Risen, anyone else interested?

[mr_zen256]

I am really tempted to pick this up but by some of the posts, the difficulty level sounds like it's quite unbalanced in places.

So, the game is hard, but is it unforgiving borderline impossible hard?

 

[hhara]

I wish I could figure out how to dig (on the PC version)... Something tells me you have to dig one of the 5 pieces of the broken sword.


edit: lol... before making this post I was trying to figure it out for 10 minutes... literally seconds after I made it I alt-tabbed back in and left-clicked while near the very obvious sand area and I started digging...

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I wish I could figure out how to dig (on the PC version)... Something tells me you have to dig one of the 5 pieces of the broken sword.


edit: lol... before making this post I was trying to figure it out for 10 minutes... literally seconds after I made it I alt-tabbed back in and left-clicked while near the very obvious sand area and I started digging...

Yeah, I did that too. There's really no indication as to where or when you're able to dig, you're just supposed to look at the ground for the disturbed area and then left-click. Once you know what to look for it becomes pretty clear.

 

[DennisK4]

It appears that Risen may sell quite well.

Last week it was the number 1 seller on Direct2Drive and number 4 on Steam according to Shacknews

It is also, as expected, number 1 in the German chart.

I think this may sell well for quite some time due to word of mouth.

There are at least six reasons why I am hoping this will sell really well:

1. The developers deserve it - the game is not only great, it is also stable and relatively bug-free. Gothic 4 developer take note!

2. We may get a sequel!

3. Shows that games don't have to be easy nor condescend the player with hand holding.

4. Succes may bring more open world exploration-based RPGs - the best kind of RPG as far as I am concerned.

5. Graphics still matter in the PC space. Definitely one of the draws to this game is the awesome lighting and general graphics.

6. Hardcore PC-first games still seen as viable business opportunity.

 

[Nostrovia]

I was playing the demo last night and i'm pretty hooked on Risen, is it out at the stores yet? I haven't seen it anywhere yet.

 

[Menelmarar]

I was playing the demo last night and i'm pretty hooked on Risen, is it out at the stores yet? I haven't seen it anywhere yet.

Yes, it was released last weekend, if you can't find it locally, amazon has it.

 

[Artificiary]

I am really tempted to pick this up but by some of the posts, the difficulty level sounds like it's quite unbalanced in places.

Well, the game is difficult mostly just when it comes to combat. IMO this is to emphasize the fact that you start off as a weakling and to teach you to approach fights more seriously. I think it’s really well set up though and can offer a breakdown of my experience with the difficulty level:

• The first 30 minutes to an hour I usually died at least once within the first few times of meeting a new creature. (make sure to save before combat!)
• A couple hours into the game and I had a good feel for melee combat and the more common creatures’ combat patterns
• After about 4 hours, I had a bit of armor, new combat skills, a good amount of healing herbs, and fairly-decent weapons to bolster myself in combat (I’d still die quickly if I didn’t watch my health)
• Around 6 to 8 hours in, I was good at attacking (and surviving) groups of common enemies, had plenty of healing potions, learned stronger combat skills, and had acquired rings and an amulet that were suited to my character. (still dying occasionally but not nearly as often)

So, yes there is a learning curve but it feels natural to me (possibly because I’ve also played all the Gothic games along the way). The best part of it though is when you do find a cool item or piece of equipment it feels like you really had to earn it.

Luckily quick-saving is basically instantaneous (doesn’t pause the game) and quick-loading only takes a few seconds.

 

[Q-BZ]

It appears that Risen may sell quite well.

Last week it was the number 1 seller on Direct2Drive and number 4 on Steam according to Shacknews

It is also, as expected, number 1 in the German chart.

I think this may sell well for quite some time due to word of mouth.

There are at least six reasons why I am hoping this will sell really well:

1. The developers deserve it - the game is not only great, it is also stable and relatively bug-free. Gothic 4 developer take note!

