Risen and ‘real life’ medieval skills

I recently went to Paris, to get a look at a third person adventure game called Risen, by German developer Piranha Bytes. Most easily described as a cross between Fable and Oblivion, Risen has you shipwrecked on a medieval fantasy island, needing to arm yourself to survive in the wilds of the island before finding civilisation. The full preview and interview with Kai Rosenkrantz, Audio Director and an overseeing producer at Piranha Bytes will be in Total PC Gaming Issue 21 out on the 11th of June.

Kai and I

As part of things to get us in a proper state of mind’ we were invited to take part in some medieval style activities outside the beautiful old French Abby they’d put us up in. These included things like sword fighting, archery, falconry, juggling and fire breathing. We missed out on the falconry and sword fighting (darn!), but were lucky enough to do the archery and fire-breathing, as well as drop loads of balls and fiery sticks on the ground attempting to juggle.

Feel my breath of fire you!!!

Doing this stuff was fun, and while  I learnt I can breath fire like nobodies business , I soon discovered my bow skills are a million miles away from Robin Hood or Legolas’s.

In the event I ever had to feed myself or defend myself with one, I’d quickly go hungry or be killed horribly before I could even draw it!

I wasn't splitting any arrows, I'll tell ya that!!!

It got me thinking; fantasy games like Risen often have you stranded out in the wilds, or in the middle of epic fantasy battles   with nothing more than the weapons you find at hand. In games we generally play deadly trained swordsmen or  naturally quickly adapt, even if we’re playing someone who’s never picked up a blade, but what would happen really?

How long do you think you’d actually survive if you found yourself (you as you are right now reading this, rather than any character) in that situation with no guns or other modern weapons. (To be honest, the majority of us wouldn’t really know what the hell to do with a  gun either!) Swords and bows all look very easy to use, but when you get your hands on the real things, they prove to be a little trickier to use than most imagine.

Playing with fire- ah yeah!!

I, for one, don’t think I’d last very long- I might be able to support myself as a crazy jester once I’d made it into a town, but in combat? Having fenced at Uni,  I wouldn’t  consider myself  a total stranger to sword fighting- but I still think I’d be swiftly slain by an elf.

I’m only a first ranker after all!