[Retrogranie] Rarely mentioned heir of Gothic – “Risen”

Break the shackles, break the whip

The gods passed away, or more precisely they were chased away by a united humanity, tired of living under their oppression, greed for worship and gifts. It was supposed to be the beginning of a new era, a golden age that would take man to the top of his own abilities. Utopian plans, however, were thwarted by the aftermath of getting rid of the gods. The earth trembled, and from it emerged ancient ruins that hide great power and an unprecedented threat. With the departure of the gods, the shackles that held the titans, giant monsters with power beyond human imagination, also disappeared. The game starts during a duel between Inquisitor Mendoza and one of the sea titans. The supreme head of the inquisition, realizing that he has no chance against the monster, teleports from the ship to a safe place, thus allowing for the beast to sink the boat and everyone on it. It also so happened that completely by accident on board the ship was our nameless hero, who managed to survive the catastrophe. The sea washed him ashore on Faranga Island. From now on, he will fight for survival against the hostile fauna, and each of his actions will bring him closer to meeting the Inquisitor again in order to jointly try to save the world from the Titans.

Bandit, Mage, or Warrior of the Inquisition?

During his journey, the Nameless Hero must enter one of the three camps. Sounds familiar, huh? They are Don Esteban’s bandits who occupy the swamps, the Inquisition led by Inquisitor Mendoza, and the mages from the monastery by the volcano. Each faction offers different development paths, of which there are many in Risen. The bandits’ specialty is ax and sword combat and training in the use of ranged weapons, i.e. bows and crossbows. The headquarters of the Magicians and Inquisition are located in the monastery and offer the same missions, but slightly different development opportunities. The mage will be more trained in using magic crystals and enchanting with runes, but he will not miss training with polearms. In turn, an apprentice of the inquisition is more strongly trained in terms of combat, and magic skills are only an addition to the training. The creators of the game used a very interesting procedure, because staying outside the walls of the only city on Faranga is forbidden due to the threat posed by the titans. This law was established by the Inquisitor Mendoza himself, taking power on the island. For this reason, if the Nameless Hero first encounters an inquisition’s patrol, they will attack him and send him for training to the monastery. In this way, it will not be possible to become a mage, but only a warrior in Mendoza’s service. To be able to explore the arcane of magic, you must first go to the city, and work there for a letter of recommendation from commander Carlos and the local emissary of mages. This solution is not very obvious and I suspect that it is rarely chosen by novice players. The hero gets stronger as you spend more skill points, obtained by gaining experience. Acquiring new or upgrading existing ones requires a teacher, and no one will share knowledge for free. The science points themselves can be spent in various ways. You can improve basic statistics such as: strength, agility, knowledge, health points and mana points, or acquire new talents in the form of opening locks or writing scrolls. The mage himself has the option to choose between three Magic Crystals, which have their own advantages and disadvantages, and suit different tactics. Energy relies on projecting projectiles very quickly, dealing a small amount of damage at approaching enemies while pushing them back and preventing them from counterattacking. Ice temporarily freezes the enemy, but then it cannot be hurt by another spell until it thaws. It is a safe way to play, but very time consuming. Fireballs focus on dealing large amounts of damage each time. As you can see,Risen offers a wide range of skills, development paths and possible tactics.

New game, new world, new hero, same bugs

What would Piranha Bytes games be without the harshness and mass of bugs that are typical of their production? Risen’s fundamental mistakeis to artificially extend the game by forcing the player to walk back and forth while completing missions. For example, Commander Carlos orders Nameless Hero to find a secret exit from the city used by smugglers. She quickly learns that the whole thing has to do with Madame Sonya’s house of fun, who, after a short conversation, reveals that the passage is behind the wardrobe. Scordo, the coordinator of smuggling artifacts from the city, is there and must be defeated in a duel. After the victorious battle, return to commander Carlos, but this is not the end of the quest. The head of the inquisition orders to inform Scordo that he has been sent to the monastery, so again it is necessary to go to the smugglers’ tunnel and talk to the bandit. However, to complete the mission, you must return to commandant Carlos. The whole task is not complicated, but you have to run a lot around the city. Another example is the disappearance of the druid Eldric. In front of his hut, Cyrus is found informing about the disappearance of the hermit. The mage directs us to the hut in the south, where the hunter is. The woman agrees to lend her Rufo the wolf and his “best nose around”. The quadruped follows the scent of the druid and first leads the player back to the hut, then to the ritual site, then to the staff, and finally to the ruins protected by a magical barrier. At this point, we need the help of Cyrus who is at the druid’s hut and we should go there as well. After talking to Cyrus, you have to lead him away from the ruins to remove the barrier. After Edric is free from the hands of the Lizardmen, you need to go back to his hut and then to the ritual site. One mission, and senseless walking is for several dozen minutes. The jumps of the Nameless Hero look extremely comical, giving the impression that he was on the moon and there he jumped over the craters. Apparently, Piranha Bytes did not draw a conclusion from their previous productions, in which the protagonist’s strides looked similar. The comic appearance is not the only problem with the jumping mechanicsRisen . In ruins, the hero often performs a super jump like Superman, sending him above the textures of the game. It was impossible to bring it down, to activate the inventory or the menu screen. The only way I knew to get out of this situation was to shut down the game via the task manager and restart it. This bothersome error led me to overcome even the smallest obstacles with the levitation spell. In addition, there were also standard disappearing bugs and textures.

