• Summary: An epic story in an authentic world hand-crafted with an eye for detail and populated by "real", plausible characters. A Mysterious Volcanic Island The heavy tremors on the island bode ill for its inhabitants. Ancient temples have risen from the ground recently, bizarre creatures are terrorising the area. Fear and terror is spreading among the population. The End of All Hope? A group of powerful men who call themselves "The Inquisitors" have taken it upon them-selves to put an end to these events. They send an exhibition to this remote island, but a storm takes hold of the ship and destroys it at sea. A Hero Will Come - As if by a miracle, the player survives the shipwreck and is stranded on the volcanic island alone. He finds himself amidst a chaos of rebellion, tyranny and mystic rituals. He must now decide to which side the pendulum of fate will swing. [Deep Silver] Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 32
  2. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. Risen is a great RPG with only minor flaws. A worthy sequel to the Gothic series.
  2. I rarely come across a title with such an atmosphere, competent AI, interesting combat system and fleshed out characters.
  3. I'd only recommend Risen to people who really enjoyed the Gothic series, or perhaps similarly flawed games like Two Worlds or Dungeon Lords.

See all 32 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 58 out of 80
  2. Negative: 8 out of 80
  1. JamesG
    9
    Great character voice acting, good storyline and progression of hero from fighter to battle mage. They avoided a lot of the annoying aspects of similar games (unlimited weight carrying, fireballs don't kill friends, no limitations based on good/evil alignment, etc).. Beautiful environment with sunrises, birds, rain, nice water effects. Lots of weapons, but not too complicated. Simple approach to magic that works well. Great game! Expand
    • 8 of 8 users said yes
  2. phanj
    6
    I tried to and really want to like this game. I just can't stand the combat, which is very frustrating. Your opponent gets guaranteed hits, but the reflex-based combat system implies that your mouse clicking skills will suffice. So the combat tries to be action-rpg because your coordination with the mouse is important and not so much your player's stats (as opposed to DA:O where 'stats' are everything). Even the simplest creatures seem to have more HP than you do and will take many hits to kill. Also the world is chock full of hostiles at every turn, just amplifying how frustrating the game can get when each fight seems rigged to be unfair. When you engage a hostile, you can't defend and attack (mele) at the same time, so you MUST release the shield and strike. And in this 1/20th of a second window where you release your shield and click to attack, your opponent gets a random chance at a guaranteed hit and you are forced to quaff a heal pot (which are hard to find early on). You can NOT hold the shield up and hit with the weapon at the same time. Other people who seem to have not noticed that the combat is unfair say it's fine, but they just haven't noticed the game is cheating in combat. Also the game forces you to do menial tasks to progress in the game like farm a farmer's field. Things like this serve the story, but absolutely are not fun to do. So from that perspective story is primary in this game, and RPG elements secondary. It's an adventure game with RPG elements, but as far as game progression, you must do many of the quests. What I like about the game is that the world is indeed as PB says, detail rich. The world is immersive. Everything is skillfully made. Time of day is very well done. I wish I could stand this game more so that I could see more of what it has to offer, because the scenery is very nice. I've also heard there are some big dungeons to explore and I'd love to see those. Oh well. Expand
    • 10 of 23 users said yes
  3. Very lack luster game. with no quest log to give you guidance, you are merely wandering around half the game. You are very vulnerable to EVERYTHING! Rats will make you scream at the low levels. Could have been so much more. Really wish the developers had taken more time to CARE about what they were making. Story is bland and unentertaining. Don't waste your money on this when you could buy Oblivion or Mass Effect for a much better story AND a better game. Again, stay away from this, its a horrid release and does not deserve your money. Expand
    • 4 of 24 users said yes

See all 80 User Reviews