Risen 2 - Review | One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 

I have to say I really love these long-form very in-depth reviews. This game could be summed up in 2 words... missed opportunity... The first Risen game was created during a chaotic period in PB's history. Following the Gothic 3 debacle and the subsequent separation from the publisher (Jowood), Piranha Bytes found themselves in an undesirable situation with an uncertain future. Amidst this uncertainty, Piranha Bytes set out to create a less ambitious, "on budget", but all around complete game to prove not only to the newly found publisher (Deep Silver), but also to themselves, that they could still get their act together. As admitted by the creative director, Mike Hoge, their main goal with Risen was just to create a game "in a set amount of time, with a set budget". This resulted in Risen 1 being somewhat a modest title, that mainly tried to play on the strengths of the previous games, which PB knew they could safely rely on. Risen 2 marked the first time since Gothic 3 that Piranha Bytes had the opportunity to try out something new and tackle a bit more ambitious project. What is really disappointing is that they essentially decided to throw away their tried-and-tested formula, instead of improving what worked and reworking what didn't. Innovation was definitely needed (as the original Risen proved), however, not in the sense of replacing every system in the game with a new... but a generally inferior one. The video's title "one step forward, two steps back" seems very fitting in this case. What makes it even more tragic is that Risen 2 didn't have to turn out that way. Reading the personal blog of one of the developers, Ralf Marczinczik, it turns out that Kai Rosenkranz actually wrote a whole design document for Risen 2 shortly before leaving the studio. This document is described as being very ambitious but sadly unrealized. It's hard to determine what this version of Risen 2 would look like, but given Rosenkranz was one of the people who gave Gothic its soul, it's hard to imagine that his idea would be any worse than what we got in the end. I am really looking forward to the review of Risen 3 (assuming it's coming). I was also wondering if you would ever consider taking a look or analyzing some of the other PB's projects that didn't come to fruition. For example, the cancelled Gothic 1 add-on with the working title "Gothic: Sequel", which I find to be a continuation of Gothic 1's ambition, that is no longer present in Gothic 2. Or maybe a general look at the original design concept of Gothic 1, which was initially supposed to be a 5 person coop multiplayer game (sounds crazy right? :D ) with partially destructible environments, a thumbs up/thumbs down dialogue system and a heavy reliance on the uniquely designed AI of each monster. All of this was formulaically different from the final product and I'd love to hear your opinion about those design concepts. There is an endless supply of links and resources on the web about the original design of Gothic 1 and other PB games, that I can supply :) .

I've never understood why PB decided to deviate from the Gothic formula so much after Risen 1. Maybe they were bored with medieval fantasy games but that doesn't explain the bad rpg elements. Risen 2 feels like it was made by a different studio.

Thank you, TNR! Loving these PB games reviews.

I genuinely don't understand the decision to throw away everything Risen 1 established and still pretend that this is a sequel. It was either meddling from Deep Silver to make a pirate game or PB didn't know what they were doing.

Thank you for the in-depth review. Strangely, I don't remember this game very well but I do remember having a positive impression of it. You're right about it being a poor man's Mass Effect or KOTOR. That's what I thought at the time too. But it did have some good parts. Exploring the islands was interesting and the stories were engaging enough. That said, Risen 1 was WAY more in-line with the traditional Gothic 1 and 2 approaches, which made it the best out of the Risen trilogy in my opinion. Risen 2 was good too in some ways but it departed too much from the beloved formula, like you said.

I think Kai Rosenkranz would feel honored, if he knew that the word Rosenkranz-esk now exists. It's about time it does.

Baltram's Unofficial Patch allows you to grab Blood of Ancestors from Osaru even after learning about Garcia's ruse on your own thus allowing you to choose between engaging Garcia in village and in Fire Temple

I just completed Risen 1 and actually loved it, even with the late game crawl in the story pacing, I still found the gameplay loop and sense of adventure compelling. It really felt like a more in depth Fable in terms of world structure and combat style. I started this one right after and was flabbergasted; it doesn’t feel like the same developer, much less series. The combat is seriously some if the wurst I’ve ever tangled with in a game; it’s painful because I don’t hate the setting or world even if it feels out of step with the first, but my God, the combat. It actually deters me from wanting to explore the islands at times, a total 180 from Risen 1. I’m going to try to get through this and get to the third, but if Risen 3 isn’t an improvement I’ll probably drop the series.