2. We may get a sequel!

3. Shows that games don't have to be easy nor condescend the player with hand holding.

4. Succes may bring more open world exploration-based RPGs - the best kind of RPG as far as I am concerned.

5. Graphics still matter in the PC space. Definitely one of the draws to this game is the awesome lighting and general graphics.

6. Hardcore PC-first games still seen as viable business opportunity.

Great news all the way around!

 

[PoweredBySoy]

Well, the game is difficult mostly just when it comes to combat. IMO this is to emphasize the fact that you start off as a weakling and to teach you to approach fights more seriously.

I agree that overall the game is more difficult than most, and I certainly like the fact that your character starts off as a weakling castaway. That all works well together and gives you a strong sense of growth.

With that said though, I still find the fundamental mechanics of combat very annoying. The way the enemies can juggle and manipulate you is frustrating, and seems like an artificial way to force you to be stronger - in stats and gear - in order to beat them. So in one hand they're giving you all this interactivity when it comes to combat, introducing a sense of skill in order to defeat them, but at the same time they kind of take that away from you by making the enemies pull of some janky shit. I guess that's the best way I can explain it.

It disappoints me, because you'd think after 4 iterations of the same game they'd be able to come up with something a little bit more polished.

Luckily quick-saving is basically instantaneous (doesn’t pause the game) and quick-loading only takes a few seconds.

You know, that's another thing that's starting to bug me as well. I'm pretty much a PC gamer through and through, and I've grown up on many a RPG, but the whole quicksave-quickload dance is starting to feel really tired. It takes away a lot of the immersion and sense of consequence in a game, and pushes it more towards a game of trial and error - which isn't what I want.

 

[Q-BZ]

I agree that overall the game is more difficult than most, and I certainly like the fact that your character starts off as a weakling castaway. That all works well together and gives you a strong sense of growth.

With that said though, I still find the fundamental mechanics of combat very annoying. The way the enemies can juggle and manipulate you is frustrating, and seems like an artificial way to force you to be stronger - in stats and gear - in order to beat them. So in one hand they're giving you all this interactivity when it comes to combat, introducing a sense of skill in order to defeat them, but at the same time they kind of take that away from you by making the enemies pull of some janky shit. I guess that's the best way I can explain it.

It disappoints me, because you'd think after 4 iterations of the same game they'd be able to come up with something a little bit more polished.




You know, that's another thing that's starting to bug me as well. I'm pretty much a PC gamer through and through, and I've grown up on many a RPG, but the whole quicksave-quickload dance is starting to feel really tired. It takes away a lot of the immersion and sense of consequence in a game, and pushes it more towards a game of trial and error - which isn't what I want.

I think you can disable the auto save either in the menu or in the console via console command, along with a whole bunch of other things.

There's a ton of things you can do with console commands that probably would enable you to tweak this game more to your liking.

 

[PoweredBySoy]

I think you can disable the auto save either in the menu or in the console via console command, along with a whole bunch of other things.

Well, I'm not really talking about auto-save, that's fine. I mean the old-school quick-save feature which allows one to save instantly at anytime - before a fight, before picking a lock, before opening a door, etc... which can be easily abused. I know, I know, "don't use it". But it's there.

I will say though that I noticed this game does have an excellent auto-save feature. It's dynamic and always seems to know when you're about to do something really dangerous and saves for you.

There's a ton of things you can do with console commands that probably would enable you to tweak this game more to your liking.

Yeah, believe me, I've thought about it. But then I'd just feel dirty. =(

 

[Ankle]

Yes, it was released last weekend, if you can't find it locally, amazon has it.

I've been regularly checking amazon.ca and they still don't have it. The canadian amazon seems to be awful at stocking pc games compared to the us site.

Luckily quick-saving is basically instantaneous (doesn’t pause the game) and quick-loading only takes a few seconds.

Good to hear - gothic 3 was incredibly slow saving/loading.

 

[ikarinokami]

quick saving imho is always essiential in a good rpg. i play this game on hard, and it would be crazy not quick, you are wandering so much, and sometimes you just wander into a world of hurt.

