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Risen is... really good.
For those who enjoyed Oblivion or Morrowind. Risen is what, IMO, Oblvion could have been but its not Morrowind yet, if you get my point.
Whats most important though is that its FUN to play, fighting takes getting the hang of but once you do it feels great and its a lot more engaging than most titles of its kind out there that I know of.
Npcs are still your generic joes that all look the same with slight changes in make up but every NPC has its own personality unlike Oblivion where they would even share the same voices AND lines most of the time.
I'm well over 40 hours into the game and still feel like i've only scraped its surface but it also feels like i've made a lot of progress from a lousy bum to an important asset of the plot. Its hard to earn anything at first too, simply getting out of my rags took atleast half a chapter to do.
Crafting is simple and more of the usual stuff tbh, you can make weapons, scrolls and potions. You can also learn to skin animals and prospect ore from all over the place which is really useful if you're a smith. I haven't found a use for skinning animals yet though... unless its just to sell the stuff you get.
You also can decide to join certain factions much like in Oblivion.
You progress in your fighting skills and crafting skills by talking to trainers and spending points and gold on training. That way you can raise your stats and your skills. Each time you raise a fighting skill, you can either perform a new move or you can be more effective with the moves you've got, this is good because it changes the gameplay over time and that forces you to constantly adapt to new techniques because as you go deeper into the dungeons monsters will use attacks that you have to know how to counter and it feels like each enemy has a different way of fighting which is refreshing... birds will dodge a lot, wolves will attack multiple times, rats use surprise attacks a lot, boars push your defense away, ogres have moves you cant defend... it simply doesn't get boring, and of course you can just stay out of range and nuke/shoot them to death but that requires a lot of good aiming.
And that is where my only complaint is. The clunky ranged attacks.. its hard to aim properly without using the crosshair and even then if the enemies are moving its better to just take out the sword. So far ranged combat is just useful for the first hit for me... and magic too, which is pretty much the same as ranged attacks, I'm hoping that is because my skill for both ranged and magic are really low.
I just hope it still has plenty to deliver, Oblivion threw you into the main quest really fast and you could finish it in an afternoon if you wanted, it just felt too simple and generic. I know its your choice to explore and do the side quests but I want the main plot to be engaging by itself, and so far the main plot in Risen has made me to follow a path that has been until now really intricate, though I'm sure the choice to rush it is there... but it hasn't made itself apparent so far.
Anyway you guys should give it a try.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvbjYYIfzs"]YouTube - Risen gameplay 01 - arsludica.org[/ame]
For those who enjoyed Oblivion or Morrowind. Risen is what, IMO, Oblvion could have been but its not Morrowind yet, if you get my point.
Whats most important though is that its FUN to play, fighting takes getting the hang of but once you do it feels great and its a lot more engaging than most titles of its kind out there that I know of.
Npcs are still your generic joes that all look the same with slight changes in make up but every NPC has its own personality unlike Oblivion where they would even share the same voices AND lines most of the time.
I'm well over 40 hours into the game and still feel like i've only scraped its surface but it also feels like i've made a lot of progress from a lousy bum to an important asset of the plot. Its hard to earn anything at first too, simply getting out of my rags took atleast half a chapter to do.
Crafting is simple and more of the usual stuff tbh, you can make weapons, scrolls and potions. You can also learn to skin animals and prospect ore from all over the place which is really useful if you're a smith. I haven't found a use for skinning animals yet though... unless its just to sell the stuff you get.
You also can decide to join certain factions much like in Oblivion.
You progress in your fighting skills and crafting skills by talking to trainers and spending points and gold on training. That way you can raise your stats and your skills. Each time you raise a fighting skill, you can either perform a new move or you can be more effective with the moves you've got, this is good because it changes the gameplay over time and that forces you to constantly adapt to new techniques because as you go deeper into the dungeons monsters will use attacks that you have to know how to counter and it feels like each enemy has a different way of fighting which is refreshing... birds will dodge a lot, wolves will attack multiple times, rats use surprise attacks a lot, boars push your defense away, ogres have moves you cant defend... it simply doesn't get boring, and of course you can just stay out of range and nuke/shoot them to death but that requires a lot of good aiming.
And that is where my only complaint is. The clunky ranged attacks.. its hard to aim properly without using the crosshair and even then if the enemies are moving its better to just take out the sword. So far ranged combat is just useful for the first hit for me... and magic too, which is pretty much the same as ranged attacks, I'm hoping that is because my skill for both ranged and magic are really low.
I just hope it still has plenty to deliver, Oblivion threw you into the main quest really fast and you could finish it in an afternoon if you wanted, it just felt too simple and generic. I know its your choice to explore and do the side quests but I want the main plot to be engaging by itself, and so far the main plot in Risen has made me to follow a path that has been until now really intricate, though I'm sure the choice to rush it is there... but it hasn't made itself apparent so far.
Anyway you guys should give it a try.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVvbjYYIfzs"]YouTube - Risen gameplay 01 - arsludica.org[/ame]
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