Oh right, I forgot there was a new Risen game this year, I think I confused it with Sacred 3, which I don't think anybody liked.

@fisk0: Sacred 3 was terrible. Such a shame too since Sacred 2 was actually pretty damn good. If you like the Gothic games and can accept some jankyness, Risen 3 is worth the look.

@karkarov: You're absolutely right on about Risen 3. It certainly has issues, but what really struck me the most with it is the absolute crazy and hilarious writing, voice acting and characters. Risen 3 has some serious charm to it's dialog. It reminded me of the terrible voice acting from Two Worlds, but actually works in Risen 3. There were times where I was laughing so hard at some silly dialog that was likely not supposed to be that humorous.

My biggest issue with Risen 3 is the combat system. It can be hard to lock on to targets and the attack motions take forever leaving you vulnerable. Shooting enemies with a ranged weapon is like shooting an enemy with a pistol in Alpha Protocol. You miss about 90% of the shots. I'll be honest though, I cheated combat by using the roll mechanic throughout most of the game. You are seriously invulnerable when you are rolling. I don't know how that made it past the developers. Many times I just wanted to skip past enemies and avoid combat, so I'd continuously roll past them and never got hit. It's funny that sometimes there would be like 50 enemies all following me after being aggro-ed, and I'd just keep on rolling.

The islands you can travel to anytime are all unique and have their own lore. Each one felt like a fresh experience. It felt like Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag at times though there's no boating to islands in Risen 3. Traveling to each island is via fast travel.

Lastly, the graphics are quite dated, though the aesthetic and art counter that since they are very well done. It never crashed once, frame rate was always smooth and didn't encounter many bugs.

If you like the Gothic games, then you clearly are willing to accept some shortcomings. To enjoy Risen 3, I think you have to go in with that mindset. After accepting the game's faults, I was able to enjoy it much more.

Happy to see Risen 3 on someone else's list as well :)