What are you playing?

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Gothic characters were never melodramatic, stilted or edgy. They always called it as they saw it.

(Though I somehow forgot that the main character basically talks like a narrator. Weird.)

Character customization and questing are quite satisfying. There are your standard rpg stats which do what you'd think.

Oh, so they actually do shit? I'm pretty sure the ones in Elex only serve as requirement for skills and abilities or whatever the fuck that shit was called again.

[rabidtictac]

I am pretty sure stats actually do shit in Risen 1. I've noticed that certain enemies deal high damage to you even with sticks equipped, while others deal low or moderate damage with swords. I increased my strength and my damage seemed to go up. I couldn't say for certain, but yes. I think the stats matter as more than a licensing test for equipment.

My extensive swamp camp arena testing indicates to me that enemies have their own individual stats which influence the damage they deal. Bandits at the camp all equip the same or similar weapons so a large disparity in damage output should not occur if stats do nothing. Of course, you also gain damage bonuses from having high weapon rank mastery. It's likely that any enemy who acts as a trainer in a fighting style also has boosted damage due to this. But it's possible too that stats for NPCs do nothing and they have a fixed damage value based on their story/thematic importance.

https://risen.fandom.com/wiki/Strength

This fan wiki says that strength directly affects damage. I've also heard of people boosting strength to near 200 at endgame. They probably wouldn't do that if it had no impact on your damage, since weapons don't have requirements of 180 or anything crazy like that.

[rabidtictac]

I'm now in chapter 4 endgame of Risen. Lizard spam has begun.

It's honestly not that terrible. Yeah, this is definitely the least replayable part of Risen. It's a lot more linear than the first two chapters and there's less overworld exploration. The game becomes Tomb Raider for a while. First you spelunk the last boss tomb, then you go around the world and spelunk in other lizard tombs. No surprises for guessing that the world is repopulated largely by lizard enemies.

Lizards aren't really any different in terms of AI or behavior from human enemies. As far as I know, they don't have any low attacks, so they can't hit you with unblockable setups like monsters can (if you're shieldless, but only one weapon path ever will be.) They hit extremely hard though, so the battle of attrition is real. 3-4 lizards can fuck up your day real good. The auto-target is at its most fiddly with groups and I suspect this is why people really don't like this last act. See, most lizard fights are against groups. You can usually find a choke point though, where your wide swings will hit more than one enemy at a time. Again, the hitboxes are still fucking better than fucking Elex.

The last chapter being this way got me thinking about Gothic 1. I know a fair bit about how Gothic 1 goes. Didn't play it, but I saw a full playthrough. It becomes very linear as well, and Orcs take the place of Lizards (or vice-versa I guess.) It's kind of interesting how Risen has the same strengths and weaknesses as OG Gothic. Most people will love the early game, where you make all your decisions and build your character. But you reach a point of steamrolling where you have decided your build and there's nothing else to do. The game hands you a linear story and tells you to get curbstompin'. I maxed my sword skill already and I don't need any more bow skill or dexterity until I find a better bow. I have all utility skills and only lack magic, which I can't get on my faction. But I still have access to essentially infinite magic via scroll crafting and vendors.

I do recommend, btw, not fully exploring the map in Risen before Chapter 2. The reason for that is certain enemies holding teleporter stones don't spawn until a certain event in Chapter 2. It's best to wait for them to spawn and then fully explore the island. Otherwise, you might miss a couple teleporter stones in areas you already cleared.

My recommended play style would go something like this:

Chapter 1: Explore all the towns (the 2 that are open, as one is locked) and do all free quests that aren't locked to factions. Then pick your faction and join them. Do minimal exploration along the main paths and focus on getting utility skills so you increase your income.

Chapter 2: Now that you have faction armor, explore the whole island after doing the Eastern Temple quest. At this point, you will have decent armor and a lot of money, so you can focus on getting stronger. Boost the hell out of your stats and buy/loot the best items. You should have the ability to use your chosen weapon ('s best version, like a two-hander) with a shield before ending Chapter 2. Or upgrade your magic a ton. Do all the faction quests for your chosen faction and do all the collecting quest for Mendoza but don't turn it in until you're ready. Finish Patty's quest, etc. The reason to hold off advancing chapters is because the lizard spam doesn't start until you open the door Mendoza wants to get into. Explore everywhere FIRST to minimize time fighting lizards.

Chapters 3 and beyond: Curbstomp the tombs, curbstomp the dungeons. This is where I'm at now. There's nothing in the game I can't kill in single combat. I only end up dying to groups, usually as a result of the camera lock-on spazzing out. Chapters 3 and 4 are basically the same shit. You explore dungeons and then explore more dungeons. But at least you get to ally with a few NPCs here and there. Patty shows up again to help out, and there's a captive Ogre you have as a buddy for a while too. He's overpowered as fuck and swats lizards like flies.