 

[WabeWalker]

Oh god, I love this game.

It's got about fifty things wrong with it, and yet it's just incredibly compelling. I'm on hour 16 now, and am still in Chapter One. It's the best RPG of the year so far - no question about it.

 

[WabeWalker]

To all of those considering getting Risen but are still sceptical:

Get it. Its fantastic. It looks much better than Oblivion, it plays better and it actually presents a challenge for the player even on the normal difficulty. Gone is the hand holding endemic to mainstream RPGs.

This is destined to be one of those cult classic games that are fondly remebered years from now by those who played it, and people who didn't will be kicking themeselves for missing out.

Risen is exploration-RPG at its finest.

What he said.

Don't miss out on this game. If your PC can handle it, then buy it.

 

[Menelmarar]

Wow, that was like crack, whew now I can put it down.
54hours and done.

That was a blast though, been a long time since I've had a good single player RPG, Drakensang and NWN2 I just couldn't get into. Wasted on me.

I really wish you guys would stop comparing it to Oblivion, there is no comparison.
Risen is a fraction of the size.
Risen is mostly a bunch of winding paths, or feels like it, doesn't have the sprawling open world feel Oblivion has.
So what if Oblivion had loading screens when transitioning indoor->outdoor and occasionally indoor, for the most part romping across the world is loading screen free.
Risen is a dead world, I practically wiped out all visible wildlife in chapter 1, and for the rest of the game the world was dead. It was not dynamic, sure some lizard things popped later, but for the most part the island was barren. Far Cry 2 had insane repop, just out of sight and all the bad guys would re appear, that was too much. Oblivion really had it about right, sleep for a few days, leave the area, it took some time, but most wildlife eventually replenished. Gave you enough time if you were on a quest in the area to run back and forth as needed uhindered, but eventually would migrated back in.
Nothing about the environment changed, no giant portals popping up, marring the landscape, giving you new places to explore and loot for another example.
Oblivion probably has 4-5 story arches via the various guilds that are as long as Risen is for it's one story. The cities in both games probably have about the same number of quests/content, except Risen essentially only has 3, and Oblivion has 8 or 9 cities. In other words Oblivion has 3+times the quest content. No contest.

That doesn't mean Risen wasn't fun, and wasn't a great experience, it's just no Oblivion... IMO. YMMV

Edit: Gothic = Risen... lol too early in the morning.

 

[Stiler]

Wow, that was like crack, whew now I can put it down.
54hours and done.

That was a blast though, been a long time since I've had a good single player RPG, Drakensang and NWN2 I just couldn't get into. Wasted on me.

I really wish you guys would stop comparing it to Oblivion, there is no comparison.
Gothic is a fraction of the size.
Gothic is mostly a bunch of winding paths, or feels like it, doesn't have the sprawling open world feel Oblivion has.
So what if Oblivion had loading screens when transitioning indoor->outdoor and occasionally indoor, for the most part romping across the world is loading screen free.
Gothic is a dead world, I practically wiped out all visible wildlife in chapter 1, and for the rest of the game the world was dead. It was not dynamic, sure some lizard things popped later, but for the most part the island was barren. Far Cry 2 had insane repop, just out of sight and all the bad guys would re appear, that was too much. Oblivion really had it about right, sleep for a few days, leave the area, it took some time, but most wildlife eventually replenished. Gave you enough time if you were on a quest in the area to run back and forth as needed uhindered, but eventually would migrated back in.
Nothing about the environment changed, no giant portals popping up, marring the landscape, giving you new places to explore and loot for another example.
Oblivion probably has 4-5 story arches via the various guilds that are as long as Gothic is for it's one story. The cities in both games probably have about the same number of quests/content, except Gothic essentially only has 3, and Oblivion has 8 or 9 cities. In other words Oblivion has 3+times the quest content. No contest.

