Risen 2 - Review | One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 มิ.ย. 2024
- A review/critique/retrospective/analysis of Risen 2: Dark Waters (2012), the pirate-themed action-adventure RPG by Piranha Bytes. As a sequel to Risen 1, Risen 2 has some interesting new twists on the familiar formula, namely to do with the new pirate setting and an increased emphasis on the storytelling, but unfortunately several other aspects (ie, most of the gameplay systems) feel like a step backward from Risen 1. Overall, it's somewhat disappointing, because instead of simply improving and expanding on the success of the first game, they chose to change practically everything -- many things for the worse -- to the point that it doesn't even really feel like a sequel to Risen 1. Still, there's some redeeming quality in the main quest and the storytelling, so it's not wholly unpleasant to play -- it just feels like a mediocre, underwhelming, and sometimes frustrating follow-up to a modest classic.
0:00:00 - Introduction
0:04:34 - Backstory, Premise, and Risen Lore
0:08:08 - Main Story + Main Quest
0:12:41 - Quest Contextualization + Mechanics
0:15:58 - World Design + Content Distribution
0:18:05 - Narrative Presentation
0:19:50 - Voice Acting + Dialogue
0:24:06 - Crew Members + Party System
0:29:30 - Main Quest Spoilers
0:35:36 - Exploration + Environments
0:40:19 - World-Building + Logistics
0:44:01 - Faction System (Inquisition/Natives)
0:49:26 - Melee Combat Basics
0:55:53 - Advanced Melee Combat Maneuvers
0:58:55 - Feedback Systems + Difficulty
1:06:10 - Stats, Skills, and Progression
1:14:43 - Audiovisual Aesthetics + Atmosphere
1:21:00 - Technical Issues
1:22:37 - DLCs (Treasure Isle + Air Temple)
1:24:23 - Conclusion
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#Risen #Risen2 - เกม
I have to say I really love these long-form very in-depth reviews.
This game could be summed up in 2 words... missed opportunity...
The first Risen game was created during a chaotic period in PB's history. Following the Gothic 3 debacle and the subsequent separation from the publisher (Jowood), Piranha Bytes found themselves in an undesirable situation with an uncertain future. Amidst this uncertainty, Piranha Bytes set out to create a less ambitious, "on budget", but all around complete game to prove not only to the newly found publisher (Deep Silver), but also to themselves, that they could still get their act together. As admitted by the creative director, Mike Hoge, their main goal with Risen was just to create a game "in a set amount of time, with a set budget".
This resulted in Risen 1 being somewhat a modest title, that mainly tried to play on the strengths of the previous games, which PB knew they could safely rely on.
Risen 2 marked the first time since Gothic 3 that Piranha Bytes had the opportunity to try out something new and tackle a bit more ambitious project. What is really disappointing is that they essentially decided to throw away their tried-and-tested formula, instead of improving what worked and reworking what didn't. Innovation was definitely needed (as the original Risen proved), however, not in the sense of replacing every system in the game with a new... but a generally inferior one. The video's title "one step forward, two steps back" seems very fitting in this case.
What makes it even more tragic is that Risen 2 didn't have to turn out that way. Reading the personal blog of one of the developers, Ralf Marczinczik, it turns out that Kai Rosenkranz actually wrote a whole design document for Risen 2 shortly before leaving the studio. This document is described as being very ambitious but sadly unrealized. It's hard to determine what this version of Risen 2 would look like, but given Rosenkranz was one of the people who gave Gothic its soul, it's hard to imagine that his idea would be any worse than what we got in the end.
I am really looking forward to the review of Risen 3 (assuming it's coming). I was also wondering if you would ever consider taking a look or analyzing some of the other PB's projects that didn't come to fruition. For example, the cancelled Gothic 1 add-on with the working title "Gothic: Sequel", which I find to be a continuation of Gothic 1's ambition, that is no longer present in Gothic 2. Or maybe a general look at the original design concept of Gothic 1, which was initially supposed to be a 5 person coop multiplayer game (sounds crazy right? :D ) with partially destructible environments, a thumbs up/thumbs down dialogue system and a heavy reliance on the uniquely designed AI of each monster.
All of this was formulaically different from the final product and I'd love to hear your opinion about those design concepts. There is an endless supply of links and resources on the web about the original design of Gothic 1 and other PB games, that I can supply :) .
I genuinely don't understand the decision to throw away everything Risen 1 established and still pretend that this is a sequel. It was either meddling from Deep Silver to make a pirate game or PB didn't know what they were doing.