Man, I love your videos! The best Piranha Bytes content out there. Thank you for all your work. Waiting for Elex 2 and your content on the subject.

My most anticipated RPG of 2022 is ELEX 2. I love Piranha Bytes. 🔥

For me the risen series was a mess from the start, with every entry having at least one important pyranha bytes element missing and making every game feel clunky and unfinished. Risen 1 had the Gothic 2 formula, but was missing any of the interesting lore and story of the gothic series and Risen 2 tried to do something with the lore, world and story but failed in the gameplay aspects. Would really like to see your opinion on Risen 3. Cheers and keep up the good work :D

Amazing review! Thorough, fair, entertaining. Can’t believe how small of a creator you are, the quality is good enough for major channel!

Risen 2 is a textbook example of learning the wrong lessons. the devs basically took the pirate quest from the original and made the whole game centered around that theme. in Risen 1 that quest stood out because it was different from other quests, not because OMG PIRATES ARE SO COOL. I was so I disappointed with Risen 2 that I couldn't even be bothered to finish it, dropping the game around the time when you wintess an "epic" 5 on 5 battle between the soldiers and the natives.

Love this channel, thank you for this video. To me, it seems that this game was a casualty of the time it came out in two or maybe three ways. The first and most obvious being, that it is a middle-market or 'AA' title. Secondly, it came out during the 'consulization' of video gaming, even the PC platform suffered during PS3/360 era. And lastly, a bit speculatively is that they wanted another success (eg. Gothic 1,2, and Risen) but during that era, the cinematic approach to storytelling reigned supreme as supposed to the more conventional storytelling of CRPGs.

Great review as always I didn't even have the patience to go past the starting zone of risen 2 but i did enjoy watching you review the whole game I did finish risen 3 so I hope you review that one too, one day

I never really played Risen 2, even though I enjoyed the first one a lot. I may have played it a few hours, but I forgot about those. As you said, it didn't feel like a Piranha Bytes game. Once again, you did an excellent job with your review! Keep up the good work.

I just got risen 3 and this video got uploaded

Great review, if you're still having trouble with getting into the town in Archolos, the guard you have to bribe is the nameless one standing next to Edgar at the west gate, try Talking to him and after something like 3 times youll have the option to bribe him

Love your videos. How you feel the games is 100% in sync with my own. Keep the good work. P.S. can we see a Chronicles of Myrthana Archolos review ( the true Gothic 3)

Amazing review like always. Absolute joy to watch!

Hey, TNR? Will you do a review of The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos?

I don't know if you thought about doing this before but I'd certainly watch you talk about greedfall for a hour

I agree. After playing Risen 1, I was hoping Risen 2 was going to be like Gothic 2 - improvement on all fronts - but it was like Gothic 3 - felt like different, worse game series

What i liked from Risen 2 from all stuff i seen of it(didnt get to play it yet, will try out tho) Is how nice those drawnstyle graphics look. A bit alike to Gothic 1-2 or some of the stylized drawn games we seen in 2000s, its something much more pleasant to look at than Elex.

1:52 PB confirmed on world of elex in german that the reason for the islands was for selling DLCs (and the idea came from the publisher).

Just like you, I was so hyped for this game and thought it would act like Gothic 2 to Gothic 1. Not only did it utterly disappoint, during a cutscene, my whole PC turned itself off and the graphic card was broken afterwards :(

It's probably the only game that has lightning storms so straneous on the eyes. They made this strong flickering effect plus the lightning storms are really frequent here.