That doesn't mean Gothic wasn't fun, and wasn't a great experience, it's just no Oblivion... IMO. YMMV

Not quite fair to compare Oblivion to Gothic (I'm assumign Gothic I).

Gothic 1 is more comparable to Morrowind as it came out around the same time.

As far as thew orld goes, "More alive" fits Gothic better imo because:

1. People aren't static, they would move around and do various things, unlike in Morrowind where the npc's just stood in one spot the entire game waiting to talk to you, this was one of the first rpg's that did that.

2. The animals actually have needs. You will see things like wolves hunting other creatures, etc.

All together it made the world feel more alive to me, a lot more alive then Morrowinds.

Then play Gothic II + expansion (Which was the best of the series imo). The world was bigger and more driverse and lots of things to do.

The melee combat is handled better then oblivions wishy washy button mashing style

 

[Menelmarar]

Not quite fair to compare Oblivion to Gothic (I'm assumign Gothic I).

Gothic 1 is more comparable to Morrowind as it came out around the same time.

As far as thew orld goes, "More alive" fits Gothic better imo because:

1. People aren't static, they would move around and do various things, unlike in Morrowind where the npc's just stood in one spot the entire game waiting to talk to you, this was one of the first rpg's that did that.

2. The animals actually have needs. You will see things like wolves hunting other creatures, etc.

All together it made the world feel more alive to me, a lot more alive then Morrowinds.

Then play Gothic II + expansion (Which was the best of the series imo). The world was bigger and more driverse and lots of things to do.

The melee combat is handled better then oblivions wishy washy button mashing style

Replace the words Gothic in my post with Risen. Since that is what I was just playing, and is essentially Gothic...

 

[Artificiary]

I have a small update on the performance I'm getting in game now. I noticed last night that my 'Enable SLI' setting wasn't sticking when I would exit the Nvidia Control Panel so I uninstalled my drivers and updated to the new 191.07 drivers. Checked the SLI setting, cool it's working now.

I open Fraps and load my game in Risen, now I'm getting a solid 60 FPS outdoors in dense forest areas at 2560x1600 and all in-game settings maxed. To be honest though the game doesn't feel that much different from 35 to 60 FPS, just a tad more responsive.

Anyway, the game is not as much of a system killer as I had originally thought.

 

[WabeWalker]

Yeah, the lighting is very well done.

Two things in particular stand out. One is the way that the daytime transitions into night-time - it's done with so much subtleness that you almost don't notice it. And the other is the light during the daytime - the way that the sun will bathe a wall and make it orange, for example, is extremely effective. Also, has anybody here stopped and looked up at the sun on an overcast day? The way that the sun seems to dissolve into the clouds, and then sort of burst through again - the way its being done, I've never seen that in a game before. The sky in Risen is one of the best I've ever seen in a game. It just looks incredibly real.

But yeah, I agree, the lighting here is very well done.

 

[KenG10]

Yeah, the lighting is very well done.

Two things in particular stand out. One is the way that the daytime transitions into night-time - it's done with so much subtleness that you almost don't notice it. And the other is the light during the daytime - the way that the sun will bathe a wall and make it orange, for example, is extremely effective. Also, has anybody here stopped and looked up at the sun on an overcast day? The way that the sun seems to dissolve into the clouds, and then sort of burst through again - the way its being done, I've never seen that in a game before. The sky in Risen is one of the best I've ever seen in a game. It just looks incredibly real.

But yeah, I agree, the lighting here is very well done.

Agreed on all parts. So many times have I just been walking through the forest and I see the sun rays poking through the leaves and it just amazes me to no extent. Love it love it love it

 

[WabeWalker]

I'm still on Chapter One.

I'm surprised to see that, judging by the number of hours others have played, I'm only about a quarter of the way through. I've been playing every night since Saturday. Last night I played for 4 hours straight.

I'm going to keep going because I seriously want to finish this game before I lose my mojo, which seems to happen to me a lot. (I can't believe that I stopped playing Batman at the 30% mark - I can't believe it... I'll get back to it later.)

