Risen 2: Dark Waters Review

Posted By Johnny Maloney about 1 year ago

Risen 2: Dark Waters Review

Sing it with me now: Rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum rum! Congratulations! You’ve now more or less re-enacted every line of dialogue in Risen 2: Dark Waters!

Risen did not fare too well when it came to the console some two years past, but still manages some degree of admiration among PC players. It stands to reason that its sequel has something at stake, attempting to prove to console players that Piranha Bytes can properly flesh out an RPG and bring it to controller-wielders the world around, but since a delay to late July was announced, you’ll have to put up with a PC review by me instead.

I didn’t have a chance to play the original Risen, and must admit that I was thrown into a severely unfriendly situation, not having any idea where I was, what I was doing there, why the city I was in was beset upon from all sides by lava, or even what the main character’s name was. It turns out that I wasn’t supposed to know what his name was, but after some quick reading everything else started to make sense. The world in Risen 2: Dark Waters is under the siege of Titans, old gods struggling for supremacy over each other and the seemingly insignificant machinations of man. This, understandably, makes daily life fairly difficult for humanity, as one can barely fill up a kiddie pool with butterscotch pudding and wrestle with your newly shaved dog in it without tripping over an angry titan that wants to wipe you from the face of the earth.

Weather today calls for light precipitation, but mostly lava. Lots & lots of lava.

The Nameless Hero (as I am informed, he is informally named) has spent several years in the service of the inquisition: a group of soldiers serving as the last bastion of human civilization on the continent of Faranga. Spending that time growing the perfect maintenance free five o’clock shadow, and drinking as much rum as his manly hands/indestructible stomach will allow him, The Nameless Hero is rustled from his seemingly cushy job (and bed incidentally) by the sudden arrival of Patty, daughter of the famous pirate Cap’n Steelbeard and the news that he may well have a weapon capable of slaying a horrible Kraken that assails all ships crossing the seas under the orders of its master and Titan God: Mara.

Instructed to find that macguffin/weapon by way of infiltrating Steelbeard’s band of grog swilling, rum smelling, unwashed ruffians by the head of the inquisition, we set out on a rollicking journey of pirates, monsters, voodoo, swordplay, and sailing – except the sailing, there’s actually none of that here outside of a few cutscenes.

Ready for sailing? Rigging? Seasickness? Go find it elsewhere!

At a glance, the game looks fantastic. Its foliage, water, and especially lighting and shadow effects really turn the eye. Its lush environments do well to create a sense of foreign jungles, inhospitable humidity, and that unpleasant damp sensation you get under leather clothes when confronted by both simultaneously. The sad truth though is that all these graphics look best when taken in stills. The character animations (which frequently reuse faces) are stiff and wretched, with Patty particularly taking the cake for some of the most unnatural motions I’ve ever seen a female conduct in a modern game. Likewise, groups of leaves on the foliage will physically shrink or grow according to your distance from it. Presumably this is there to keep the illusion of fullness with less complicated polygons or textures from afar, but it becomes gruesomely noticeable thanks to the lighting effects I was so pleased to see. Traipsing through the jungle only to see the plant shadows distort and bend in ways that should be physically impossible becomes distracting, and quite a task to look past it.

Looking past it to the gameplay tends not to give much out in the way of combat initially, sadly. At the start of the game, it’s a mainly one button affair. With no dodge or means of avoiding damage available, the first leg of the game is reduced to simply jamming down on your attack button, trying to do more damage to your opponent before he does to you. During the course of the game more combat options open to you, such as a kick to unbalance opponents, pistols, voodoo magic (which focuses mainly on cursing and mind control), dirty tricks (such as throwing salt in your opponents eyes, or knocking them out with a coconut), and even third person shooter style muskets. These options make the game much more interesting, but the rate at which Risen 2 releases them to you feels far too slow, denying you the cooler options until you cut your teeth on that one button combat for too long a time.

Risen 2: Dark Waters Video Review - ZGR

By ZGRDaniel

With the mixed reviews that Risen received in 2009 and 2010, do the changes Piranha Bytes have made to the sequel hold enough to merit the purchase of Risen 2? Daniel lets you know - Risen 2 Review!

Risen 2: Dark Waters Review

By Johnny Maloney

Have you ever TRIED to fit fifteen men on a dead man's chest? It's ridiculous. It's almost as ridiculous as writing about games for the education and amusement of others... wait. I mean it's not ridiculous at all. Here, read this review of Risen 2 by Johnny.

Sage Reviews: Risen 2

By Bennett The Sage

A terrible port of a below average RPG. What could go wrong?