Review Risen 2: Dark Waters Review @ Gamebanshee

[Metro]

Is it the same engine as the first Risen? That ran well enough on my dated system but I'm sure they added some additional graphical odds and ends such that it is more demanding.

 

[Murk]

Swimming in G3 was pretty cool -- some islands with treasure/sekkrets could only be accessed via swimming, and it also made it easier to get to Varant early one (should you so wish to).

There was also a neat hidden frozen lake in Nordmar that was prone to ruining your game should you fall in the water (and not glitch yourself onto land to use a teleport rune).

I do wish they brought it back, as it really added a lot of validity to the whole "go wherever you can" motif behind the gothic games which made them so great.

 

[Brother None]

Is it the same engine as the first Risen? That ran well enough on my dated system but I'm sure they added some additional graphical odds and ends such that it is more demanding.

I guess it's the same engine but it runs a lot worse. Supposedly all the shadow features they added are rather top-heavy, and most can be saved by switching them off.

 

[Metro]

Ah, good to hear you can turn off shadows. Honestly never really cared for them in most games unless the setting/environment is heavily dependent on them.

 

[Shannow]

Regarding Risen 2's resource hogginess:
http://www.computerbase.de/news/2012-04/erste-grafikkarten-benchmarks-zu-risen-2/
"Durchschnitt" means average. Everything else should be clear.
I hope they patch that. That's with max details, but the game simply doesn't look that great even with max details...