Risen – Spotlight
THQ Nordic has released Risen, following the trend of re-releasing classic games from the past several years. Developed by Piranha Bytes, Risen is an action role-playing game (RPG) that came out in 2009 and has since become somewhat of a cult classic. But, there are times when even the things we once cherished are better left in the past.
Importantly, this Risen 2023 release is not a remaster. While other games from the same age (such as the recently released Dead Space) are getting complete, ground-up remakes, THQ Nordic has decided to re-release Risen essentially as it was first launched, with only a few minor modifications to improve upon the original experience. This includes things like a revamped user interface, complete gamepad capabilities, and “totally seamless world streaming capability,” which eliminates the need for loading screens as you travel throughout the expansive island of Faranga.
So, basically, players can expect the same content in this release of Risen as they did in 2009 on PC and Xbox 360. The target audience for this new version is obviously fans of the original game who are searching for a dose of nostalgia with a few added current features. Is this re-release, however, worthwhile for those who haven’t played the original Risen or any of its sequels?
Risen puts players in control of an anonymous hero who fits the mould of the generic male protagonist so common in games of the late aughts. The game is entirely voice-acted, and rather effectively, but the fact that the character has no personality is a bad sign for the game’s advertised 60+ hours of content. As a role-playing game, Risen can be forgiven for featuring a self-insert character. Especially when the high quality of the voice-acting talents is taken into account, and the story beats it takes.
Combat in the game’s early hours can be tedious. It’s fantastic that your combat options expand dramatically once magic is introduced. Although while the ability to conjure zombie minions and shoot adversaries with magic beams is fantastic, it takes some time to master. Until you have access to those abilities, you’ll have to rely on melee fighting, which… doesn’t fair as well.
You have access to the normal assortment of sharp, blunt, and ranged weapons found in fantasy RPGs; but, wielding them does not seem satisfying. It takes a while to get used to the game’s flow during fights, and the choppy animations make it tough to discover and get into the optimal position during fighting. Unlockable talents improve the combat experience, but you’ll be putting in a lot of time with the melee weapon before it becomes enjoyable. Risen is an action role-playing game, so expect to do a lot of combat. It’s too bad because most of the time in-game combat is tedious.
At least there’s a wide array of foe types to face. Don’t allow the ostrich-sized vultures, “stingrats,” and wolves in the opening stages deceive you; there are far scarier monsters to battle later in the game. Later on, you’ll encounter a wide variety of zombie enemies, huge bugs, and lizard people. The game deserves respect for creating foes with unique designs and gameplay mechanics.
While visually interesting, Risen has its ups and downs. The initial area of the game, a shipwrecked beach that is being pounded by rain and lightning, is visually striking. The wreckage spread over the beach is illuminated by lightning bolts; the level of detail here is astounding, and it leads to a linear route surrounded by lush vegetation.
The linearity is annoying at first, but it disappears quickly, and the first few areas you explore in Faranga are excellent. But, oof, the character models and facial movements are terrible. While speaking with a non-player character, the camera does the typical RPG zoom into their face, revealing a low-quality facial model with flapping lips that are usually out of sync with the sentence. It’s the kind of flaw you might overlook in an older game, but in modern games it really jars you out of the experience.
Let’s talk about glitches, which can completely remove you from the experience. Not the huge flying or crawling foes, but rather problems that crop up when a game is moved to a new platform. Risen has frozen solidly on multiple occasions, necessitating a restart to begin moving again. Thankfully, it has a rather robust autosave feature, so it wasn’t a huge concern a few times. Yet there were other times when I lost a lot of ground, which was annoying in any context.
The game runs smoothly, as it should on a strong PS5, with the exception of the rare freezes (we reviewed the PS4 version through backwards compatibility). Even when magic was overused and effects cluttered the screen, the framerate never dropped below a smooth 30fps. In addition, there is a “performance” toggle in this build of the game, the use of which is unclear. No noticeable performance differences or aesthetic alterations were seen between having it enabled or off.
Risen is just a good book, really. It was a groundbreaking and well adored game back in its day, but that was a long time ago and many other fantastic games have since come along to take its place. Hence, unless you are a die-hard fan of Risen, you are probably better off spending your money elsewhere, albeit this is in no way the game’s fault. It’s merely part of a genre that’s had so many sequels and upgrades that, especially for new players, it seems pointless to go back to the original.
