Risen 2: Dark Waters

Seriously, this game sucks. Tedious combat, maddening camera, little magic and not even close to being the open world that Gothic 1 and 2 were.

First Risen has bad combat control, but not terrible. Risen 2 has very terrible combat control, PC hero turns back in combat and shoot opposite way, other time he turn his side to enemy instead go round. Game has awesome vibe, one the bests, and I love it so much, It's one of my favorite, but does it matter if game where main thing is fighting and It sucks in it?

but it doesnt even start

Risen 2 was able to bring some freshness in the Risen formula. The pirate theme sounds strange at first, but it is greatly implemented and creates fantastic atmosphere to the game. There are more islands to explore with different people and quests. Exploration is fun as ever and the side quests are better than in the first game. The game is more linear than Risen 1 but in comparison the devs delivered a decent story with some good moments (which they failed with Risen 1 and ultimately with Risen 3). After the patches the fighting system became better than it was, still not so good. This can be the mayor complaint against the game, but who plays an rpg for the fighting? In most of the cases it is good enough to support the other gameplay elements which are entertaining. I enjoyed this game more than I thought, and more than Risen 1 and Risen 3. For me this is the best of the series. If you want to play a challenging and enjoyable rpg grab this. Maybe not for the full price, but it's a good bargain on a sale.

After playing Risen 1, the sequel is just ridiculous. You know how the Order used to fight with staffs and magic? Well, now they use no magic at all and suddenly they all fight with sabers, pistols and bayonets. You're basically looking at British East India Company and the game offers zero explanation how that happened. The whole fighting system is gone - now combat is a fencing match, although you can also shoot your opponent in the face with a pistol. For some reason no one's bothered when you challenge a commander to a duel and then just proceed to run around and repeatedly shoot him in the face when he's chasing you with his fencing epee. Oh, and the main character is the same guy from the first part, but now he suddenly doesn't know how to fight, because he was drinking for last couple of months. The guy recently defeated a Titan, but now some weird sand rats of a size of his shoe are a challenge. Together with losing his combat abilities he also, for some reason, doesn't know how to open locks, sneak, or use magic. The latter doesn't really matter though, since no one uses magic anymore. Remember how the Order consisted of mages and warriors? Well, now they all just use epees and bayonets. The immersion is impossible - there's no way to believe that this is the same world as in Risen 1. So it's a pirate game, for reasons unknown proclaimed a sequel to Risen. It could still be good if you try really hard to forget that it's supposed to be tied to the previous story. Except it's not. The combat, apart from being completely different than Risen 2, is just terrible. Did I mention that you can't move backwards? If you're fighting an opponent and want to take a step back, you need to literally turn your whole body around. The game is full of bugs and they start to seriously interfere with gameplay after 15 minutes from the beginning. I didn't expect much, but I was still massively let down and I would recommend this game to absolutely no one.