Risen

Are you an RPG fan? if so then I would surely recommend Risen. I have just finished the game working for the Don. I was going to replay the game working for the Inquisition but the final Boss does not rock my boat. (no one seems to make my type of ending to a game, no matter what). This kinda end game credibility puts me off. However my slight negativity does not stop me recommending this R.P.G.

Deep Silver and developer Piranha Bytes (PB) have put together an excellent Role Play. The game starts where you survive a shipwreck and wake up lying among the dead bodies of the crew. You have been deposited on the volcanic island of Faranga which turns out to be the backdrop for this excellent RPG.

The flexibility this game offers the Hero/you is brilliant, even if you don’t know what you are supposed to be doing or for that matter why you are there. You can follow the story-line or go your own way. Hell, you could probably go from one side of the island to the other killing everything that moves and still meet the end boss.

Having said that, you would be putting aside an excellent RPG for wholesale slaughter (not my cup of tea so to speak).

Combat action can be harsh, if not dammed difficult at first, left click to use your weapon or right click to defend combo. However, with a little bit of ingenuity and using the games surroundings you don’t need to end up surrounded by three or four giant beasties/enemies.

If you like to wander then I would recommend looking around the island. Go any and everywhere. before accepting the Bandit camp or Harbour Town, the story will wait for you so explore. Collect anything and everything magic, weapons, food, plants, wolf skins, the list goes on, especially before entering Harbour Town as getting out again is another matter and some of your collected items will come in handy. Blooming lovely graphics no, excellent graphics and an excellent story-line unfolds as you move further inland.

As time goes on you will need to choose which faction you follow. The first one is the Inquisition, a clerical order that was dispatched to the island to explore the sudden appearance of monsters. The other is an outlaw faction that has been exploring dungeons and selling the artefacts within on the black market. Kai Rosenkrantz, producer at Piranha Bytes, best known for the popular Gothic series comments “You don’t really know who the bad guys are, you have to figure it out, and the more you uncover, the more you may reconsider your choice of sides”. Regardless of what you decide, there will be a large number of options available to you.

From Wild Dogs to Dwarves, Skeletons to Monsters and some of the weirdest looking creatures you just don’t mess with, until you are sure you can win. As for which faction is good or which is evil well, you tell me I am still trying to make my own mind up as to which side I’ll join. Why? well there both as bad as each other and its up to you how the story progresses and the experiences you encounter. The only down side for me was the end game boss… One screen, one giant fire god standing in the middle of a circle firing bolts of light at you, your goal kill him while the circle of magic stones you are running round on suddenly disappear underfoot, dropping you into a fiery pit. I would have liked to see the end boss being hunted down in the world of Faranga not as some one off, behind double doors, one screen idiotic god. Why O’ why do games like Risen need an end Boss. If the story line is there and you choose to bring peace or evil to the end game then use it, do not rely on a one off, one screen god to give the end game credibility… Oop’s that’s bound to upset someone…

The designers say that they’re aiming for at least sixty hours of play for each faction, meaning that there will be a large amount of re-playability for players to check out within the game. OH!… I nearly forgot don’t p**s off to many N.P.C, especially the traders. If you don’t have a joke scroll/spell you will find yourself at the point of their sword… With an in-depth dialogue system and your actions determining N.P.C reactions this game is a must for RPG Fans.