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.