Awesome review with great little details and very good observations. Thanks! Tried it a while ago on cd, didn't like it as well. Then for some reason bought this thing with something like 90% discount. Looks like it doesn't warrant any time investment.

Have you already tried Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos? A real treat for an original Gothic fans :D

I love channels like this. I learn about so many games/studios I never knew about

Thank you for this huge review. I am replaying risen 1 again. Its my second favourite pb game after gothic 2 mainly because of the soundtrack that is just the best

It really feels like this channel makes videos on exclusively my favorite games, and I love it.

Awesome review, I'm currently playing thr game and actually enjoying it, I hope we get a risen 3 review too :P

Great review, will you do a lengthy review for Risen 3 too?

You spent so much time. Thank u.

I won t lie i got into gothic in 2010 and i didn t even knew about the risen serise until risen 3 but i had a positive impression on risen 2

I loved Risen but I was actually delighted by how different Risen 2 was. It was just such a fun swashbuckling adventure with far more memorable characters than the first game. All in all I had a great time with Risen 2 but I honestly didn't even really get the connection to the first game at all on my first playthrough so that was something the game handled very poorly (for example I didn't even realize you were playing as the same character in both games until many years later lol). So yeah, I like this game a lot even though I admit it is pretty flawed. Risen 3 on the other hand... here's hoping you will review that as well in time.

Thanks! Looking forward for your Risen 3 playthrough

I forced myself to play Risen 2 for the first time last year and I was just shocked. I liked Risen 1 for the most part (despite the boring late game), but Risen 2 is the worst aspects of Gothic 3 combined with some generic pirate RPG. Really changed my perspective on PB, I was favorable towards Elex because I liked the studio, but while Elex is an improvement over Risen 2, it's objectively not very good either. Looking forward to your Elex 2 review. And thank you for producing such great content, you deserve a lot more views.

finally managed to watch all the gameplay, now i finished the review xD amazing work

subscribed. Great old school vibes from you!!!

1.5 years ago i played and finished whole gothic and risen franchises back to back and risen 2 was an okay game, i am quite flexible to new things and introductions in games and i do not really tether myself to some specific thing that i like in previous installment and demand it in their successors. I noticed that once game builds up loyal fan base it is extremely difficult for devs to do anything new without getting mixed reactions at best. I definitely think that risen 2 is far from amazing rpg but its worth a shot if you can get it for cheap and havent played it yet. Moreover i think if you are fan of rpg games, getting and playing risen trilogy is still worth it especially if you can get them super cheap like 5-10€ each. I played risen 1 with keyboard and mouse and risen 2,3 with a controller if you can find whole trilogy for ~15€ in total and like rpg games its a no brainer imo. I would rate risen 2 high 6 and low 7 out of 10, lets say 6.5/10 :)

Risen 2 is the only Pirahna Bytes game I haven't beaten (not counting Gothic 3 which I've played a ton of but have never properly beaten, much like Skyrim). Not only is it an unwelcome departure from Risen 1, a game I enjoyed a lot, I found its entire system, especially the combat, to be pretty awful and unfun.

Thank you so much for another great video.

What an underrated channel!

i really love your reviews - and i think if we concocted all of them into one video, one might actually be able to create a great rpg in the likes of gothic - personally, i dream about creating a "better" gothic one day, but i know no programming, no game design, no graphics design, nothing to actually pull it off. so maybe all i have to do is win the lottery and create my own studio. :D seriously though, i think risen 1 and 2 and also elex and elex 2 stand example for what piranha bytes internal struggle is. most of the developers behind G and G2 left piranha bytes one way or the other, restaffing the team with younger members who like games like mass effect, fallout, skyrim and so on and try to incorporate ideas from those games into their own games (there is more than one quest in elex copy-pasted over from fallout, not to mention the whole follower-system-nonsense and multiple endings with an over-abundance of GAME CHANGING choices). PB in its core is not the studio it used to be and therefore will never be able to recreate something with the feeling of gothic. that being said, i have faith in small indie developers (as in concerned ape revolutionizing the Harvest Moon IP, slavic magic about the resolutionize the settlement construcion game genre with manor lords...) that are free of their publishers and therefore dont have to listen to the publishers downright stupid ideas (like cutting the game up into dlcs). maybe one day we will finally get another good real time action rpg, but for the next 10 years the lookout is bleak.

