Risen Reviews

The Risen reviews seem to be all over the place, with the latest four ranging from about the 40% mark to the 90% mark.

VGSensation gives it an 84/100:

Once you get over how ‘old-school’ this game really is, it’s an enjoyable game sprung from the suprises of Germany. With voice talent like John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) and Andy Serkis (Gollum) there is plenty of great, believable acting too. If you need a breath of fresh air or just a game that game pass hours and hours and hours of immersive gameplay, Risen is your 2009 choice.

WonderwallWeb gives it a 5.8/10:

Risen is a big disappointment, it feels half finished and therefore quite broken, if you can persevere then there is a decent RPG underneath, however I get the feeling that only the hardcore may find this out.

GameOn gives it a 4/10:

In conclusion, I can see where the development team were trying to go with this game but boy did they miss the mark. The story, whilst being somewhat clichéd has potential and if a little more time was taken over the rest of the game i.e. graphics and menu systems, this game could have been a very good one. Sadly we have ended up with a half finished looking game that is pretty unbearable to play, a poor effort.

And IGN drums up some initial impressions:

Before describing some of the different avenues of play, I think it’s worth noting just how much more user-friendly this game is compared to the studio’s previous work. For one thing, you actually get a quest map in this game that marks precisely where your quest giver is and where you’re supposed to go, making it much easier to keep track of things once you’ve taken on a significant amount of responsibility. While I can understand how some of the hardcore RPG gamers who despise direction might not like this kind of thing, you don’t have to click over to the quest map if you don’t want to.