Risen

Risen stands out as an action RPG with a strong narrative focus, meaningful decisions, and a diverse world to explore. Although this new version has not received changes from the 2009 original, its attractive design, complexity in decisions and gameplay continue to offer an immersive and recommended experience for current players. In 2009 it went quite unnoticed, now we have the opportunity to remedy it.

Risen is a polished RPG that offers plenty of gameplay. Although it’s an older game, it still manages to captivate players today, and perhaps its old-school style is what sparks nostalgia and makes you want to return to it even years later. The gameplay stumbles from time to time, but if you arm yourself with patience, it will provide you with an enjoyable gaming experience.

THQ Nordic has once again published a beloved game that was hidden within the vaults of time. Risen received mostly positive reviews back in 2010 and had a decent following. The story sees a nameless protagonist who has washed ashore on the island of Faranga after his vessel is decimated by a sea Titan. This inhabited island is believed to have the secret to defeating the Titans, and the Inquisitors have taken over most of its settlements. What’s worse, though, is the unexpected unearthing of temples all over the island, which are raided by the Warriors of the Order, led by the Inquisitor, Mendoza.

Thirteen years ago the original release Risen wasn't able to bring big crowd of players due to a different shortcomings, but if today you feel somewhat nostalgic to the original Gothic series, then this remaster is definitely worth a try.

The long and short of it is that Risen is a fun action-adventure RPG. It is very rough around the edges, not to the extent of some other games in the genre that came out around the same time (looking at you, Two Worlds), but it has charm. If you’re a fan of Oblivion, or Skyrim, and want to see another game that has a similar style, this might be a good pickup.

If despite problems that are not at all secondary such as a backward technical sector, controls that are not always precise and at least revisable general balance, the role-playing games signed Piranha Bytes are never completely rejected, neither by critics nor by the public, it is because they have a soul – and also not negligible merits as much as their defects.

Risen Has Risen Again

Risen is packed with content and if you can get past its blemishes there is a solid RPG here to last you at least 60 hours, but I feel a lot of today’s gamers won’t even get off the beach tutorial at the beginning of the game.

If you land within the niche it’s targetting, it’s difficult not to love Risen, warts and all. Piranha Bytes has, throughout its history, been really quite effective at capturing an “X-factor” that elevates its games to be something more than the sum of its parts. These are games made by people that love RPGs, for people that love RPGs, and while they’re not of the same scope or refined as something that comes from a BioWare or Bethesda, they are made by people who have clearly played so many sessions of Dungeons & Dragons. They know how to keep an RPG fan playing on, and Risen is an excellent example of that. I’m very glad it had a release on Nintendo Switch, finally got to play it (even if I needed to source it from overseas).

Overall, Risen is… fine. It’s a game that was influential and beloved in its time, but that time was long ago, and many other great games have taken its place since.