I've never understood why PB decided to deviate from the Gothic formula so much after Risen 1. Maybe they were bored with medieval fantasy games but that doesn't explain the bad rpg elements. Risen 2 feels like it was made by a different studio.
Same, it's really weird. You wanna do a pirate game ? Okay keep the gameplay and change the setting. That's all they've had to do (well and fix the problems of Risen 1). It also should've been a new IP like Elex.
i mean they could have pulled it all off but beter like the island in rison could have been a backwater nest and i think there were canons and in gothic there were canons present so it was actualy a late 15th century setting all along, and risen could have done .. smaller steps etc and having rapiers and guns along with the olde sword and crossbows
Mike Hoge left PB after Risen 1. That's why all their games after it have lost direction
Risen 2 would be a much better game and dare I say an amazing game if...
1) They had kept the combat from the first game (have swash buckling animations for pirate weapons like scimitars and conventional medieval fighting for other melee weapons)
2) instead of railroading you into joining the pirates, the pirates, the inquisition and the natives could all be optional factions that you could join.
3) Chests should have loot that actually makes sense. Too many times you stumble into random chests in the middle of nowhere that have 10 gold and 1 provisions, it makes no sense.
4) Make it so that you can fail intimidation and persuasion checks.
5) Why the fuck can you not swim in a game with a pirate setting? Add back swimming which Risen 1 didn't have either (for some reason) and also keep the free form climbing that Gothic 1&2 and Risen 1 had rather then limited climbing in the Risen 2 that we got.
6) The story would obviously need a re-write to accommodate these changes and the combat from Risen 1 although great may need to be tweaked a little bit to work with the glory system.
7) They should have kept crystal magic from the first game and reworked it into one of the factions (maybe inquisition as an optional path).
Do all of these and the pirate setting would actually enhance the game setting from the first game setting apart Risen 2 as it's own setting away from Gothic while also not limiting the player's role playing potential of forcing them to be a pirate. It would still keep the standard 3 faction system from all of Piranha Bytes previous games
If Risen 2 Dark Waters did all of those things then Risen 2 would have been Risen's Gothic 2 equivalent, but unfortunately Risen 2 was a mediocre game. There was so much potential to be had in a renaissance pirate/Victorian period themed role playing game and they squandered every last potential from it.
@@Kevin5279Wrong, Hoge did work on this one and I'm probably one of the few that feel it his work in the game.
th-cam.com/video/XSWYVzHNNr4/w-d-xo.html
Thank you, TNR! Loving these PB games reviews.
Baltram's Unofficial Patch allows you to grab Blood of Ancestors from Osaru even after learning about Garcia's ruse on your own thus allowing you to choose between engaging Garcia in village and in Fire Temple
For me the risen series was a mess from the start, with every entry having at least one important pyranha bytes element missing and making every game feel clunky and unfinished. Risen 1 had the Gothic 2 formula, but was missing any of the interesting lore and story of the gothic series and Risen 2 tried to do something with the lore, world and story but failed in the gameplay aspects. Would really like to see your opinion on Risen 3. Cheers and keep up the good work :D
Risen 1 was clearly an under-budgeted game as PB were trying to play it a bit safe after the colossal failure that was Gothic 3. Although the best Risen game, it had an underwhelming second half and a seemingly monotonous premise revolving around artifact hunting. The magic system was also pretty basic and rudimentary when comparing it with the Gothic series. And sadly this was last game which Mike Hoge (the brains behind the Gothic series) and Kai Rosenkranz worked on. After this PB had lost its direction as well as its musical score. It can be felt all the way till the latest Elex game
@@Kevin5279 I agree that they have lost direction and are focusing on the wrong things with every next entry. Gothic 2 worked so well because it took the good parts of Gothic 1 and improved on them, while also expanding the game both in size and scope. After Risen 1, PB just reboots large parts of the game instead of focusing on improving what was missing, like Risen 2 added lore and story but crippled the gameplay and exploration, and risen 3 is somewhere in between. Same with Elex, good foundation in setting, lore, dialogue options but combat was lacking, along comes the sequel and combat has been streamlined but all the other things suffered. PB need to figure out which parts of their formula they need to innovate on and which parts need to be either kept the same or improved.
@@leonatos40k Completely agree.The first Elex was a reasonably decent entry by PB. No doubt it had clutter and jank but it was a decent effort by them in quite some time. What you said about Risen 2, they sort of did with Elex 2. They should have followed the tried and tested approach of Gothic 2 instead. And given the fact that Elex 2 had pretty poor sales, I doubt if any investor will ever take interest in PB again. This could very well be the last PB game
@@Kevin5279 I mean what were they thinking releasing in the same month as Elden Ring...
lore in both gothic and risen series are a joke compared to other RPGs. Still good games tho.
