Gothic spirit and old-school feel
Mentioned in ~2 in 5 positive reviews
“This is the gothic 4 we never got to have. It has all the hallmarks and fingerprints.”
Steam review · 184 h played ↗
Risen
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 89%Very Positive · 89%Piranha Bytes, THQ Nordic2009RPG · Adventure · Action
$14.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 5 h ago
The verdict
A compact, atmospheric Gothic-style RPG with rewarding zero-to-hero progression and exploration, but clunky combat and a tedious second half. Skip it if you hate jank.
Great for
Gothic fans and patient old-school RPG players who enjoy exploration and earning power from nothing
Main risk
Clunky, punishing combat and tedious chapters 3-4 that sour a great start
What players love
Atmosphere, music and visuals
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The game has a fantastic atmosphere, a classic of the genre at the Gothic level.”
Steam review · 20 h played ↗
Rewarding exploration of a compact island
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The island itself is also fun to explore. There are caves, ruins, camps, hidden places, and plenty of small things to discover along the way.”
Steam review · 42.9 h played ↗
Faction choices and replayability
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“What I really liked was the choice between the Bandits and the Monastery. Both paths give you different quests and characters, so your choice actually matters.”
Steam review · 42.9 h played ↗
Satisfying zero-to-hero progression
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“The progression is excellent: you start off weak with nothing and by the end you are like a living god.”
Steam review · 39.5 h played ↗
Runs well on modern systems and Steam Deck
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“this one runs great straight out of the box, good stuff!”
Steam review · 2.9 h played ↗
What players complain about
Clunky, frustrating combat
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews
“This game's combat is by far the worst (RELOAD) I've seen in an RPG (RELOAD)”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗
Dull story, flat characters, derivative of Gothic
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“What is even the motivation of the main character?”
Steam review · 15.8 h played ↗
Game-breaking bugs and broken quests
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“Quite possibly the worst game I have played due to the amount of game breaking bugs”
Steam review · 7.8 h played ↗
Tedious, repetitive late chapters
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Amazing Chapter 1 and 2.”
Steam review · 48.1 h played ↗
Won't run or crashes on modern PCs
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“This game no longer works on windows 11. Blank screen and if you alt/tab there is a dialog box about a missing DLL and the game terminates.”
Steam review · 8 h played ↗
2023 update broke combat; price hike
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“They bugged combat and when you block, you immediately counter parry afterwards ruining the flow of combat”
Steam review · 66.4 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: PlayableController support5 GB
Minimum
OSWindows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11
ProcessorIntel Pentium 4 or AMD CPU 2 GHz or equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics256 MB DirectX™ 9.0c compatible graphics card (nVidia® GeForce® 7900/ATI Radeon™ X1800 or better)
Storage5 GB available space
OSWindows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11
ProcessorIntel Pentium 4 or AMD CPU 2 GHz or equivalent
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics256 MB DirectX™ 9.0c compatible graphics card (nVidia® GeForce® 7900/ATI Radeon™ X1800 or better)
Storage5 GB available space
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