Overview
This guide describes the fundamentals of the Risen 3 melee system and how to get on your way to mastering it.
Being a Swordmaster
I read a lot of people saying that they hate the combat in Risen 3, and I can empathize, it certainly is very different from what people are used to. However, the combat system in Risen 3 is not actually bad, it’s just different, and learning the basics of it can help immensely to start making sense of it.
There are two main things you need to keep in mind to be successful in Risen 3 combat:
1. The system is split into two phases: Offense and Defense.
2. Attacks don’t queue up, you have to attack when the time is right.
So, the first thing is the most important. Risen 3 combat is all about Offense and Defense phases. Offense phases are about chaining together as many attacks as possible without missing one, defense phases are about trying to make your opponent miss an attack so you can get back on offense.
This is the thing that people probably have the biggest problem with, because the vast majority of games like this have a combat system where if you’re taking hits the best thing to do is to start attacking the opponent again as quickly as possible. In Risen 3 that just gets you knocked on your butt and unable to fight. This is likely the part of the system that makes most people say that it sucks, but it’s actually not so bad once you understand what you need to do to regain the upper hand.
Offense Phase
Offense phase is pretty straight forward. Chain together as many attacks as possible and keep hitting your opponent. If you manage a perfect offense phase you can down an opponent without him being able to hit you back at all. Most of the time that won’t be possible because the opponents start dodging out of your reach or you are interrupted by other enemies starting an offense phase on you.
This is where 2. is important to remember: Risen 3 does not queue up attacks, wildly clicking your mouse button just slows you down. If you want to rain down a flurry of blows on your opponent you need to click when your heros weapon rests for a brief moment at the end of one swing, so you can use the momentum for the next one. If you click too early or too late your next attack comes out slower, giving your opponent a chance to break your offense phase.
Defense Phase
Defense phase is the tricky part, and where you can really show your mastery of the game. Just like you can burn down an opponent in a single offense phase, opponents can also destroy you outright if your defense game is lacking. The deal with defense is this: The moment any enemy in your vicinity lands a hit on you you are on defense, and you need to play accordingly, start blocking, start thinking about how to regain the upper hand. Hitting the attack button while on defense will just get you hit again and again and again. You need to defend yourself, break their chain of attacks and then get back to dishing out yourself.
There are many ways of breaking an enemy attack chain, and the best way of doing so is different from enemy to enemy. The easiest way to break an enemies attack chain is by having your companion land a blow on that enemy. If the enemy gets hit their attack chain is over, and you can go on the offensive against them, or deal with another enemy. The second most basic way to break an enemies attack chain is to dodge an attack. If they swing and miss you have a chance to step back in and go on the offensive. Not all enemies are dodged in the same way, for example Scavenger birds can leap really far, so dodging backwards doesn’t help a lot.
As you progress through the game you will learn new methods of breaking an opponents attack chain. One of the earliest you can learn is called the Riposte, which makes it so that when you hit your block button right before an enemy attack connects, your character not only blocks, but instantly strikes your opponent back, giving you the first swing of your new offense chain for free. It’s a good method to turn a fight around on an enemy, but risky because blocking too late will obviously get you hit. There are other methods of regaining the upper hand in a fight. You can learn a lot of combat techniques, spells, dirty tricks etc. that can get you back on offense. A sufficiently high skilled swordfighter can even become fast enough to just flat out break an enemies offense by attacking – but this is the exception and demarks a pinacle of skill in the Risen universe, don’t expect to do it right out of the gate.
Well, I hope this helps some of you folks dish out the pain more effectively. Happy hunting!