Thank you for the in-depth review. Strangely, I don't remember this game very well but I do remember having a positive impression of it. You're right about it being a poor man's Mass Effect or KOTOR. That's what I thought at the time too. But it did have some good parts. Exploring the islands was interesting and the stories were engaging enough. That said, Risen 1 was WAY more in-line with the traditional Gothic 1 and 2 approaches, which made it the best out of the Risen trilogy in my opinion. Risen 2 was good too in some ways but it departed too much from the beloved formula, like you said.
I think Kai Rosenkranz would feel honored, if he knew that the word Rosenkranz-esk now exists. It's about time it does.
Risen 2 is a textbook example of learning the wrong lessons. the devs basically took the pirate quest from the original and made the whole game centered around that theme. in Risen 1 that quest stood out because it was different from other quests, not because OMG PIRATES ARE SO COOL. I was so I disappointed with Risen 2 that I couldn't even be bothered to finish it, dropping the game around the time when you wintess an "epic" 5 on 5 battle between the soldiers and the natives.
I agree 100%, it's probably due to Pirates of the Caribbean being so trendy at the time. It's an awful change of theme because Gothic had a very unique soul and atmosphere to it, especially Gothic 1, the setting is as unique as it gets and the dark, somewhat occult medival theme is iconic and really should not have been changed. It's like they wanted to reinvent themselves even though Risen 1 was perceived positively and was in many ways sticking to the strengths of the original. Very weird decision they made.
A lesson in preparation to The test. The test being Risen 3, where see battles compensate boring melee, two magic systems, different atmosphere on some big islands, not jungle everywhere and excellent playability with joystick.
Man, I love your videos! The best Piranha Bytes content out there. Thank you for all your work. Waiting for Elex 2 and your content on the subject.
My most anticipated RPG of 2022 is ELEX 2. I love Piranha Bytes. 🔥
Their games all suck
@@jonathansoko1085 let’s not talk about what your sis does on the weekends! 🤡
I just completed Risen 1 and actually loved it, even with the late game crawl in the story pacing, I still found the gameplay loop and sense of adventure compelling. It really felt like a more in depth Fable in terms of world structure and combat style.
I started this one right after and was flabbergasted; it doesn’t feel like the same developer, much less series. The combat is seriously some if the wurst I’ve ever tangled with in a game; it’s painful because I don’t hate the setting or world even if it feels out of step with the first, but my God, the combat. It actually deters me from wanting to explore the islands at times, a total 180 from Risen 1.
I’m going to try to get through this and get to the third, but if Risen 3 isn’t an improvement I’ll probably drop the series.
same smh i thought oh this would be great uhhhhh no
Still found it more enjoyable than skyrim combat.
@@duncanmacleod7287 Almost anything is more enjoyable then Skyrims combat. It's the most tedious and bare bones combat in an action RPG. Enemies are litteral damage sponges due to the level scailing an overal balancing. To say Risen 2 has better combat is not much of an improvement. Hell even Gothic 3's combat is better then Skyrims lol.
Hey, TNR? Will you do a review of The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos?
Amazing review! Thorough, fair, entertaining. Can’t believe how small of a creator you are, the quality is good enough for major channel!
I loved Risen but I was actually delighted by how different Risen 2 was. It was just such a fun swashbuckling adventure with far more memorable characters than the first game. All in all I had a great time with Risen 2 but I honestly didn't even really get the connection to the first game at all on my first playthrough so that was something the game handled very poorly (for example I didn't even realize you were playing as the same character in both games until many years later lol).
So yeah, I like this game a lot even though I admit it is pretty flawed. Risen 3 on the other hand... here's hoping you will review that as well in time.
Great review, will you do a lengthy review for Risen 3 too?
He'd probably like it more than Risen 2 but less than Risen 1. I'd still like to see him review it though. He's very thorough.
I never really played Risen 2, even though I enjoyed the first one a lot. I may have played it a few hours, but I forgot about those. As you said, it didn't feel like a Piranha Bytes game. Once again, you did an excellent job with your review! Keep up the good work.
Have you already tried Chronicles Of Myrtana Archolos? A real treat for an original Gothic fans :D
I've been live-streaming it on Twitch, just got into the start of the second chapter. So far it's been pretty fun, though it's got some nitpicky things going on that I'm not terribly fond of. I'll probably try to put together an early impressions video on it in the next couple of weeks, but you can watch my playthrough over on Twitch in the meantime if you'd like.