It would appear that we're looking at about 40 hours here, yeah?

 

[Menelmarar]

I'm still on Chapter One.

I'm surprised to see that, judging by the number of hours others have played, I'm only about a quarter of the way through. I've been playing every night since Saturday. Last night I played for 4 hours straight.

I'm going to keep going because I seriously want to finish this game before I lose my mojo, which seems to happen to me a lot. (I can't believe that I stopped playing Batman at the 30% mark - I can't believe it... I'll get back to it later.)

It would appear that we're looking at about 40 hours here, yeah?

Took me 56, YMMV.

 

[WabeWalker]

56 hours. Awesome.

I have to say though that this past spring and summer I bought and played every game under the sun, because in March I bought a brand new Core i7-GTX 275 setup. I can even run Crysis at enthusiast settings and get about 30 fps with everything maxed out.

Risen is the first game (out of about 50 - and I mean that literally) that's given me troubles.

The performance is not unacceptably bad, but when I'm in Harbor Town, if I run the nameless hero forward, as opposed to walking, then there's so much stuttering and hiccuping taking place that it's almost... almost unbearable.

Even when I'm walking my character in Harbor Town there will be moments in which the game will sort of hang for a micro second.

I'm hoping that it's a driver issue that will be resolved in the future. A Core i7 GTX 275 should be able to run this smoothly.

 

[rob2000]

i just started playing the demo and like it, but ill wait for a price drop, im not huge into single player games all that much. but it is a great looking game , that is for sure.

 

[vicaphit]

56 hours. Awesome.

I have to say though that this past spring and summer I bought and played every game under the sun, because in March I bought a brand new Core i7-GTX 275 setup. I can even run Crysis at enthusiast settings and get about 30 fps with everything maxed out.

Risen is the first game (out of about 50 - and I mean that literally) that's given me troubles.

The performance is not unacceptably bad, but when I'm in Harbor Town, if I run the nameless hero forward, as opposed to walking, then there's so much stuttering and hiccuping taking place that it's almost... almost unbearable.

Even when I'm walking my character in Harbor Town there will be moments in which the game will sort of hang for a micro second.

I'm hoping that it's a driver issue that will be resolved in the future. A Core i7 GTX 275 should be able to run this smoothly.

I found a fix for stutters, turn the graphics down a bit... Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you did so you could enjoy your game at a decent framerate.

 

[GregP24]

56 hours. Awesome.

I have to say though that this past spring and summer I bought and played every game under the sun, because in March I bought a brand new Core i7-GTX 275 setup. I can even run Crysis at enthusiast settings and get about 30 fps with everything maxed out.

Risen is the first game (out of about 50 - and I mean that literally) that's given me troubles.

The performance is not unacceptably bad, but when I'm in Harbor Town, if I run the nameless hero forward, as opposed to walking, then there's so much stuttering and hiccuping taking place that it's almost... almost unbearable.

Even when I'm walking my character in Harbor Town there will be moments in which the game will sort of hang for a micro second.

I'm hoping that it's a driver issue that will be resolved in the future. A Core i7 GTX 275 should be able to run this smoothly.

It runs smooth as butter on my gateway P-7811fx (2.2ghz Core2Duo. 4gb RAM, 512mb 9800m GTS). I'm running it at 1900x1200, all graphics on max with no AA. It only hangs briefly when autosaving.

 

[WabeWalker]

I found a fix for stutters, turn the graphics down a bit... Don't worry, I won't tell anyone that you did so you could enjoy your game at a decent framerate.

Turning off every effect did nothing. The game looked god awful, and the stuttering was still there.

This is a known issue that people are reporting about at the official forum - the early indication seems to be that people with up to date Nvidia drivers are having the problems, but that hasn't been nailed down yet.

Unfortunately, those of us who are experiencing the stuttering can't do anything about it except hope that somehow a patch (or a driver update) will solve the problem. It's not unacceptably bad - but it is kind of irritating that my system, which should be able to run this perfectly, is struggling.

