Zero Punctuation: Risen 3: Titan Lords - Pirate ArrrrRPG

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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Darth_Payn said:
Evonisia said:
TheArcaneThinker said:
Will he ever play a RTS ? at least for a change ?
He doesn't review RTSs (usually) because he knows that they aren't for him and any judgement he makes of them would be unfair. Ditto fighting games which he only does on rare occasions.
The last RTS I know he reviewed was HALO Wars, which left a foul impact on him due to a prisoner rescue mission that went belly up for a retarded reason.
I also remember him refusing to review Starcraft 2 for his dislike of the genre (as seen in the Shadow of the Colossus review).

...

That mission on Halo Wars is bullshit on the first go and on Legendary, many-a-horror moments.
 

Something Amyss

Aswyng and Amyss
Dec 3, 2008
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Karavision said:
I find it strange that people get mad about the lack of diversity in games that have never allowed any type of character customization and have always been narrative driven to the point of being fucking movies, like Assassin's Creed
Let me stop you there.

The primary issue revolved around the lack of "diversity" in the online mode, which was replacing the multiplayer that had been around since Brotherhood. One where customisation was released only a game or two later. Further, the majority of the outcry came only after people aat Ubisoft took the "women are hard" approach to it.

As none of these elements are true of Risen, it's rather unfair to try and play the two off against one another.

Further, since Risen has a tiny fraction of the fanbase that the Asscreed series has, fewer people are going to give a damn.

And that's without touching that customisation was one of the things they were banging on about with the new one.
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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I never got past the first Risen game because I found the mechanic of having to pay NPCs in order to gain/advance your skills incredibly aggravating.
 

Steve the Pocket

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Mar 30, 2009
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Also, it's interesting that deviantART has apparently garnered a reputation for having only positive things said in its comment sections, the exact polar opposite of the reputation that the Internet in general and every other site worth mentioning in particular have. Especially given that Tumblr basically owes its entire existence to artists preferring to post somewhere that has no comments at all.
 

Jorpho

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Nov 6, 2008
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I had to pause the video at the deviantART bit and laugh until it hurt.

This was definitely one of the funniest ones in a while. Bravo!
 

XDSkyFreak

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Mar 2, 2013
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Honestly yahtzee what the hell? A pirate theme RPG? maybe in the first 15 minutes or so then pirates just get thrown out the window in favour of 3 separate factions each with a focus on a different style of combat (Guardians with distructive magic, Dark Warriors mele powerhouse and Voodo with debufs and sumons) and you only get 2 normal and 1 dlc island that are somewhat copied from 2. Plus the game no longer focuses on the whole pirate bullshit and actually brings back different organizations with different agendas. But hey, I guess 8 hours isn't enough to get through that 30 minute factions quest that let's you become member in one of the three mentioned organizations ... oh wait you fought a sea monster? But that only happens AFTER you do a factions quest. So why did you not fucking mention them then and just decided to tell everyone the game is like 2? Also combat still sucks? I think you need to replay risen 2 mate ... if that laggy cluncky nonresponsive bs is the same as a system that actually responds, is fluid and allows you to switch targets on the fly ... yeah.

Usually these reviews are a combination of humour and legit reasons why the game isn't very good, but here yahtzee just went "Risen again, it sucks" and called it a day ... without even bothering with the changes made to the game and how it dropped most of the shit that made 2 a slog. It's not as good as Gothic, but at least it's close. Seriously what the hell happened here ...
 

BathorysGraveland2

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Feb 9, 2013
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FightingFurball said:
Risen 3 is A LOT like Risen 2. There aren't much changes from 2 to 3. If you really liked R2 then there is no reason to pass on R3.
Is that a joke? If so, it isn't very funny. Risen 3 is almost nothing like Risen 2. It's demonstrably different.

For one, the combat system is completely changed. In Risen 2, it consisted of same speed combo attacks with an incredibly clunky and unreliable dodge. Fighting against humanoid enemies was slightly better if you invested some skills into it, allowing you to parry and riposte, but other than that it was all clunky and unresponsive tripe. Risen 3 has improved upon all aspects of the combat system. I'll go into some detail:

For starters, you have to time your attacks. If you mash the buttons, your combo will be slow and clunky - that is so designed to punish button mashing, which is a poor habit for anyone to pick up. Instead, you have to time the clicks of your attacks so you get a fast, precise combo and follow up quickly after each attack. Furthermore, the dodge has become infinitely more reliable, taking from Dark Souls in that it has invincibility frames and covers a higher deal of ground. The parry system is mostly the same, but in combination with an improved attack system and a reliable dodge it is made a lot more usable. Riposte is still there and relies on accurately timed click of the right mouse button, but the major improvement here is that animals and beasts can also be riposted, not just humanoids.

Then we have magic, which adds a lot of fluidity to the combat. Area of effect spells are extremely reliable against surrounding groups of enemies, and most common magic can interrupt and stagger enemies allowing you to get well-timed strong attacks on them with a melee weapon.

That's just the combat by the way. Here, exploration has also been greatly improved over Risen 2. The second game mostly had narrow corridor-like pathways connecting pseudo-open areas with very little of value hidden away. Risen 3, on the islands newly developed for the game, are much larger and more open than anything in Risen 2 and there are items and chests hidden all over the place, including on the roofs of buildings and on hard to reach areas. Now there is reason to search behind every nook and cranny since there are things to find. Exploration is very viable once again.

