Risen 2: Dark Waters Previewed by a Bunch of Less Prestigious Websites
Risen 2: Dark Waters Previewed by a Bunch of Less Prestigious Websites
Preview - posted by Crooked Bee on Wed 29 February 2012, 18:37:24
Tags: Piranha Bytes; Risen 2: Dark WatersA bunch of new Risen 2 previews have surfaced for no apparent reason. You may even want to read them if you've got nothing better to do with your time.
RockPaperShotgun have put their hands into the Dark Waters - and got them eaten off by a spider!
It also broke their spacebar! Well, almost.
Meanwhile, IGN complain about the three most condemnable problems with an Xbox RPG - BAD textures, BAD lighting and BAD animation:
Nope, it's not Skyway, it's a "Stace Harman", and you can read his insights by clicking this link.
Gamereactor EU, fresh from "playing countless hours of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim", have found Risen 2 to be "a rude awakening":
The preview also informs us Piranha Bytes have "incorporated a bit of humour into the combat", and you can read it in full here.
Next, Atomicgamer haven't found the combat particularly appealing. It's clunky and leaves much to be desired, they dare say!
Sure, Risen 2 is a challenging game, but...
Who wouldn't agree with the last bit? Oh, and you can read the preview in full here.
Finally, Destructoid turn their attention to the game's writing and characters:
They also claim that "combat is similar to the original Assassin's Creed," and you can find out what the hell they mean by that if you just click here.
There are also other previews, but like I'm gonna bother reading them, hah!
RockPaperShotgun have put their hands into the Dark Waters - and got them eaten off by a spider!
There are some appealing touches from the off: you have to obtain maps of specific areas, as a pirate would be inclined to do, rather than having a magical mini-map to everywhere you visit. This makes up one of the early missions, and I suspect it will provide for later missions, too. I tried running off into the jungle immediately, of course, but got lost and then was eaten by a spider.
It also broke their spacebar! Well, almost.
What hasn’t been awkward, so far, at least, is the general gist of the combat. It’s quite actiony and lightweight, somewhere between what The Witcher 2 was doing and what Amalur does, but immediately playable. Swish your sword about and hit the enemy, without any need to lock into a specific baddy. As your skills improve, of course, so your capacity to kill dangerous monkeys increases. Your companion gets stuck in, too, although I am not sure if she actually does any damage. What I am also slightly mystified by at the moment is how I supposed to differentiate between particularly baddies being tougher than others. It’s been a bit trial and error. What’s also been trial and error are the game’s traps, which you get a quick time-event style spacebar-hammering chance to avoid, and these have so resulted in my wearing my surprised face, and an instant death for the nameless protagonist.
Meanwhile, IGN complain about the three most condemnable problems with an Xbox RPG - BAD textures, BAD lighting and BAD animation:
Multiple solutions to quests, pirate hi-jinks and voodoo mind control are amongst the reasons to be encouraged by Risen 2: Dark Waters. However, a lot of polish needs to be applied ahead of its April launch - otherwise players are going to have to look past an awful lot of muddy textures, poor lighting effects and choppy animation to see the fun underneath.
Nope, it's not Skyway, it's a "Stace Harman", and you can read his insights by clicking this link.
Gamereactor EU, fresh from "playing countless hours of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim", have found Risen 2 to be "a rude awakening":
The PR representative behind my shoulder advises me that there are traps in the area I'm currently exploring. Nuts to that! I carelessly wander on and a stick with spikes attached to it comes up out of the ground and whacks me over the back of my head. As it pops up I'm prompted to press the Y button on my Xbox 360 controller, but I wasn't able to gather my wits quickly enough and I die. Yes, that's right. No depletion of the health bar here, just harsh and instant death.
The preview also informs us Piranha Bytes have "incorporated a bit of humour into the combat", and you can read it in full here.
Next, Atomicgamer haven't found the combat particularly appealing. It's clunky and leaves much to be desired, they dare say!
The thing that I'm probably the most disappointed with in Risen 2 is its old-and-busted action, something that I doubt will be overhauled between now and the April release date. The developers have put together a wonderful-looking world that has all of the natural environments and organic, exploration-friendly terrain of Gothic 3 and combined it with a lighting and vegetation model that often rivals Crysis' visuals, but all of that effort sometimes feels a bit squandered once you get into the game's clunky and floaty swordfights. Sure, it's fun to use an off-hand pistol for quick and dirty strikes in mid-fight, but the blocking and counter-attack system leaves much to be desired.
Sure, Risen 2 is a challenging game, but...
...it always comes back to the awkward melee fights that I'm now convinced Piranha Bytes is doing on purpose (and, more importantly, doesn't seem to want to change). If they ever do decide to move their combat forwards, which I highly recommend, then I think they should be looking at From Software's efforts in Dark Souls as their inspiration for designing combat.
Who wouldn't agree with the last bit? Oh, and you can read the preview in full here.
Finally, Destructoid turn their attention to the game's writing and characters:
The story and writing aren't amazing, but they aren't terrible, either. It's competent enough to set a fun background for the gameplay and to motivate you to move forward. Your partner at the start of the game, Patty, is a stereotypical pirate lass with a red bandanna, tight pants, open shirt, a cutlass, and a ridiculous self awareness of being a strong woman. When she kills people, she constantly proclaims that "I might be a woman, but I can still kick your ass!"
Her entire existence is utterly over the top and ridiculous; the other characters aren't much better. You're surrounded by drunken pirates, soothsaying voodoo villagers, and pompous soldiers. While each character on their own might be cheesy, they somehow all come together to make an interesting world. It's just campy enough to make it enjoyable. I think it's actually the best way to make a pirate game -- I would feel disappointed if I wasn't called a scurvy dog by everyone that I met.
Her entire existence is utterly over the top and ridiculous; the other characters aren't much better. You're surrounded by drunken pirates, soothsaying voodoo villagers, and pompous soldiers. While each character on their own might be cheesy, they somehow all come together to make an interesting world. It's just campy enough to make it enjoyable. I think it's actually the best way to make a pirate game -- I would feel disappointed if I wasn't called a scurvy dog by everyone that I met.
They also claim that "combat is similar to the original Assassin's Creed," and you can find out what the hell they mean by that if you just click here.
There are also other previews, but like I'm gonna bother reading them, hah!
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