I loved this game, and I kind of feel bad that the first 3 top reviews for this game are negative. It is not an amazing game, and to begin with the Gothic games were never regarded as really good games anyway, but it is surely a game worth checking out. I have great memories with Gothic 1 and 2, and while i did not enjoy Gothic 3, Arcania (even though someone else developed it) or the first Risen, Risen 2 is in my opinion a game worth playing and finishing and the best Piranha Bytes made so far.
So starting with the good bits, the story is quite good. It is memorable and so is the world and the quests. There are some exceptional characters with an amazing personality (Jaffar, Bones). It's supposed to be the kind of game where you want to explore every corner of the map, open every chest, kill every mob and do every quest to get the highest amount of exp and gold to become overpowered. And this is why it is the best 'Gothic' game, because it does a very good job at that.
And the bad bit: the combat is simplistic, and the boss fights not that epic. The factions are not as good as the first games. The talent tree is not perfectly optimised but there are unique 'piratey' items in the game that sort of help that later in the game. Some abilities are pointless and require a lot investment to get them and muskets are just too strong. And while you are a pirate captain and hunt down other pirates and have your own crew, plus the drinking and shooting mini-games and treasure to find, it just doesn't feel like you are a pirate. Oh yeah and main flaw, achievements stop counting if you exit the game.
So if you want a relaxing 'piratey' game, with lots of conversations, zones to explore and loot to find I think it does a pretty good job at that.

One of the worst RPGs I ever had the displeasure of playing. Let me break down my favourites just for the fun of it...

- Clunky Controls : The guy moves like a friggin tank and everything feels so horribly sluggish, especially paired with those stiff as wood animations.

- Terrible Combat : Click click click click click click click..Oh wait, there's actualy counter parries, dodge rolls and..nvm click click click click click click..Also, enemies can break your attack animation by simply hitting you with whatever they fancy. You, however, can not do the same to them, which is especially fun when you often have to fight 2 or 3 things at once.

- Tedious Quests : This game even makes you pay your hard earned..and I mean HARD EARNED gold to move on in some quests. Nothing more RPG than having a silvertongue skill of 60 to make a ♥♥♥♥♥ drop her price from 1000 to 500 gold..well invested skills points, sir...Or you get the usual "collect this and that through laborious and unfun work from all corners of the island".

- Level Up System : You do not level up, you just acquire fame which you then have to spend in 5 categories. Then you also get to pay gold to learn new "abilites" like thieving or lockpicking, for which you often require a certain level in the aforementioned categories. Lockpicking, for example, needs you to have spent around 20000 fame to even be able to learn it on a very basic level. Doing a quest usually gives you 50-100 fame as does killing an enemy..you do the maths. This ties into..

- Exploration Denied : Imagine beating some tough monsters, by letting your comrade do all the work just to reach a chest. Oh no, it requires a xx in lockpicking skill. Access denied, unless you already assembled 20000 fame somehow and the gold to upgrade your skill and the clothing to add some bonus to your skills. In the end you won't even bother to explore anymore, because you will usually lack the skills to reap the rewards. But if you do not lack them, then this ties into..

- Worst Loot EVER : Fancy finding new weapons ? New armor ? A cool hat ? Magic Boots ? Haha, no...All the good items you will get (all those..less than 15 pieces of clothing available in the whole game), will require you to buy them from merchants.. There is absolutely nothing to find equipment-wise, except for a few broken sword pieces which you can smith together (requires you to have spent fame and gold and what not again though to learn smithing in the first place, so..basically not for free either). You won't find any clothes ever, in fact most chest rewards will be absolutely laughable like..I don't know...finding 10 gold in a chest or maybe..MAYBE 50..Usually it's just a major waste of time and effort.

- Fighting the Kraken and the final boss : Ok, mostly the Kraken..who designed that and why ? Seriously..

All in all this game is a major step down from Risen 1, which already wasn't the best game in the world, but still better than this..product.

PROS
+interesting story
+fun characters
+open world

CONS
+seriously poor combat

Similar to other Piranha Bytes games suggest playing another Piranha Bytes game or demo to get a feel if you will enjoy the game

7/10 - Much worse game than Risen 1, combat is for no reason worse and the whole game feel less polished, like almost low-budget title. The pirate theme is new and somehow welcomed change, Patty is funny and story isnt bad either. Shame the Gothic feel from Risen 1 definitely died with this game.

