Piranha Bytes might as well have named Risen "Gothic IV", because I don't think anyone would mind. After all, the game is in fact that. Ok, so they may have wanted to stray a bit from the lore of Gothic, so this could explain the name change, but other than that...

After a rough patch with Gothic III involving tons of bugs and very long loading times even for today's standards, it seems the developers finally got things right quality wise and gave us a playable game straight out of the box - as opposed to a year of patches and fixes.

This doesn't mean that you won't find a problem with the game at all... There are plenty of problems. Just try jumping for example - a simple test you can perform just as you start the game. I understand it all takes place on the fantasy imaginary, volcano island of Faranga, and maybe the g-force varies on the unknown Risen planet, but still...

Jokes aside, Risen, like its predecessors is a unique breed of RPGs. It can be very rewarding towards the end, the story evolves a lot, and NPCs really seem influenced by all that you do, loving or hating you, the faction you choose to ally to, or the decision you make in general.

But in the beginning, due to the fact you are starting with nothing and have to familiarize yourself with the clumsy character and combat controls, Risen can be a very frustrating experience.

The story starts with ancient temple ruins rising up on the volcanic island of Faranaga, and with the inquisition cutting off island access from the world. Unaware of the secrets and possible treasures one might find inside these risen dungeons and catacombs that were once great temples, the inquisition doesn't want to take any chances and exploit these riches on their own.

We find our unnamed hero along with his possible love interest Sara, stowaway aboard an unknown ship, watching an Inquisitor battling a giant sea monster. After several powerful magic spells, the Inquisitor sees that he won't win, and teleports away to safety, leaving the ship and its souls to be destroyed, smashed by the monster.

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Luckily for you and Sara, you manage to survive somehow both the storm and the sea monster attack, and find yourself on the beach of Faranaga.

From there, you slowly make your way towards civilization, as Sara guides you and helps you get started with several skills like picking herbs, lockpicking, cooking, etc.

A local hunter will be your guide further on, telling you more about the island factions and monsters. I personally tried both paths: joining the rebels/mercenaries and joining the monastery monks to fight for the inquisition.

Either way, choosing a more varied class like a sorcerer is very hard work, and you have to advance a lot until you get to cast that first fireball. Hunting with bows and crossbows is a bit easier, and of course, bludgeoning your way around just comes natural.

Even though a lot of freedom is permitted in theory, in practice you either walk the "tutorial" path until you get stronger, or die to the insanely difficult to defeat low levels monsters.

The old Gothic formula was really a success, as proven by a lot of RPG games adopting some of its key elements, from production skills found in Fable for example to opening chests, dialog choices and freedom.

Risen polishes a bit more a lot of those concepts, but brings nothing really innovative to the table, and one wonders, with all the competition and new RPG titles in the past three years, if it's enough.

All other aspects like crafting, equipment, resource gathering, etc. are pretty much the same as in Gothic and even if you haven't played any previous games of the series you will find yourself on familiar grounds, as they aren't very special or different. One thing to notice though is that you can pick almost any crap up and store it in your megapacked inventory, leading to confusion in the end: what are all these things for. Take only herb picking - there are like a hundred different types of herbs, and even identifying what they all do from your inventory can be extremely time consuming.

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Conclusion

Risen is the spiritual successor of Gothic, and is in many ways just like it. It can be extremely rewarding if you develop your character long enough and invest a lot of time in it, but it can also be extremely frustrating if you are just starting and try to find that RPG freedom of exploration, even if you can go everywhere in theory.

Gameplay: 77

You can find arguments here for both sides here, and I really can't tell you if this game is for you. It *may* be for you if you have great patience and time to throw in the mix. For others who want it all to be more epic, maybe the upcoming Dragon Age will be more to your liking.

Graphics: 79

There are a few Kodak moments here and there due to good looking vegetation and sky, and the usual cycle day/night, but other than that you are bound to find some nasty texture and low poly count NPC characters around, just to ruin the mood.

Multiplayer: N/A

Sound: 78

Voice acting isn't too good I'm afraid, probably a direct consequence of the game being written in German and translated afterwards. I can't claim the music is absent, but not only you do not remember it afterwards, it's almost like it's not there.

Hardware: 74

A lot of progress has been made compared to Gothic III of course, and everything works reasonably well to be an enjoyable experience. However, lots of bugs are still present. Physics are really odd, and combat is clumsy perhaps for the same reason. And what's the deal with that loading bar progress anyway? It's useless...