R1 is basically G1 with fixed stuff that needed fixing.
I've replayed G1 right after replaying R1 last year, and boy does G1 drag on in the second half of the game! R1 mostly did away with that.
wait, what, the second half of risen 1 is shit. Trashmob dungeon cavern shit with minimumo interaction with NPC and collecting macgiffins or whatever it is called.
The one where you are in lockdown in town and trainin/joinin faction was the best
I'm sure I've written this same thing in some other Gothic thread, but it's worth repeating...
Let's compare G1 vs R1 chapter-for-chapter:
Chapter 1.
G1 - You're a new arrival at the colony. You have to find civilisation and join a faction (3 choices). There are TONS of quests open for completion, exploration is hard but encouraged.
R1 - Same as above, but it's an island!
Chapter 2.
G1 - You've joined a faction. Some mobs respawned to keep the wilderness fresh. A few new quests have opened up (mostly faction-specific), and you probably have several quests left over from chapter 1. A bit more of the wilderness is open to you thanks to better equipment and increased skills.
The main story quests are: find a focus (short wilderness romp) - find minecrawler eggs (long dungeon romp) - find the almanac (short dungeon romp). Two of those take place close to the swamp camp, another one is in a separate mine area.
R1 - Same as above, but the main story quest is to find the 4x golden disc fragments. However, each fragment takes you in a different area of the island and is a self-contained multi-part exploration quest (a total of 3 quests, you get the 4th disc once you get the other 3). These are more similar to G1's focus stone quest line (see G1 chapter 3), in a sense that they force exploration of the island. BUT, you also already have access to some teleporter stones, so it's much faster.
Chapter 3.
There are pretty much no more new side quests from this point on, in either game.
G1 - Some mobs have respawned. A long two-part chapter. In the first part you have to deal with the consequences of the failed divination ritual - explore the orc cemetery (a medium length dungeon romp), then find the healing herbs (fetch quest that forces exploration of the swamp area), then you move on to deal with the water mages of the new camp. Second part of 3rd chapter is to find the 4x missing focus stones. This quest takes you all over the colony except for the orc lands. It's cool and all, but
you have to walk on foot because there's no teleportation runes yet.
R1 - R1's 3rd chapter is very much similar to G1's chapter 5, because it's basically one big dungeon romp with a good deal of puzzling segments, and in the end you have to go back to the surface.
Chapter 4.
G1 - No more mob respawns. If you killed everything during chapters 1-3, the wilderness will be empty of life. You got some TP runes and will get the remaining during this chapter.
There are 4 main quests: find out that the magicians of fire are dead (a long walk towards and around the old camp, maybe a couple of fights vs old camp guards) -> find Xardas (a long wilderness exploration quest in the orc lands, the last terra incognita up to this point) -> find Ur-Shak (more walking...) -> free the new mine (a medium length wilderness trek followed by a medium length dungeon romp) -> make the Ulu-Mulu...
And that's the most infuriatingly time-wasting quest in the game. You have to hunt down 4x specific enemies, and you couldn't have found most of ingridients in advance because only the quest giver teaches you how to extract them.
Also, half of those trophies requires you to walk quite a bit because the closest appropriate monsters are quite a bit away from the nearest TP locations.
And then you have to walk by foot all the way to the new mine and inside to hand them to the quest giver...
R1 - This chapter is the last and is fairly similar to G2NotR's chapter 4 in some ways, but also to G1's chapter 5's last bit. Firstly, the wilderness (and some civilisation) is now densely populated by the escaped lizardmen. Some new side-quests related to them are opened up. But, basically, you have to go all over the island and complete 5 medium-sized dungeons to get the 5 pieces of the macguffin to defeat the final boss. Thankfully, there are a lot of teleporter stones available to you by now, so you can save a lot of time this way.
Then it's a quick TP to the area close to the boss room, and a very disappointing arcadey boss fight.
Chapter 5.
G1 - No mob respawns, but it's ok because you're done with the wilderness for good. It's a two-parter again. First, you have to do a quick trip to the Sleeper temple entrance and enter it. Then you're up for one HELLA long dungeon romp with some puzzle-solving to spice up the monotony of traversing the super-dungeon. Then you find the mysterious sword and an invulnerable enemy, and are forced to run away.
all. the. way. back. to. xardas. Cue part 2 - sword activation, which requires some walking, then a short dungeon romp, then some more walking.
R1 - ...
Chapter 6.
G1 - Are we done yet? No? Ok, now you have to walk back to the Sleeper's temple again. Then you'll have to clear a whole TON of respawned strong enemies including the previously-unavailable part of the dungeon, but at least there's no more puzzling. Then there's a traditionally shitty boss fight from our favourite devs.
R1 - ...
As you can see, R1 follows the overall G1 game structure but successfully cuts down a lot on excessive running around (you get teleporter stones much earlier, and much more of them, too) and bothersome mandatory fetch quests (G1's chapters 2 and 4, basically).