Despite a poor combat system, Risen 2 has a good atmosphere and great characters, enhanced by fun dialogue and a nice storyline.

This game pulled me right in and I couldn't stop playing it. Very few games have done this to the degree that this one did. I found it intense, a blast to play, and so much atmosphere. I give this game a 10 our of 10, and I am getting ready to play it again before I play Risen 3. I totally recommend this game. I am 62 years old and have been gaming on the pc since the commodore 64 days, and this is one of the best role playing games I have come across. Buy it! You will not be sorry!!

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a direct continuation to Risen, featuring the same nameless hero and some of his old companions, Patty and Steelbeard, but set in an entirely new ambientation. Risen 2 parts from the sword and shield medieval fighting world of Faranga to a musket, pistol, cannon and sabers fighting modern age.

Risen 2 is set in the age of the conquistadors, where a kind of sabre-fighting and musket-shooting Spanish fleet is invading new lands inhabited by spear-throwing and voodoo-casters natives. You, a "good pirate", must fight the "bad pirates" for relics to fight the water titan lord, Mara, and for that, you need to choose to side with the inquisition, which will give you muskets, or the Natives, which will give you voodoo spells.

It is a story about the romantic and cliche view of pirates, With a lot of rum, eye patches, parrots, typical clothing and speaking, etc. Despite being a mediocre RPG, the story is captivating. If you see it on a sale, it is worth buying and giving a chance.

If you have played Risen before, you'll find better and worse aspects in comparison:

First, the battle system was crippled. It's a shame, since Risen battle system was very good. Even without training, one could battle stronger enemies given enough skill. Now, without training, you can't do anything but swing your sword around. You can't dodge anymore, the dodge was changed to a kind of roll, which is not only unrealistic (because you roll too far away) but serves only to flee, since you don't end up in a good position to counter attack.

Second, magic was removed from the game. It just didn't fit in the modern feel the developers wanted for the game. Instead, it was changed for voodoo, a kind of cursing spells used by the natives, that is almost useless for combat but adds interesting events in the game.

And third, for the good news, quests are less linear and more interesting.

This was an amazing game! As a huge fan of fantasy rpgs, this game had everything I could want and more. Risen 1 was a cool but hard game. This one was so much more smooth and very enjoyable. A tad on the simple side maybe, but oh my it was so much fun. I loved the drawback of pirates, natives, and conquistadors that gave the game such an exotic feel. The story is really good and the companions are very helpful and fun. This was a fantastic game that I highly reccomend. The dlcs aren't really worth it but they do add money and experience. If you love rpgs, pirates, or the amazing games of deep silver then I know you'll just love this booty of awesomeness!

Some of my friends call me silly because of this, but ever since I played Gothic, the first Piranha Bytes game I've ever played, I've been following the games the company has released and to this day, I have yet to find one that I don't like. Most of my friends tend to curse at the "difficult" gameplay and levelling up, but I say to them - "That's old-school for you." And I like it. Nowadays, I find some of the games a bit too easy to play, but the old-school ones make me think before I start slashing and hacking at enemies, because it can happen that a boar gets me from the back and I'm done.

Risen 2 reminds me of the Gothic series quite a but, but it shouldn't surprise me since it's made by the same company. I am in love with its graphics and the storyline is very interesting. I also quite like the character redesigns from the first Risen game and their development throughout the game. Take the main protagonist for example - at the beginning of the game he's a drunkard, right? And at the end of the game, he rises as a hero again.

The new enemies are quite interesting too - I've always wanted to play more pirate games, but I haven't found an interesting one as of yet, excluding Gothic II's Addon and Risen 2 - did you notice that both of the games that made pirates interesting are made by PB? :)

Anyway, I warmly recommend this game to everyone that doesn't get too frustrated with the "difficult" gameplay. As I said, that's old-school for ya.

For me I found the game difficult to get into. I found the acting limp, the story weak, and the gameplay tedious.

As I started to lose the will to live I decided it was time to quit playing.

But if you like Pirates, English accents and the like then this could be a good choice for you. Being English myself the accents were wasted on me. Being a pirate it just seemed like going to work.*

*May not be entirely accurate.

44%

~ Snowdog

Note: Copy-Paste from my review of Risen 1. You shouldn't play Risen 2 without having played Risen 1.

Personal rating: 8/10
Replayability: Medium
Budget: Worth it.
Lenght: A few days to a week.

