Friday , March 29 2024
'Risen 3: Titan Lords' is a flawed, but deep pirate-themed, action roleplaying game. While the new Enhanced Edition's release lacked much fanfare, it is a significant upgrade. Unfortunately, the game still lacks the polish required for wider appeal.

PlayStation 4 Review: ‘Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition’ from Piranha Bytes

Risen 3, Titan Lords, Enhanced Edition, With so many other last-generation games getting current-generation releases, the Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition wasn’t likely on many gamers’ radar. Piranha Bytes’ pirate-themed action role-playing game series Risen has its following, but it’s not on anywhere near the same level as games like Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, or the upcoming Fallout 4. Developed in Germany, the game has often awkward English-language voice work that will quickly grate on most gamers’ ears. However, while the bland graphics of the earlier iteration did little to motivate playing through the game’s issues, in the Enhanced Edition, Risen 3 does look significantly better.

Risen 3: Titan Lords tells the story of a nameless pirate who quickly loses his life, soul, and ship. While his life is quickly returned, the ship takes a bit longer, and regaining his soul will take the whole 40-some-hour game.

Traveling around and between the handful of islands can be a bit tedious depending on your exploration strategy, but there is a limited fast travel system. Luckily, Risen 3 doesn’t employ any type of encumbrance system, so players can collect items to their heart’s content. However, stuff is expensive, and new skills will require experience or glory, as well as a good amount of gold.

Those familiar with action RPGs should have no trouble learning Risen 3’s controls. Besides being a fairly standard control scene, the game offers tutorials at the beginning and when new skills are learned. Additionally, when a weapon is unsheathed, the combat controls are displayed onscreen.

Unfortunately, Risen 3 isn’t quite as polished as its big-name competitors. The game’s animations are stilted, and awkward, which is exaggerated during the game’s frequent frame rate drops. The jumping animation is probably the most problematic, made worse by buggy collision detection and physics.

Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition on the PlayStation 4 isn’t all ugly, though. The enemies, environments, and props all look really good. Piranha Bytes has also added new lighting and dynamic sky effects that weren’t even in the previous PC version.

That said, the character skins are still pretty bad, and the main character’s sister, Patty, is a terrible model, made even stranger by her animation set. All of the visual upgrades do come at a price. As I mentioned before, there are frequent frame rate slowdowns, and the high and low resolution textures don’t swap out as quickly as they should.

During my Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition playthrough, there were some pretty serious bugs, but nothing fatal. Upon arriving at one island, none of the buildings loaded, and half of the characters were missing their heads. At first, I wasn’t sure if this was the intended effect, but after a couple of minutes, the game was virtually unplayable. After saving and quitting, the game eventually loaded correctly, and I was able to continue on. If you plan on spending a lot of time with Risen 3: Titan Lords, you need to be prepared for these types of issues, along with occasionally floating or stuck characters.

Risen 3, Titan Lords, Enhanced Edition, Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition certainly does have its charms. With this new release, there is some new content for console players, and parts of the game do look really good. The fairly deep pirate-themed RPG with its numerous side quests and handful of mini-games will keep players busy for quite a while. Risen 3’s story is interesting, though the narrative isn’t as deeply integrated as it is with similar games, and its morality system does also offer some incentive for replay. All in all, if you can get over its rough edges, you just might enjoy it.

esrb, MatureRisen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB Violence, Blood, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, and Use of Alcohol.

 

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About Lance Roth

Lance Roth has over 10 years experience in the video game industry. He has worked in a number of capacities within the industry and currently provides development and strategy consulting. He participated in all of the major console launches since the Dreamcast. This videogame resume goes all of the way back to when they were written in DOS. You can contact Lance at RPGameX.com or [email protected].

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