called "Vergessen" in the German version, like, ya 'no, Power Word: Forget. Oblivion, lulz, wish I could vergiss that).

I do hope the game is going to be very much alike the first two Gothics. And as of now, everything points to that.

EDIT: several dudes are fighting the good fight against Falloutthreezation of cRPGs in the comments section of the Pollack preview. More power to them.

 

[dragonfk]

He also mentioned Bloodlines there, you selective reading fuck.

Don't you know the fifth of the ten comandments of the 'dex?

5. Thou shall not mention holy trinity from Troika in the same sentence with lousy cRPGs.

Know your rites atheist fuck!

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

He also mentioned Bloodlines there, you selective reading fuck.

Don't you know the fifth of the ten comandments of the 'dex?

5. Thou shall not mention holy trinity from Troika in the same sentence with lousy cRPGs.

Know your rites atheist fuck!

The Codex has only got one commandment, you new-age heathen.

"Odds are, something you like very much sucks. Why? Because this is RPG Codex."
R. I. P. Spazmo. How we miss ye.

 

[dragonfk]

Call me a heathen, but it is you who belongs to dying breed of 'dexians. And dead your Spazmo is. No one will save your asses. We will pwn you Under Dark lord banner.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

And that's why I'm shooting for lichdom. Then I shall exact my righteous vengance :nerdrage:

 

[Jung]

Yay, I luves me some Gothic.