Risen 3

Sephiroth_dude

Anyone played this? Came out last week.

Spear

I've done so and finished it.

I can't recommend any aspect of it.

It's the exact same as Risen 2, down to reusing some of the islands. The combat is still awful, the story is simplistic, the voice acting is crude.

And all this in the context that Divinity: Original Sin is €10 cheaper.

If you really need an open-world RPG fix then at least wait until it's selling dirt cheap. which I've no doubt will only take a few weeks to start it getting massively discounted.

Sephiroth_dude

Well I brought it on impulse,haven't played the other two,probably should have waited .

Spear

The three games do continue the same larger story arc, albeit with new main characters each time. So playing the first two wouldn't hurt.

The best advice I can give is to understand that it has a fairly rigid approach to melee combat, which seems to centre on either you or the enemy performing the same linear combo of hits, and either dodging or blocking when you're not doing so.

mewso

I'm early into it. I loved Risen 1 and while Risen 2 had it's faults I enjoyed it to a point. I'm probably too early into it to pass judgement as a whole but the major problem for me is the challenge of the combat is basically non-existent. If you have a companion everything can be beaten. If you are on your own it will be a tiresome grind. From what I can tell the mechanics of the combat have improved since Risen 2 but that isn't saying much.

Risen 1 had probably one of the best combat mechanics in an arpg imo. Difficult and made character advancement worthwhile and genuinely satisfying when you could return and beat that irritating enemy later on in the same way as the Gothics. Risen 2 and now Risen 3 has the ridiculous "dodge roll spamming to win" mechanic (something I disliked in Witcher 2 also) but it does seem to have a more interesting magic side to it than 2 so I intend focusing on magic.

I consider Piranha Bytes the best world builders in general and Risen 3 is strong here again. A large open world that is worth exploring. Although they have gone for the multiple islands thing again which I'm not a big fan of. They have stuck with the Pirate thing again and added ship battles. I've not experienced them yet so can't comment.

Voice Acting - there is a character that joins you very early on that is just terribly acted while other voices seem fine to me. I think this character though, Bones, will be the one to colour peoples' view of the voice acting in general. Again it's early days for me so I may meet far worse.

Story - meh. I don't generally bother praising or complaining about story in general particularly with open world games where I really only need a passing excuse to explore. The one criticism for me is that the Risen series as a whole is a train wreck in terms of any kind of coherent story when taken together what with the likes of guns appearing in the second game and magic turning into Voodoo. Thankfully magic proper is back now.

Overall most of the commentary out in the big bad world of reviews and so on is if you liked the second Risen you will like this one but I think the combat problem is likely to spoil it for me. If later in the game you can take on the combat alone without companions and it is a challenge rather than a grind then I might end up thinking more of it.

As things stand though Piranha Bytes will probably continue to concentrate on their loyal German market while western reviews will continue to give their games 5 out of 10 and Elder Scrolls games 10 out of 10. Which came first the chicken or the egg? Sadly though every PB game I play these days just prompts me to go back and play Gothic 1-3 again to remind myself how good they used to be.

Spear

mewso wrote: »

I consider Piranha Bytes the best world builders in general and Risen 3 is strong here again. A large open world that is worth exploring. Although they have gone for the multiple islands thing again which I'm not a big fan of. They have stuck with the Pirate thing again and added ship battles. I've not experienced them yet so can't comment.

They're not what you think, more info would possibly be a spoilerish to I'll leave it there.

Voice Acting - there is a character that joins you very early on that is just terribly acted while other voices seem fine to me. I think this character though, Bones, will be the one to colour peoples' view of the voice acting in general. Again it's early days for me so I may meet far worse.

Oddly, his was the voice acting I liked. It seemed suitably reminiscent of little of Bobcat Goldthwait to me. It was the utterly cardboard and generic gravelly voice main character that mostly annoyed me.

mewso

Spear wrote: »

Oddly, his was the voice acting I liked. It seemed suitably reminiscent of little of Bobcat Goldthwait to me. It was the utterly cardboard and generic gravelly voice main character that mostly annoyed me.

It's comical and almost forgiveable on that basis but yeah I forgot about the Main Character's Christian Bale voice. Terrible.

mewso

I meant to add at the end of my post about the game since this is the main games forum. Do not play these games on console. By all accounts they are a disaster on anything but PC. Certainly the most recent 2 anyway. Risen 1 was basically an attempt to please the Gothic fans, Risen 2 an attempt to get more/console fans and Risen 3 now appears like an attempt to win back the alienated Gothic fans while keeping the other fans happy (if there are any). I'm only going by reports about the console versions of these games so if anyone actually has played them on console and has a different opinion by all means. I'm open to correction.

