Risen 2: Dark Waters

If you can look past some of the more useless skills and sluggish combat, you'll still have a great time while playing Risen 2.

Quotation forthcoming.

Risen 2 is simply an another good game from Piranha Bytes. The developers prove that parting ways with their former partner - JoWooD Entertainment - has been a great decision. Risen 2 probably won't get any "RPG of the year" awards, but Gothic enthusiasts shouldn't care - Dark Waters will satisfy them fully, I'm sure.

The game is a wonderful pirate experience with good graphics but with some limitations in the roleplaying aspects of the gameplay in comparison to the first Risen.

Fixes some of the first Risen game's issues, the graphics look great and the pirate theme is refreshing, but combat is still pretty awkward and the quests include a lot of running back and forth. Still, it's not a bad game by any measure and for fans of Gothic and Risen it's a treat. [May 2012]

This second chapter of the Risen brand is an imperfect but charming RPG, with stunning environments and an engrossing story. An epic sea adventure we haven't seen in years!

Risen 2 offers all those features that have become synonymous with Piranha Bytes throughout the years: a wonderful setting, interesting quests, a robust battle system, variety and replayability. But along with those, Risen 2 drags with it some known issues, which have always been around with Gothic and Risen. [May 2012]

A superior, super tough sequel that offers a persuasive alternative to the RPG big boys. [July 2012, p.80]

First impression is not very good, especially if you're not familiar with previous Piranha Bytes' work. But Risen 2 is so gripping and surprisingly fresh that you turn the blind eye to technical issues and rough edges. I really wish Germans had Skyrim's budget at their disposal and could polish the game properly, but if you're an RPG fan, you still have to play it. [June 2012, p.46]

Sure, the combat is a bit more static than it should be in this day and age and the paper-thin story is as simple as the characters are free from the burdens of personality. But still, the atmosphere of this idealized Caribbean with all of the Bruckheimer-Disney-innuendos always manages to drag you back in. Hardly a contender against Witcher 2 or Skyrim, Risen 2 still manages to cater to its own niche with ease.

RIsen 2: Dark Waters looks amazing and lets you explore a massive world that feels very alive. The combat could have been better and some small errors can be annoying, but overall Risen 2 is better then its predecessor in basically every aspect.

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

A really good RPG that takes your inner pirate spirit for a ride. Despite a few graphical bugs this game is for sure a day one buy, and a vast improvement on the original.

Risen 2 Dark Waters is a deep and enjoyable RPG, with strong gameplay mechanics and a funny environment full of pirates, grog and voodoo. It's not as polished as others competitors, but it will be a good choice for all the fans of the genre.

RIsen 2: Dark Waters is much better that its predecessor. It lets you explore a massive world with an excellent atmosphere and great characters... despite its poor combat system.

It takes a little bit too long before Risen 2 becomes a game you'll actually love. The first five hours of the game didn't bode well for the rest of it, but those who persevere are treated to a very entertaining story and a deep leveling system with which you can give shape to your own class. De varied missions stay interesting throughout the game, but better artificial intelligence, a more striking balance and less bugs would have gone a long way for Risen 2: Dark Waters.

Risen 2 should have been bigger, bolder and a more interesting than the first one. But its clunky combat makes it no favours, and, overall, the lack of a single, cohesive and huge landmass like the first one undermines the exploration component and makes the world less interesting. It´s still a fairly unique RPG with plenty of freedom, great characters and good sense of humour, so it´s a good alternative if you are a fan of Piranha or looking for something different.

Despite the puppeteer's strings getting caught, Risen 2 puts on a good show that you'll see through to the end. [June 2012, p.58]

It's more simplified than its predecesor, but on the same time Risen 2 seems to be buit just for hardcore RPG gamers.

Even with all its peculiarities, I have to be honest, I did have fun along the way. Plenty of fun. The quest structure is solid and rarely feels repetitive or bored.

Old-school pirate RPG is most appealing to fans of this genre but everyone should try this adventure which has hidden treasures and gallons of rum! [May 2012]

Risen 2's slow-paced progression and clumsy combat require and reward patience, something Risen and Gothic veterans have in spades. If you are such a player, you might be surprised by how focused this sequel is when compared with its sprawling, unforgiving predecessors.

Risen 2 is a good game. However, it would deserve more than just minor innovation inside antiquated gameplay. If you didn't expect anything out of Risen 2, you will be pleasantly surprised. The problem is you've been expecting.

Risen 2 isn't a game that you can just casually jump into and expect to power through. It's an experience that asks for dedication, but your effort pays off. While you can never totally forgot about all of the game's issues, there's enough good in the game that makes it worth pushing through. It isn't an experience for everyone, but if you consider yourself capable of taking on the challenge and don't mind overlooking its technical flaws and some perplexing user interface decisions, Risen 2 is a rewarding experience with plenty of piratey fun.

It actually felt more like a long DLC than an immersive game world.

The perfect RPG for the aspiring pirate, but a horribly stiff one if you're looking for emotional depth.

