Risen

"If it looks like Gothic, sounds like Gothic, and plays like Gothic, then it probably is Gothic."

Piranha Bytes has been making "Gothic-likes" for as long as I remember. Gothic, Risen, ELEX. Name changes, core aspects do not. 

"What is Gothic?" I hear you ask. Well, it's a fantasy-action role-playing third-person videogame about the nameless protagonist who's been forced into a tricky situation.

Then what is Risen? Well, uh, it's a fantasy action role-playing third-person videogame about the nameless protagonist who's been forced into a tricky situation.

Do you see the pattern?

Story:

In a world where the Gods have been banished by humans, the barriers that held the Titans locked up are broken. Mysterious ruins keep popping up here and there, spewing all kinds of nasty creatures. The protagonist is on the Inquisition ship, which gets shipwrecked by one of the Titans. 

Being one of the only two survivors, our nameless amnesiac hero has to navigate a forbidden island by the name of Faranga. 

All would've been fine and dandy if this island hadn't been torn apart by the power struggle for control by the Inquisition led by Inquisitor Mendoza (who was the captain of our ship by the way) and the bandit leader Don Esteban.

It's our mission to join one of the factions and help it to gain control. Don't forget about the ruins and Titans. Those have to fit into the story somehow (wink-wink).

Story is not gonna win any awards but it's a solid foundation for the adventure we have to experience. Some characters are quite one dimensional, others are more nuanced. Also, some side-quests can provide a bit more exposition and more personal story.

Graphics:

Being build upon a renewed and patched Gothic 3 engine, this game has good performance going for it (unlike Gothic 3 itself and don't even start me on bugs).

Graphics is fine for the budget title from 2009. Island itself is quite atmospheric: stormy beaches, lush jungles, ancient temples, dangerous swamps all look nice and make you want to explore.

Character models on the other hand...ooh boy. A bunch of clay figures with LEGO haircuts slapped on top in a few (and I mean FEW) instances. Most of those look same-ish, except for the protagonist and few of the main NPCs. Not to mention only 2-3 models for women: farm wife or a prostitute, the choice is yours.

Animations are a bit stiff too. But hey, at least it works well, right?

Gameplay: 

Risen is a classic RPG through and through: skills, dialogs, quests, and fights.
It's nothing you haven't seen before and it's not particularly deep either.

Combat is easy to learn but hard to master.

Timing is everything. You can't just mindlessly swing your weapon. Carefully watch for enemy movements and choose an appropriate moment to strike.

Honestly, I'd even go as far as saying that combat can be brutal in the first couple of hours. You wear nothing but rags and fight with nothing but sticks and dull swords. Bear with it and in no time you'll be killing enemies right and left, especially if you decide to learn magic.

But at least you have a decent choice of stuff to fight with: swords, axes, shields, staffs, bows, crossbows, or magic.
 
Dialogue system is basic: choose an option, get an answer, press for more info or a bigger reward.

You can pickpocket. Pickpocketing is done through dialogue as well, if you hve high enough skill, distrct the victim and you get a small time window to choose what you'd like to steal.

You can pick locks. Lockpicking is done by pressing left and right in the correct order.

Brew your own potions, and forge your own weapons with the stuff you find while adventuring through the island.

You can do that all by spending your skill points and hard-earned gold on the teachers all around the island. The system itself is fine, but the choice of skills you need to be taught is weird sometimes.

Do I really need a teacher to teach me how to crouch? It's like, 90% of gravity pulling you down and 10% of you relaxing your leg muscles.

Bugs:

Had no idea where to include these.

A bunch of quests can still break. I've experienced several quests bugging out on me. NPCs refused to initiate their dialogues, quest progression was broken. If you don't have a save prior bugged out quest, your only hope is to use the developer console, where you can reset your quest.

At some point, game started crashing every time I tried to take a screenshot. Had no cure for this, so I stopped trying.

Voice audio levels were extremely low compared to other sounds. And no amount of option tweaking changed that. I had to resort to digging through cfg file.

Audio:

Kai Rosenkranz did a perfect job of writing music for all three Gothic games and the first Risen.

Soundtrack has chill tracks to accompany you throughout your adventure, it also has tunes that help to create a mysterious atmosphere or give you a sense of incoming danger.

The sound design itself is fine. Sounds of crashing waves, storms, snarling monsters, chirping birds, and rustling leaves help to immerse you into the experience.

Voice acting is competent enough, but there were some flat deliveries.

Conclusion:

Maybe not as memorable or memeable as Gothic, Risen is still a solid experience, even in 2025. Yes, it's not perfect by any means.

Yes, it has a healthy dose of Eurojank. But it has a soul and some consider the first game to be the best in the Risen series.

If you want to feel that old-school charm, you should try the game.

Especially when you consider the fact that "Piranha Bytes" is no more. Yup, a tale is too all familar in this day and age. Managment decides to cut costs and talented devs are getting fired.