Great review, if you're still having trouble with getting into the town in Archolos, the guard you have to bribe is the nameless one standing next to Edgar at the west gate, try Talking to him and after something like 3 times youll have the option to bribe him
Alternatively : spoiler - try Talking to Albyn, Knut, a merchant close to the city or you can go through the canals (the hardest one, but the most rewarding when it comes to exp)
1:52 PB confirmed on world of elex in german that the reason for the islands was for selling DLCs (and the idea came from the publisher).
Great review as always
I didn't even have the patience to go past the starting zone of risen 2 but i did enjoy watching you review the whole game
I did finish risen 3 so I hope you review that one too, one day
Love your videos. How you feel the games is 100% in sync with my own. Keep the good work. P.S. can we see a Chronicles of Myrthana Archolos review ( the true Gothic 3)
Just like you, I was so hyped for this game and thought it would act like Gothic 2 to Gothic 1. Not only did it utterly disappoint, during a cutscene, my whole PC turned itself off and the graphic card was broken afterwards :(
I don't know if you thought about doing this before but I'd certainly watch you talk about greedfall for a hour
Love this channel, thank you for this video. To me, it seems that this game was a casualty of the time it came out in two or maybe three ways. The first and most obvious being, that it is a middle-market or 'AA' title. Secondly, it came out during the 'consulization' of video gaming, even the PC platform suffered during PS3/360 era. And lastly, a bit speculatively is that they wanted another success (eg. Gothic 1,2, and Risen) but during that era, the cinematic approach to storytelling reigned supreme as supposed to the more conventional storytelling of CRPGs.
What i liked from Risen 2 from all stuff i seen of it(didnt get to play it yet, will try out tho) Is how nice those drawnstyle graphics look. A bit alike to Gothic 1-2 or some of the stylized drawn games we seen in 2000s, its something much more pleasant to look at than Elex.
I forced myself to play Risen 2 for the first time last year and I was just shocked. I liked Risen 1 for the most part (despite the boring late game), but Risen 2 is the worst aspects of Gothic 3 combined with some generic pirate RPG. Really changed my perspective on PB, I was favorable towards Elex because I liked the studio, but while Elex is an improvement over Risen 2, it's objectively not very good either. Looking forward to your Elex 2 review.
And thank you for producing such great content, you deserve a lot more views.
It's probably the only game that has lightning storms so straneous on the eyes.
They made this strong flickering effect plus the lightning storms are really frequent here.
Amazing review like always. Absolute joy to watch!
I agree. After playing Risen 1, I was hoping Risen 2 was going to be like Gothic 2 - improvement on all fronts - but it was like Gothic 3 - felt like different, worse game series
I just got risen 3 and this video got uploaded
It really feels like this channel makes videos on exclusively my favorite games, and I love it.
Awesome review with great little details and very good observations. Thanks! Tried it a while ago on cd, didn't like it as well. Then for some reason bought this thing with something like 90% discount. Looks like it doesn't warrant any time investment.
Thank you for this huge review. I am replaying risen 1 again. Its my second favourite pb game after gothic 2 mainly because of the soundtrack that is just the best
Ah man the nostalgia
I love channels like this. I learn about so many games/studios I never knew about
I always found it interesting that Ursegor was the only Titan Lord that didn't want to control the world unlike Mara (Risen 2's titan lord of waters ) or Nekroloth (Risen 3's Titan Lord of death). I still don't really understand what Ursegor's motives to fight for humanity was even tho he was a prisonier for so many years.
Thanks! Looking forward for your Risen 3 playthrough
I won t lie i got into gothic in 2010 and i didn t even knew about the risen serise until risen 3 but i had a positive impression on risen 2
1.5 years ago i played and finished whole gothic and risen franchises back to back and risen 2 was an okay game, i am quite flexible to new things and introductions in games and i do not really tether myself to some specific thing that i like in previous installment and demand it in their successors. I noticed that once game builds up loyal fan base it is extremely difficult for devs to do anything new without getting mixed reactions at best. I definitely think that risen 2 is far from amazing rpg but its worth a shot if you can get it for cheap and havent played it yet. Moreover i think if you are fan of rpg games, getting and playing risen trilogy is still worth it especially if you can get them super cheap like 5-10€ each. I played risen 1 with keyboard and mouse and risen 2,3 with a controller if you can find whole trilogy for ~15€ in total and like rpg games its a no brainer imo. I would rate risen 2 high 6 and low 7 out of 10, lets say 6.5/10 :)
Awesome review, I'm currently playing thr game and actually enjoying it, I hope we get a risen 3 review too :P
👉👉 As far as I can remember, only he himself can fight Mara - the crew doesn't have the powers and this special weapon for that. Or am I wrong?
