Risen Previews

Both GameSpot and IGN are offering up some new hands-on impressions of the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Piranha Bytes’ Risen.  First, a snip from GameSpot’s article:

We saw glimpses of the game’s early goings; a few hours into Risen’s gameplay you’ll find yourself in a village known as Harbor Town. The Inquisition has gathered up the island populace into the town and sequestered them, ostensibly in the hopes of protecting them from attacking monsters. As you make your way through the town, speaking with bandit and Inquisition non-player characters along the way, you’ll learn more about both factions’ motivations. You can choose to work jobs for either faction, and eventually you’ll be able to learn special skills. For example, if you side with the Inquisition, you’ll eventually make it to the monastery, where you can receive formal training to be a warrior or a mage. If you side with the bandits, on the other hand, you’ll learn new skills, such as pickpocketing.

And then a little something from IGN’s article:

While actually playing the game, the third-person combat mechanics are still sort of awkward. The game employs an auto-lock-on targeting system that can be interrupted pretty easily, so I can’t say for sure how this holds up with a controller because I didn’t take part in any battles against groups of enemies. Sheathing and unsheathing your weapon is accomplished with the X button, and the triggers swing and block. If you get in trouble during a fight, you can open your inventory (which pauses the game) to down potions, or you can map them onto face buttons for faster access. The number of combat moves at your disposal also greatly expands as you power up your fighting skill, which changes the rhythm of a fight and wasn’t something I got to see in the demo.