1eyedking Witcher 3 is a step below Risen in every way except story

[Makabb]

Risen is better in everything except production value and probably story, combat is much more straightforward and works better, limitless inventory space makes gameplay less tedious and enemies drop enough xp to effectively level up.Risen is considered to be a terrible game to the masses, I don't think it's as bad as many people make it out to be but it's definitely not the best, Witcher 3 though is a step below it and feels very similar to play to be honest.
A minor pet peeve and I get that this game isn't going for it but I tend to prefer character creation in my rpg games. I was willing to give Witcher 3 a chance despite this but nope...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Fuck the masses, Risen's a decent game.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Witcher 3 is superior in every way, bigger world, better combat (not saying much), better characters, story, writing, quest design, and finally... Its fucking content complete instead of the half finished mess that was risen.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Better combat?

 

[vivec]

Risen did not have good combat. What is this opinion even based on?

 

[Kem0sabe]

I'm not really a fan of gothic/risen combat system, was always my least favorite part of the experience.

 

[Drowed]

Risen is indeed a fun game, but now we're calling "limitless inventory space" a good thing? Wasn't this one of the harbingers of decline?

Anyway, yeah, Risen doesn't deserve all the hate, but Witcher is a much more polished game overall. It's not a diamond, it's more like a piece of coal... But even polished coal can be beautiful.

Spoiler

QED:

5/5 would polish again.

 

[Kahr]

What? Risen is universally hated? Never heard of that. Neither here nor in reality.
Here the consense seems to be that the first half is perfect and then the game falls into boring "find 5 of this and another 5 of that" quests.
I share this opinion.
In reality depending on the region you ask most people haven't ever heard of Risen or if they heard of it they would say that its a solid game.

I haven't really played Witcher 3 and have no interest in it after parts 1 & 2 which haven't satisfied me.
But i think it's clear to say that storyfags would have much more fun with Witcher 3 as Risen (as any PB game) doesn't even try to have a great epic story.

The combat is very well implemented in Risen 1 though. I don't know how the combat in Witcher 3 works, but if it anywhere near the W1 or W2 combat
then im sure Risen would win in this category.

Also exploration in Risen works still like in G1 or G2. And i can't imagine that this way of exploration would be inferior to the way Witcher 3 handles exploration.

The smell of potato is unfolding in this thread right now.

 

[vivec]

What? Risen is universally hated? Never heard of that. Neither here nor in reality.
.

On ze contrary.

Risen is a good game tending to great. Solely, as you point out, due to the fist half factions. Just because I like it however, I am not automatically going to call its parts good.

 

[Aeschylus]

Just recently did a replay of Risen after finishing up all the expansions for W3, so I can comment. Risen had (much) better world design, better quest design, better character progression (though neither are super impressive in this department), and better combat (more so before you get massively overpowered during Chapter 2). Witcher 3 had much better narrative and writing (by video game standards), more interesting characters, and doesn't completely fall apart in its latter half. Both games aren't without their frustrations, but I prefer Risen mostly just due to the vastly superior exploration aspect.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Let's not lump Risen combat with Gothic 1/2 combat, which inevitably happens in these threads. While they are similar in some ways, with Risen combat based on Gothic 1/2 combat, Risen changed it in certain ways that completely changed the quality of the result.

In Gothic 1/2, combat was elegant once you understood it (which many people did not). You would watch the humanoid enemy for signs of their attack, and then parry in split-seconds. If you timed it right, you would parry successfully and counter-attack without taking damage. This was stringed together many times into a beautiful flow, reminiscent of classic movie sword-fighting scenes. To this day, it is one of the better implemented melee combats in RPGs.

In Risen, they started with the same idea, but they made two key changes that changed everything. One, enemy attacks became completely unpredictable, since the enemies would sometimes attack right away, sometimes pause and attack, and other times, attack in between. On top of that, their attacks and animations were too fast to react to in time, so by the time you saw the attack, it was too late. Two, parries became spammable, as you could easily chain parries together endlessly, more so than in Gothic games. Combine these two things together, and instead of an elegant system where you parry and react, in Risen, you had a system where you were forced to spam parries until the enemy hit into it, which requires no skill, and is only a small step above Oblivion's pointless hold block function.