As for the Risen parts themselves, I found all of them to be well worth the money and I enjoyed them more or less. The pirate setting annoyed me though, I'm not such a pirate fan. What was also a bit lukewarm was the story of all Risen parts and also the ones from the Elex games - that's one of the biggest weaknesses of PB - since Gothic 2 they don't even come close to making it to develop good stories also the interpersonal ties to the crew i.e. NPCs etc. are almost completely missing. The PB games could be worlds better if they finally got someone on the team who can write good stories and quests. The games have more and more of a kindergarten level - apart from the insults and the rough tone. What would PB games be unbeatably good if you would reach such a depth with the story as in Mass Effect or Dagon Age.
What's the name of the very last track you used (starting at 1:27:05)? Is it from the score?
It's from the Risen 2 OST, yes. It's the end credits music.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Thanks, I knew I heard it before, but couldn't find it here on TH-cam... Great review btw! Are you planning to do something on Risen 3 as well?
@@surosch I will at some point, but it's at least third on my to-do list right now.
i really love your reviews - and i think if we concocted all of them into one video, one might actually be able to create a great rpg in the likes of gothic - personally, i dream about creating a "better" gothic one day, but i know no programming, no game design, no graphics design, nothing to actually pull it off. so maybe all i have to do is win the lottery and create my own studio. :D
seriously though, i think risen 1 and 2 and also elex and elex 2 stand example for what piranha bytes internal struggle is. most of the developers behind G and G2 left piranha bytes one way or the other, restaffing the team with younger members who like games like mass effect, fallout, skyrim and so on and try to incorporate ideas from those games into their own games (there is more than one quest in elex copy-pasted over from fallout, not to mention the whole follower-system-nonsense and multiple endings with an over-abundance of GAME CHANGING choices). PB in its core is not the studio it used to be and therefore will never be able to recreate something with the feeling of gothic. that being said, i have faith in small indie developers (as in concerned ape revolutionizing the Harvest Moon IP, slavic magic about the resolutionize the settlement construcion game genre with manor lords...) that are free of their publishers and therefore dont have to listen to the publishers downright stupid ideas (like cutting the game up into dlcs). maybe one day we will finally get another good real time action rpg, but for the next 10 years the lookout is bleak.
You spent so much time. Thank u.
finally managed to watch all the gameplay, now i finished the review xD amazing work
Thanks for the review - that was a good one. One of two PB games I didn´t touch. I got the feeling PB after Risen 1 is only about paying the bill. Their era seems to be over.
subscribed. Great old school vibes from you!!!
Risen 2 is the only Pirahna Bytes game I haven't beaten (not counting Gothic 3 which I've played a ton of but have never properly beaten, much like Skyrim). Not only is it an unwelcome departure from Risen 1, a game I enjoyed a lot, I found its entire system, especially the combat, to be pretty awful and unfun.
Gothic 3 is basically side-quests which help you get items for the main fetch-quest. Really lacking in terms of story, and terrible if you play it off the 'golden path'.
Thanks for the video, very interesting as always. Have you played kingdom Come: Deliverence? I'd like to know what you think abaut it. :)
I couldn't take this game seriously from the get go because the pirate theme is too cheesy and was never part of Gothic, it seems like they just wanted to draw from the Pirates of the Caribbean trend. You could see first tendencies in Risen 1, but by in large Risen 1 was true to the occult medieval Gothic soul. Btw I really enjoy your reviews, top quality narration style and you go into much more of a depth than most other gaming reviews out there, criminally underrated channel imo. I can't help but feel that with your review skills this channel should blow up if you covered some more recent games, but then I really appreciate the passion of someone making reviews of the franchises he or she likes without focusing too much on viewer counts.
My bigest problem with Risen 2 and 3 are the maps. They show you exactly were there's a cave or a place to climb. There's no incentive to go exploring.
risen 3 gives you incentive, tons of hidden stuff. Risen 2 not really
Thank you so much for another great video.
Have you heard of the Chronicles of Myrtana mod?
What an underrated channel!
Finally another video from you!
I love these detailed reviews and I appreciate you putting this together even though you didn't really enjoy the game.
I for one liked the change from the part Gothic, part something else style from Risen 1 to the all out pirate theme from Risen 2. It made the setting more interesting and set it aside from being just an inferior Gothic clone to a series that had its own thing going. The change felt abrupt however, that cannot be denied.
I also don't remember the combat system as being as tedious as shown in this video. Maybe I was just resistant to frustrating gameplay back then, but kicking over Crabs, throwing sand in you opponents eyes and shooting a pistol point blank was something that I felt was cool and unlocking the different maneuvers felt like a good progression (I used swords and pistols only for the entire game).
