Risen 3: Titan Lords

[HiddenX]

The exploration part with many secrets and the hand-made winding gameworld design are solid.
Story and dialog are typical PB stuff - you like it or hate it. From what I heard the German version is better than the English version.

 

[Regdar]

Exploration aspect follows tried-and-true formula.

The tits are definitely a nice improvement. Too bad she's your fucking sister.

Not a fan of pirate themes.

Couldn't get over Gothic 3 combat.

5/10 Could not finish.

 

[Alfons]

"hand-made","handcrafted" It might be those things but it looks and feels like the hand that made the environments belonged to the most uninspired motherfucker on the planet.There are some cool stuff ,like the river of lava or the shit in the sky above the pillars on taranis but most time you are moving through areas that look the same.

 

[Bubbles]

The tits are definitely a nice improvement. Too bad she's your fucking sister.

They stole that from Demonicon (although you could actually kiss her there). German game development is highly incestuous.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

"hand-made","handcrafted" It might be those things but it looks and feels like the hand that made the environments belonged to the most uninspired motherfucker on the planet.There are some cool stuff ,like the river of lava or the shit in the sky above the pillars on taranis but most time you are moving through areas that look the same.

Fuck you.
Area design is the best part of this game.
The reason why it's 'same-y' is that every island is consistently same climate. It would be ridiculous including jungles, snowy and desert areas in the typical bethesdian manner.
Every island has its own vibe going for it and the placement of assets is pretty sophisticated at times (the 'swamp' on Tarantis is 8/8 m8), Calador is pretty varied and goes from grim volcanic wasteland to excessive foilage fairly naturally and seamlessly. Kila has memorable regions but overall it's a step down in comparison to Calador and Tarantis. Tacarigua is kinda generic but still has things that stand out whereas other islands feel rather uninspired, that much I agree with.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Story and dialog are typical PB stuff - you like it or hate it.

I call bullshit. The story and dialoguing might be the worst PB has done yet, and it's an absolute nosedive from Ri2en, where the writing was the sole saving grace.

 

[Metro]

PB hasn't been PB for awhile now. Of course, I'm guilty of deluding myself, too. How many people who worked on Gothics 1 and 2 are still with them? For people saying 'bad combat,' you can stop there. If the combat sucks the game is unplayable.

 

[made]

Story and dialog are typical PB stuff - you like it or hate it.

I call bullshit. The story and dialoguing might be the worst PB has done yet, and it's an absolute nosedive from Ri2en, where the writing was the sole saving grace.

I call bullshit.

From my R2 review:
"I enjoyed exploring the first two islands despite the obvious flaws, telling myself that once the game opens up for real it will get better. Well, now it did open up but I just can't bring myself to play anymore.

Combat is so unbelievably tedious, my index finger hurts from mashing LMB, and my middle finger hurts from mashing RMB to get the atrocious dialogue over with asap. With shit combat and shit writing the rest of the game had better be stellar, but as far as exploration goes it's actually the worst PB game to date."

Writing in modern German games is terrible (I play them in German whenever possible because the translations are even worse), either because there is no talent in the industry or because it's all aimed at a PG12 audience. It wasn't always like that. G2 for example had decent, atmospheric dialogue and fitting VA.

 

[Alfons]

Fuck you.
Area design is the best part of this game.
The reason why it's 'same-y' is that every island is consistently same climate. It would be ridiculous including jungles, snowy and desert areas in the typical bethesdian manner.
Every island has its own vibe going for it and the placement of assets is pretty sophisticated at times (the 'swamp' on Tarantis is 8/8 m8), Calador is pretty varied and goes from grim volcanic wasteland to excessive foilage fairly naturally and seamlessly. Kila has memorable regions but overall it's a step down in comparison to Calador and Tarantis. Tacarigua is kinda generic but still has things that stand out whereas other islands feel rather uninspired, that much I agree with.

Up yours dipshit.
It might be the best part,like an undigested nut that is embedded in your shit and you know a game is fuckin good when you compare it to something Bethesda does.
In the end of the day you are either going through a jungle with green ground and trees or you are going through a shadow area with grey ground and white trees.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Eh, I guess same colour palette does wear off on you after awhile, I was mainly looking at the area desgin itself rather than variety of textures

 

[Don Peste]

I don't understand. Where is the people that made the first Risen? How could they screw it so bad?

 

[Gnidrologist]

The tits are definitely a nice improvement. Too bad she's your fucking sister.

I don't get this shit. Are you guise actually larping lovers in games? What difference does it make that she is your protagonist's whatever?

 

[Kruno]

The tits are definitely a nice improvement. Too bad she's your fucking sister.

I don't get this shit. Are you guise actually larping lovers in games? What difference does it make that she is your protagonist's whatever?

People don't want to fantasize about their own sisters, and what other reason would you have to play Risen 3 if not for boobs?

 

[Gnidrologist]

I certainly can't fantasize of polygonal virtual women to be my girlfriends. I still can't figure whether to pity or envy you guys.

