Risen 2: Dark Waters

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a really well made game regardless of platform. Comfortable controls and a variety of improvements are great advantages of the console version, that unfortunately still suffers from some flaws. The biggest ones are: poor optimalization and some minor setbacks considering picture quality and saving games. But if you try to let them slide and perhaps drown your sorrows in rum, you will recieve a really good game.

It took me about 50 hours to plow through Risen 2's winning combination of piracy on the high seas, deep skill system, tough combat, and adventure across unexplored lands. Risen 2 succeeds at what it tries to do if you ignore its more serious issues, though not everyone might have the patience to push through its initially high difficulty, dodgy humor and obvious stereotypes. On the surface, it's hard not to see the spiritual ties to Gothic in the game mechanics and the world. That might be all that Piranha Bytes' fans need to know before signing on.

RIsen 2: Dark Waters lets you explore a massive world with an excellent atmosphere and great characters... with a ton of technical shortcomings.

Faced with the challenge to deliver something else than the technical disaster that was Risen on Xbox 360, Piranha Bytes and porting developer Wizardbox again make a mess of things. What has been an entertaining story of seafaring buccaneers and swashbuckling pirates on PC becomes a sordid role-playing experience on consoles with a ton of technical shortcomings.

While the developer is on the right track, Risen 2: Dark Waters feels choppier than the last game, and will test those with little patience.

Best on PC. Risen 2: Dark Waters is still rough and with some errors, down visually. Of course, a big world of pirates and action, it has depth and with surprises.

The Xbox 360 version of this western RPG suffers from all the syndromes these games have when they find their way onto consoles. Bugs, glitches and stubborn choices by the developers that can't seem to understand the nature of console gaming too well.

Risen 2 is a solid game with a host of technical issues that drag it down constantly.

If only the price of unlocking new skills - a minimum stat combined with a hefty fee - wasn't unreasonably steep.

An action-GDR with some interesting ideas hidden well behind a coding far under the average.

The combat isn't fair, the aesthetics are grim, and at times it's uncomfortably racist and sexist. But while it's an anachronistic mess of a game, it's weirdly compulsive regardless.

Risen 2 successfully manages to recreate the charming mood of pirate stories, but very bad visuals and gameplay with a too steep difficulty curve contribute to drag down its overall value.

The console version is late and in a bad shape. We expected much more, but it doesn't live up to the bar set for the current generation of console games. It is certainly better than the previous game –yet, we recommend enjoying the adventure on PC, unless you're willing to forgive its graphical and control issues.

The PC original had the same problems, but a post-release patch made a marked improvement by adding a useful dodge feature that allowed player skill to overcome some of the horrible combat design. Unfortunately, that addition is not included in the console version. Publisher Deep Silver does not have any plans to release it later, citing the space restrictions "certain first-parties" put on title updates. Between that and the inferior graphics, framerate, and interface, I strongly recommend going with the PC version over this lackluster console port.

It might be better than Risen, but Dark Waters is constrained by its PC roots and hampered by inconsistent design and a truly awful engine. [Issue#89,p.84]

Unfortunately tedious, unimaginative missions and too much emphasis on the poorly presented combat system drags the rest of the game down. With serious technical issues afflicting the game, it would seem that Risen 2 performs better on its home turf, the PC.