The caribic flair of the Islands was something that really drew me in and the improvements to npc models compared to the clone wars from Risen 1 was also a very welcome change.
To me, Risen 2 was a great pirate adventure, that definitely had a lot of flaws but I liked it much much more than Risen 1, which really disappointed me with its never ending dungeons and its setting that couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
It is probably a very controversial opinion but Risen 2 was the best part of the trilogy for me. Might have something to do with nostalgia value though. I haven't played it in a long time.
Loved this breakdown, can't wait for Risen 3
You should do video about Chronicles of Myrtana
I found out too early that Corrientes was Garcia, which ruined my first attempt at Risen 2. I couldn't beat him at the hut, although I did everything there was to be done.
I had to cheese that fight by running away and luring enemies one by one.
Just playing the first risen, I intend to try all of PB's rpgs. Tried Gothic before and it was quite good, very different from what I had been used to, but I unfortunately didn't finish the main storyline, the pacing near the end was just horrible. :D It took me some time to force myself to try it, because I played gothic 3 many years ago and it was just too big and the fact that your character couldn't ride a horse or something made it a lot worse, however other than the fact that even on a pretty strong machine for such a game it had some difficulties to actually run smoothly, I enjoyed it thoroughly, although I also couldn't finish it, didn't really care about the main story. :D
Just started to play the game recently. Can't wayt to watch the review! ^_^
Good review.
Love this game, but having a half working y button really made me avoid jaguars on the second island lol
Awesome Review. Seriously.
Another top notch review, man.
Risen 3 next?
You should definitely check The Chronicles Of Myrtana mod for Gothic 2 NoR. It's free on Steam. It feels like a new old Gothic game.
Nice. I tried to play this game like twice and dropped.. The jank was too much.
I actually really like this game. It isn't perfect, but i enjoyed it. It's not better than Risen 1 but it's MUCH better than Gothic 3. Not the best PB game, but not the worst.
I've just downloaded both of these games because of you. Has anybody got any tips? There seems to be alot of fighting just to get from A to B I've just started risen cleared out a wolf den and now a farmer has walked me on my way and with no direction. There are enemies everywhere, every 10 yards 😱
generally: i always start with the bandit camp, then harbour town. most effective questwise.
don't be afraid to dump a few points into strength early on, helps a lot.
gut animals before maybe, but thievery only after you've gotten a little stronger, pickpocketing and especially lockpicking does pay off in general. especially harbour town.
that's basically how i play it, personal taste though. :D good luck!
edit: if you're lost early on - welp. scream for help and try to find your way back! :>
@@flosophy Thank ya 👍
For Risen 1
Invest some points into lockpicking early on so you can find some gold and aford more training.
For Risen 2
Invest in your combat skills while you are on Tacorigua. There are no combat trainers on the second island.
Get the faster attacking skill as soon as you can and power attacks soon after.
I'm another one of those saddened, early adopters. After some fan patches a few years later, I found it less frustrating. Still not my favorite
Pretty late to comment on this video, but might as well do it:
Piranha Bytes hasn't been the same studio that made Gothic 1,2 and Risen 1 for nearly a decade now. I don't count Gothic 3 on account of them releasing it in a severely unfinished state, and I'm not entirely convinced it was 100% JoWood's fault. Ever since they had a mass exodus during Gothic 3 and after finishing Risen 1's development, especially after Risen 1, they've become a Skinwalker studio.
By Skinwalker studio i mean that it's now a group of people, or talent, that doesn't possess the skills, opinions or interactions between members to make games that come even close to the quality or charm of the aforementioned games; in effect wearing the skin of the studio but not the essence. The tremendous decline in quality in Risen 2 and 3 is the most obvious example. I'm still surprised they haven't declared bankruptcy after those two disastrous games. Elex is a game that came closest to catching the charm and point of the old guard's games, but still missed the mark on several points. I haven't played Elex 2 yet on account of not having a good enough rig to play it (poor pay and ludicrous PC part prices tend to do that), but it seems they've once again dropped the ball given by your recent comments and comments by other players.
The only thing that makes me very sad is that we never got a good Gothic 3, and therefore a good conclusion to the Gothic storyline before PB suffered tremendous brain drain.
Brb gonna play Gothic 2 again for the 25th time. And try not to cry and then cry...cry a lot.
i saw mediocre reviews, skipped it. after years i thought to try it out and i had a BLAST. yeah, the combat is worse than risen 1, but the humor, the exploration, the atmosphere and setting were top notch. i love this game.
