Risen Preview

One of the editors at RPGFan was in attendance at Deep Silver’s recent Risen press event, and has brought us back a hands-on preview.

As far as Action RPGs go, the combat is straightforward. You can choose from a variety of different weapons to hack and slash your way through foes; you also have an array of magic to choose from. Aside from your typical fire and ice spells, you can have a plethora of more interesting spells such as levitation, telekinesis, shape shifting, pet summoning and even persuasion abilities to crack better jokes. To make it easier, there are shortcut keys to utilize your various abilities and items on the fly.

The customization aspect also slightly differs from various other Western RPGs. Rather than a character generator to pre-determine your build, your character evolves based on the actions taken. Each weapon and magic type have their own magic class and you get more proficient depending on what you use most throughout the game. Aside from combat, your hero can take up a craft such as smithing or alchemy to create useful items for the journey. You learn a craft by finding a master of the profession you want, and then getting the right materials to create whatever you like. The more devoted you are to one craft, the higher level you get in that same craft. In other words, it’s a pretty straightforward leveling system.