Risen vs. The Witcher 2

[Vatt_ghern]

Risen vs. The Witcher 2

Help the better game win in this representative poll:
http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=63238

The Witcher is losing at the moment.

 

[eskiMoe]

Pff..

No I won't. Altho both are WRPGs they can't be compared directly. Risen focuses on world exploration, looting and leveling up. Witcher 2 on the other hand focuses on story and cinematic execution etc. You get the idea.

Personally I loved both games and Risen 2 is my most anticipated game atm.

 

[Keloo]

Lol, I've read the comments on that page, a bunch of morons, who say the witcher 1 is worse then Risen(LOL), and both games are average. They are calling it "scientific research", LOL. Games are subjective, how the fuck you vote it based on "science"?They couldn't play the witcher 2 because of the "terrible combat"(I so love the fact that the witcher 2's combat isn't enjoyed by everyone ), and then they are bashing the game, and praising Risen.One even said that the graphics of the witcher 2 are worse then Risens. Is that dude blind, or dumb ?


"OMFG we can't explore, we can't bash the left button to kill mobs, two many dialogs and cutscenes, the witcher 2 sux, just an average trash".

It's not even worth the effort to compare the two games. And I've played Risen and enjoyed it alot. But for me both witcher games are way better RPGs then risen. Risen has the exploration, and more action but other than that, doesn't come even close the witcher games in terms of C&C, non-linear story, characters, dialogs, voice acting, atmosphere etc...

 

[Sandis]

Ridicules all those troll post in that forum is just stupid, i played first Risen, there is some handful elements but overall Risen was RPG what need lots of improvements, bt they never arrived and compering with TW2 is not even close(I'm looking forward for second installment), people sometime don't know what their saying like in this case, i can bet that most of those forum members never played TW, and for all reference TW2 is not a game, but true art...

Support pagan-metal.

 

[loreley]

I think they call it "scientific" because they believe this poll is somehow a statistic. But they are wrong. First, if they would want to be even close to a statistic the name would have to be "What the people of THIS FORUM(their forum) think about the two games, which is better" or something along the lines. This has to be specified because it's their POPULATION on which the poll is based. Sure, if they can demonstrate that their sample population is representative to the entire population of the world, then, maybe they would have a chance.
But to name this "scientific".....
I believe there is a good reason why some forums don't allow "versus" polls. It's not fair. And it's statistically WRONG! The poll is not controlled in terms of population and especially sample population.

 

[songlian]

I loved every game that Piranha Bytes has ever produced, but Risen can't be considered the better one no matter how you look at it, imo. Not sure what to make of that poll.

 

[Paul_cz]

uh, RPG Codex is a troll forum - I go there for laughs of which there are plenty, but taking anything posted by anyone there seriously? I would have to be crazy.

 

[Vatt_ghern]

Yea it's full of trolls, but there is decent RPG discussion too from time to time.

I just saw that thread and was shocked that Risen is winning when exploration is pretty much the only thing it does better than TW2.

 

[phamvan94]

I really liked Risen. It was my "Gothic 4". While I still like TW2 more, I will not vote since polls like this are just for attention/flaming/trolling.

 

[Babli.480]

RPGCodex is troll forum. Nuff said.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

I'm gonna be really courageous here and make myself unpopular. Very, probably.
I think Risen is not worth the disc it's pressed on.

I play with my eyes, I want something nice to look at. Well, "Mr. Handsome" is even more ugly than DefaultShep (who is customizable, thank God!). Whoever wants to identify themselves with such a painful to look at guy? Not me. The nature is unnatural - nature is chaos, not geometry, yet there's straight lines everywhere, they pull my aesthetic senses apart. The combat is nothing but repetitive. Boring. Side quests, boring. Main quest... well... acceptable. Just. Three kinds of women in the game: 1. whores. 2. cooking/sweeping wifes. 3. pirate princess. No, wait, she's a unique character. Amost overlooked that, because she's so bland. So only the first two categories apply. The only nice RPG features are those which they just copied from Gothic. Crafting and such. I don't get the appeal of this game. Since I am mildly masochistic in that regard, I might try the second part to see if they made anything better - but I won't buy it at release, probably rather borrow it. Pssst: I even liked Arcania better, even though I never finished it.

On a more positive note: we have Witcher 2, yay!

 

[fchopin]

Difficult to vote, if it was TW1 v Risen i would have voted for TW1 because the Risen ending is not good.

TW2 combat is not enjoyable to me as it's not balanced so will not vote, will wait till i finish TW2 first.