Risen 2 specific notes: Risen 2, apart from what I have to say about the series in general below, has a slightly clumsy combat system, and feels like a partial attempt at making a Sid-Meyer's Pirates! inspired RPG, but remains a very good game.

I'm not sure what to think of Risen. The company behind Risen made Gothic, a series that I loved. Gothic has a tragic story, funding was cut from the expansion pack to the third installment, resulting in a buggy game that felt unfinished, and had the wrong voice-actors. The dreaded fourth installment that the orginal company wasn't even part of, killed the series, and I hear this is why they started Risen on the side.

While I was initially excited about Risen, I feel like Risen is some sort of attempt from the company's side to "win back" their original ideas for gothic. It feels like they're trying to make the same game, but different.

Still, Risen has a decent story, but Risen is a series, and the third installment just game out. I'll try not to judge Risen 1 on the sequels, but it's hard, because frankly Risen 2 feels like they retconned a lot of Risen 1 in an attempt to reboot their franchise as a sort of "pirate age" age game, even though it clearly felt like a high-fantasy gothic medieval game in the first installment.

Separately though, the games are quite good, it's just a bit of a snag to get over how poorly they connect, despite several characters making appearances in both games.

In many ways, Risen perfectly embodies the spirit of Gothic and does provide some not-seen-before elements. Where in Gothic, you felt like you were the nameless master-mind behind a gang of anti-heroes who follow you out of some misguided sense of loyalty (honor among thieves, I guess) rather than true friendship, always facing challenges in a hostile world as you go about, in Risen you feel like people actually have a more "human" relationship towards you. Sure, you're still a nameless guy but apart from a select few individuals, you're truly alone this time, but your friendships in the game are based on actual frienship, meaning the character actually has some relationships with people.

Risen in no way beats or threatens the legacy of the 3 real gothic games, but if you liked gothic, you NEED to play Risen too.

Fun fact: Many fans believe that unofficially, Risen is set several years in the future of the original gothic trilogy. Read more on this theory on the internet.

I hunted down some escaped slaves froma sugar plantation and cut their heads off. I thought that maybe the game would give me a less colonial racist way to handle the savages, however they all attacked me so I pretty much had to kill them.

Anyway, this is not Risen. Risen was a lot of fun and really hard, this is entirely different, but still hard. Your magic is gone, now there's voodoo. Risen had some pirates, but it wasn't a pirate game. Risen 2 is a pirate game and I just can't get into it. Maybe it is partially my fault for jumping right into 2 after beating Risen 1, but that shouldn't excuse how bad this game is. You play the same guy from Risen 1, but come on, this game isn't fooling anyone. Badass sword/magic wielding guy is now a drunken one eyed pirate due to the end of Risen 1? No. This feels like they had a game in mind and just let it piggyback on Risen.

Go play Risen. It was so good that I had to look into the Gothic games.

The controls can get frustrating at times but more often then not you don't even notice. Not for casuals who want everything handed to them; you actually have to manage your gold instead of being able to buy out every store you come across and when you get new equipment it actually means something instead of a constant stream of over powered disposable weapons. It is a good old school game with a great story and a decent sense of humor The gnome you can get on your crew is hilarious . The combat system was dumbed down from the original but what do you expect when they make a game with consoles in mind. Over all give this game a chance and you wont regret it.

The story is fine, although I didn't play the first one. It was sometimes frustrating because it was slow at loading and had to save too many times while fighting, and also the game ran slow on my computer. But the gameplay was good, the story wasn't exactly short and upgrading skills took time. But after the final fight, you can't do anything, so if you missed some missions you have to load your last savefile before going to the Water Temple . But it's overall a nice game. 7/10

Background

I played Risen when it was released back in 2009 and had a great time with it. The game was very rough around the edges, and combat at the beginning of the game was absolutely brutal. But, the game shone brightly with its immense draw distances, enjoyable dialog, and rewarding exploration. Risen 2: Dark Waters maintains all of these characteristics.

Story and Setting

This is a pirate-themed RPG. Expect pirate things. I've seen several complaints that Risen 2's take on buccaneering is "generic," such as in Kevin Van Ord's review for Gamespot. This is an absurd criticism. A pirate-theme needs certain aspects, such as excessive cursing, buried treasure, tavern wenches, and unnecessarily agressive swashbucklers. Risen 2 does all of these things, and I think it does them fairly well.

