"Light!" - like this the inhabitants of the world Aqua say "Hello!" I make it short: + fine soundtrack + superb dystopic underwater atmosphere + very well done game-mechanics + involving characters + interesting story and challenging quests + funny, dynamic dialogues in spite of not animated visual contacts Play & enjoy!
Even for those of you, who are not the biggest fans of turnbased strategy, this old masterpiece has a really astonishing atmosphere to enjoy! The different guilds are indeed different in ideology, which is perfectly illustrated by the leaders comments and speeches of some literary quality during the whole game. Due to the many options to choose from and the various factors to deal with in addition to the quite foreign, not friendly world its a remarkable experience.
Well, well, well...its a pity. This optical juwel could have been such a great space saga - stop. Did I say "saga"? Sorry. This game ist unfortunately so far away from beeing a saga how it could ever be. Because: It has nothing to tell. And where is nothing to tell, there most dont want to dwell. In fact there is litteraly no story, which simply leaves you alone with a feeling of lack of sense and kills any drive to reach new regions, find again and again the same stuff, jump...where again? The upgrade system looks good, but even there you feel like in a smartphone game, where you have to earn thousands of creadits to get something substantial. Also with the upgrade "encounters" there is much too less interaction. No allies, no identity of your own company, guild, nation, whatever. No Quests. No orders. Just looting and shooting. During the opening sequence you get two big questions, after that nothing of it is not mentioned anymore. You can play his game, if you just want to shoot at something moving in an idyllic space setting, but it probably wont catch you for long.
The Witcher series is cult - without any question. And the second part of the trilogy has some real goods like a complex and surprising story, a better combat system compared to part one and eye catching landscapes. Also interesting characters. Still, here comes a big But: Its in parts a very linear game, which gives you sometimes no choices. So you encounter several times beasts or dangerous characters by a kind of minigame, where you have to react or move in a strictly defined patern or on a predicted way. Its also not possible to travel back to areas, that you have completed due to the story line. Well. All together it remains a visually impressive and virtually narrated game (exept of the very Ending) ;(
Pros: Actually Risen 3 has a lot of strong points: Great caribbean atmosphere, funny charaters, a combat system, that allows differnt ways of fighting foes, three quite different "guilds" with unique abilities (eg a kind of monks with a short-distant-teleportation or a sort of aztecs with magical insectoid swarm and more). Also the storytelling is solid, not because of an outstanding innovative framestory, but because of the countless often funny characters and their mini-stories (a mage, that wants you, to look for rare tasty foods for him or a gnome as a member of your own crew, that continuousely steals money from you). Cons: Nasty on the other hand are the very cartoon-shaped big monsters. Some look like big colorful jump'n'run figures. ;( The magic-system is far too easy to handly, so you have no mana-might, but just a "cool-down-time" after each cast or blow. Thus you can just fire and fire and fire and fire... At normal difficulty this game indeed simply sucks, so here my advice: Play this game always at "HARD", only then you will have a good experience! And it can truly be one!
First of all: I appreciate very much, that in 2Worlds2 you can give your hero different appearences - including a certain change of his skin colour! So no Whitening in this game - wonderfull! :) The most interesting part of 2W2 is by all means the special magical learning and doing. It costs you some time of trying and (often funny) error, but in the end you have a sorcery consisting of a variety of possibilities, so that you are able to create own, personally arranged spells (e.g. a swarm of giant wasps). The close combat reveales also as a very well working one due to the sum of special moves you can skill and perform with each weapon. As a contra in 2W2 I mentioned however the dialogues. They are often not well balenced in loudness and more important: the subtitles sometimes just break up in the middle of the sentence. :( Overall 2W2 is still an entertaining, refreshingly open Open World Game with much freedom and many different, funny and sometimes ironic quests.
Wow! What a game! Once you have adepted to the unusual, but unique combat-system, you will find yourself in a superb, challenging and rich Narration, that is quite rare in RPGs. The visual appearance is great too - not because of the best engine or any extraordinary effects, but because of the lovingly detailed atmospheric surroundings underlined by a complex orchestral sound.
