Review Risen has the best ARPG combat system ever made

[Hobbit Lord of Mordor]

Uh huh... in 'a' game? You'll have to be more specific and give an example of which farmer-with-rusty-axe one-shotted you if you could take down a mercenary with no problem. We are talking about Gothic 2, I assume?

You really think he will answer? I suspect he just pulled a fast one out of his arse because the combat system took a little too much brain power to get the hang of.

Still, I will check back to see what complete load of rubbish is spouted, unless he thought Sentenza is a farmer perhaps (could even he oneshot the character at the start?).

Gothic combat system...

"Requires brainpower"...

"Blackadder"... "Cuntington Manor"...

Wannabe RPG Elitist

 

[GeneralSamov]

By they way, it's Bullco and ye, he's a royal pain in the arse early on. Had to rely on cowardly tactics like hit 'n' run, climb onto ledge and make sure to remain directly atop of him and right next to the edge, otherwise he manages to climb too, and shower him with arrows and so on. And let's not even waste broadband traffic with Sentenza.

 

[Good Ol' Drog]

I'm enjoying Divinity 2 a lot at the moment, and am thinking about trying out Risen as well. Is the combat any similar?

Also, can you play as a girl in Risen?

 

[Elzair]

I still think the combat system in the original Gothic was the best.

 

[Micmu]

Must post this because I'm overly excited... After 6 or so years I finally ordered a new beast of a computer. Risen will be the first game installed. If it sucks or is significantly worse than G1/2, I'll use the FUU- emoticon and spam the codex like there is no tomorrow.

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Must post this because I'm overly excited... After 6 or so years I finally ordered a new beast of a computer. Risen will be the first game installed. If it sucks or is significantly worse than G1/2, I'll use the FUU- emoticon and spam the codex like there is no tomorrow.

Grats man. There's nothing quite like the joy of fireing up a new beastly computer after years of struggling with a shit one. :D

I think you'll like Risen also, especially the first two chapters (which are quite long). DR's review is pretty spot on. You may even like chapters three and four if you enjoy the combat system.

 

[Serus]

Grats man. There's nothing quite like the joy of fireing up a new beastly computer after years of struggling with a shit one. :D

...until you realize that all new CRPGs are shit and your 6 year old computer is good enough to play all the ones worth playing.
:skyway:

 

[AlaCarcuss]

Grats man. There's nothing quite like the joy of fireing up a new beastly computer after years of struggling with a shit one. :D

...until you realize that all new CRPGs are shit and your 6 year old computer is good enough to play all the ones worth playing.
:skyway:

Haha, typical codex cynasism. You just keep telling yourself that if it eases the pain of not being able to afford a decent 'puter.

There are other genres than RPG you know and there's a lot more you can do with a PC than just play games for that matter.

 

[Coyote]

*snip*

I agree with you for the most part, but about this...

And how can you fight agains multiple opponents? For example, bandits on a bridge. You start to fight with melle fighters, but then archer kills you with one shot, even if you're at full health.

You must be at a very low level with poor health, I've never been one-shotted by anything other than very strong enemies that I had no business going up against

...I agree with him (somewhat). The archer on the bridge is way more powerful than the other bandits there, and can kill you with 2-3 shots before you can get close to him even when you're otherwise powerful enough to slaughter them easily, though I don't know about one-shotting at full health. Of course, if he had used his brain at all, he would have realized that he could use other tactics besides just charging in blindly, like using a summon scroll to distract the archer - especially something resistant to arrows - using the terrain and/or a speed potion to get close enough to make him draw his melee weapon before he has a chance to fire, drawing off the others to pick them off (though this solution is pretty gamey, since it relies on a sort of exploit), positioning himself such that the archer has a hard time hitting him while finishing off his allies, etc.

By they way, it's Bullco and ye, he's a royal pain in the arse early on. Had to rely on cowardly tactics like hit 'n' run, climb onto ledge and make sure to remain directly atop of him and right next to the edge, otherwise he manages to climb too, and shower him with arrows and so on. And let's not even waste broadband traffic with Sentenza.

