For Piranha Bytes, Risen was a clean slate. After Gothic 3 was a total debacle at launch due to their publisher, JoWooD, meddling with the development and basically ripping the game from their hands before it was finished to meet a launch date, PB cut all ties with the series that put them on the map. Signing up with Deep Silver, Risen was constructed, from the ground up, to be an evolution of the formulas and gameplay loops found in Gothic, while also targeting console players with a multi-platform release. Risen succeeds in a lot of what it sets out to do. However, there are still some missteps, especially in the latter parts of the game.

The story takes place on Faranga, a mediterranean island, where after humanity cast out the ruling gods (a reference to one of the endings of Gothic 3), massive ruins begin to rise out of the ground all over the world and deadly creatures begin to pour out, forcing humanity into conflict once again. To make matters worse, massive storms are wreaking havoc on any kind of settlement or ship out in the oceans, which is where the nameless player character comes in. After stowing away on a boat commanded by a militant theocratic order known as the Inquisition, the player shipwrecks onto the island along with one other survivor and has to figure out what is going on.

The player is given a choice between siding with three different factions in three different massive areas full of side quests and characters, and this is something Risen does really well, almost to the degree of Gothic 2. The settlements all ooze atmosphere, whether it be the bandit camp in the swamps or the Inquisition monastery high up in the peaks of an active volcano, they all have distinct character and feel like real places and much of the early game is spent in these areas.

After picking a faction, the game begins to settle into a rhythm of exploring ruins, doing some light puzzle solving and finding the plot device of the day. While this can get rote after a while, the game is still very much enjoyable and the story is intriguing enough where I was playing just to see what happens next. There are some great characters in Risen too, especially the Inquisitor himself (voiced by Andy Serkis), Don Estaban (voiced by John Rhys-Davies), the crime lord leader who was exiled out of Harbor Town by the Inquisition and Patty (voiced by Lena Heady), a tavern owner who is looking for her lost father.

However, where the game lets itself down, is in the combat. Now, YMMV but I never quite got the hang of how combat works in Risen and would often resort to cheesy tactics in the later game when the difficulty curve begins to rapidly spike up. Even with endgame gear, enemies were still able to stun lock me with ease and decimate me without breaking a sweat. It's possible I didn't build my character right, but it was often frustrating dealing with the combat. However, it didn't make me want to stop playing.

Speaking of character building, the learning points system from Gothic makes a comeback and it's relatively unchanged from how it was used in previous games. When you level up, you get ten learning points and use them to learn skills from trainers (along with a little bit of gold for good measure). A really enjoyable part of this system is that each trainer has different lines for how they teach you something like how to swing a sword, with each having their own take and personality on it, though this ultimately makes no difference in terms of gameplay.

Risen is also quite a looker, with a very strong mediterranean themed art style throughout and well-done lighting. Characters don't look super hot in 2016, but it's still far better then, say, ArcaniA, which came out two years later. The game also runs very well on modest PC's, and more higher end specs can utilize tools like nVidia Inspector to add in anti-aliasing. At 2x SSAA, this is quite a great looking game.

I highly recommend checking this out if you are a fan of the Gothic games or of European CRPG's in general!

For Piranha Bytes, Risen was a clean slate. After Gothic 3 was a total debacle at launch due to their publisher, JoWooD, meddling with the development and basically ripping the game from their hands before it was finished to meet a launch date, PB cut all ties with the series that put them on the map. Signing up with Deep Silver, Risen was constructed, from the ground up, to be an evolution of the formulas and gameplay loops found in Gothic, while also targeting console players with a multi-platform release. Risen succeeds in a lot of what it sets out to do. However, there are still some missteps, especially in the latter parts of the game. The story takes place on Faranga, a mediterranean island, where after humanity cast out the ruling gods (a reference to one of the endings of Gothic 3), massive ruins begin to rise out of the ground all over the world and deadly creatures begin to pour out, forcing humanity into conflict once again. To make matters worse, massive storms are wreaking havoc on any kind of settlement or ship out in the oceans, which is where the nameless player character comes in. After stowing away on a boat commanded by a militant theocratic order known as the Inquisition, the player shipwrecks onto the island along with one other survivor and has to figure out what is going on. The player is given a choice between siding with three different factions in three different massive areas full of side quests and characters, and this is something Risen does really well, almost to the degree of Gothic 2. The settlements all ooze atmosphere, whether it be the bandit camp in the swamps or the Inquisition monastery high up in the peaks of an active volcano, they all have distinct character and feel like real places and much of the early game is spent in these areas. After picking a faction, the game begins to settle into a rhythm of exploring ruins, doing some light puzzle solving and finding the plot device of the day. While this can get rote after a while, the game is still very much enjoyable and the story is intriguing enough where I was playing just to see what happens next. There are some great characters in Risen too, especially the Inquisitor himself (voiced by Andy Serkis), Don Estaban (voiced by John Rhys-Davies), the crime lord leader who was exiled out of Harbor Town by the Inquisition and Patty (voiced by Lena Heady), a tavern owner who is looking for her lost father. However, where the game lets itself down, is in the combat. Now, YMMV but I never quite got the hang of how combat works in Risen and would often resort to cheesy tactics in the later game when the difficulty curve begins to rapidly spike up. Even with endgame gear, enemies were still able to stun lock me with ease and decimate me without breaking a sweat. It's possible I didn't build my character right, but it was often frustrating dealing with the combat. However, it didn't make me want to stop playing. Speaking of character building, the learning points system from Gothic makes a comeback and it's relatively unchanged from how it was used in previous games. When you level up, you get ten learning points and use them to learn skills from trainers (along with a little bit of gold for good measure). A really enjoyable part of this system is that each trainer has different lines for how they teach you something like how to swing a sword, with each having their own take and personality on it, though this ultimately makes no difference in terms of gameplay. Risen is also quite a looker, with a very strong mediterranean themed art style throughout and well-done lighting. Characters don't look super hot in 2016, but it's still far better then, say, ArcaniA, which came out two years later. The game also runs very well on modest PC's, and more higher end specs can utilize tools like nVidia Inspector to add in anti-aliasing. At 2x SSAA, this is quite a great looking game. I highly recommend checking this out if you are a fan of the Gothic games or of European CRPG's in general!