So that's combat and exploration, the two things that embody Piranha Bytes and make up the majority of their games - both completely and utterly different from what they were like in Risen 2. So no, they aren't the same thing. Not at all.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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Nov 21, 2011
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BathorysGraveland2 said:
FightingFurball said:
Risen 3 is A LOT like Risen 2. There aren't much changes from 2 to 3. If you really liked R2 then there is no reason to pass on R3.
snip

So that's combat and exploration, the two things that embody Piranha Bytes and make up the majority of their games - both completely and utterly different from what they were like in Risen 2. So no, they aren't the same thing. Not at all.
What if you don't particularly care for combat in games and just like to set it to easy and endure it? Then you'll find R3 a very similar experience - same dialogue trees, same NPC "mechanics" (hate that word), same experience acquisition and levelling, same running and jumping, same setting and atmosphere, pretty much exactly the same story, and very similar characters. Not everyone adores combat.
 

The Random Critic

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Jul 2, 2011
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To be honest he probably did do better then most though...

Given the game's niche appeal, and his own time restrain, I figure Yatzee wouldn't have liked it. But after reading a quite few comments here defending this game, I probably might.

Rpg takes time to enjoy, Yatzee doesn't have any time to get though them

He entertain, take his grain of salt of with a sugar or something


And admittedly this review in particular did in fact entertain me. (the monkey rolling thing)
 

BathorysGraveland2

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Blood Brain Barrier said:
What if you don't particularly care for combat in games and just like to set it to easy and endure it? Then you'll find R3 a very similar experience - same dialogue trees, same NPC "mechanics" (hate that word), same experience acquisition and levelling, same running and jumping, same setting and atmosphere, pretty much exactly the same story, and very similar characters. Not everyone adores combat.
Then I'd say that is a very odd reason to play a Piranha Bytes game, since an overwhelming amount of time spent in their games is, indeed, killing things. But regardless of what difficulty you play the game on, it's incredibly dishonest to say nothing has changed from Risen 2. If you enjoy combat or not is irrelevant - it has changed rather extensively from Risen 2 and it is incorrect to claim otherwise, not to mention misleading.

Also, some of what you said there is incorrect, namely the setting and atmosphere. Crab Coast, Kila and the returning small islands may bear similarities to Risen 2, but Calador, Taranis and Skull Island, which, when put together, is larger than all of Risen 2 combined is completely different and offer alternate atmospheres and vibes, not to mention the whole pirate aesthetic has been toned down a lot so much that calling it a "pirate RPG" is also misleading. Also levelling cannot be compared to Risen 2 since the acquisition of gold is made much more accessible due to the increased reward of exploration in Risen 3. Gold was hard to come by in large amounts in Risen 2 making levelling and acquiring skills to be rather drawn out and took a long time. Because you can get larger amounts of gold more quickly here changes the pace of progression for your character significantly, so that's another important change to take note of.

Also, the running and jumping animations have been improved greatly, as have almost all animations in general, and animations are an important cosmetic for any game. So there's that too.
 

Amaror

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Apr 15, 2011
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The Random Critic said:
To be honest he probably did do better then most though...

Given the game's niche appeal, and his own time restrain, I figure Yatzee wouldn't have liked it. But after reading a quite few comments here defending this game, I probably might.

Rpg takes time to enjoy, Yatzee doesn't have any time to get though them

He entertain, take his grain of salt of with a sugar or something


And admittedly this review in particular did in fact entertain me. (the monkey rolling thing)
If you like exploration you will most likely like this game. Exploration is and always has been Piranha Bytes big strength and they do it better than any other company.
If you haven't allready i recommend playing Risen 1 on pc. It should be pretty cheap now and has a combat system that's easier to get into. Risen 3's combat system, while not being bad, is somewhat more complicated and the game does a poor job of explaining it. It's good once you get it though.
 

Thanatos2k

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Aug 12, 2013
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Imp Emissary said:
Thanatos2k said:
TheArcaneThinker said:
Will he ever play a RTS ? at least for a change ?
Sure. When is a good RTS going to ever come out?
Well, I heard good things about Dragon Commander. Though, that was more of a RTS RPG, and most of the praise was for the RPG elements.
Still sounded like a good game.
Dragon Commander is a good game, but it is not a good RTS game.
 

Schadrach

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Mar 20, 2010
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Skeleon said:
It's curious. To my knowledge, these are the same guys who made Gothic, right? Well, in that game, you could get the Acrobatics skill to jump further (including a roll at the end), fall deeper without hurting yourself etc.; just like the dodge roll mentioned here, it allowed you to get around a lot faster, looked utterly idiotic and was still something I would never stop doing for convenience's sake. They must love adding stuff like that, I guess.
Gothic had a lot of weird, clunky bits. It was still *fantastic*, especially the second one.
 

Arthain

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Jul 26, 2012
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So in other words... he liked it just a tad bit better than Risen 2, well, at least it appears to be on an upward slope, something of a novelty there.
 

Extragorey

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Dec 24, 2010
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JoJo said:
One of your best reviews for while actually, despite never having heard of this game before I enjoyed that :-D
I agree. And thanks for cutting back on vulgar sexual metaphors. Believe it or not, that's not what everyone watches ZP for.