Nectar for the eyes and ears

The visuals could delight during Risen’s premiere in 2009 and I must admit with satisfaction that the time was kind to her, and the colorful landscapes of Farangi still please the eye. The weather mode deserves a special mention. Aggressive and threatening thunder of lightning perfectly fit into the seriousness of the game and, like war drums, encouraged further clashes with opponents. I must admit that the weather has often changed too dynamically, which is unnatural, but I explain it to myself with the climate on the island. As always, the strong point of Piranha Bytes’ production is the sound that delights in each of their games. In Risenwe can listen to the compositions by Kai Rosenkratz, allowing us to feel the role of the nameless hero and deepen the immersion of the game. You can not complain about the appearance of character models, created from six thousand polygons, supported with HDR technology. The game may also enjoy a high level of dubbing. Andy Serkis did a brilliant job by voicing the Inquisitor Mendoza, creating an extremely charismatic figure, a true leader who is followed by the fire. In Risenie unfortunately we did not hear the dialogues in Polish. Moreover, the publishers did not try to get subtitles in our native language. I suspect that this is one of the main reasons that the game did not live to such a cult as the subsequent parts of Gothic. Ignoring Poland completely, a country where their previous titles sold sensationally, was like a slap in the face of our community.

Gothic 4?

There are many similarities between Risen and the Gothic series, and it is not surprising that the creators draw handfuls of their proven and liked by players solutions. The mere lack of a name for the protagonist is a procedure intended to arouse sentiment among the frequent visitors of the Mining Valley and Khorinis. In both series, we also get a blank card, i.e. we play the role of a hero who initially has two left hands and stumbles over his own legs. Iconic is also the possibility to choose between exactly three factions, which at some point in the game simply cannot be avoided. In the case of Risen, these are the previously mentioned bandit camp in the swamps, mages and warriors of the inquisition. In the first part of GothicWe have a choice between the old and new camp and the dreamer’s brotherhood, in the second installment we can join the city guard, Onar’s mercenaries or fire mages. Piranha Bytes made sure that each faction had separate missions and motivations, but in Risen , the plot differences appear only in the first two acts and are rather cosmetic. What’s more, in the later stages of the game there are almost no side missions, so the game forces you to wade into the main plot. We will not experience such memorable characters as Diego, Gorn, Lester, Xardas and many others. The Farangi Nameless Hero is more of a loner who only interacts temporarily without making friends. It is worth saying that a game like Risenit would never have come into existence if Piranha Bytes and their former publishers Jowood had not split up. The reason for the conflict were different opinions about the production of Gothic 3 . Piranha Bytes wanted to postpone the game’s release due to the product being unfinished, but Jowood insisted on keeping the original date. As a result, the cooperation between the companies ended and the rights to the Gothic brand were given to Jowood studio, so Piranha Bytes could not publish the next parts about the convict from the Mining Valley.

A title worth your twenty hours

Despite bugs and a few shortcomings, Risen is a production worth recommending. The game is characterized by an accessible combat system and a clear scheme for gaining experience and new skills. Don’t forget interesting characters like Patty and Inquisitor Mendoza who have their own goals and ambitions. English dubbing is performed at the highest level, and world-class actors such as John Rhys-Davies known for his role as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings or Lena Headey, or Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones, were involved in the voice-overs . It took me eighteen hours to complete the entire game and I tried to complete every available mission. It wasn’t my first or second attempt at Risentherefore, it is safe to assume that it may take a little longer for a less skilled player to complete a title. Currently, the game can be bought for pennies, so if someone is not familiar with this production, it will not be a problem to get a cheap copy. There are plenty of intrigues and twists in the game, although they are not particularly complex. I recommend Risen not only to Gothic fans who feel unsatisfied after the three parts or disappointed in the third installment, but also to every fan of third-person RPGs.