Risen 2: Dark Waters

jrst super

First off, it's a glitchy mess. I've had numerous random CTDs, getting stuck in doorways and scenery, falling through the floor, grapical glitches, audio glitches, the healer companion being rendered entirely useless due to the fact she simply doesn't heal and one damn near gamebreaker where completing Maracay quests in the 'wrong' order screws up the main island arc, forcing a nigh impossible fight to continue the plot. Second big issue is the combat. 1 on 1 fencing can be alright after you get a hang of it and even somewhat fun if still clunky and flawed after your character picks up a few skills. But fighting critters and any combat against multiple opponents is the worst experience I can ever recall having in a game, in part due to the inherent clunkiness, but much more because of the horrendous soft target lock having a useless mind of its own and also because for some nonsensical reason they decided to put jump, combat roll and kick all on the same goddamned keybind! If you can get past that and a few smaller issues (such as it being a pirate game with no ship battles, not being much of a looker, console UI, goddamned quicktime events that kill), there's a lot to like - the voice acting is good to great, the characters are fun, the story is alright, dialogues and writing in general are better than PB's later offerings and the character progression system is not only the best in a PB game, it's best in class.

A bit of a disclaimer: I don't have any treasured memories of old school Piranha Bytes games. I couldn't get Gothic 1 to run. I had to quit Gothic 2 after about 10 minutes because it made me dizzy for some reason. I figured out a great way to cheese Risen's combat pretty early in the game. So I never experienced the masochistic power trip of going from a c** receptacle to a demi-god over the period of several days. I did experience quite intense frustration with Risen's combat before I realized the AI of wild life could be exploited and broken and the AI of humanoids could be cheezed. I also found the characters in Risen to be delightfully natural... for the most part. I am looking at you, Mendoza! Risen 2 continues the trend of hanging out with likable characters in situations both mundane and fantastic. The difference is, the frustrating combat is gone. So how does Risen 2's combat work at its best? Let me give an example. I got myself into a situation where I might have to fight a whole village. Instead of pulling and fighting the whole village like I read online, like I might have done in Risen, I used my voodoo to create a rumble. I was barely involved. Using less than a dozen sword slashes and one bomb, every one of my targets laid dead, and I did not raise my sword to a villager a single time. Oh, yeah, I never stepped away from the immediate area of fighting, and without dodging or blocking, I was not hit a single time. That is the power of Risen 2. I hear a lot of talk of "immersion." Something about hardship or crafting or turning a spit without actually cooking anything. That's very different from the immersive sims I read about. Risen 2 at least lets you remove enemies with more than just a choice of killing them with sword or magic. Very briefly. The graphics are pretty. The music delightful if a bit repetitive. However, I experienced some crashes. And some dialogue sounded like they were misplaced. The game is not perfect. It is a lot of fun.

I enjoyed Risen 1 and 3 but in the seversl years I have owned Risen 2 I have yet to get it to load. Updates and fixes not withstanding.

good old stuff :) if you like gothic, this is for you