Nah, Bullco and Bronco are both on the same farm, but one is a mercenary and the other is a farmer. And you're not really meant to be able to beat Bullco or Sentenza until later in the game unless you've got extraordinary skill as a player; neither of them need to be beaten to gain the approval of enough mercenaries if you want to join them. (In fact, IIRC, Sentenza only cares that you paid him and won't approve of you if you haven't regardless of whether you've beaten him, and Bullco won't ever approve of you no matter what you do.)

 

[Murk]

^ I don't contest it's possible to be one-shotted in the game, my argument was that the scenario he described was weird an that critical strikes don't work at all like that in Gothic 2. His comparison was more akin to a kobold's lucky 20 killing a level 1 character than anything resembling the critical strike of gothic 2, and his assumption that just because someone has armor on he's a better warrior than someone with worker's clothing.

As for the bandits on the bridge... what can I say? You have a character who's specialized in archery and probably around level 6 or so along with three other level 4 melee characters... and he himself was... he mentioned being level 4 when he took on Bronco, so around there? Makes sense to me that he got his ass handed to him - and myself as well, took me 3 tires to take those guys down - I ended up burning a few scrolls and running behind cover from the arrows while I took on the melee bandits. When the archer closed in around the bend of the bridge he was close enough that I could run up and take him on with my sword.

I'm enjoying Divinity 2 a lot at the moment, and am thinking about trying out Risen as well. Is the combat any similar?

Also, can you play as a girl in Risen?

I am not sure how the combat system in Divinity 2 is but Risen's is better than G3's and G2's system combined, In my opinion, and lets you chain together a multitude of attacks to form chain attacks or to charge up to use power attacks. It's really fun, I think, and initial combat when the game begins isn't representative of the game's core combat after you get some skill levels under your belt.

You can only play as the pre-defined character -- which is Jason Statham.

 

[Good Ol' Drog]

You can only play as the pre-defined character -- which is Jason Statham.

Damn, that sucks.

Guess, I'll try Drakensang first then.

 

[Murk]

The character is basically the same guy as the first game - nameless sarcastic smart ass, 'sept he has a british accent and is bald now. You can pick what dialog to say but its all pre-voiced, probably why they just go with a preset character instead of making 3 different voice sets or what have you.

The game is really fun though and the exploration is still just as great. I agree with Roxor in that the combat system is the best of any ARPG I've ever come across, and even better than some straight-action games. The usual solid c&c and more realistic than your usual RPG setting is fun, as are quite a few of the dungeons and locations you'll visit. Near the end you'll probably get sick of Lizardmen but eh, it's totally cool be to racist against 'em.

I tried Drakensang for about 2 hours and gave up, seemed like it had potential but the somehow worse than NWN2 camera and the early game didn't capture me at all, so I dropped it.

 

[Elwro]

Re: bandits on the bridge in G2: when playing with NotR, the AI of the opponents is vastly improved. I was really surprised when I climbed a hill near the bridge and started to pick the bandits one by one with my arrows, only to be stabbed by one of them who must have run and climbed the hill behind my back. Perhaps this should be standard opponent behaviour in combat-filled cRPGs, but it isn't.

 

[ksjav]

Re: bandits on the bridge in G2: when playing with NotR, the AI of the opponents is vastly improved. I was really surprised when I climbed a hill near the bridge and started to pick the bandits one by one with my arrows, only to be stabbed by one of them who must have run and climbed the hill behind my back. Perhaps this should be standard opponent behaviour in combat-filled cRPGs, but it isn't.

Probably just a pathfinding glitch but hell, it's always nice when you can say "whoa, my smart shit was outsmarted" and go back to the tactix drawing board Sadly enough that happens way too rarely.

 

[ghostdog]

Risen is much better than boredomsang.