Sephiroth_dude

mewso wrote: »

I meant to add at the end of my post about the game since this is the main games forum. Do not play these games on console. By all accounts they are a disaster on anything but PC. Certainly the most recent 2 anyway. Risen 1 was basically an attempt to please the Gothic fans, Risen 2 an attempt to get more/console fans and Risen 3 now appears like an attempt to win back the alienated Gothic fans while keeping the other fans happy (if there are any). I'm only going by reports about the console versions of these games so if anyone actually has played them on console and has a different opinion by all means. I'm open to correction.

Ehhhh too late......brought it for ps3

mewso

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Ehhhh too late......brought it for ps3

Oops. Well maybe I'm wrong.

Spear

I'm a bit perplexed as to how they could differ, unless the controls really don't work on gamepads.

Sephiroth_dude

mewso wrote: »

Oops. Well maybe I'm wrong.

I shall report back

mewso

Spear wrote: »

I'm a bit perplexed as to how they could differ, unless the controls really don't work on gamepads.

Having seen some videos on console the graphics to me looked a million miles from PC. So I suspect the problem is more along the lines of poor engine optimisation. The Risen 3 graphics on PC are actually pretty good.

calex71

Spear wrote: »

I've done so and finished it.

I can't recommend any aspect of it.

It's the exact same as Risen 2, down to reusing some of the islands. The combat is still awful, the story is simplistic, the voice acting is crude.

And all this in the context that Divinity: Original Sin is €10 cheaper.

If you really need an open-world RPG fix then at least wait until it's selling dirt cheap. which I've no doubt will only take a few weeks to start it getting massively discounted.

Agree and disagree there, they do use the same islands but I found it quite good seeing how they had changed. Really doesn't feel like you are in the exact same place. The combat is horrific though, even a tiny creature can be an outright chore to fight, it's essentialy come down to timing how much you charge the A attack then roll /repeat.

I'm on act 2 and am on kila now with pirates, I'm actually having trouble progressing the story and this is the 4th island I've been on. I feel like I should be joining a group but no offers so far, and so far I've met 3 factions

Also I have a problem with Wilson in the citadel, every time I try to get near him, both he and the other guy agro.

So far I would say it's better than Risen 2 by a long way

mewso

I'm much further in now and loving it. Combat still has issues but once I skilled up a bit and went solo for most things except where it made sense to have companions it is fine. Voice acting is not bothering me much either now. Like all PB games it's a far better game than most will give it credit for. I must have a forgiveness filter or something because I thoroughly enjoy their games while everyone else will rage about some aspect of it. There are flaws but they don't spoil the game for me. They still get far more right in open world games than Bethesda do in many ways. It's great fun exploring their carefully crafted worlds.

Sephiroth_dude

Finally got it today from amazon for ps3,the graphics are shiocking ,it looks like a ps2 game :-/

calex71

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Finally got it today from amazon for ps3,the graphics are shiocking ,it looks like a ps2 game :-/

I haven't been back to it since last week, and having played Diablo 3 all this week it's going to be next to impossible to fine the will to go back to it

Sephiroth_dude

calex71 wrote: »

I haven't been back to it since last week, and having played Diablo 3 all this week it's going to be next to impossible to fine the will to go back to it

Ya I dunno if I'm gonna be able to play it again,what a waste of money.

calex71

Sephiroth_dude wrote: »

Ya I dunno if I'm gonna be able to play it again,what a waste of money.

I could put up with it if it wasn't for the combat, and the fact that I was going for the achievements meaning I was hoarding skill points to get 1 to 100 then reload and do the others. I might just abandon that and use them to take some of the frustration of the combat out of it.

Theres one for 2000 kills, I didn't even hit 500 after 8 hours of play.

Sephiroth_dude

calex71 wrote: »

I could put up with it if it wasn't for the combat, and the fact that I was going for the achievements meaning I was hoarding skill points to get 1 to 100 then reload and do the others. I might just abandon that and use them to take some of the frustration of the combat out of it.

Theres one for 2000 kills, I didn't even hit 500 after 8 hours of play.

Thats pretty bad :-/.....I think I'll play on for the trophies too :-D

mewso

People really get Risen so wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JeDt08oB18