Thanks for the review - that was a good one. One of two PB games I didn´t touch. I got the feeling PB after Risen 1 is only about paying the bill. Their era seems to be over.

I love these detailed reviews and I appreciate you putting this together even though you didn't really enjoy the game. I for one liked the change from the part Gothic, part something else style from Risen 1 to the all out pirate theme from Risen 2. It made the setting more interesting and set it aside from being just an inferior Gothic clone to a series that had its own thing going. The change felt abrupt however, that cannot be denied. I also don't remember the combat system as being as tedious as shown in this video. Maybe I was just resistant to frustrating gameplay back then, but kicking over Crabs, throwing sand in you opponents eyes and shooting a pistol point blank was something that I felt was cool and unlocking the different maneuvers felt like a good progression (I used swords and pistols only for the entire game). The caribic flair of the Islands was something that really drew me in and the improvements to npc models compared to the clone wars from Risen 1 was also a very welcome change. To me, Risen 2 was a great pirate adventure, that definitely had a lot of flaws but I liked it much much more than Risen 1, which really disappointed me with its never ending dungeons and its setting that couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It is probably a very controversial opinion but Risen 2 was the best part of the trilogy for me. Might have something to do with nostalgia value though. I haven't played it in a long time.

👉👉 As far as I can remember, only he himself can fight Mara - the crew doesn't have the powers and this special weapon for that. Or am I wrong? As for the Risen parts themselves, I found all of them to be well worth the money and I enjoyed them more or less. The pirate setting annoyed me though, I'm not such a pirate fan. What was also a bit lukewarm was the story of all Risen parts and also the ones from the Elex games - that's one of the biggest weaknesses of PB - since Gothic 2 they don't even come close to making it to develop good stories also the interpersonal ties to the crew i.e. NPCs etc. are almost completely missing. The PB games could be worlds better if they finally got someone on the team who can write good stories and quests. The games have more and more of a kindergarten level - apart from the insults and the rough tone. What would PB games be unbeatably good if you would reach such a depth with the story as in Mass Effect or Dagon Age.

Finally another video from you!

Good review.

Loved this breakdown, can't wait for Risen 3

Just started to play the game recently. Can't wayt to watch the review! ^_^

i saw mediocre reviews, skipped it. after years i thought to try it out and i had a BLAST. yeah, the combat is worse than risen 1, but the humor, the exploration, the atmosphere and setting were top notch. i love this game.

Awesome Review. Seriously.

I couldn't take this game seriously from the get go because the pirate theme is too cheesy and was never part of Gothic, it seems like they just wanted to draw from the Pirates of the Caribbean trend. You could see first tendencies in Risen 1, but by in large Risen 1 was true to the occult medieval Gothic soul. Btw I really enjoy your reviews, top quality narration style and you go into much more of a depth than most other gaming reviews out there, criminally underrated channel imo. I can't help but feel that with your review skills this channel should blow up if you covered some more recent games, but then I really appreciate the passion of someone making reviews of the franchises he or she likes without focusing too much on viewer counts.

I always found it interesting that Ursegor was the only Titan Lord that didn't want to control the world unlike Mara (Risen 2's titan lord of waters ) or Nekroloth (Risen 3's Titan Lord of death). I still don't really understand what Ursegor's motives to fight for humanity was even tho he was a prisonier for so many years.

Yeees, thank you!! :)

I actually really like this game. It isn't perfect, but i enjoyed it. It's not better than Risen 1 but it's MUCH better than Gothic 3. Not the best PB game, but not the worst.