 

[username_2093396]

I play with my eyes, I want something nice to look at. Well, "Mr. Handsome" is even more ugly than DefaultShep (who is customizable, thank God!). Whoever wants to identify themselves with such a painful to look at guy? Not me.

Ouch I did have fun in the Risen demo so I got the game but haven't played it yet. I didn't think the Risen guy looked that bad, although when I'm playing 3rd person games 90% of the time I'm looking at the environment anyway and not the character so maybe I just didn't notice it The environments did look fake though, especially compared to Witcher 2 (then again every game's environment looks fake compared to Witcher 2 ).

On a more positive note: we have Witcher 2, yay!

Indeed

 

[arist4]

How can anybody even compare such an old technically backwarded game (even for 2009) like Risen to Witcher 2, a RPG masterpiece? Sorry, but voters in the linked rpgvortex board are idiots.

I played Risen in 2009, but it cannot keep up with Witcher 2 and Witcher 1 in any way: story, gameplay, graphics, chars, athmosphere... etc.

 

[chlong7]

My preference is for TW franchise, and I think there are plenty of reasons why its technology is objectively better, but Risen is still a very good exploration-based rpg by a small team just recovering from a pretty devastating dust-up with its publisher. Yes, facial animations are particularly poor, but the art design is generally good, and I love how the level designers were thinking in vertical as well as horizontal terms. Its soundtrack is restrained, which I appreciate, and the sound design of the outdoor environments has a believably natural quality to it. In fact, it would not surprise me to hear that there are Risen fans on TW development team.

@DelightfulMcCoy
To be fair, there are basically only two types of men in Risen: aggressive thug and less-aggressive thug. It's definitely one of the game's major weaknesses, but at least the ladies aren't the only ones who suffer from a lack of variety.

 

[nukeheal]

Never played Risen but I love that studio for Gothic series well atleast first and second part. I need to give it a try!

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

@DelightfulMcCoy
To be fair, there are basically only two types of men in Risen: aggressive thug and less-aggressive thug. It's definitely one of the game's major weaknesses, but at least the ladies aren't the only ones who suffer from a lack of variety.

But does that make it better or worse? And it's not just lack of variety, it's an archaic view on women, only young male cellar dwellers would have. Just like the unimaginative male characters. Heroes for little boys, sort of. Oh, I better stop right here, because I'm depressing myself once more with the mysogynistic world of videogames. That team definitely lacks some female influence. Or can you explain the "generally good art design", with all the wrong angles in the landsdcape, I don't quite get that.

 

[Vatt_ghern]

Or can you explain the "generally good art design", with all the wrong angles in the landsdcape, I don't quite get that.

Can you give an example of that? I'm not quite sure what you mean by the wrong angles.

 

[DelighfulMcCoy]

Can you give an example of that? I'm not quite sure what you mean by the wrong angles.

The rock surfaces have straight edges, like they are cut off. Carelessly pasted on. And there's just too many geometric lines in the landscape, it feels not natural, but constructed. Of course it is constructed and in my old Tomb Raider games I had no problem with that, it was a cube world. But video games have risen above that today (pardon the pun). Gothic III was better in that regard, it had natural nature. I just feel very uncomfortable in the Risen world. For the shape of it alone, I don't even talk about the for me also uncomfortable gameplay here. I just wonder how one can think this game is fantastic - yet a lot do, obviously. But there is no arguing about taste. I might be a bit picky, since the majority of games are not for me anyway, so I'd like the non-shooter games to be... different.

 

[volsung]

I think most of us will agree that forum polls are not statistically accurate, so who cares if TW2 wins or loses in a silly forum?

Also, we should be aware that the PC and video gaming community has grown in number, but not in quality. As in real life, a lot of people nowadays don't like reading or thinking much, making quick action games (like shooters) a favorite among them. Now, there can be good, smart shooters, but most of these gamers I'm talking about will not even notice the plot because they are too busy shooting heads off. Where I am going is this: computer role-playing games are not what they used to be; most people think that an RPG is a game with character attributes, where you gain levels and customize your gear. So a dungeon crawler with looting and leveling can be called RPG nowadays, even if it has no character development, decision making, a branching plot, or anything that makes your ROLE be significant in the game world.

With such a big audience craving for action and condemning reading, thinking, making decisions and solving puzzles, how can a good RPG expect to "win" against a fast-paced hack-and-slasher?

In my Amazon.com review of TW2 I started by pointing out the importance of it revitalizing the role-playing genre. I wouldn't expect TW2 to win any poll against more popular games, but who cares?. It's like comparing an award winning novel with a newspaper comic strip.