Risen Preview

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has kicked up a hands-on preview of Risen, after receiving a preview build of the game from the folks at Piranha Bytes.

I’m attacked by monsters, I meet a couple of surly guards, and eventually I find a small town. It’s not a happy place. The unseen, unelected ruler of it takes the earnings of everyone who lives there, and his direct employees are bad-tempered bullies. Others seem more friendly. There’s a great/horrible early quest in which an apparently helpful NPC asks you to come with him to fight something or other. You trot along willingly because, hey, cash! Fighting!

Then he beats the snot out of you and nicks all your stuff.

It’s possible I could have beaten him, if I was a little more accustomed to the combat system and less frustrated by the bizarre camera (the player character is like a third-person model stuck uncomfortably onto the front of a first-person perspective), but in a masochistic sort of way I enjoyed getting my arse handed to me.