 

[Q-BZ]

What's strange is: I have less muscle under the hood vs. some of you complaining about the bad stuttering.

I haven't seen any of it nearly to the degree of what some of you are complaining about I have all the graphics and eye candy settings maxed out. I'm running an Intel x9650 and a single GTX280 SSC.

 

[WabeWalker]

What's strange is: I have less muscle under the hood vs. some of you complaining about the bad stuttering.

I haven't seen any of it nearly to the degree of what some of you are complaining about I have all the graphics and eye candy settings maxed out. I'm running an Intel x9650 and a single GTX280 SSC.

So when you're in Harbor Town, or in The Don's Camp, or at The Monastery, there's no slowdown whatsoever?

You don't stop and think, wow, this game is not smooth at all - the problem here being that it is kind of smooth for about ten seconds or so, but then for about one second everything slows down, as though the entire game has been put on slow-mo?

No? Silky smooth throughout?

I was thinking last night that earlier I wrote how my computer (a brand new, Core i7, GTX 275, VISTA 64) has run everything perfectly - but that's actually not true. The Sims 3 is extremely jerky, and stutters like mad. A number of people have reported about this problem at The Sims' website, and no solution was ever found.

I wonder if the two problems are related somehow? Could this be a problem with VISTA 64 and high-end Nvidia graphics cards?

 

[Q-BZ]

So when you're in Harbor Town, or in The Don's Camp, or at The Monastery, there's no slowdown whatsoever?

I admit to having been so immersed in the game that whatever is going on here it hasn't been enough to take me out of the game.

So after I read your post, I loaded my game up and made a deliberate point of going around Harbor Town while moving my mouse back and forth making the character constantly look back and forth at roughly 45 degrees in each direction. Enough to make most people a tad queasy.

I did see a very brief, light stutter at certain points that I simply would associate with that section perhaps loading up more details. For me, it's barely noticeable even while I was looking for a problem after reading your post.

You don't stop and think, wow, this game is not smooth at all - the problem here being that it is kind of smooth for about ten seconds or so, but then for about one second everything slows down, as though the entire game has been put on slow-mo?

Honestly, I haven't had any kind of problem stand out to me like that. I'm pretty sensitive to that sort of thing especially when it comes to something immersive like this game.

No? Silky smooth throughout?

Most of the time, yes. Not all as I indicated above.

I was thinking last night that earlier I wrote how my computer (a brand new, Core i7, GTX 275, VISTA 64) has run everything perfectly - but that's actually not true. The Sims 3 is extremely jerky, and stutters like mad. A number of people have reported about this problem at The Sims' website, and no solution was ever found.

I wonder if the two problems are related somehow? Could this be a problem with VISTA 64 and high-end Nvidia graphics cards?

I don't know. I'm using Vista 64 and my GTX 280 SSC is still considered relatively high end last time I checked.

Two other possibilities outside of updating drivers, obvious settings and the like:

1.) Check any and all overclock settings and maybe dial them down a little bit.

2.) What kind of RAM do you have and how much? I have 8 gigs of PC8500. Maybe this is some kind of memory leak in the game and I simply have enough memory that whatever is going on here is a lot less pronounced for me.

My best guesses.


When I get a chance to play more later today, I promise I'll make a point of watching out for any of these issues and see what shows up over a greater length of time.

 

[ssumairm]

I'm still on Chapter One.

I'm surprised to see that, judging by the number of hours others have played, I'm only about a quarter of the way through. I've been playing every night since Saturday. Last night I played for 4 hours straight.

I'm going to keep going because I seriously want to finish this game before I lose my mojo, which seems to happen to me a lot. (I can't believe that I stopped playing Batman at the 30% mark - I can't believe it... I'll get back to it later.)

It would appear that we're looking at about 40 hours here, yeah?

