Risen Review

Risen is a 3^rd person, action role plying game. The game itself takes place on the island of Faranga. Faranga is a Mediterranean island that is populated by both humans and a score of fantastic looking creatures. 

The game starts off with a cutscene where you see your character hiding on the deck of a boat that is caught in very bad storm. You see from your hiding place a man called The Inquisitor at the front of the boat who is screaming out into the storm at some sort of beast. The beast quickly attacks the boat and the Inquisitor, knowing he cant win the battle, teleports himself off the boat completely. The beast however destroys the boat and then you wake up on the shores of Farnaga.

It is from here your journey will begin and I have to say it has been a fantastic journey for myself so far. Faranga is huge and filled with many dangers, but it also filled with many areas to explore and loot to find. Risen is one of the most in depth console RPG’s I have played and you get a fantastic sense of satisfaction when you find an item of use. I have played for nearly 6-8 hours and only now have I found a shield and some armour but my experience before hand has been fantastic.

The combat system is very simple yet very good. If using a weapon you can slash at our opponent with a press of a button and then shield and parry his blows with another. This game can be quite unforgiving at times so expect to loose a fair few battles before you start to win some, when you reach level 6 is when you start to get your own back.

Ah yes the levelling system. Like most RPG’s Risen has a levelling system that will level you up when gain a certain amount of XP. XP can be gained when felling victims or completing quests. With levelling up you gain skill points that you can then spend with various trainers throughout Faranga that will train you in various skills and abilities, such as strength or skill with a sword, to learning how to pick locks or mine ore deposits, there is so much you can learn and do.

Risen has been heavily criticised in a lot of reviews, and the game does have its flaws there’s no doubt there, the game can be jittery at times and loading can be a pain. The game also had an issue where you couldn’t play the game when it got dark or in dark areas because it was simply too dark. But at time of writing this problem has been patched and fixed and a new brightness bar added to the options menu which is fantastic.

Despite its flaws, Risen is a very enjoyable RPG game and definitely shouldn’t be missed by any RPG fan, there is plenty to see and do and hours of gameplay to enjoy.

7.5/10 from me.

Copyright © 2010 OtherGaming. All Rights Reserved.

Material and images on this site can not be replicated without permission.