Risen

Risen, from German studio Piranha Bytes, creator of the acclaimed Gothic series, arrived on Xbox 360 in 2010, a year after its successful PC release. After being shipwrecked, the player finds themselves on a mysterious island hit by a series of earthquakes, where they must choose a side between the repressive Inquisition settled in a harbor fortress and the freedom-loving bandits living in camps beyond its reach, while an ancient, titanic evil awakens from the island's depths and an old monastery.

The game holds to the philosophy that made Piranha Bytes famous with Gothic — no fast travel, no prominent quest markers on the map, just careful exploration of the world on foot, listening to characters, and gradually building up abilities through the faction the player joins after the opening stretch of the game. As the game progresses, the island opens up into ever more varied areas, from a bustling harbor town through swampy forests to volcanic caves hidden beneath the ancient monastery, and with each new area the demands on the player's skills grow as well. The combat system is deliberately clunky, dependent on the timing of strikes, and requires patience, which, combined with the dense, dark atmosphere, creates a sense of a genuinely dangerous and believable world without artificial crutches to ease navigation or combat.

Critics praised the return to honest, old-fashioned open-world RPG design at a time when the genre was heading toward more accessible and more guided experiences, and Risen was often described as a spiritual successor to Gothic, complete with a similar dose of player frustration from the tough early difficulty. The Xbox 360 version brought this particular style of play to console audiences, who rarely encountered such an uncompromising approach to design; the game later received two sequels and remains, to this day, on the lists of many players craving a dense, unhurried fantasy atmosphere.

Why play it: For players craving a dense, unhurried fantasy atmosphere and honest, old-fashioned design, it's often described as a spiritual successor to Gothic, though with a tough early difficulty.