Finished Elex 2. Decided to try this since they updated it for the new consoles and it runs well now. Sara is pretty hot.

>>3785140 (OP)
>Finished Elex 2
why would you do that?

>>3785140 (OP)
>Risen 1
You're in for a treat. It's up there with the original two Gothics. Better in some ways, worse and others, but fantastic all around

>>3785140 (OP)
Make sure you play the entire trilogy.

>>3785295
>pirate wenches
Aw yiss.

>>3785140 (OP)
Combat kind of filtered kid me, but atmosphere of the game was great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMnZifzDmgI
>>3785295
Not a fan how they turned later games into pirate games. Sure, they had a pirate lady or whatever in Risen 1, but it felt odd in there and aesthetically Risen 1 was something else.

>>3785295
Don't worry, I plan to experience every climax the series has to offer.

I remember buying this as a 12 year old and thinking it was eurojank garbage, then never playing it again. Then i found out they also made gothic and all the retards on here pretend that game is fun so i tried it and realized that this dev is indeed just awful

So... are these more tolerable with the jank keyboard controls, or the jank gamepad controls?

>>3785353
Risen 2 was an interesting setting on its own, but it was like a 200 years tech jump, both in ship building and armaments.

>>3785353
>but atmosphere of the game was great
It was like soulless Gothic 2.

>>3785140 (OP)
Risen was great until you had to go through some copy/paste boring ass dungeons in order to proceed to the final dungeon where you finish the game which was equally as bad. I played the game to completion and totally spent 41 hours in it. The last 11-12 hours were boring crap but the game was interesting enough for me to want to complete it.

Risen 2 was terrible. I wanted it to end 15 hours in. I completed it in 26.

I haven't played 3 yet.

>>3786373
Pirahna Bytes games in gneral peak at the beginning where you get your ass kicked regularly and you just explore the world, when later acts kick in and you get railroaded into MQ (because you probably did most of the side content by now) it's usually going through long ass cave systems to kill the whatever evil being is there. It is offset by the fact that at this point you finally know what you are doing and reflecting on the start, when you are afraid of walking through forest at night gives great deal of satisfaction, but still overall gets kinda boring. I don't know how many times I dropped first two Gothic games in Chapter IV.

>>3785295
Are Risen 2 and 3 worth playing? Any mods to "fix" them?

>>3785295
>Make sure you play the entire trilogy.
Risen 2 is bad and only worth it for the edgy humor and 3 is so mediocre and soulless. Only 1 is worth playing.

>>3786404
>>3786427
It's certainly a descent and I didn't really care for the piracy theme. At least they have less of a unfinished cliff that is the final act unlike Risen 1.

>>3786373
I thought 3 was pretty good.
It's been forever since I played it though.

The back half of this game is the most unfinished and boring of any PB game. Unbearable.

All I remember is getting to the Monastery and the Initiation quests breaking on me in increasingly retarded ways (and in one case, just because I dared to explore the place and get something ahead of time)

>>3787441
god yeah, i totally forgot
>don't pick up a book from a chest (if you do it's already fucked)
>don't talk to the masters in the wrong order (that you won't know until it's too late)
>don't talk to the masters without talking to some other NPC first (there is no indication this will break the flags)

>>3787141
If you are talking about Elex 2, then yes, I agree, the last act is broken. Mission and story jank throughout the game.

>>3786373
>I haven't played 3 yet
You'll want it to end in 5 hours, it stretches for 25. I could barely force myself to finish it. Skipped the gnome island dlc. The last act is the longest endgame dungeon of any gothic game, a whole ass giant island full of demons and undead. At least I managed to skip some of the most obnoxious parts by using the parrot spell.

>>3786280
Yeah, they also, I think, made it more tropical or something, to fit the pirate setting. While Risen 1 feels more unique with (somewhat?) more temperate climate, but on an island. At least that's how I remember it.

Speaking of Elex, both of them, why the fuck did they slavishly keep to the formula of three factions when they couldn't be bothered to develop them equally? Or even try? If you're gonna laser-focus on just one faction to the detriment of others, having them joinable is just a dickslap in the face. Axing even more of them and using the development time elsewhere would've been beneficial to the games as a whole.
But I guess that's why they got fucked and went bankrupt, making the same mistakes over and over.

