Risen 2: Dark Waters PC Review - PAGE 1

A few years ago, German developer Piranha Bytes completed work on Risen, a spiritual successor to the beloved and hardcore Gothic RPGs. It seemed to sell well enough, but for all the excellence it achieved, the game hasn't reached nearly the level of popularity of titles from bigger developers and publishers.

Pirate RPG goodness

A second chance comes with Risen 2: Dark Waters, which stays true to the mechanics and charm of the Gothic games and Risen, while putting the experience in the context of a pirate adventure, complete with ship sailing, treasure hunting, eye patches, parrots, thievery, and plenty more.

Pirates are nothing new to Piranha Bytes' universes, and experiencing it full scale feels very natural, partly because many tried and true RPG staples (looting, fashion, combat, travel), lend themselves well to what pirates are infamous for.

Story & world

So it is that the world's pirate captains set off a grand heist at the Water Temple, seeking to steal the greatest treasures. They succeeded, but at the price of waking Mara, an evil and mighty denizen. It doesn't take long before you're a captain yourself and working with the others, sailing 'round the world and obtaining various artefacts required to take down Mara and her creature minions.

The first 10 hours about are restricted to a couple of islands, but once you've reached Captain status and have your ship, the world really opens up, allowing you to visit one of six regions in any order, including the first two (good for grabbing all that loot with your newfound Thievery mastery, if you go that way). More open up along the way, too, so there's a huge amount of adventuring to be had.

Dialogue & voice acting

Both dialogue are voice acting are of extremely high caliber. Long time fans will recognize many familiar voices, which should help you feel right at home, and the characters themselves are often hysterical, like Jaffar the gnome who learned English through pirates and swears unnecessarily, or Jim, a dimwitted but funny pirate with a strong love for rum. Some conversations are thoroughly imaginative and extensive and serve as insightful starting points to entire cultures and universes in and of themselves, like the native voodoo tribe, a desolate island inhabited by gnomes, or pirate dens. Piranha Bytes have not slacked off here in the least, and as a result, rather than waiting for conversations to end so you can get on with your mission as in many RPGs, you'll find yourself delighting in what people have to say.

Gameplay & difficulty

Experience points are referred to as "Glory". Once you've accrued enough, you can spend it on attributes in five areas as you see fit: Blades (swords and such), Firearms (muskets, shotguns, and pistols), Toughness (damage resistance, booze making, etc.), Cunning (thievery, persuasion, etc.), and Voodoo (magic, crafting, etc.). I focused on Firearms and Cunning, equipping myself with a shotgun in my left hand and pistol in right, stealing and persuading my way to gobs of loot and quest success, which was rather enjoyable. The versatility definitely lends itself well to replayablility; already I'm thinking of a Voodoo only run, a Firearms/Blades run, and so on.

Combat is similarly rudimentary to other Piranha Bytes' games, which some will find pleasant, others just flat out bad. I'm in the former camp. In either case sword play seems to have been beefed up with plenty of animations and moves, so if that's your ticket, you'll likely have a good time.

On Normal difficulty, Risen 2 is a bit challenging overall and occasionally you'll get your ass kicked. However, almost no fights will be insurmountable with the right tactics and enough bottles of grog for healing. If you come from Gothic, you'll want to go the hard difficulty.

Oddly enough, perhaps the most difficult portion of the game is lockpicking, which never seems to be explained as much as it needs to be. Once you've acquired the skill and a pick, you've got to use it to tinker with each component of the lock, hitting them in a specific sequence. You're not given a clue as to how to determine that sequence, however, so you'll end up facerolling it and hoping for the best. This works for the less complex locks, but for those with about 10 components, it's nearly impossible, which proves frustrating when trying to nab that sweet, sweet treasure.

Graphics, art design

Built on a new and refined engine, Risen 2 is graphically stunning, with beautiful landscapes and visual effects around every corner. However, apart from a few impressive effects, it's mostly just different rather than superior to Risen. My guess is the engine was built to serve the art design rather than graphics, and it works pretty well for the intended purpose. As noted in my preview, I'm still not entirely keen on the new "papery" character art design. While unique and mostly well-done, something about it doesn't sit quite right, and I can't help feel Risen is more immersive as a result. Some will love it, of course, and while I'm not entirely a fan, it is appreciable regardless and does little to detract from the experience.

Music

The soundtrack is equally lovely and continues in the same vein as its predecessors, offering up a variety of songs ranging from gentle acoustic melodies for wandering the land or more pounding epic themes for charging into battle.

PC features & performance

The game is a PC title first and foremost, as expected and as indicated back in August. There are graphics options aplenty, customizable keys, very high quality textures and graphics, and a UI tailored to the mouse and keyboard. Steam lovers, meanwhile, will be pleased to know it utilizes Steamworks and all its features.

As previously noted, one of the scant few issues with Risen 2 is performance. While certainly playable, it's never as smooth in very common outdoor environments as in indoor, running at 40-50fps on a 2GB 6950 and X6 1055t at High settings (lowering them doesn't help). Stuttering, while not severe, is noticeable and takes you out of the experience some. With any luck this will be fixed post-release, but given it's been an issue for months now, I'm not too optimistic.

Final thoughts

With all of its elements combined, Risen 2 proves another solid effort by Piranha Bytes. Like its prequel, its greatest strength is just how endlessly engaging and fun it is to wander the countryside doing nothing in particular and happening upon treasure or foes or a new quest to embark on. The main quests are just as compelling, mind you, if not moreso. Whether you're in it for the pirate theme, the RPG mechanics or both, you'll be knee deep in adventure and booty and loving nearly every minute of it.

Risen 2 launches Friday, April 27 on PC, and in North America will be available digitally only. Console gamers should note the game is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3 July 31 following a second delay. At this stage it looks like separate developer Wizarbox is again running into trouble porting the game, so you may want to think about picking it up on PC instead of waiting, or at least wait for the verdict to come in on how it fares console-wise before committing.