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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
was wandering around the island when I stopped playing.
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.
From a passable rpg to a horrible pirate game… wtf were the devs on. One of the weirdest detours I’ve seen… ever.