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Risen: Fantasy Action Role-Play Game

Published by Shahdaroba Wednesday 1st February 2012

Are you an RPG fan? if so then I would surely recommend Risen.

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. With only minor flaws, I think it is a worthy sequel to the Gothic series.

Copyright © Deep Silver and developer Piranha Bytes

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 storyline 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 meets 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 game’s surroundings, you will not 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 to 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 storyline unfold as you move further inland.

As time goes on you will need to choose which faction you follow. The first faction is the Inquisition, a clerical order that was dispatched to the island to explore the sudden appearance of monsters. The second is an outlaw faction that is exploring dungeons and selling the artifacts within 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 it’s up to you how the story progresses and the experiences you encounter. 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 NPC, 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 NPC reactions, this game is a must for RPG Fans.


System Requirements

  • Title: Risen
  • Genre: fantasy action role-playing
  • Developer: Piranha Bytes
  • Publisher: Deep Silver
  • Release Date: 02 Oct 2009

Minimum:

  • CPU: 2 GHz Intel® Pentium™ 4 Single-core Processor
  • CPU SPEED: 2.0 GHz
  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Operating System: Windows XP (with Service Pack 3)
  • VIDEO CARD: 256 MB DirectX™ 9.0c
  • Compatible graphics card NVIDIA® GeForce® 7900/ATI Radeon™ X1800 or better
  • VIDEO RAM: 256 MB
  • PIXEL SHADER: 3.0. VERTEX SHADER: 3.0
  • FREE DISK SPACE: 2.5 GB

recommended:

  • CPU: 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium™ 4 Single-core Processor
  • CPU SPEED: 2.6 GHz
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • Operating System: Windows XP™ or Vista™
  • VIDEO CARD: 512 MB DirectX™ 9.0c
  • Compatible graphics card NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800/ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 or better
  • VIDEO RAM: 512 MB
  • PIXEL SHADER: 3.0. VERTEX SHADER: 3.0
  • DISK SPACE: 2.5 GB