In 2001, little known European developers Piranha Bytes stormed on the PC gaming scene with their immersive and expansive role-playing adventure Gothic.

It was hailed by critics for its explorable dynamic fantasy world and in-depth role-playing mechanics--two qualities later replicated and built upon in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.

However, by the time Gothic 3 debuted to dismal reviews in 2006, it became clear that Piranha Bytes was having trouble competing against the likes of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, a PC RPG game that had launched several months earlier.

Three years later, Piranha Bytes is back with the spiritual successor to the Gothic franchise, Risen. Risen boasts the same intensive RPG elements and sprawling, detailed levels that made Gothic such a huge success. But are its heroic efforts enough to launch the series back into the spot light? Or is this latest game another quest doomed for failure?

What’s Good

Huge, explorable, dynamic world

Risen starts gamers off awakening as a shipwreck survivor on a strange, mysterious island populated by dangerous locals and powerful, exotic monsters.

The island is huge and has tons of unique locations to explore. You’ll find towns, abandoned ruins full of treasure, caves with items hidden away and dungeons teeming with evil to slay. Though it takes a little while to access the entire island,once everything becomes available, it’s pretty impressive just how expansive of a world Risen gives players to travel through.

As your journey progresses, you’ll encounter a number of different characters. Some of these characters will give you quests, while others merely react dynamically based on events that transpire around them. Warriors will battle monsters in the wild, civilians will walk around town and talk with each other and you’ll even run across beasts patrolling their territory, oblivious to your presence. (Until you jump in and club them over the head, of course.) The culmination of all these small things make Risen’s world so immersive and fun to play in.

Choices, choices, choices

Risen offers the extensive amount of choice and freedom found in similar RPGs like Oblivion, but it’s still nothing short of amazing just how much control you’re given over your character’s destiny.

Instead of merely selecting a class at the beginning of the game, your character evolves is based on the decisions you make. If you want to increase your prowess with the sword or bow, then you speak to the appropriate trainer.

If you wish to learn the shadowy arts of a Rogue or master the powerful spells of a Mage, be prepared to journey far and wide to complete the corresponding quests. The progressive development of your character is nice because it allows you to pick and choose your character’s skills, instead of being locked into a specific class. Additionally, there’s also the option to craft new weapons and potions from items gathered as you explore.

There’s loads of various quests to complete to earn money, new equipment and experience. While most of the quests are straight forward and have you fetching items, killing monsters, etc, others can have multiple endings based on moral choices you make. You can either be a righteous saint, a cruel, sadistic murderer or settle for doing whatever feels right at the time.

Detailed environment

The character models in Risen admittedly aren’t the most detailed, but the humongous world you’re given to explore looks phenomenal. Jungles are lush and colorful, bodies of water reflect light realistically and when standing on a mountain, you can see far into the distance and appreciate just how large the island is. As long as you have a computer that’s up for the task, Risen‘s graphics can be very attractive and do a great job of drawing you into its detailed, perilous world.

What’s Bad

Not very friendly for casual gamer

It goes without saying that Risen’s gameplay is incredibly deep. There’s lots of locations to visit, a character to customize, items to craft, and all the options can be very overwhelming to anyone not familiar with Gothic or Oblivion. This problem could be remedied with a competent tutorial that walks newcomers through Risen‘s more subtle, but still significant. facets, but unfortunately, the game is content with throwing gamers into the ocean and hoping they swim. There are a few tutorials that pop-up every now and then, but they’re simplistic and don’t explain anything of importance.

Beginning is slow and difficult

When you begin Risen, your character is weak and will only be equipped with a wooden branch to fight off beasts and anyone that decides killing you would be a good idea. As a result, finishing the first few quests can be pretty difficult, and don’t be surprised if you die repeatedly before you level up and find yourself some better gear. However, the beginning of the game starts off slowly, and the game doesn’t really become fun until after you get some experience under your belt and venture further into the island.

Combat is very simple

Traveling around the island, finding new treasure and crafting items is fun, but unfortunately, one of the core components of any video game --the combat --falls a little short in Risen. Melee combat is handled by clicking the mouse button and watching your character bludgeon or stab their opponent to death. Spell casting and ranged combat functions similarly.

Click the mouse button, periodically parry or dodge, wash, rise and repeat until the monster or bad guy in front of you is dead. There’s a disappointing lack of depth and variety to fighting in Risen, making killing things feel considerably less than exciting.

Can’t customize your character’s physical appearance

Another pretty disappointing exclusion in Risen is the option to actually choose what your character looks like. You can’t change their physical composition, gender or ethnicity, and the absence of such a standard feature in other modern RPGs is pretty glaring. This inability doesn’t necessarily detract from the actual gameplay experience, but it’s unfortunate that you don’t have the opportunity to change your character’s appearance or import your physical likeness into the game.

Final Verdict

Risen may not venture into any territory not already covered in past Gothic titles or other RPG’s like Oblivion, but despite its flaws, it’s still a very solid and enjoyable game that hardcore RPG nuts will be able to invest countless hours into. Casual gamers and newcomers to the franchise will want to be wary of its steep learning curve and in-depth gameplay, but anyone who finds the appeal in exploring magical lands full of hidden dangerous and epic rewards will definitely want to check out Risen.

Grade: B

Risen is developed by Piranha Bytes and published by Deep Silver. The version reviewed was for PC. Risen is available on PC now and Xbox 360 sometime in 2010.