Originally released for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 last year, Risen 3: The Titan Lords – Enhanced Edition brings the action RPG from Piranha Bytes to PS4. It’s an odd choice for a remaster considering it wasn’t that warmly received in the first place, thanks mainly due to its uninspiring combat and (on consoles at least) frame rate issues.
Well the good news is that the enhanced edition looks a hell of a lot better than it did on the PS3/360; graphically it’s comparable to the PC version on Ultra settings, Risen 3 on PS4 runs in native 1080p with all the advanced lighting, higher quality textures and extra post processing effects that further elevate it above the visuals of the original. Although it doesn’t hold a candle in the looks department to The Witcher 3 or Dragon Age Inquisition, it’s still by no means a bad-looking game.
It also features previously released DLC including the Adventure Garb, Fog Island and Uprising of the Little Guys – so far so much like your average remaster. It looks prettier and with everything included it’s the best version of the game consoles at least. But that being said there hasn’t been much else done to improve any other aspect of the experience, so if you hated the original despite the facelift you’ll still dislike Risen 3 Enhanced Edition.
If you never played Risen 3, well… It’s OK, I guess. I missed it the first time around, but quite enjoyed Risen 2, mainly for the pirate hijinks which is a nice break from the usual Fantasy trappings that make up 99% of the genre. Thankfully Risen 3 continues with the adventures on the high seas, even if its cover oddly makes it appear to be another fantasy RPG like the original Risen was. Although strangely it chooses to not continue the story of the protagonist of the first two games in the series and instead sets the game several years after the conclusion of Risen 2 and places players in the thigh high boots of a new nameless protagonist who is supposed to be the son of the famous pirate Steelbeard from Risen 2.
The Enhanced Edition starts just like the original version did on consoles, with some bad texture pop in and a lot of stuttering during a hectic opening scene in which our new hero is locked in a naval battle against a ship manned by the ghost of Captain Crow and a crew of fiends. It would be quite a thrilling opening if it wasn’t for the fact that the game introduces the games controls in a weird manner where you have to press the buttons to jump, roll and attack in weird non QTEs that wait around until you’ve pressed the button, at which point the game wakes up, shudders back into life and carries on.
It’s also the first time you’re introduced to the game’s combat, which lets not pull our punches here, is bloody awful. You press X to wildly swing your sword in the general direction of an enemy or hold it down to wind up your swing a little. The problem is that it never feels like you’re directing your attacks at anything in particular; just flailing wildly at whatever might be in your way. In the meantime enemies will just flail back at you, though you can press R2 to parry, any large enemy will just ignore your feeble attempt at blocking (as do most regular sized foes for that matter), though rolling does prove to be incredibly useful as it lets you get out the way as well as granting you immunity to damage so you can just roll around until you find an opening and twat the buggers. Combat is made even easier once you’ve acquired the ability to counter attack at which point it’s pretty much impossible to lose a fight against anything but the game’s larger foes. Throw in the ability to shoot enemies with a pistol (though thanks to the bad autolocking whether you hit anything is literally hit or miss) and once you’ve acquired a few upgrades and additional skills nothing should be able to touch you.
After the shaky introduction to probably the game’s weakest element, Captain No Name is awoken by his sister Patty who has decided that today she would wear her ‘Sexy Pirate’ Halloween costume. After quickly putting on your pirating gear the pair arrive on an island in search of some booty in an old temple. After fucking up the local fauna the pair come across a mysterious portal inside said temple. Unfortunately, though somewhat predictably this is a gateway to hell and our poor nameless protagonist is attacked by a Shadow Lord that consumes his soul. Thinking that having no Soul is fatal, Patty and the crew swiftly bury the poor nameless bastard and bugger off, never to be heard from again.
It’s at this point that you rise from your grave with the help of a crazed mystic named Bones who then guides the protagonist on a quest to reclaim the stolen pieces of his soul and put a stop the Shadow Lords that have been terrorizing the world of the living while he’s been asleep. In order to do this you have to travel across an archipelago of islands (which will look very familiar to anyone who’s played Risen 2, because they’re the same ones, just visited in a different order) and recruit each island’s resident mage in order to conduct the ritual that will make you whole again.
Overall, adventuring on the islands is quite fun, The Enhanced Edition’s new layer of polish, really makes the environments come alive in a way that the muddy textures of the original console port couldn’t, with the melding of fantasy and pirate themes creating a nice variety of areas to explore and new enemies to fight.
Exploring each new area brings fresh rewards, and each island has a shed load of quests to sink your teeth into, even if most do revolve around the usual fetch, carry and kill quests, the self-contained nature of each of the game’s areas means at least you don’t have to travel too far to accomplish your goals and though none of them are particularly taxing, most feature a cast of interesting characters, and the game’s inability to take itself too seriously make the umpteenth fetch quest more bearable.
As you complete quests and kill monsters you’ll begin to accrue Glory (XP) to plough into the game’s surprisingly straight forward upgrades system. This allows you to see exactly what skills and areas of your character will improve with every point of glory you sink into them, making it easy to focus on levelling up the parts of your character that suit your playstyle, whether you want to become a master of magic or the sword.
You can also augment your attributes by learning additional skills from one of a legion of trainers found mooching around the game world. As well as boosting your stats, learned skills also provide useful new abilities, like the aforementioned (and highly recommended) counter attack and the ability to call monkeys to help you in combat.
Because of the sheer weight of quests thrown at you by every shiftless island inhabitant you stumble across, you level up incredibly quickly, with palpable results that see your combat abilities swiftly transform from someone who had a hard time shooting a monkey to someone who can lay waste to entire ecosystems with a snap of their fingers.
Pledging allegiance to one of the games three main factions: Demon Hunters, Mages, or Natives unlocks the ability to use magic, further bolstering your abilities to destroy everything within a thirty mile radius by glaring at it. Depending on which path you take you’ll be able to summon demonic hounds to fight by your side or rain down fire upon your enemies. This gives you far more options than the simple stab and roll (though you’ll still do plenty of rolling) and combat begins to feel a lot more satisfying.
When you’re not fighting the shadows or picking up an islanders laundry, you can spend some time finding the parts and ingredients to craft your own weapons and potions, or challenging the locals to arm wrestle.
All of your actions tie into the obligatory, and almost completely pointless karma system. It doesn’t seem to really effect much of anything and you can max it via dialogue, meaning that it’s really easy to gain max karma by simply being polite.
Though the graphics are greatly improved the same can’t be said for the voice acting, which is incredibly hit and miss; the main protagonist sounds liked a pissed up Russell Crowe, then again rum is the primary item used for healing so and you do spend most of the game attacking anyone that comes near you. So maybe it’s not that bad a performance after all.
As it stands Risen 3: Enhanced Edition is the best version of the game on consoles, though this isn’t really saying much. Though the game has had a welcome facelift, if Piranha Bytes had taken the time to fix the combat and tweak the gameplay in a few key areas, then Risen 3: The Titan Lords Enhanced Edition would be more than just the best version of an OK game, but the definitive version of a great game.
