70

Not perfect, but fun

Despite a poor combat system, Risen 2 has a good atmosphere and great characters, enhanced by fun dialogue and a nice storyline.

84

A better balanced Gothic

While the Risen series is not quite as rich and meaty as the original 2 Gothic games that they are obviously intended to be spiritual successors to, they remain deep and original RPGs that still have the same sort of feel.

Risen 2 has created an interesting new world to explore from the previous game and the new pirate theme is well implemented and highly enjoyable.

The difficulty level remains high but the mechanics feel better implemented in most cases and curve smoother. The notable exception to this is the Voodoo magics system which is better avoided as it adds little to the game and the alternative guns are simply better.

It's European sensibilities are in terms of difficulty and lack of handholding are tempered with well implemented systems and that are easy to use once you get the hang of them.

All in all while Risen 2 is not the deepest RPG or the most strategic it remains a creative, original and engaging game something that is too often lacking nowadays.

65

Boring combat kills it

This is one of those titles that you want to like so badly, but it just never quite gets good. It's a big open world RPG, with a distinct setting and a distinct visual style. Those are huge selling points for me. But even with those elements, a game still has to be enjoyable to play, and that's where Risen 2 stumbles.

The quest writing isn't particularly good, though this isn't necessarily a deal breaker. But it certainly does make it much less memorable. The plot as a whole is serviceable, but is, again, pretty forgettable.

Graphically, the game is very pretty. And that's probably the game's biggest strength. It feels like a world you want to be in. And it's not just that the graphics are good, the art is mostly very well done. I found myself wasting time looking at the ornate carvings on my ship and at other random details quite often.

Unfortunately, the characters just aren't impressive, both in terms of their personalities and animation. The characters are just off--all of them. They look odd, they move and gesture oddly, and their writing and voice acting are fairly dull throughout. You'll run into few characters worth remembering in this tale. And really the thing you're most likely to remember about them is their inappropriate and awkward gesturing. No one in the real world would ever carry on a conversation the way the characters in this game do. It's awkward and, frankly, terrible.

But what is the biggest problem is the combat. If the game had good combat, it'd make the rest of the games other flaws worth sitting through. But it's not good. It's certainly functional. But it is just uninspired and uninteresting. For most battles, you'll try and get the first strike in and then just button mash. Your character won't do anything interesting; he'll just swing the sword as long as you keep pressing the button, until the enemy is dead. There's not much depth or strategy to it. It's as vanilla and boring as combat can be.

I never ended up beating this one. But I keep it installed, because I just feel like I want to like this game. It's visually appealing enough and I like rpgs enough that I keep thinking I'll give it one more shot. I keep coming back for the unique art and style of the game, but always leave because I'm bored and I don't want to waste any more time on one of the most boring combat systems I've ever experienced. If a good sale comes around, this might be worth picking up, but only if combat and story are unimportant. Oh, and the leveling system is also pretty uninspired. It couldn't be more basic and uninteresting. It's a shame that they went through all of the trouble to make this vast and interesting world, but that they couldn't be bothered to make some unique and/or interesting game mechanics to make the user interested in playing through that world.

75

Not a real Gothic but fun.

This game made by the forefathers of Gothic is not what you actually expect from Piranha Bytes, but it still a decent RPG. The pirate setting is farther from Risen 1 than Risen 1 was from the Gothic games. I like it because the atmosphere created by the developers in their games is still a unique experience.

76

Fun pirate themed RPG

But also very, very linear. Don't expect the game to be as open world as it first seems, the story will railroad you. Combat is... decent I guess, it isn't overly amazing either way. Graphically it's competent although there are a lot of graphical glitches I've encountered.

Having said that it's an RPG with a pirate theme and that's pretty cool in my book. Buy this game with a voucher.

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