This game is horrible and clunky and full of uncanny valley moments, but it just has oodles of charm. I love having to work my way up to becoming a pirate, needing to learn even the most basic skills (such as kicking). Creative, fun, and with memorable characters. A flawed gem.
My favourite risen game. Story is fun. Pirate theme is really well crafted, progression feels rewarding though combat sucks, lot of witty and well written dialogue.
Nice story, but a downgrade from the first installment.
In some aspects, this is an improvement over the first game, but as is usual with PB, it's one step forward and two steps back.
Let's address the first glaring difference - the game looks NOTHING like the first one. I know that PB sold/lost license of Gothic to JoWood around the time Risen was being developed, and this is why Risen looks so similar, thematically, to Gothic 3, but R2 is their first truly separately-made game, and they decided to ditch absolutely everything that made Risen likeable - no more bows, no more magic, no more medieval fantasy setting with a slight sprinkle of pirates. This is now a purely pirate-themed Caribbean adventure with rapiers, cutlasses and firearms. This doesn't even make sense lore-wise, let alone the fact that it looks like a generic pirate setting.
The premise of the main story is hardly understandable, and the game attempts to glue together crumbling memories of the previous game by including characters such as Steelbeard and Patty (among a few others). Sadly, none of the characters, except from Jaffar (which is both amusing and fun) are interesting. I honestly fail to understand what they were going for when they wrote Patty because she is made to be kind of a main companion (possibly even a friend/love interest) but ends up constantly criticizing you in dialogues, to the point where I wished I could just leave her on some island instead of bringing along this ungrateful, moronic wannabe pirate.
The story itself is, surprisingly, much better than R1. Although the entirety of the game revolves around the collection of a set of artefacts, it is no longer involving long delves into lizard dungeons (hate them) or zig-zagging for hours across the same island. Each artifact "story branch" is essentially its own story chapter, and develops in an interesting way. There were certainly at least one or two good twists of the story, and interesting story beats that broke the mundane structure of the general story arc. Overall, a big improvement over the first game.
Very sadly, just as with the first game, R2 is simply incapable of resolving the storyline into anything interesting. A mundane, tedious boss battle and a quick chat afterwards is all you're gonna get. Boring.
Combat is none the better - there are some small improvements as both you and the enemies are fasters, and it certainly isn't as sluggish as before, but the same core mistakes carry over. The game still registers several clicks in advance, so if you double click to attack, the PC will execute two attacks no matter how obviously the enemy telegraphs their attack right after the first hit. You simply have no chance at either dodging or blocking. Similarly, the dodge is even less useful - whereas in R1 you were sure to escape attacks by dodging, here the damage is almost guaranteed. What's the point of dodging anyway...
The environment is somewhat better - quite varied, interesting locations, but rather small, and since it is split up into several islands instead of only one island, it feels smaller overall.
Let's address the first glaring difference - the game looks NOTHING like the first one. I know that PB sold/lost license of Gothic to JoWood around the time Risen was being developed, and this is why Risen looks so similar, thematically, to Gothic 3, but R2 is their first truly separately-made game, and they decided to ditch absolutely everything that made Risen likeable - no more bows, no more magic, no more medieval fantasy setting with a slight sprinkle of pirates. This is now a purely pirate-themed Caribbean adventure with rapiers, cutlasses and firearms. This doesn't even make sense lore-wise, let alone the fact that it looks like a generic pirate setting.
The premise of the main story is hardly understandable, and the game attempts to glue together crumbling memories of the previous game by including characters such as Steelbeard and Patty (among a few others). Sadly, none of the characters, except from Jaffar (which is both amusing and fun) are interesting. I honestly fail to understand what they were going for when they wrote Patty because she is made to be kind of a main companion (possibly even a friend/love interest) but ends up constantly criticizing you in dialogues, to the point where I wished I could just leave her on some island instead of bringing along this ungrateful, moronic wannabe pirate.
The story itself is, surprisingly, much better than R1. Although the entirety of the game revolves around the collection of a set of artefacts, it is no longer involving long delves into lizard dungeons (hate them) or zig-zagging for hours across the same island. Each artifact "story branch" is essentially its own story chapter, and develops in an interesting way. There were certainly at least one or two good twists of the story, and interesting story beats that broke the mundane structure of the general story arc. Overall, a big improvement over the first game.
Very sadly, just as with the first game, R2 is simply incapable of resolving the storyline into anything interesting. A mundane, tedious boss battle and a quick chat afterwards is all you're gonna get. Boring.
Combat is none the better - there are some small improvements as both you and the enemies are fasters, and it certainly isn't as sluggish as before, but the same core mistakes carry over. The game still registers several clicks in advance, so if you double click to attack, the PC will execute two attacks no matter how obviously the enemy telegraphs their attack right after the first hit. You simply have no chance at either dodging or blocking. Similarly, the dodge is even less useful - whereas in R1 you were sure to escape attacks by dodging, here the damage is almost guaranteed. What's the point of dodging anyway...
The environment is somewhat better - quite varied, interesting locations, but rather small, and since it is split up into several islands instead of only one island, it feels smaller overall.
Imagínate tener los cojones de terminarte esta mierda. Es un RPG que al parecer ya era malo en PC con un port a consola peor aún. Creo que ni en su época era un juego decente. Aún sigo preguntándome cómo coño esta saga tuvo 3 juegos.
A lot of people seem to have a a fairly negative opinion of this game, especially in comparison to other games in the series. Personally, it's one of my favorite games ever made, which makes that a bit jarring to me.
