About Risen

The game left me feeling it was incomplete and that the main plot had a lot to be desired of. The side quests were however fairly entertaining and far better (and time consuming) than the main plot, giving this a bit of an impression on Elder Scrolls series which also thrives from side-quests rather than the main plot.

However, unlike most RPGs ever, player can actually fight and defeat end-game opponents fairly early on as combat is mainly based on player skill rather than numbers (attributes, statistics, etc.), though due to lacking numbers these will take a bit more time. Even the final boss is beatable with fairly low level character (maybe as low as 10) since it's not that dependent on player having any numerical advantages. Levels mainly making combat go faster because you deal more damage and makes mistakes more forgiving, but they don't really help you fight the enemy, since levels do not make you immune to shield breaks, enemy dodging, or cause you to dodge automatically.

Overall this is fairly enjoyable game, but loses most of its appeal once you have nothing else than the main plot to do (around chapter 2 or 3). The ending is also disappointing as it does not really solve the original issue at all. Variety of smaller bugs can make the game experience jarring and the jest spell not having any effect it is claimed to have (beyond making characters laugh) despite frequent claims that it does, does make the game feel rushed.