 

[vivec]

Let's not lump Risen combat with Gothic 1/2 combat, which inevitably happens in these threads. While they are similar in some ways, with Risen combat based on Gothic 1/2 combat, Risen changed it in certain ways that completely changed the quality of the result.

In Gothic 1/2, combat was elegant once you understood it (which many people did not). You would watch the humanoid enemy for signs of their attack, and then parry in split-seconds. If you timed it right, you would parry successfully and counter-attack without taking damage. This was stringed together many times into a beautiful flow, reminiscent of classic movie sword-fighting scenes. To this day, it is one of the better implemented melee combats in RPGs.

In Risen, they started with the same idea, but they made two key changes that changed everything. One, enemy attacks became completely unpredictable, since the enemies would sometimes attack right away, sometimes pause and attack, and other times, attack in between. On top of that, their attacks and animations were too fast to react to in time, so by the time you saw the attack, it was too late. Two, parries became spammable, as you could easily chain parries together endlessly, more so than in Gothic games. Combine these two things together, and instead of an elegant system where you parry and react, in Risen, you had a system where you were forced to spam parries until the enemy hit into it, which requires no skill, and is only a small step above Oblivion's pointless hold block function.

If true this is a great analysis. Gotta play Gothic again to check.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

If true this is a great analysis. Gotta play Gothic again to check.

That is why I am here. To make people play Gothic again.

 

[canakin]

Who the fuck hates Risen? I mean yeah people hate Risen 2 and 3, and for good reason too but does anybody actually hates the original Risen? It's just a decent game with some flaws. Also why do you need to compare it to Witcher 3? Is there something preventing you to play both?

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Well, Risen is a decent game, while W3 is an AAA console open world action rpg. So... more news at 11?

 

[Aeschylus]

G2's combat against humanoid enemies was indeed very good, though I wouldn't praise it quite so unreservedly. The timed parries were much better than Risen's shield turtling, but while the attack patterns of Risen's human enemies were indeed random and twitchy to the point that it mostly came down to exchanging blocks and hoping they messed up, G2's ranged into being a bit too predictable at times. It's pretty easy to beat any human enemy one-on-one in G2 from quite early on, which stands in contrast to the much more difficult fights against wildlife.

That said, yes, everyone should play Gothic 1 + 2. They're the best open world ARPGs ever made.

 

[moraes]

Someone make a game combining Souls combat with Gothic exploration, faction system and character development.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Someone make a new game combining Gothic combat with Gothic exploration, faction system and character development.

There.

 

[deama]

Someone make a game combining Souls combat with Gothic exploration, faction system and character development.

I'd prefer Gothic's combat instead.

What I'd prefer to say instead, is a Gothic-like with Severance Blade of Darkness combat; that would be nice.

 

[undecaf]

Even if it does lose in some aspects, Risen has better overall gameplay. That's what matters.

 

[sullynathan]

Gothic's combat is far too over - praised here and highly exploitable. I don't remember the parries you guys are talking about

 

[Falksi]

Found Risen ok, but loved Risen 2, mainly for it's humour. Preferred both to TW3. Whereas TW2 is one of my fave games ever, TW3 was just dull as hell and a real chore fest. A superbly produced chore fest, but still something which gave you few surprises. Risen 2 was lush throughout.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Gothic's combat is fat too over - praised here and ...

 

[Paul_cz]

I actually enjoyed the Risen trilogy, but

1) Risen 1 is the best, Risen 2 and 3 are much weaker
2) Gothic 2 NoTR is still the best Piranha game, much better than Risens
3) Witcher 3 wipes its ass with any Risen in every aspect

 

[vivec]

Someone make a new game combining Dark messiah combat with Gothic exploration, faction system and character development.

There.

Augmented.