Review English Risen Reviews are cropping up

[onemananadhisdroid]

Well, it's nice to see someone in the gaming press that actually got what the game is all about.

Last time I checked Piranha Byte games were fairly standard affairs, orcs, magic, leveling up, beating the crap out of monsters and some semi-decisions a la "Which of these three factions would you like to join before reaching our end of game boss?" - the kind of little boy's stuff you apparently need to get a grip on first in order to be able to appreciate any of it. Hearts Of Iron's complexity has got nothing on this, and World Of Goo is naturally a far less outlandish concept too. But then their publishers must have bribed the "mainstream" press anyway to milk some good reviews out of them.

More seriously, this wasn't meant to mark down PB games, as I like them very much. But this being the Codex, where everyone and their momma is listing Torment and Ultima as the ultimate achievement in terms of RPG I was expecting a snarky comment based on the fact this is described as being a hardcore RPG, rather than giving the guy a pat on the back for doing so. But that's probably just me reading these forums a tad too much in the last couple of days. :D

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I could bet Hearts of Iron is easier to appreciate than Risen, or at least Night of the Raven (still haven't received my copy of Risen). The former is just another Civ rip-off, where you move sliders around every once in a while and keep pressing "end turn". It looks complicated but isn't. NotR was the opposite of that. It looked like it should have been simple stuff, but it wasn't, and average gamers, unable to adapt to anything subtly new, blamed the controls and claimed they were "clumsy" etc.... The truth about NotR was that it was one of the best games ever made, especially the control system and how travelling was challenging and how exp grinding wasn't an answer to anything since you couldn't really exp grind in the first place.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

But this being the Codex, where everyone and their momma is listing Torment and Ultima as the ultimate achievement in terms of RPG I was expecting a snarky comment based on the fact this is described as being a hardcore RPG, rather than giving the guy a pat on the back for doing so.

the codex is for <s>fags</s> fanbois

 

[Felix]

I don't call this hardcore(like I don't call anything hardcore) but it's still more "hardcore" and more RPG than those recent games claim they are "hardcore" RPG.

At least PB games are straight to the point and that is what I like.

 

[poocolator]

I could bet Hearts of Iron is easier to appreciate than Risen, or at least Night of the Raven (still haven't received my copy of Risen). The former is just another Civ rip-off, where you move sliders around every once in a while and keep pressing "end turn". It looks complicated but isn't.

Erm... Hearts of Iron is a military sim... Civ 4 is a Sims Country-builder. For a military sim, HoI is deep; that much you have to admit. If HoI isn't complicated, then Civ 4 is the game you give your 3 year-old cousin to introduce him to PC gaming. If you're bored with HoI, try playing a country like Yugoslavia and surviving Germany. Take over the middle east as Afghanistan.

 

[KazikluBey]

I could bet Hearts of Iron is [...] just another [4X game], where you [...] keep pressing "end turn".

Maybe you could try playing games, or even just read a few things about them, before you comment on them.

On Risen: The first chapter was very good, second chapter not bad, but now I've started chapter 3 and entered the mountain, and I've pretty much lost interest. Is there a point in continuing?

 

[Lysiander]

Well I finally got my copy and after having spend some time with it, i have to draw a very sad conclusion. People who get paid to play video games seem to generally suck at combat.

Im not fast, I don't have the best reaction time and I spend a lot of money on healing potions, but I do manage to scrape by on hard difficulty.

Every review I read claims the combat is too hard or feels clunky. Maybe I have the magic copy or maybe Im the only one that notices that the behavior of your enemies actually tells you wether to attack or to keep blocking is a good idea, but I'd assume that a person who is beeing paid to play games would have reflexes and attention to detail superior to mine.

 

[Paula Tormeson IV]

I could bet Hearts of Iron is easier to appreciate than Risen, or at least Night of the Raven (still haven't received my copy of Risen). The former is just another Civ rip-off, where you move sliders around every once in a while and keep pressing "end turn". It looks complicated but isn't.

Erm... Hearts of Iron is a military sim... Civ 4 is a Sims Country-builder. For a military sim, HoI is deep; that much you have to admit. If HoI isn't complicated, then Civ 4 is the game you give your 3 year-old cousin to introduce him to PC gaming. If you're bored with HoI, try playing a country like Yugoslavia and surviving Germany. Take over the middle east as Afghanistan.

I've only played HoI2. It's been made about as simple as possible. It may be "complicated", but it's complicated in the way you would expect such games to be complicated. NotR had its own complexities, and they were very easy to overlook or mistake for something else ("clumsy controls"), since nothing in the player's expectations prepared him for them.

 

[1eyedking]

I could bet Hearts of Iron is easier to appreciate than Risen, or at least Night of the Raven (still haven't received my copy of Risen). The former is just another Civ rip-off, where you move sliders around every once in a while and keep pressing "end turn". It looks complicated but isn't. NotR was the opposite of that. It looked like it should have been simple stuff, but it wasn't, and average gamers, unable to adapt to anything subtly new, blamed the controls and claimed they were "clumsy" etc.... The truth about NotR was that it was one of the best games ever made, especially the control system and how travelling was challenging and how exp grinding wasn't an answer to anything since you couldn't really exp grind in the first place.

nomask?

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Yes.