>>3788326
PB had an ongoing problem with clearly preferring one faction over others, or at least certain playthrough elements, and just straight up making them canon later. Which is fine in broad strokes, you gotta have a starting point for a sequel, but sometimes it gets really stupid when the distinction is meaningless anyway, they just shoehorn it in, in a way that almost feels like a 'fuck you' to alternate choices.
In Gothic 1/2 you had ONE possible ending point, but they still went out of their way to add elements strongly suggesting Nameless was a warrior, including a flashback cutscene with him wearing the ore armor and Uriziel in sword form, so clearly not a mage. Not that playing a mage was particularly fun lmao
In Risen 1/2 it's similar, but they go further since it's outright said in the second game you joined the Order, as a Warrior to be specific, again fuck mages. Unlike in Gothic playing a mage was more enjoyable there, but mostly running back and slinging the same spell all game, and even AS a mage you'd probably be scribing and using scrolls rather than use Rune magic since you can do that way faster due to the way advancement works, so again fucking lmao
And of course in Elex you have... pretty much fucking everything actually, taking the whole thing to a new extreme, partly based on achievement statistics. Berserkers as faction, 0 Cold and appropriate ending, Caja romance specifically. You did something else and continue to Elex 2? Too bad. Welcome to your corrected timeline.

This isn't to say they should've done save import or some dumb shit like that. What they SHOULD have done is never having alternate choices in the first place, as you say. It's fucking pointless.
Well, won't have to worry about that anymore.

>>3785295
Holy macaroni

I think I need to play Risen 3

I put like 30 hours in R1 years ago, and got so bored of playing the mage class that i couldnt finish. They really didnt think the magic system through with how leveling/investing points in spells works eh

>>3790805
Not just that, they did the usual shit dev thing and didn't even try to telegraph how the system works, plus made it rely on fucking collectibles effectively (books/tablets) because you can ONLY raise Wisdom with those
Mage works under three conditions:
- You avoid spending too many points on anything before joining (despite the game encouraging you to do otherwise, and combat being a mess without strength or weapon skill advances)
- You know to ONLY use one single type of Crystal Magic, probably Fireball
- You know where all the books/tablets are or use a guide to zip around collecting all of them as soon as they're available to advance in Seal Magic at the expected pace (1 tier per act)
Then it's just fine. I beat it with a mage recently, and it was... fine. Backstep and shoot simulator, but fine, since between the shops and alchemy you will never run out of mana in practice, and with pumped fireball you can take out powerful enemies way ahead of schedule. But it requires you to basically grin and bear it for the entirety of the first act and first hour of the second, which is... really fucking godawful.

>>3786014
I only played Gothic 3, noped the fuck out and vowed to never touch any Piranhahaslop.

>>3790947
Yeah felt similar. Spamming one spell for 20 hours is not that fun. Some of the utility spells they give you, like levitation, were very cool though, flying across the continent and so on

Thinking about doing another playthrough actually, is temple warrior (or whatever is the name of that class) more fun to play? Since pure warrior sounds kinda meh

>>3791100
>Some of the utility spells they give you, like levitation, were very cool though, flying across the continent and so on
You really don't need to be a mage for those. Learning how to scribe scrolls (bandits can learn too) is more than enough, you don't need to be able to spam those spells with runes.
>is temple warrior (or whatever is the name of that class) more fun to play? Since pure warrior sounds kinda meh
IIRC the only difference is that the (temple) warrior gets to use crystal magic and has access to staff trainers.

