Risen 2: Dark Waters - PC

Risen 2 Out On PC Tomorrow, Enjoy A New Trailer

Jeff Marchiafava — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:45:00 GMT

Console owners won't be able to take to the high seas in Risen 2 until July 31, but PC players can start doing pirate-y stuff tomorrow. Why not get in the mood with this here launch trailer?

Risen 2 is a fantasy RPG from Piranha Bytes, the creators of the Gothic series. You play the game as a one-eyed, unnamed pirate, taking on all sorts of sea monsters and scallywags. Some abysmal combat sinks Adam's review score a bit, but it sounds like there are still some interesting elements in the game. Here's the trailer.

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Still not sold? Did we mention this game has Krakens?

Terrible Combat Sinks This Ship

Adam Biessener — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:31:00 GMT

Video games have a wide-open space waiting to be filled with non-traditional protagonists and mature themes. The drunken anti-hero at the heart of Risen 2 is a fine fit, with often-amusing dialogue and superb voice work. The world he reluctantly saves is a fantastic realization of the myths of the Age of Sail. Games still need to be played, though, and the complete failure of Risen 2’s combat system makes this a difficult story to get into.

Our hero wakes up with a hangover months in the making, missing an eye and full of irritation at the ungrateful citizens of the world he saved in the first game. Rescuing a comely pirate lass from sea monsters and being sent undercover to uncover a conspiracy among pirate lords seems like a wonderful start to a grand swashbuckling adventure. Unfortunately, the first rough edges show up immediately after this tutorial section ends and the nameless protagonist makes his way, barefoot and shirtless, into the first portion of the story proper.

While the writing stays above-average through the course of the adventure – our hero has no patience for fools or anyone who expects him to do much besides lay about and drink, and loudly proclaims such in amusing fashion at any opportunity – the crippling problems with combat begin right away. Sent into the jungle to kill boars, the player may well find himself locked into a hit recovery animation and killed with no recourse. Practically every other action game in the world would allow you to experiment with dodging, blocking, ranged attacks, and/or consumables. Not Risen 2; your only option is to mash on the attack button and hope that the awful enemy AI decides to run in circles or do nothing while you slowly chip away at your enemies’ health.

Some combat options like power attacks eventually get unlocked through the classless character progression system, and your inventory is soon clogged with useless one-shot items, but even the best of them – the timing-based parry/riposte system – is only useful in the narrow case of fighting a human opponent one-on-one. The overwhelming problem of any incoming damage sending the player into long hit recovery animations makes any group fight a crapshoot, and monster attacks are totally unblockable to start with. Dodging is practically impossible with no quick-dodge button and the hero’s agonizingly slow acceleration from standing to sprinting.

The hero’s vast ineptitude for the first dozen or so hours of gameplay is baffling. The simplest acts require leveling up and spending a relative fortune on training. Lockpicking, for example, remains well out of reach for hours. Garden-variety enemies counterattack you to death over and over before you have the opportunity to learn the skill yourself. One entire branch of abilities – voodoo magic, which to be honest is largely useless anyway – is effectively locked off until the third island at the earliest. Crocodiles still murder you with ease even after a fair bit of leveling up, but being outclassed by the lowest recruit or warthog for large portions of the adventure is just sad.

The solid role-playing portion of the game is the only thing saving Risen 2 from an even worse fate. More genuine choice in quest outcomes and richer interactions between characters would have been welcome, but the strong dialogue, gorgeous world, and occasional innovative or unusual mission are enough to carry the day. Working a chain of bribes, lies, and intimidation to create an opportunity to rob a disgustingly wealthy rum baron is great…until you inevitably get in another fight a few minutes later and the frustration starts all over again.

Interacting with the world is minimal at best. Sneaking is hardly used, which is for the best since it appears to be nothing more than staying out of the perfect 180-degree field of vision of guards with no regard to shadow, sound, or obfuscation. Crafting is a shallow money sink barely a step beyond just buying the items from vendors. Books scattered across the islands tell intricate stories about the supposed resting places of legendary items…which turn out to be sitting in merchants’ inventories with absurd price tags.