Just playing the first risen, I intend to try all of PB's rpgs. Tried Gothic before and it was quite good, very different from what I had been used to, but I unfortunately didn't finish the main storyline, the pacing near the end was just horrible. :D It took me some time to force myself to try it, because I played gothic 3 many years ago and it was just too big and the fact that your character couldn't ride a horse or something made it a lot worse, however other than the fact that even on a pretty strong machine for such a game it had some difficulties to actually run smoothly, I enjoyed it thoroughly, although I also couldn't finish it, didn't really care about the main story. :D

ok, you convinced me. i subscribed. your channel is cool

What's the name of the very last track you used (starting at 1:27:05)? Is it from the score?

"Copper would be a bad material to be used for swords" While it is worse than steel...they had a LOT of copper blades everywhere in the world

Pretty late to comment on this video, but might as well do it: Piranha Bytes hasn't been the same studio that made Gothic 1,2 and Risen 1 for nearly a decade now. I don't count Gothic 3 on account of them releasing it in a severely unfinished state, and I'm not entirely convinced it was 100% JoWood's fault. Ever since they had a mass exodus during Gothic 3 and after finishing Risen 1's development, especially after Risen 1, they've become a Skinwalker studio. By Skinwalker studio i mean that it's now a group of people, or talent, that doesn't possess the skills, opinions or interactions between members to make games that come even close to the quality or charm of the aforementioned games; in effect wearing the skin of the studio but not the essence. The tremendous decline in quality in Risen 2 and 3 is the most obvious example. I'm still surprised they haven't declared bankruptcy after those two disastrous games. Elex is a game that came closest to catching the charm and point of the old guard's games, but still missed the mark on several points. I haven't played Elex 2 yet on account of not having a good enough rig to play it (poor pay and ludicrous PC part prices tend to do that), but it seems they've once again dropped the ball given by your recent comments and comments by other players. The only thing that makes me very sad is that we never got a good Gothic 3, and therefore a good conclusion to the Gothic storyline before PB suffered tremendous brain drain. Brb gonna play Gothic 2 again for the 25th time. And try not to cry and then cry...cry a lot.

Thanks for the video, very interesting as always. Have you played kingdom Come: Deliverence? I'd like to know what you think abaut it. :)

Honestly, I'm a huge fan of Gothic (especially the second one), but Risen didn't really rezonate with me. It felt too sluggish, the world felt empty and somehow too big and claustrophobic at the same time. I'm not sure how much of that was due to the curse of the late 2000s gaming (bloom and grey-brown-green filters over the image). The characters felt bland and uninspired. The combat, while reminiscent of Gothic, also felt sluggish, as if the characters were fighting in slow-motion. I prefer not to compare Risen 2 and 3 to other PB games, but I enjoyed the writing, characters and environments much more than Risen.

Another top notch review, man. Risen 3 next?

I actually like the game. It's different than the classical fantasy action adventure rpg. Those are a dime a dozen out there. I like the setting. I like the characters. I like the story. I like most of the quests. I like that you have to make choices that change your gameplay. I like that you actually have to think about what attribute to upgrade and what skill to get, as EXP or Glory in this case is limited, which I like and don't like at the same time. It is a reason to limit respawns of enemies or have no respawns at all, but exactly.that makes the world emptier and, at a certain point, boring. The companion AI is abyssmal. The difficulty stays consistantly high in the first 3/4 of the game and gets laughable easy on the final stretch. I had more trouble with Sunken Ones than with Mara. I also dislike the combat system that, even with the so called combat skills, is nothing more than button smashing. And I dislike the disparety between skills in terms of usefullness. And finally, I dislike the weather patterns. The thunderstorms last for days, even after I slept, and you can see next to nothing. Definitely no game for people with chance of epileptic seizures. I understand that many people think the game is trash. Still, I like it more than Risen 1, which is mostly a very generic action-adventure rpg with classical fantasy elements.

Nice. I tried to play this game like twice and dropped.. The jank was too much.

Joining the fraction in the Gothic or in Risen 1 or 3 rewards witht specific armor that is the also uniform....

I love all gothic and risen. Best for me 😎 best ever!

