14 DAY TRIAL // 
Every huge role-playing game, especially if it uses the open world structure, needs a solid hook, something to get the player interested enough in the early game to give him the energy he needs to move past the first few hours, discover the game world and its charms and then engage with the offered quests.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, two of the best role-playing games of the recent months, had such a hook, the execution and the initial battle, and they served the games well, leading me and millions of other players to a series of quests and into worlds that are satisfactory from start to finish.
There’s no real hook in Risen 2 – Dark Waters and the lack of an intriguing starting section sets the tone for the rest of the game, which is at times solid and engaging but mostly weird and frustrating.
The game lacks the polish of The Witcher 2, the political and sexual undertones, and there’s little of the variety of Skyrim. But at times, with a little suspension of disbelief, Risen 2 can be a solid sequel for those who loved the first Risen title that also failed to impress me on launch.
Story
The main character of Risen 2 – Dark Waters lacks a name, which is a subtle code the development team uses in order to show players that they can transform him into whatever they want as the game progresses.
But the core elements of the story are set in narrative stone: The Inquisition seems to be losing the fight with the Titans and their last fortress on Caldera is being besieged, surrounded by lava and fire.
They need to develop their presence on the island chain in order to survive, but that means getting into a three-way conflict with pirates, who have traditionally claimed the area, and the natives, who are interested in retaking their own home ground.
The protagonist quickly meets Patty, the feisty daughter of Gregorius Emanuel Steelbeard, and she reveals that rumors suggest her father has managed to find a way to sail the seas without being attacked by sea monsters.
With his flimsy lead, the player character and the pirate daughter are plunged into a series of adventures linked to the ultimate defeat of Mara, have to play all sides against each other and need to perform more menial tasks like finding clothes, getting the gold required to train various skills and learn the art of voodoo.
Risen 2 – Dark Waters has a fairly well-developed world and it offers quite a lot of areas to explore once it opens up. Yet there’s a contrast here, which I suppose has to do with the vision that developer Piranha Games has for the genre, between quests that are linked to actually saving the world from Mara and grinding in order to get the money for an upgrade that is only marginally useful.
The writing can be funny at times, especially when it deals with the crazy motivations of some characters, and it even breaks the fourth wall and references the tropes of the role-playing genre. But it also feels stilted (I am not sure how much of it was written directly in English and how much was lost in translation) and at times there’s a lot of sexism and racism thrown in.
The dialog system also lacks variety in many ways and I really hope that no developer will ever try and use “Sorry, mush dash!” as a farewell in the next ten-year period.
Gameplay
Risen 2 is built around combat, exploration and dialog and, unfortunately, the game does not manage to make any of these mechanics shine.
Combat is based around the duality of blades, which work all the time and move quickly, and firearms, that deliver quite a bit of damage but take time to reload. When it works, it is a spectacular dance of death, especially when human enemies are involved.
Unfortunately, after the first quarter of Risen 2, the foes one encounters become quite powerful and combat turns into a chore, and the fact that the target of attacks tends to shift quickly and without notice and that companions rarely do much damage isn’t of much help either.
Maybe the hardest part of Risen 2 is managing your budget and learning, often the hard way, that money needs to be saved until that crucial moment when it is really required for something important.
Most quests offer the player a few hundred gold as reward and most trainers will only explain a skill to the player for 1,000 gold, meaning that choosing when and what to train might just be the biggest decision you can make.
Other role-playing games are happy to shower gamers with loot and money, allowing them to focus on moral choices or on the ultimate fate of the world, but Risen is a very Scrooge-like game and restricts gamers at every turn.
Dialog often feels stilted and uninspired and after the wheel of Mass Effect 3, it’s hard to go back to the line-by-line reading of Risen 2.
World exploration is fun and the environments that Piranha has created are interesting, but the choice to use islands rather than one large area can sometimes make fans feel like they are playing a downgraded version of the first Risen game.
Graphics and audio
Risen 2 – Dark Waters can look impressive at times, when the main character fights sea creatures or explores the jungles, but the overall look is always affected by weird little artifacts, colors that don’t quite match the rest of the image or character movements (especially when it comes to their arms) that feel out of place.
Risen 2 manages to look worse than its predecessor at times, which is a real achievement considering that the first title in the series arrived in 2009.
The sound design is also a letdown in Risen 2 – Dark Waters, mainly because of a voice work that lacks any sort of passion from the actors and never manages to convey the feelings of the various characters or the fact that this entire world is threatened by ancient forces.
The music is also somehow inappropriate, unable to connect the player to the adventures he is living through or to the tension of combat and is a letdown for anyone who has previously sampled the soaring orchestras and choirs that offered the soundtrack to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The main reasons to love the game are the pirate theme that has until now been missing from the role-playing space and is a good fit for the genre, and the overall structure of the world, which feels organic and natural and encourages players to explore, get a little lost, start many quests before finishing one. The core problems are the combat, which is simply frustrating, the design of the core characters, which is clichéd, and the overall writing. The action role-playing space benefits from games like Risen 2 – Dark Waters because they introduce a range of concepts that are conform to what gamers traditionally associate with the genre. Yet, if the development team behind the series wants to draw in a bigger fan base, they need to make the mechanics clearer and to offer more familiar elements for the player to latch to. So if you like pirates, role-playing and surprising experiences that can occasionally take a turn towards frustration Risen 2 – Dark Waters might be a game for you.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