Seeing the promise that occasionally shines through Risen 2’s many flaws is disheartening. Collecting crewmembers could have been great, if they were any more than occasional quest objectives and distractions in combat. The animations for parries and counterattacks are wonderful in the five percent of fights where you get to take advantage of them. The world itself is stunningly beautiful at times, but content players are able to interact with meaningfully is thin on the ground. As much as I wanted to love it, Risen 2 ends up as another entry in the long list of games with a great premise, a few interesting ideas, and an unforgivable anchor dragging the whole thing down.

Risen 2: Dark Waters Features A Giant Kraken

Jim Reilly — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:11:00 GMT

Risen 2: Dark Waters isn't hiding that fact that one of the game's biggest enemies is a legendary sea monster.

A new cinematic trailer shows off some of the game's story elements as well as many of the enemies you'll be facing. Risen 2: Dark Waters is out on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 May 22 and on PC April 27.

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Piranha Bytes Talks Risen 2 In New Dev Diary

Jeff Cork — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:34:00 GMT

The original Risen was a fun but flawed RPG set in the fairly generic isle of Faranga. While the game played up a larger conflict between bandits and the Inquisition, one of the more memorable story threads involved pirates. For the sequel, Piranha Bytes is taking that pirate theme and running with it.

In part one of their making-of series, the development team explains why they decided to focus on pirates, and how this decision affected world creation and the overall story. There's also a look at some of the tools that are being used, including a new terrain engine. Check it out below.

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Look for Risen 2: Dark Waters on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC next year.

Console Port Is Looking Promising

Adam Biessener — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 22:58:00 GMT

Having recently seen hardcore German RPG Risen 2 running on Xbox 360, I am hopeful that playing it on console won't be a pale shadow of the PC experience as it too often is for PC-first European developers.

Risen 2 has two important things going for it on console that the first Risen didn't have: A game design that works well with gamepad control, and a publisher willing to put the necessary money into a day-one console version developed alongside the PC edition.

The graphical quality of the build I saw running on an Xbox 360 dev unit is more than acceptable for a modern RPG. I don't expect anyone to compare it to Mass Effect any time soon, but the rich foliage and detailed environments should be pleasant enough to adventure through.

The developer demonstrating the game insisted that the team will be able to keep the framerate between 25 and 30 frames per second on 360 and PS3 with the level of fidelity that I saw running (which was closer to 15 FPS in the demo). Unlike fighting and racing games, RPGs can absolutely get away with 30 frames per second without annoying players.

I'm a big fan of Risen, and I've got high hopes for Risen 2's pirate-themed open-ended adventure. If Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes deliver on their promises for the console ports, I'll be happy to see a wider audience get to know the series – even if I'll still be playing it on PC where I can turn all the graphical bells and whistles on instead of the "most" that Piranha Bytes expects to enable on console, thank you very much.

(Note: To the best of my knowledge, the screens provided by Deep Silver for use here are from the PC version. The console version looks nice, but not quite that nice.)

Risen 2 Trailer Convinces Me That A Pirate RPG Could Work

Phil Kollar — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 02:00:00 GMT

I never had a chance to check out 2009's Risen, a fantasy RPG from the same people who created the Gothic series, but I was always curious. However, I'm much more curious about Risen 2, the sequel which is embracing a pirate theme. Why's that? Take a look for yourself.

Publisher Deep Silver hooked me up with the trailer below, which was created from fully in-game footage for Risen 2's Gamescom showing next week. I'll tell you one thing: This trailer is immediately more interesting than any of the trailers I saw for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. If developer Piranha Bytes can successfully meld solid RPG mechanics with pirate-y tasks such as sailing the seas, shooting cannons at rivals, and drinking a lot, Risen 2 could be something special indeed.

Watch the trailer for yourself below. If you want more info, you can check out the newly-launched Risen 2 website or watch for our impressions from Gamescom next week.

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New Risen Screens Feature Bizarre Baddies

Meagan Marie — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 23:40:00 GMT

In addition to new Dead Island coverage, Deep Silver released a handful of screens for Risen 2 today. Highlights include some of the bizarre baddies you'll be taking on in the game, concept art, and comparison shots of the day/night cycle.

Check out the gallery of images below.