You should do video about Chronicles of Myrtana

My bigest problem with Risen 2 and 3 are the maps. They show you exactly were there's a cave or a place to climb. There's no incentive to go exploring.

I'm another one of those saddened, early adopters. After some fan patches a few years later, I found it less frustrating. Still not my favorite

Have you heard of the Chronicles of Myrtana mod?

You should definitely check The Chronicles Of Myrtana mod for Gothic 2 NoR. It's free on Steam. It feels like a new old Gothic game.

I found out too early that Corrientes was Garcia, which ruined my first attempt at Risen 2. I couldn't beat him at the hut, although I did everything there was to be done.

Just passed the game today. Risen 2, as is the case with all PB rpgs, has a very interesting and inviting world which compulsively makes you wanting to explore it and you're being rewarded for it. And as always, their combat system spoils all of that. Risen 2 has a very big problem regarding combat, especially with monsters as you cannot parry them or dodge and there are no shields to block either like in the first game. Moreover, every time the creature hits you (and it hits you A LOT), it staggers you breaking your attack and since the monsters attacking animations are so insanely fast and repetitive, you're often being stuck in an endless "stunlock" loop and just hope that the monster will randomly break it's attacking sequence so you can strike back or get away. Keeping at least dodge mechanic was a must in this game or at least making enemy animations a bit slower and more intuitive. Combat with humans is a bit better although it suffers from the similar problem enemy attacks being too random, fast and confusing requiring a milliseconds reaction making them very hard to read properly and parry let alone do a riposte. All in all, Risen 2 is average, first game was superior.

I never played Risen 2. It was like Gothic 3 to me. Saw it, watched others play it for a bit, got the rough overview of the story and that's it. Never felt the slightest desire to play it. I was then tricked into playing Risen 3 after all the trailers seemed good and was severely disappointed again. After that came Elex, which I'm not interested in either. I'll stick to playing Gothic 1+2 every once in a while.

Love this game, but having a half working y button really made me avoid jaguars on the second island lol

I cannot explain it. I see all the flaws. I can understand the critics. Risen 2 is not underrated as many other PB Games (like Elex or Risen1). Risen 2 ist just not a good game. But i LOVE this game. I have finished it multiple times and i just love it. Its the worst PB game by all means. But i just love it.

For me you're the authority on everything related to Piranha Bytes. Listened to every video a dozend times while playing and even put them on to sleep.

I enjoyed the soundtrack too. Risen 2 had the best soundtrack since 2012, because Risen 3, Elex and Elex II were not good enough!

I think I gave up playing Risen 2 just after being ship wrecked and landing on the Gnome island. The whole game was a ship wreck to me. I just wanted it to end quickly and couldn't force myself to play another side adventure for the main quest to progress.

Man been i pb fan ever since gothic 1 and now so many years after their best game gothic 2 notr came out i just realise slowly that their early success was just lightning in a bottle that they can't or have no intention to recapture. I still play every new game they release but i don't go in with the expectation of grandure anymore and i have to say i enjoyed them way more that way. It just isn't fair to expect them to make the game everyone wants from them, they just make what they want and either u buy it or not but we need to keep in mind that even tough the first two games are held in high regards by rpg lovers these games were never huge successe money wise especially outside of europe so from that aspect there is no reason for them to stick to a formula that only ever had niche apeal to begin with.

I'm a "very" silent lurker... I have watched almost all of your PB reviews. Your discriminate reviews on these games echo my own. You have mastered the storytelling and acknowledgment of every PB game made. The video commentary and editing alone... I feel would make the original developers tear at the eye. (Please check out TNR's blog as well) Syrup aside, I can't help but wish you were shadow-hired by PB (now THQ Nordic). It takes someone like you to really highlight what made these games amazing for consumers. I could go on about your skill in dissection but let me put this out there: "Those who were captured by Gothic (1&2)..." "Those who thought Risen 1 was a (somewhat) return to Gothic..." "Those who thought ELEX 1 was different but a return to standard PB elements..." All we can do is hope your review on ELEX 1 (and the new ELEX 2 gameplay) is well received. Not to mention the stellar breakdown on the Gothic 1 remake (now shuttered by THQ). I feel like if we (as consumers) had a kickstarter or place to fund original PB developers, we would. Thank you for your exhaustive time/effort on these reviews. I think I speak for many fans when we appreciate your ability to speak to our core feelings on why we love PB games.