Mind you, the last couple of chapters are a little quick, so I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[KenG10]

Mind you, the last couple of chapters are a little quick, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Yeah, chapter 3 especially. I did that in about 2 hours. CH1 and 2 were great, taking me all over the map encouraging exploring. Now in ch3 and 4, I only have 1 quest in my journal. Its still great mind you, but the urge to go out and explore is not fueled by quests. Plus, what role player would "stop and smell the roses" now that he has found out that he must 'act fast for the fate of the island lies in his hands'? I feel rushed to finish the game now.

 

[vicaphit]

I have hit a snag in my game. I just helped out the barkeeper lady, now I have no clue in what direction I need to take. I have run up against the wall in the game already, and I don't want to share time between this game and TF2.

 

[King Icewind]

I've played the demo, i really enjoyed it.

I tried to find it at Walmart and Best Buy to no avail...So if you bought it in store, where at? I don't like steam since I don't get a dvd. I like the dvd's so i can reinstall it later/backup. Otherwise, Amazon is my friend

Thanks

 

[Q-BZ]

Yeah, chapter 3 especially. I did that in about 2 hours. CH1 and 2 were great, taking me all over the map encouraging exploring. Now in ch3 and 4, I only have 1 quest in my journal. Its still great mind you, but the urge to go out and explore is not fueled by quests. Plus, what role player would "stop and smell the roses" now that he has found out that he must 'act fast for the fate of the island lies in his hands'? I feel rushed to finish the game now.

Big time. Chapter 3 shocked me with how fast it went by. It also was mildly disappointing that you basically spend most of Chapter 3 inside a dark cave.

Chapter 4 was basically wrap it all up and get to a pretty ridiculously difficult at times with cheapshots final boss fight.

I will say this: The ending is atrocious. Completely too brief and completely unworthy for the great and epic game that preceded it. It's almost downright laughable how brief and quick the ending is.

This game deserves a MUCH better ending than what it has and I'm pretty sure the ending is the same no matter what you do but I might very well be wrong.

I hope there's an expansion or something down the road for this.

 

[WabeWalker]

Q-BZ, I'm on Chapter Two right now, and your comments about Chapters 3 and 4 are a little disconcerting.

You seem to have had such a tremendous experience with the first two chapters that you're willing to overlook how short chapters 3 and 4 are (after all, a chapter is only something that's in our head - I suppose the game proper takes place in the first two chapters, and should be thought of that way).

Now that I know what to expect maybe it won't bother me.

Right now, I'm having such a great time with this RPG that I'm deliberately trying to keep my mouth shut about it, lest I make a fool of myself gushing about the thing... I damned well spent ten hours playing on Sunday, and even cancelled dinner at my sister's house (I had to tell a fib to get out of it... "... I'm not feeling well." I was feeling fine. Euphoric, actually.)

 

[Nate_MachV]

I've had no problems what so ever with slow down on my aging rig. All graphics maxed. Only when I force AA do I get stuttering. But, the game looks fine without AA IMO. I beat it last night just over 50hrs, great to see a game where the main campaign lasts over 10hrs.

 

[breakbread21]

Ok, I've read reviews and I've been reading this thread. I'm on golamer right now, ready to hit checkout. However I want some details that reviwers don't give me. I need someone who became terribly bored with Oblivion to tell me Risen is great. Is there a lot of depth to this game in terms of character and items, etc.? Is this "open-world" like Oblivion in the sense that the story takes a back seat to being able to talk to boring NPCs and walk around a boring landscape, or is this an open-world game that drives you down a path and is big on story? Is the story good?

 

[WabeWalker]

Well, I don't know what's going on, because now in Chapter Two, I'm out in the world, and the game is running flawlessly maxed out at 1920x1080 - it's stable at 60 fps or above.

Only Harbor Town, and The Don's Camp, and The Monastery (in the courtyard) seem to give me a few troubles. It's nothing that's unacceptable (far from it) but the experience is not nearly as smooth as it is while I'm out in the countryside.

I don't know, I'd better just shut up about this game - it's a damned masterpiece, really.