>>3791100
Honestly I found "pure warrior" the most enjoyable. It's not really such, since you end up relying on skills and consumables - you get max lockpick very early, and pickpocket too (less useful, some might argue a total waste, but I found it both a useful jumpstart cashflow-wise and a WAY easier method of solving some quests and gaining good weapons through theft before you can reforge the uniques); you're definitely going to have alchemy for guaranteed healing and stat boost potions later, and as mentioned above, you'll have scrolls as well to substitute for the runes. On the warrior front though, you DO get what is probably the objectively best option in the game, one-handing a two-hander sword with a shield. Staff can't really compete, if only because the shield can block a lot of stuff the staff can't.
The only advantage the Warrior of Order has is access to the crystal magic, which is... fine, but that's just the same gameplay as mage if you go that way. Bandits get crossbows which key off strength just like swords do, and while you probably won't have the LP to max that, it remains a fine option for initiating combat and kiting if desperate. And doesn't make you a mana potion addict. Scrolls might, but that's the price you pay regardless. They still have to scribe scrolls to get access to Levitate, Summons, etc; as ONLY Mages get to cast the runes raw.
The shitty part here is... to use the runes normally, you need a certain amount of Wisdom, right? And they made VERY sure you only progress one tier per Act, due to locking the tablets away. But you can scribe a scroll of ANY rune you have, so long as you have the reagent for it, no matter the tier. Sure it ends up costing you cash and time, but in the grand scheme of things, spending some time keeping up your stockpile before going out is nothing.

Bandits also get a slightly different initial storyline, whereas both of the Order sub-factions are nearly identical. Not ENTIRELY, but nearly.

>>3791111
>>3793800
Hm, thanks for the input anons. I'll play the camp route and go warrior I think

>>3793952
An archer is also worth considering. Shooting feels pretty good and you damage is consistently nice.
Ultimately, every build is cucked into melee in the final boss fight, but it's a stupid arcade fight so warriors don't get any special benefits over other classes.

>>3790947
Doesn't that mean it's more of a second playthrough thing?
The first time, you would have noticed all these useful magic things so you memorise the exact locations of every single one or create a database and make a handdrawn map with the precise location of everything. Then when you finish the game and run a wizard, you can have fun.

>>3786286
no it wasn't, fuck you.

>>3785140 (OP)
After playing all three Risen games and then starting Elex I realized I had been wasting my time playing shit games, and now I just spend my gaming hours shitposting on /vrpg/ instead

>>3794001
Well, yes. More or less what I tried to convey. And that it's terribly shit design specifically because there is precisely zero attempt made at informing the player that one of the routes/"classes" is designed with extensive prior experience (or a guide as substitute, I guess) in mind. Joining the mages is no more difficult than voluntarily joining the order (something the game nudges you toward over getting yourself conscripted, every NPC telling you to avoid their patrols and sneak into the city instead). All it requires is doing one single quest in the city which you will inevitably stumble into due to being directed to the NPC who gives it by several others. A very easy quest at that, just giving out some potions.
They do not even inform you that Wisdom, one of three stats that that truly matter for a Mage (others being Max Mana and Crystal Magic; alchemy aside since you always want that in every single PB game anyway), is ONLY gained through tablets and books. Even the manual brings up tablets/books only in the same hint box as it does permanent alchemical boosts to Strength, and that such boosts are better saved for after you've already reached a point trainers can't raise the stat any further, effectively feeding you misinformation. (Incidentally, they also neglect to mention that Max Mana, unlike all other stats, does not have a learning cap and you should use all potions that raise it as soon as you get them)
There is nothing inherently wrong with creating a class or option for repeat playthroughs or advanced players. Plenty of games do it, and have done it for a long time. There is plenty wrong with doing it badly and neglecting to as much as say so in the manual - where you can get away with breaking the immersion, if you're concerned with it.
But PB has always been incapable of properly communicating expectation to the player. Worse, unlike certain other studios it never seemed intentional, just pure low effort and/or negligence.

>>3785140 (OP)
>Finished Elex 2.
how was it compared to 1
I really dislike how they made Jax look, hopefully there's a mod for that by now

>>3794032
That the gameplay is the same doesn't mean that the game is the same.

>>3785140 (OP)
That a remaster? Doesn't look half bad.

>>3786404
>Are Risen 2 and 3 worth playing?

Compared to modern garbage alternatives pretending to be games? Yeah.

>>3786404
No they're pretty trash.

I remember enjoying Risen 1 well enough, and being frustrated that in 2 they for some reason made the main guy into... I don't even know, goofy funny man with his IQ slashed in half.

Risen and Elex just suck.

>>3794007
he's right

>>3795433
so wrong