The combat is admittedly poor, but i enjoy the ideas in it, from the sneak attacks mid conversation, the sand attacks, luring enemies into each other, figuring out surroundings... You'll get bored if you just want a regular fight, but if you're crafty it becomes a lot more enjoyable.
I consider the thieving and sneaking mechanics to also be a very enjoyable puzzle to work out. Treasure hunting feels exciting and the limited resources as things don't respawn in game adds a need to specialize, which in turn favors replayability and makes valuable things feel valuable.
While the writing is a mixed bag, i do consider there to be some very witty portions of it, and I enjoy the protagonist not only being kind of an awful person, but also wrong frequently, it's refreshing to feel like my main character really is just a pirate and not a hero. I also enjoy the supporting cast, again some more than others, and again most of them aren't good people, but they strike a good balance for the most part I find. Interestingly, a lot of 2 characters come back in 3, and I dislike a lot that was done with them there.
The environment is something I'm biased towards, I love Caribbean style settings and I think this game really manages to create a good one, exploring Antigua, the Sword Coast or Caldera is always a lot of fun for me. The soundtrack is also really, really good.
There's a lot of variance in your choices and it feels like you can really change the game you play with how you approach things, down to even unlocking new mini games based on approach, and I do think the Risen 2 mini games are all pretty fun.
Overall, I can very much understand why someone might not like this game, but most of its "flaws" were welcome improvements for me after not being particularly sold on the first Risen, and I genuinely enjoy myself every time I play this game.
The combat is admittedly poor, but i enjoy the ideas in it, from the sneak attacks mid conversation, the sand attacks, luring enemies into each other, figuring out surroundings... You'll get bored if you just want a regular fight, but if you're crafty it becomes a lot more enjoyable.
I consider the thieving and sneaking mechanics to also be a very enjoyable puzzle to work out. Treasure hunting feels exciting and the limited resources as things don't respawn in game adds a need to specialize, which in turn favors replayability and makes valuable things feel valuable.
While the writing is a mixed bag, i do consider there to be some very witty portions of it, and I enjoy the protagonist not only being kind of an awful person, but also wrong frequently, it's refreshing to feel like my main character really is just a pirate and not a hero. I also enjoy the supporting cast, again some more than others, and again most of them aren't good people, but they strike a good balance for the most part I find. Interestingly, a lot of 2 characters come back in 3, and I dislike a lot that was done with them there.
The environment is something I'm biased towards, I love Caribbean style settings and I think this game really manages to create a good one, exploring Antigua, the Sword Coast or Caldera is always a lot of fun for me. The soundtrack is also really, really good.
There's a lot of variance in your choices and it feels like you can really change the game you play with how you approach things, down to even unlocking new mini games based on approach, and I do think the Risen 2 mini games are all pretty fun.
Overall, I can very much understand why someone might not like this game, but most of its "flaws" were welcome improvements for me after not being particularly sold on the first Risen, and I genuinely enjoy myself every time I play this game.
Risen 2 could be a pretty decent game. Sadly, it suffers from the horrible combat and to big step into the pirate/colonial theme. This plays shortly after the first game, where the island felt like something between the British Isles and southern France, but now everything is super-carribean for some reason.
The worst of the trilogy. It didn't have a lot of personality and Risen 3 implemented the pirate aspect way better.
The combat is awful as always. I still enjoyed it most of the time, but I don't plan to play it ever again
40/100
The combat is awful as always. I still enjoyed it most of the time, but I don't plan to play it ever again
40/100
Queria gostar muito mais dele, mas ele trai muito a construção de mundo do primeiro jogo e de certa maneira a própria filosofia de design da Piranha Bytes. É um jogo Piranha Bytes querendo ser Bethesda. Não é de todo ruim, mas muito decepcionante em perspectiva.
The game got a lot of hate back then and pretty much everyone thought that Risen 1 was much better. I thought the first one was better too, but this game also had its qualities. The pirate atmosphere came across very well and I thought some of the systems like the treasure hunt and the island system were actually quite cool. Unfortunately, the battle system was quite a step backwards and very monotonous and the story was also rather boring. Music was still pretty good but all in all I understand why the game wasn't liked that much.
It has an intolerably horrible combat system. That's the first thing you need to know before playing this game, everything else becomes a chore, overshadowed by the mediocrity of the combat. Combat also It wasn't good in the first game, but somehow you can at least overcome it or get used to it as you continue. The irrelevant change of theme in the story in the sequel compared to the first game has taken away all the interestingness of Risen. In conclusion, there is really no reason to play this game.
From a passable rpg to a horrible pirate game… wtf were the devs on. One of the weirdest detours I’ve seen… ever.
was wandering around the island when I stopped playing.
Honestly I think this game is pretty decent and I wish I just could make a neutral review but unfortunately Steam only has 2 options for reviews. Risen 2 is a decent game and a really big step away from what Pihranna Bytes intended first for Risen series the games. The game is pretty much a downgrade from the previous title mainly in game mechanics, combat and skill system the story is actually pretty good and I even liked it more than the one from Risen 1. And also there is a factor that this game crashed on me like 300 times (not an exaguration) and also really buggy. Graphicaly this game is pretty decent looking and also a step forward from the previous games. Quests are hit or miss alot of them are fetch quest but also alot of them are really enjoyable side stories also I really like the companion system in this game and every companion here too.
This game feels really halfish and there are alot of good stuff in here but the bad stuff kinda overshadow this game honestly I dont think I would play this game again.
This game feels really halfish and there are alot of good stuff in here but the bad stuff kinda overshadow this game honestly I dont think I would play this game again.
I regret that this was once a guilty pleasure of mine long ago.