Risen – Fresh Look

You can view the First Look review by clicking here

Although I was unable to dedicate the number of hours I’d have liked to in order to follow on from chapter two through to completion, I can now say that my time within Faranga has come to an end. It was by no means an uneventful journey and, now that I can sit back and reflect on what has gone, I’m satisfied that I exhausted everything that there was to do and thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay.

As one would expect, the last two chapters of the game are very different from the first two in terms of pace and urgency. While the first chapter involved a great deal of errand running, as you’d expect from an RPG, the later chapters are primarily based around the main quest. On reflection, it’s probably fair to say that most of the side quests within Risen actually have some bearing on the main questline, as they involve building up relations with various factions in order to garner leverage for the ultimate battle. Whether you side with The Don or with The Inquisitor, the final battle will play out the same… but the path that leads you to that point will vary.

Overall, as touched on before, the game is considerably harder than the those that it finds itself compared to, namely Oblivion and Two Worlds. It is, unfortunately, a much smaller game with perhaps half as many hours required to complete than the others BUT, as Risen is set on an island rather than inland, that’s to be expected. The level of puzzle solving and the difficulty of certain aspects of the gameplay more than makes up for the number of hours so, even though I was left gagging for more at the end, I certainly didn’t feel short changed in any way.

A cold stare from our hero reassures us that everything has been taken care of and normality will return to Faranga

I admit that I never noticed the transition to chapter four and so when it came time to face the Titan Lord at the end, I couldn’t help but wonder what chapter four had in store for me if I was about to defeat the big boss in chapter three. Turns out, time must have run away with itself as the defeat of the Titan Lord did, in fact, bring the game to an end. I was satisfied though because, as expected, the boss battle was difficult compared to other recent RPG bosses. It wasn’t that the boss itself was difficult to kill, rather that the circumstances made it less straighforward to obtain that final defeat.

Watching the credits through to the end brought up a conversation between our hero and Patty (the delicious brunette pub landlady) which left the series open to a follow up. I have my fingers crossed that this will go ahead, as I didn’t find the hero or the NPCs immersive enough to warrant a second play through.

• More to think about than other games of the genre.
• Artificial intelligence of the enemies is refreshing.
• Some fantastic touches with the spells.

• The restrictions on training and levelling up make it difficult to survive early on.
• Lack of "wait" option means that you have to either find a bed or continue to play through the darkness hours.

While Risen may not be as long as Oblivion or Two Worlds in terms of the number of hours required for completion, it does offer different gameplay that make the typical comparisons quite oddly placed. The voice acting is much better than expected, with some recognisable British actors in the credits, and make the game more immersive than others that have gone before. The difficulty early on can be frustrating, especially to someone who doesn't like to save very often, and so it is best to avoid confrontation where possible until the character has progressed enough to handle himself better.

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