Preview Risen 2 - Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

[Jason]

Tags: Piranha Bytes; Risen 2: Dark Waters

<p>There's a preview for <strong>Risen 2</strong> over at <a href="http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/risen-2-dark-waters/artikel/risen_2,46392,2323213.html" target="_blank">GameStar</a>, which unfortunately is written is some kind of umlaut-heavy, foreign language. Lucky for us, World of Risen <a href="http://www.worldofrisen.de/english/article_354.htm" target="_blank">translated the whole thing</a>.</p>
<blockquote>Who we side with is our choice. But first we have to loot the place, and the guard won't budge. We try to persuade him with "Silvertongue," but his stubbornness leaves him unaffected. Either he's immune to persuasion, or our skills are lacking and need to be improved. We try to threaten him, only to have the dialogue end. What shall we do? The game proffers two possibilities. We test out the first by striking the guy down, and this works even without any sort of talent. And it gets better: after he's felled, a new option comes up: we can help the wounded boy. Thus he starts seeing us with new eyes, and decides to pay tribute to the pirates. Furthermore, he is thankful for our kind-heartedness, and lets us in.</blockquote>
<p><em>Thanks to Roguey for the tip</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[Excidium]

This is going to be so good, the combat sounds awesome.

 

[someone else]

I am hoping to pit Risen 2 to Skyrim. Who will win more awards? Sell more? Have a positive review from VD?

 

[jiujitsu]

Meh, I'll believe it's good when I see it.

 

[deuxhero]

World of Risen link does not function.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Meh, I'll believe it's good when I see it.

Common sense? On my Codex??!?!?

All the hype sounds good. Now let us wait and make sure 'Gothic 3 the second' doesn't emerge instead.

 

[ghostdog]

It just needs to be as good as the first half of Risen and I'm sold.

 

[Angthoron]

It just needs to be as good as the first half of Risen and I'm sold.

 

[Roguey]

I'm not sure how I feel about the addition of dialogue skills. Looking here those options seem like they might rely too much on being content-skip buttons (Translation: Steelbeard has many daughters. 1. Do you think Patty would get involved with a spy? 2. She is his favorite daughter (silvertongue 10) 3. Open up the gate, or... (intimidate 15)) and I'd be genuinely surprised if they don't pull a Bloodlines and actually make those non-combat skills useful in the endgame.

I also recall some Codexers making fun of Arcania's huge console-friendly text, so it's bitterly funny to see it's just as bad here. Though Risen's font size was far too small anyway so I'll accept it. It's also a shame how the atmosphere in these concept arts is nowhere to be found in the in-game screenshots. :1eyedking: They just better not screw up the content.

 

[commie]

It just needs to be as good as The Witcher 2 and I'm sold.

 

[J_J_M]

I'm cautiously optimistic. On one hand, I already know I'll enjoy the game because it's a Piranha Bytes game with an open world, factions and good NPC AI. On the other hand, they've been putting a tad too much weight on console ports this time around, saying it should look identical to the PC version, font sizes may look big on the PC version, consolized interface yada yada... Don't screw it up now that you have a strong PC fanbase and literally no console fans.

 

[Crooked Bee]

It just needs to be as good as the first half of Risen and I'm sold.

 

[Shannow]

Looks good so far. If they really get the combat right (and the story/quests/dialogue is comparable to the first half of Risen or Gothic 1/2/(3)), I'll probably be a very happy camper.

 

[flushfire]

It just needs to be as good as The Witcher 2 and I'm sold.

well.. Risen's got tighter combat than tw2. not as varied and balance was all over the place but at least it was pretty responsive. sucks that it had to be so repetitive. all that has to be done is build upon it, unlike tw where the first had to be scrapped entirely. so at least combat-wise there's reason to believe it could be.

 

[Vibalist]

I'd be genuinely surprised if they don't pull a Bloodlines and actually make those non-combat skills useful in the endgame.

Me too. All of Piranha Bytes' games have had the same structure when you look at them. The first couple of chapters lets you use all the skills available relatively often. Then during the later chapters, only combat skills are useful. I don't see why it's going to be different this time around, unless of course the guys at PB have said otherwise.
You should probably regard the dialogue skills as secondary ones, like smithing and pickpocketing in the first Risen. It's an aRPG we're looking at here after all.

 

[Melcar]

A bit of optimism?

 

[Darth Roxor]

A month or so ago, I would be pretty enthusiastic.

But 2witcher smacked me back into the cruel reality.

 

[torpid]

A month or so ago, I would be pretty enthusiastic.

But 2witcher smacked me back into the cruel reality.

I still have high hopes for Risen 2 -- one big advantage over the Witcher is the open world: exploration can make up for mediocre gameplay, to a degree. But I don't think they're changing the combat much, so no reason for it to suddenly turn bad. As long as they space out the questing so that it's not all done in the first half of the game, with the rest of the game being only combat, I'll be a happy man (though in the first game that didn't bother me as much as it did other players, since I enjoyed the combat and the dungeons).

Or are you just saying: it probably won't work on my goddamn computer!

 

[commie]

A month or so ago, I would be pretty enthusiastic.

But 2witcher smacked me back into the cruel reality.

You're just butthurt because your POS PC can't run it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

A month or so ago, I would be pretty enthusiastic.

But 2witcher smacked me back into the cruel reality.

You're just butthurt because your POS PC can't run it.

HOW CAN IT BE

MY MOST PRECIOUSLY GUARDED SECRET IS REVEALED

 

[bat_boro]

The most important question though is if Lena Headey will be in Risen 2???

 

[Vibalist]

I'm really hoping for better voice acting too, now that I think on it. It was really quite shitty in Risen, with the exception of the Don maybe.

 

[jiujitsu]

Meh, I'll believe it's good when I see it.

Common sense? On my Codex??!?!?

All the hype sounds good. Now let us wait and make sure 'Gothic 3 the second' doesn't emerge instead.

If it's like Chapter 1 + 2 of Risen for the entire game and has more content then maybe I'll play it.

 

[commie]

A month or so ago, I would be pretty enthusiastic.

But 2witcher smacked me back into the cruel reality.

You're just butthurt because your POS PC can't run it.

HOW CAN IT BE

MY MOST PRECIOUSLY GUARDED SECRET IS REVEALED

Don't worry bro I was like that when I couldn't play Oblivion...fuck it I said, it's shit anyways I said.



Of course i was right, but that's not the point, see?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

It just needs to be as good as the first half of Risen and I'm sold.

Pretty much.