RISEN for the XBOX 360 is one of the RPGs that every RPG gamer has been waiting for to come out to North America ever since it was first released in Europe, Australia and New Zealand back in October 2009. Developed by Piranha Bytes, the makers of the Gothic Series, RISEN is another RPG game that will consume a lot of your time. Exclusively available for both the PC and XBOX 360, RISEN is another RPG that will bring you in an epic fantasy world where an exotic island needs a Hero to rise and save them from from the Inquisitor. With so many possible choices to change the outcome of the story, will you rise to a challenge?
What makes RISEN stand out from the other RPGs? Will it be worth a purchase knowing some big RPGs will be releasing in North America in a couple of weeks? Let’s take a look in the HOTs and the NOTs:
HOT
Big World, No lag!
Welcome to the exotic Faranga Island where you, the hero of the game, will spend most of your time searching for your inner-self. As you journey along the big island, one of the things that will catche your attention is how the environment streams smoothly with no hiccups. Sure, the environment is not as awesome as Dragon Age: Origins since this game was originally released back in early 2009. Before experiencing the lag-free gameplay, I highly suggest installing the game’s data onto your hard drive to fully maximize your experience. It doesn’t matter if you install it or not because no matter what, exploring the island will be lag-less.
Many Choices, Quest, & your typical RPG
RISEN is meant to be played for more than one play-through. There are three classes that you have to choose in the early part of the game and what you choose of course affects the gameplay. You can choose from classes such as Bandit, Mage, or the Warrior of the Order. Each has its own uniqueness and approach to the game’s story.
Expect to make a lot of decisions and remember that every time you decide, expect a consequence. If you decide to steal from someone in town and that NPC is part of the story progression, you better hope you have some spell to let them forget what you did or else you won’t be able to move on. RISEN is your typical western RPG that will give you the feel of playing Oblivion, Gothic, or even Dragon Age. There are limitless of quests that you can do and each of them gives a huge chunk of experience to power up your characters.
Aside from leveling up your characters and progressing through the story, you also have a choice to make yourself something useful in the society you’re in. In every town you go, there will be Teachers that can teach you a lot of stuff from using an Alchemy, making Teleport stones, cooking, pickpocketing, and a lot more. Gold is needed to gain experience and you would need this in order to have a pleasant journey in Faranga Island.
Decent Voice-work
Since this game is developed in Europe, you can expect that the voice work in this game is done by people with a British accent. Compared to other RPGs out there, the voice work of RISEN is pretty decent and it helps build the atmosphere of the game.
Major Improvements from EU Release
When it first came out in Europe, Australia and New Zealand back in October 2009, critics bashed this game like there’s no tomorrow. They mentioned that this game is unpolished and a lot of glitches that will make gamers that play this game disgusted. With the US release in our hands, I would say that RISEN has improved a lot in every aspect since its release. The graphics has been improved making it all smooth and lag-free. The controls have changed making it feel like a console version and not some crappy port. There are a few glitches still, but the major turn offs in the PAL release has finally been fixed making the US version the superior one.
NOT
Character models looks dated
Compared to the CG graphics of the game to the in-game face textures, I must say that the characters in this game looks very PS1-ish. It is ugly and sometimes I just don’t look at their faces. There are times the environment looks very ugly but most of the time, they are decent. Just don’t expect a very detailed environment such as those seen in Dragon Age Origins.
Quests are Unorganized and Boring
With so many quests that you can do in RISEN, the only complaints I have in this game is the way it is organized. Instead of showing the recent Quests that you just got, you will have to scroll down from a small window and find it. It is however organized by the place where you got the quest but remember, in each area you go to, there are over 30+ quests that you can get all at the same time and it’s a pain checking up on them every single one of them. What’s even worst is it doesn’t give you an indication as to where the quest can be done!
Doing quests can be fun to some people but since there are limitless quests that you can do, you will notice some of them are pretty pointless and boring. However, doing them gives you experience so you will really have no choice but to do them.
VERDICT
If the PAL version of RISEN wasn’t enough to keep you entertained due to its bug and glitches making it unplayable, I am confident to say that the North American version is a better way to experience an RPG that will be remembered. For the price of $49.99, RISEN is a very wise choice to buy if you’re a hardcore RPG gamer. It doesn’t matter whether you have Final Fantasy XIII pre-ordered but RISEN, will make your every penny worth.
