Risen 3: Titan Lords Review and Diary

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has published its review of Risen 3: Titan Lords later than most publications, but in the interest of fairness, they had been publishing a review diary for a while (you can find all the nine installments at this link), and I can’t exactly fault them for putting this much time into the title. Ultimately, writer Alec Meer came away with decidedly mixed impressions, though he can’t help but wonder what Piranha Bytes could do with a bigger budget:

Somehow, it hangs together anyway. I want to see what’s out there. I want to find treasure chests hidden in lost caves, or skill trainers who hang around campfires in the middle of nowhere, or mad men who want me to murder ducks for them. Hell, I even like it when my wilderness excursions result me in inadvertently completing half a dozen quests I hadn’t even accepted yet. Risen 3 is frequently messy, but to some to degree that’s a result of it being so organic and freeform, even though a fixed structure ultimately surrounds it. It’s a small game in many ways, but with a lot of discovery woven into it.

In other words, and I’ve felt this for a long time, I’d so love to see what Piranha Bytes could do given a big budget. Their foibles are very much on show here, but so is their tendency to fucking go for it. Even for something as simple and pointless as being able to sit on a chair because a chair is there. I love that stuff.

As much as the awkwardness, the wobbly writing and the ghastly attitudes often pushed me away from Risen, I’d still take its offbeat ambition and clumsy ambition over a slick, impersonal Diablo or a focus grouped Bioware effort. At the same time, sharper, caveman-free writing and a big spend on more accomplished voice-acting would be redempetive would transform Risen from appealingly odd and into truly impressive. But maybe what’s special about this would be lost if it were able to pursue norms. Perhaps it needs to be as weird and awkward and unpleasant as it is. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much, even when I hate it.