Just passed the game today. Risen 2, as is the case with all PB rpgs, has a very interesting and inviting world which compulsively makes you wanting to explore it and you're being rewarded for it.
And as always, their combat system spoils all of that. Risen 2 has a very big problem regarding combat, especially with monsters as you cannot parry them or dodge and there are no shields to block either like in the first game. Moreover, every time the creature hits you (and it hits you A LOT), it staggers you breaking your attack and since the monsters attacking animations are so insanely fast and repetitive, you're often being stuck in an endless "stunlock" loop and just hope that the monster will randomly break it's attacking sequence so you can strike back or get away. Keeping at least dodge mechanic was a must in this game or at least making enemy animations a bit slower and more intuitive. Combat with humans is a bit better although it suffers from the similar problem enemy attacks being too random, fast and confusing requiring a milliseconds reaction making them very hard to read properly and parry let alone do a riposte.
All in all, Risen 2 is average, first game was superior.
It sounds to me like you were playing an un-patched version. In the original release you indeed couldn't block or dodge monster attacks, but PB patched that functionality into the game officially a few weeks after it launched. I show this at 53:21 in the review.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Yes, it would seem that was the case, thanks for pointing that out.
Anyway, I looked up Risen 3 a little and it seems the same issues are still present. Can't find your take on the third game here on your channel. Is it worth playing? Or should I just jump into Elex series?
I reviewed it on my blog back when it first came out. You can read my review if you'd like, I'll link it below. At the time I enjoyed Risen 3 a lot more than Risen 2, thanks in large part to a vastly improved combat/magic system, better/more interesting factions, and more engaging/rewarding exploration, though the main quest takes a huge step backwards and the difficulty is (or was) way too easy even on the hardest setting, so it was overall a mixed experience. From what I remember, they patched in higher difficulty modes and may have tweaked some combat mechanics since I finished playing and reviewing it, so that aspect may be better than what I reviewed.
I haven't played it in eight years and I only played it once so my memory is a bit fuzzy. It's possible my opinion may change if I were to replay it (which I'm planning to do later this year). But generally speaking, a lot of people don't like Risen 3, I think because it's basically a continuation of the gameplay style from Risen 2, which people absolutely hated. But whereas Risen 2 felt like a clunky mess, Risen 3 felt to me like a better-realized vision of what Risen 2 could've been, if you took Risen 2 and gave it much better gameplay at the expense of a less interesting story. Some aspects feel pretty close to Gothic 2 in style, but a lot of it is still basically just "Risen 2 but a little better."
thenocturnalrambler.blogspot.com/2014/09/risen-3-titan-lords-doesnt-suck.html
@@TheNocturnalRambler Thank you for your summarized opinion about Risen 3. I just might give it a chance. I never took stories in fantasy games very seriously (even the likes of Witcher 3) so it's all about gameplay for me.
I watched your video few weeks back before I played Risen 2 and now, rewatching it, I can say that your every word is on point. That's exactly how I felt playing this game and can relate to all of your issues with it. Luckily, I had prior experience with PB games so it was not too annoying playing and beating this as it was sometimes the case with Gothic 3 (although, I do have a huge nostalgic soft spot for that one). Took me around 25h (around 30h if you count reloads) to complete all sidequests, except DLCs, and the main story.
I'm looking forward to Elex series but I hear PB's old bad habits are present there as well.
Elex 1 is great. It has some sloppy rough edges and short-sighted design elements but the world, exploration, questing, progression, and RPG mechanics are some of PB's best. I personally really love the combination of fantasy, sci-fi, and post-apocalypse themes, and there's also some really interesting and engaging backstory/environmental storytelling going on as well -- again, maybe PB's best. Whenever people say Elex 1 is bad, they're usually just frustrated by the steep difficulty curve and the clunky combat, but if you're used to PB games those shouldn't be a turn-off for you.
I'm playing through Elex 2 right now and it feels "about the same" as Elex 1. Fundamentally, it's the exact same game mechanics and setting with a direct continuation of the main story, but with some notable improvements and some head-scratching down-grades. I'm enjoying it a lot thus far, maybe not quite as much as I did at this point in my first playthrough of Elex 1, but it's been fun.
While the game is not bad, I wonder how much money has influenced this design decision to make a pirate game, with a console camera, much different than the simplicity of the first Risen.
How much profitable was Risen 2 compared to the first Risen.
Also, I think money is also the reason why they made Elex and they keep making Elex 2. I doubt they stopped liking medieval RPGs and they suddenly considered that they like the new genre.