I had no clue crafting costs were this bad compared to just buying the thing. Wow...

Just an update and fyi here's some more previews of Elex 2. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jyb1xi20n5Q.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gUTdrfUhXQM.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CEDoAjZ45jc.html

Risen 2 would be a much better game and dare I say an amazing game if... 1) They had kept the combat from the first game (have swash buckling animations for pirate weapons like scimitars and conventional medieval fighting for other melee weapons) 2) instead of railroading you into joining the pirates, the pirates, the inquisition and the natives could all be optional factions that you could join. 3) Chests should have loot that actually makes sense. Too many times you stumble into random chests in the middle of nowhere that have 10 gold and 1 provisions, it makes no sense. 4) Make it so that you can fail intimidation and persuasion checks. 5) Why the fuck can you not swim in a game with a pirate setting? Add back swimming which Risen 1 didn't have either (for some reason) and also keep the free form climbing that Gothic 1&2 and Risen 1 had rather then limited climbing in the Risen 2 that we got. 6) The story would obviously need a re-write to accommodate these changes and the combat from Risen 1 although great may need to be tweaked a little bit to work with the glory system. 7) They should have kept crystal magic from the first game and reworked it into one of the factions (maybe inquisition as an optional path). Do all of these and the pirate setting would actually enhance the game setting from the first game setting apart Risen 2 as it's own setting away from Gothic while also not limiting the player's role playing potential of forcing them to be a pirate. It would still keep the standard 3 faction system from all of Piranha Bytes previous games If Risen 2 Dark Waters did all of those things then Risen 2 would have been Risen's Gothic 2 equivalent, but unfortunately Risen 2 was a mediocre game. There was so much potential to be had in a renaissance pirate/Victorian period themed role playing game and they squandered every last potential from it.

Let's go

I loved it. Played back on ps3.

I've just downloaded both of these games because of you. Has anybody got any tips? There seems to be alot of fighting just to get from A to B I've just started risen cleared out a wolf den and now a farmer has walked me on my way and with no direction. There are enemies everywhere, every 10 yards 😱

$50 for air! They at least had to thow in a poster and a large paperback map! You could buy a used PC for $50 ten years ago.

While the game is not bad, I wonder how much money has influenced this design decision to make a pirate game, with a console camera, much different than the simplicity of the first Risen. How much profitable was Risen 2 compared to the first Risen. Also, I think money is also the reason why they made Elex and they keep making Elex 2. I doubt they stopped liking medieval RPGs and they suddenly considered that they like the new genre. I think there was an interview with the main team member, the bald guy, who said that games like the first Risen will not sell these days.

👌

I loved Risen 1, went into 2 with high expectations and got disappointed. A year or so later I tried it again, enjoyed it a bit more for what it was, but voodoo really was disappointing. You think "nice, crowd control spells will really help me in these tough fights", then you see they take 2 years to cast and sometimes even bug out (as pointed out in the video). I enjoyed the overall plot except for the ending which was a bit meh. Now I'm playing Risen 3, which improves I'm a lot of things, but most quests are like MMO ones, uninteresting ones that can be finished in 5 minutes. Oh well, maybe it'll improve later...

Aye, Tortuga!

I really love your PB reviews! but I have to say, I really love risen 2. Its a unique experience and it does have some of the classic PB feelings in it. However your critisism is certainly fair

when i heard that risen 2 would be pirate theme my first thought was they just wanted to spring onto that pirates of the carribean hype-train that was going

I couldn t even finish it while Risen 1 I couldn t stop playing it till the end.