TL;DR Risen is breddy gudd. I think the "badness" of the 2nd half is over-exaggerated by the internet. I might not be in a rush to replay that back half once I finish this playthrough, but I am interested in seeing it eventually as a Mage and Order Warrior. Mage feels like the "canon" path, given they're the most altruistic of the three factions and have the strongest story ties.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

Yeah, Gothic orcs are nothing like orcs you see in other RPGs. Those guys don't fuck around.
Except for maybe Gothic 3 (which I haven't played) where I think they show up earlier.

And you keep mentioning shields. I forgot Risen 1 didn't have the whole pirate shtick of Risen 2 and up.

I do recommend, btw, not fully exploring the map in Risen before Chapter 2. The reason for that is certain enemies holding teleporter stones don't spawn until a certain event in Chapter 2. It's best to wait for them to spawn and then fully explore the island. Otherwise, you might miss a couple teleporter stones in areas you already cleared.

Also enemies tend to only respawn / get replaced at the start of a new chapter. So get those sweet XPs.

[rabidtictac]

Min-maxing for XP isn't worth the aggravation of visiting the same locations 4+ times. Just do one clean sweep in Chapter 2 and then another in Chapter 3 or 4. Two full sweeps will give you more than enough xp.

Edit: Yeah Risen 2 started all the dumb pirates of the Caribbean shit. Risen 1 had one side quest involving two feuding pirates. But the tech was kept medieval. Then Risen 2 came along and suddenly the Inquisition were just Colonials with muskets and fake wigs.

Edit 2: Finished Risen. Very fun game. The final boss was a jank puzzle but it barely mattered. The real challenges of the game were the lizard priest dungeons before the final boss. By the time I reached the end boss, I was ready for things to be over and the game didn't waste my time on that score. Fight Mendoza, then fight the final boss and then credits. Thankfully, they don't require you to go any further into the final dungeon than you went the first time around.

I guess the only "downside" of Risen 1 is that the final quarter of the game isn't changed substantially based on your faction. As a mobster, my only interaction with my faction after taking back the town for them was to ask the Don for help and be told "yeah sorry, can't be assed." The story relevant characters are who they are and not reliant on your choices. Sort of like Xardas in Gothic 1, I guess. You outgrow your faction and then they cease to be helpful. After that point, you're stuck with the "main story" progression and that's more linear.

I highly recommend Risen 1. I've heard only bad things about Risen 2 and Risen 3 seems bland as fuck.

[Complicity]

As a mobster, my only interaction with my faction after taking back the town for them was to ask the Don for help and be told "yeah sorry, can't be assed."

I joined the mages, and all i remember about the final part of the game was becoming the new inquisitor, going around dressed like Mendoza, all the NPCs recognizing me as such, and the final battle with the fire titan being absolute dogshit.

I highly recommend Risen 1. I've heard only bad things about Risen 2 and Risen 3 seems bland as fuck.

While not as bad as people claim, Risen 2 is still the worst PB game after Gothic 3.
The combat is atrocious; shooting with a rifle and rolling back when an enemy comes close is the only way to win, melee can be used exclusively in 1 vs 1 with slightly weaker enemies than you, almost no magic at all.
Only two factions to choose from, the whypipo colonizers, that give you more powerful rifles and that's it, and the voodoo niggers, that give you fun CC spells and unlock the ghost of Patty's father as a companion.
You will still need a rifle if you join the voodoo niggers though; if you didn't buy one in the first part of the game before joining them, you might as well uninstall the game or start over from the beginning.

Risen 3 is exactly like Elex, the faction you choose will completely change the way you look and fight:



The protagonist isn't the same; all of a sudden Patty has a never mentioned before brother and you are him; same companions shit as Elex and Risen 2.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

It's kinda fun when you're going into Risen 3 without touching any of the previous Risens. You can almost delude yourself into playing an alternate Gothic 3 where they had to rename "Raven" into "Crow" for copyright reasons.

[rabidtictac]

The main character's voice in Risen 3 is really fucking annoying. At least the English one. I've never heard anyone try so overly hard to sound gruff.

I might still play it though. I've seen enough of Risen 2 to know to avoid it. Both games have almost nothing to do with Risen 1 so I won't miss anything by going to 3. I still say Risen 3 looks bland as fuck but there's a chance I'll enjoy its gameplay more than Elex.

SpoilerShow

Risen 2 and 3 also really shit hard on Risen 1's ending, where the Risen 1 guy says he's planning to wear the titan armor, leave Faranga and go after the other titans. And that Patty will go with him. That basically never happens (except Patty becoming a companion after a massive character redesign). There's ONE (((titan))) in Risen 2 and it's just some stupid bitch. Risen 3 has no titans at all, only weird undead fuckers.

I remember hearing Risen 2 had no faction armor whatsoever. That alone should tell you what kind of game it is.

[Kugelfisch]

Fight'n Rage
It didn't really click with me all those years back. But with a hitbox it's pretty awesome!

[rabidtictac]

Yeah it is. I got the normal 1cc but haven't done hard or hardest yet.