Risen 2 always redeems itself with the little things about the pirate fantasy it nails. What other game lets you learn a skill called "'Nuff Said" that allows you to end the occasional conversation by pulling a pistol on your co-converser and sending them to Davy Jones' Locker?

The obsession to recollect every object in the game causes an extremely slow character progression. It has its audience, but Risen 2 may not be very attractive for those who like story-driven RPGs like the ones published by BioWare.

Risen 2 is another ambitious effort from one of Germany's most well-known game developers, but once again it is dragged down by combat that doesn't really ever feel right, and it's kind of sad to see so much effort and talent go into their games when some of the fundamentals have been ignored for so many years.

What Piranha Bytes has developed could have been a thoroughly supreme game, one that could have gone toe to toe with the heavyweights of action role-playing. Due to a number of highly questionable design decisions, however, a lot of that potential has withered away. With so much lost, it's perhaps a testament to how talented the team secretly is that Risen 2 is still packed with fun in the face of truly inhibiting setbacks.

You can look forward to beautiful vistas and loads of quests, but the pirate fun is spoiled by engine problems, a lot of inconsequences and a truly terrible fighting system.

Risen 2 has more than a few issues, but there's plenty of buried treasure waiting here for players who are willing to dig for it. Unfortunately, the excavation is demanding, and the slaphappy combat and bland quest structure might prove too overpowering for players who want to sample one of the few examples of a genuine pirate roleplaying game.

A good game despite its flaws. We think its release has been hurried up and two more months of development would have benefited the result greatly. Good storytelling and content, but too many flaws on the technical side of things.

There's a great game in here, and people who buy Risen 2 will probably be quite content with their purchase if they can get past the infuriating first few hours (and that sugar quest in the giant termite cave, shudder).

It's Piranha Bytes' most accessible game yet, and though its style and boorish, humorous dialogue fit well with the pirate motif, it's a role-playing experience that uses convention as a crutch and marginalizes or strips away a lot of elements that made the studio's past games stand out.

You will not remember Risen 2 when you're done with it. No exciting moments, no pleasant surprises, no great one-liners, not even hilarious bugs… Twenty hours of your life will drown in dark waters.

Clunky quest structure and uninteresting main characters shoot this weirdly compulsive RPG in the foot.

The real trouble with Risen 2 is that it doesn't really do anything particularly right. [July 2012, p.72]

As an actual game, Risen 2 is mediocre. The gameplay is primitive and the technical problems alone are more than enough to recommend shying away from it. However, as an experience, Risen 2 is highly entertaining. Players willing to overlook the issues with the gameplay will find themselves sucked into a sweeping, high-seas adventure that's rare for the RPG genre.

Piranha Bytes takes the Risen series into a new direction with the Pirate-themed sequel Dark Waters. The game is more streamlined than its predecessors, but despite some efforts to modernize the combat and the character development system feels hopelessly outdated. In such it fails to fulfil its own potential.

If it sounds like I have a love/hate relationship with Risen 2, then guilty as charged. This is one of those games that's brimming with quirks, ranging from the minor (killed turkeys give you chicken meat) to momentously glitchy (complete a couple missions in the "wrong" order late in the game and an overarching quest breaks). And for all the artifact-gathering and hand-wringing over Risen 2's "big bad," the final fight is anti-climactic and relatively easy. But... for all its problems, I still recommend this game to RPG fans who are forgiving angels in real life, but unforgiving scurvy dogs in-game.

The story is wonderful, but the combat is so bad it makes the game hard to play.

An enjoyable pirate adventure for those who can tolerate its innumerable flaws.

There's simply not a single thing that Risen 2 does well, not its stilted combat, not its transparent towns, and definitely not its plot, which feels like something you'd come up with after passing out with the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD menu music in the background. Then again, there's nothing it does badly either, so it's no thief.

As much as I wanted to love it, Risen 2 ends up as another entry in the long list of games with a great premise, a few interesting ideas, and an unforgivable anchor dragging the whole thing down.

For RPG genre fans willing to overlook some technical flaws, Risen 2 may very well be a treat and a refreshing change of pace. For the rest of us, this is a game that will never quite rise to the occasion.

While it partially succeeds in exploring some of the aspects of pirate life, it doesn't deliver on it enough to make the experience super exciting.

Risen 2 Dark Waters is an OK action RPG, but some of its design choices and several noticeable shortcomings will put the patience of gamers to the test. It may wield them a rewarding experience though, since the power grinding feeling you get when progressing is really exciting. But besides its difficulty and its less than average storytelling, what Risen 2 really suffers from is the release of titles that surpass it in every concevable way, starting with Skyrim and The Witcher 2.

I'm rarely disgusted after beating a game. Risen 2 left me aghast, and I'm not even a pirate fanatic. I can't imagine the disappointment of those expecting to finally lay their hands on a quality pirate RPG. What could have been a heavily nuanced action RPG is instead a waste of potential and a cheap product. Risen 2 doesn't just leave the niche as empty as it found it. Risen 2: Dark Waters gives pirates a bad name.