Incline Risen 2 is awesome

[PorkyThePaladin]

Much as I hate to agree with Darth Roxor on anything, playing further into Risen 2 soured me on the game. I mean one thing that has always been the hallmark of PB games is the open world structure. They were never as big or as geographically open as Bethesda worlds, but you opened up the map, and it was some kind of a circular island or whatever, and you could go places. Buying the map of the first island in Risen 2 is jarring, because like 75% of it is impassable mountains, and the only areas you can access are a twisting snakelike corridor in between them. That's really not what PB games are about.

And the combat is so messed up too. Monsters do not have tells for when they attack, and hit you from 5 feet away, so you pretty much have to guess when to roll. Human combat looks like it had great potential with a cool parry/riposte system, but the details are kinda messed up, as if no one tested it, making it not work the way it should.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah the second half is terrible and ruins the game. There's fun to be had in the first half though, with neat atmosphere and more open islands. It just runs out of steam halfway through and turns into a bunch of linear shite.

Still need to try 3, been sitting in my backlog forever now.

 

[Dodo1610]

I hate it, the game was casual console Gothic without depth or fun instead it had shitty mini-games and QTEs. The only redeeming things were the 17-century pirate setting since it was at least something new and the voodoo magic quests.
There are few games I hate as much as this one, I finished it despite hating almost everything about it constantly telling myself it would improve at some point. The worst thing about it was the end boss which could be killed in less than 15 seconds.
The game made a lot of German hardcore Gothic fans lose faith in PB that they could ever make something as great as the 2 Gothic games.

 

[adddeed]

Exaggerations again as usual. Just because a game starts open doesnt mean it has to stay open and doesnt mean it suddenly because bad. Thats the fault of your expectations.
Lots of games do it. In fact all of PB games do it, maybe except ELEX which you can even play after the end credits.
IF you want completely open world RPG then PB games aint that. Maybe educate yourself first before buying and then whining.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm on the fourth identical looking island with the same enemies and I'm starting to get bored. Does it get better?

 

[JDR13]

Is Risen 1 worth playing?
I played it for a couple hours a few years back and thought that the world and story were pretty uninteresting. I also remember getting single-player MMO vibes from it.

I can't imagine how anyone could get MMO vibes from Risen.

To answer your question though, my opinion would be yes, especially if you enjoyed PB's earlier games. The music and atmosphere are really good, and it has that typical PB style of exploration. It's the best of the Risen games.

 

[adddeed]

I'm on the fourth identical looking island with the same enemies and I'm starting to get bored. Does it get better?

Whats your complaint exactly? Islands are not idenital nor are enemies.
I can see why some people will not enjoy Risen 2 or any of the PB games. Maybe you're one of them. Just uninstall and play something else.

 

[DalekFlay]

Exaggerations again as usual. Just because a game starts open doesnt mean it has to stay open and doesnt mean it suddenly because bad. Thats the fault of your expectations.
Lots of games do it. In fact all of PB games do it, maybe except ELEX which you can even play after the end credits.
IF you want completely open world RPG then PB games aint that. Maybe educate yourself first before buying and then whining.

I expect non-linear games to be non-linear, yes. Weird I guess, but I'm a crazy motherfucker.

If PB designed and sold Risen as a Zelda style linear game with open world elements then I wouldn't complain about it. The problem is Risen was very much an open world RPG, and the first half(ish) of Risen 2 is an open world RPG, so when it crashes hard into linear islands in the second half it's a bit fucking deflating. That's not hard to understand, or at least it shouldn't be. Do I think the whole game is shite because of it? No, I enjoyed my time with it more or less and finished the game. However those "corridor islands" as they're called in the review really are a bummer in a game like Risen 2, and anyone being even vaguely objective can see that.

I don't know how Risen 3 is in this regard but I just downloaded it so we'll see.

 

[adddeed]

Do you forget that Risen and Gothic both have linear dungeon crawling at the end? I guess so.

 

[Raghar]

Do you forget that Risen and Gothic both have linear dungeon crawling at the end? I guess so.

I skipped last dungeon in Risen, and went directly to Risen 2.