The story rarely references the Unnamed Hero's previous adventure in Risen, though the grandstoryline of warring Titans continues. The main villian is a female Titan named Mara. The storytelling failed big time here, in my opinion. Mara is seen only three times during the game. Characters constantly talk about how terrible she is, but little is done to make the player feel Mara's impact.

Characters and Voice Acting

I think the voice acting in Risen 2 is consistently excellent. The pirates sound really harsh and gruff. There is one voice actor who did both pirate and Inquisition voices who I absolutely love. I can't recall him voicing any major characters, unfortuantely. Commandant Sebastiano's actor is amazing. He speaks with sophistication and vigor. I recognized his highly distinctive voice on some random NPCs.

There are many, many characters to speak with in Risen 2. I enjoyed the dialog in this game very much.

Combat

Combat in this game is pretty bad, overall. It is extremely bad for the first 10 hours, as you have very few moves. Enemies hit extremely hard and have a lot of health. The first Risen game was like this too, though by midgame it evened out, and in the late game you became an unstoppable god. I had the same experience with Risen 2. At least in this game there are companions to help with combat. They can tank enemies very effectively, so don't be ashamed to let them do so. Cheesing fights with terrain exploits shouldn't shame you either. The fights are THAT difficult. If you stick with it, by end game you will be able to destroy entire taverns full of drunk and angry pirates.

I played the voodoo path rather than the musket path, since it seemed far more interesting that firing a gun. Voodoo has some very good stuff going for it, such as scepters to make enemies fight eachother, tremor in fear, or summon a permanent ghost companion. Even so, it seems underdeveloped. The Ritual (potions) talent was completely useless to me, other than creating improved permanent stat-booster elixirs.

Graphics

I had the pleasure of playing Risen 2 both in 2560x1440 and 1080p stereoscopic 3D. The game runs very well with 3D Vision after disabling water reflections and shadows. The lush jungles were an absolute treat in 3D, where each tree and each leaf helps to give the sense of a rich 3D world. The draw distance is unlimited... there is no fogging whatsoever.

But, the graphics have many technical issues. Level of detail changes cause trees to "grow" and the ground/rocks to change shape as you move through areas. Textures are consistenly low resolution. When a canned execution animation plays, the Unnamed Hero's neck distorts horrifically. Animations are poor across the board, really.

I have seen absolutely ridiculous criticisms of the Risen series as having poor graphics that don't improve across installments. Risen 2 is a major improvement over Risen 1, and Risen 3: Titan Lords obviously looks better than Dark Waters. The graphics are definitely flawed, but the engine pushes DirectX 9 to its limits.

Conclusion

I had a great time with Risen 2. I play video games less and less as the years go on, and Risen 2 was the first in a while to hook me into very long play sessions. I will definitely be picking up Risen 3, but I just spent 43 hours in Risen 2, so I'll take a break before diving in.

I recommend the Risen series to people who can appreciate a hardcore RPG experience. There is a lot of "jankiness" in Risen games, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. There's a charm to NPCs that instantly repeat their lines before finishing if you spam-click them.

I actually enjoyed this game. Not boring at all. Game play was good as was the story line, voice acting and animation. Kudos to the Developers.

Bottoms up, Captain!

Oh lads, how I enjoyed this game. Robbing graves, fighting monsters and drinking rum is what you would expect from this game and it's what you get and I can't miss to mention digging treasures!

The world is divided into Lost realm and New World. Lost realm is where Titans fight each other in order to rule the world as the strongest power in the universe. You are starting the game in Caldera , mankind's last bastion on the Lost realm, and you arre given the most important quest - to save the world by killing one of the Titans, a sea monster known as Mara. It's not an easy task and you will have to do everything you can imagine for that, even be publicly expelled from the Inquision an organization protecting the manking. Your first step is to get an anciant artefact, a magical Spear, it's told to be the only weapon able to kill Mara. Rumor says pirate Captain Steelbeard has found it and you have to become a pirate to find him!

Gameplay and story are really exciting, but fight system is not so good and better to not mension boss fight which are more boring than interesting. Still game offers almost 30 hours of amazing gameplay.

6.5 /10

I love these games and can't wait for Risen 3 to come out. If your a Gothic fan then this is the game for you, hours of play, lots of quests and great charaters.

makes for a good RPG really enjoyed it and would suggest to everyone

A grand adventure.