 

[Raapys]

They're faggots.

Boobs are boobs.

 

[Alfons]

I certainly can't fantasize of polygonal virtual women to be my girlfriends. I still can't figure whether to pity or envy you guys.

Whoa there cowboy!Nice tits are nice tits regardless if they are made up of polygons,paint or actual breast tissue.
About pity,most guys probably fantasized about something they can't have, be it because you can't fuck your monitor or because that girl is way out of your league.

 

[Gnidrologist]

So what difference does it make that she is your sister in polygonal world? Fap away. Sheesh.

 

[ghostdog]

Damn it this is certainly disappointing, I was hoping for at least a Risen 1.

 

[Gnidrologist]

I still haven't finished Risen, but it's world and enemies are very boring so i don't think R3 can be any worse. Also i don't get the thing about R combat being any good. It's still mainly LB mashing with occasional situations, where blocking with shield is handy. I mostly release Fred to distract enemies and smash them from behind. Fred can take a lot of punishing before crumbling. Exploration is also only fun as far as seeing the all new vistas, because all the treasure chests have shit items in them. The best two handed sword is the one you make from obsidian yourself so i don't get the point of all these rune swords, berserkers and ones you reasemble from two broken parts as they are average. The only fun thing about Risen is dialoguing and quest solving before joining the fraction. Now at the stage were i need to get the titan armor and hesitating to continue. Seems like borefest from now on.

 

[Avellion]

So a game that was designed for the lowest common denominator is being outsold by a game whose design choices were rejected by most publishers, despite being newer. Glad to see this game not doing as well as more deserving titles.

 

[Alfons]

So what difference does it make that she is your sister in polygonal world? Fap away. Sheesh.

You are one sick fuck dude.

 

[Gnidrologist]

 

[toro]

I don't understand. Where is the people that made the first Risen? How could they screw it so bad?

They are still there. The problem is that the guys which made Gothic are gone.

I still haven't finished Risen, but it's world and enemies are very boring so i don't think R3 can be any worse. Also i don't get the thing about R combat being any good. It's still mainly LB mashing with occasional situations, where blocking with shield is handy. I mostly release Fred to distract enemies and smash them from behind. Fred can take a lot of punishing before crumbling. Exploration is also only fun as far as seeing the all new vistas, because all the treasure chests have shit items in them. The best two handed sword is the one you make from obsidian yourself so i don't get the point of all these rune swords, berserkers and ones you reasemble from two broken parts as they are average. The only fun thing about Risen is dialoguing and quest solving before joining the fraction. Now at the stage were i need to get the titan armor and hesitating to continue. Seems like borefest from now on.

It seems that the game development cycle took a wrong turn at some point:
- Sword crafting system is broken. Yes, you can gather metal resources but you cannot craft anything from them. However you can craft like 5 special swords / 5 pistols / 5 muskets in the entire game if you manage to gather the broken parts of them.
- Lockpicking system is broken. You can buy hundreds of lockpicks but you'll only need one ... for the entire game. My only lockpick did not break. Ever. The same with the pickaxe.
- Quests are broken. There are no longer interwined paths of the story or even quests which makes you unable to join some factions. Everything is Skyrim lite.
- Story is completely broken. I cannot stress this point enough. Is like they really intended to create the most retarded story ever. Remember the Steelbeard's death scene from Risen 2, that's how bad it is.
- Armor sets are broken. In the other PB games you would won a full armor set when you've reached the highest position in a faction. Not in this case, you will win only a body armor. And you will not be able to complete that armor anyway.
- Tits are broken. I have nothing against tits but Patty's tits are simply bad taste. Those are the tits of an old whore. It is probably an inside joke from PBs but it's a bad joke. Maybe they over compensate for the stupid game design. I don't know.

By the way Risen 3 doesn't have shields cause "Shields are for pussies". Fred is gone and there are no two-handed swords. And there is more ...

 

[Gnidrologist]

This is sad. Didn't play Risen2 yet so can't evaluate comparisons with it.
Anyhow, i'm not sad generally as there seems to be a lot of fine games made since 2008 that i haven't played yet so fuck risens.

 

[Infinitron]

Six page GameBanshee review by WUE: http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/114248-risen-3-titan-lords-review/all-pages.html

Concluding Thoughts

Risen 3 feels like a transitional title. It manages to smooth some of the rough edges of Risen 2, but makes mistakes of its own. Ultimately, it doesn't match the original Risen or the Gothic series. The focus and excellence of Piranha Bytes is gone, as is the feeling of genuine connection with the setting, which was the distinguishing feature of the German studio's early titles.

I have no doubt Piranha Bytes is already planning what to do with Risen 4, since the larger story arc isn't concluded yet. As I'm an eternal optimist, I can't help but hope that they'll get it right the next time and brick back the old Piranha magic.

For now, I'll enjoy Risen 3 for what it is: A decent game with very, very rough edges.