I think there was an interview with the main team member, the bald guy, who said that games like the first Risen will not sell these days.
"Copper would be a bad material to be used for swords"
While it is worse than steel...they had a LOT of copper blades everywhere in the world
I enjoyed the soundtrack too. Risen 2 had the best soundtrack since 2012, because Risen 3, Elex and Elex II were not good enough!
Joining the fraction in the Gothic or in Risen 1 or 3 rewards witht specific armor that is the also uniform....
Are you planning to make a review of Risen 3?
ok, you convinced me. i subscribed. your channel is cool
I think I gave up playing Risen 2 just after being ship wrecked and landing on the Gnome island. The whole game was a ship wreck to me. I just wanted it to end quickly and couldn't force myself to play another side adventure for the main quest to progress.
I loved Risen 1, went into 2 with high expectations and got disappointed. A year or so later I tried it again, enjoyed it a bit more for what it was, but voodoo really was disappointing. You think "nice, crowd control spells will really help me in these tough fights", then you see they take 2 years to cast and sometimes even bug out (as pointed out in the video). I enjoyed the overall plot except for the ending which was a bit meh.
Now I'm playing Risen 3, which improves I'm a lot of things, but most quests are like MMO ones, uninteresting ones that can be finished in 5 minutes. Oh well, maybe it'll improve later...
I never played Risen 2. It was like Gothic 3 to me. Saw it, watched others play it for a bit, got the rough overview of the story and that's it. Never felt the slightest desire to play it. I was then tricked into playing Risen 3 after all the trailers seemed good and was severely disappointed again. After that came Elex, which I'm not interested in either. I'll stick to playing Gothic 1+2 every once in a while.
Elex is surprisingly good. Arguably PB's best game since Risen 1, maybe even Gothic 2.
@@matternicuss I'm not saying it's bad, just that it is utterly uninteresting to me in terms of setting, mechanics and overall presentation. To me, the last little bit of PB magic was Risen, and even that was very weak after the first half.
Honestly, I'm a huge fan of Gothic (especially the second one), but Risen didn't really rezonate with me. It felt too sluggish, the world felt empty and somehow too big and claustrophobic at the same time. I'm not sure how much of that was due to the curse of the late 2000s gaming (bloom and grey-brown-green filters over the image). The characters felt bland and uninspired. The combat, while reminiscent of Gothic, also felt sluggish, as if the characters were fighting in slow-motion. I prefer not to compare Risen 2 and 3 to other PB games, but I enjoyed the writing, characters and environments much more than Risen.
I had no clue crafting costs were this bad compared to just buying the thing.
Wow...
Yeees, thank you!! :)
Man been i pb fan ever since gothic 1 and now so many years after their best game gothic 2 notr came out i just realise slowly that their early success was just lightning in a bottle that they can't or have no intention to recapture. I still play every new game they release but i don't go in with the expectation of grandure anymore and i have to say i enjoyed them way more that way.
It just isn't fair to expect them to make the game everyone wants from them, they just make what they want and either u buy it or not but we need to keep in mind that even tough the first two games are held in high regards by rpg lovers these games were never huge successe money wise especially outside of europe so from that aspect there is no reason for them to stick to a formula that only ever had niche apeal to begin with.
$50 for air! They at least had to thow in a poster and a large paperback map! You could buy a used PC for $50 ten years ago.
I love all gothic and risen. Best for me 😎 best ever!
when i heard that risen 2 would be pirate theme my first thought was they just wanted to spring onto that pirates of the carribean hype-train that was going
I thought pirates in NotR, pirates in Risen, it was just a matter of time
I actually like the game. It's different than the classical fantasy action adventure rpg. Those are a dime a dozen out there. I like the setting. I like the characters. I like the story. I like most of the quests. I like that you have to make choices that change your gameplay. I like that you actually have to think about what attribute to upgrade and what skill to get, as EXP or Glory in this case is limited, which I like and don't like at the same time. It is a reason to limit respawns of enemies or have no respawns at all, but exactly.that makes the world emptier and, at a certain point, boring. The companion AI is abyssmal. The difficulty stays consistantly high in the first 3/4 of the game and gets laughable easy on the final stretch. I had more trouble with Sunken Ones than with Mara. I also dislike the combat system that, even with the so called combat skills, is nothing more than button smashing. And I dislike the disparety between skills in terms of usefullness. And finally, I dislike the weather patterns. The thunderstorms last for days, even after I slept, and you can see next to nothing. Definitely no game for people with chance of epileptic seizures.
I understand that many people think the game is trash. Still, I like it more than Risen 1, which is mostly a very generic action-adventure rpg with classical fantasy elements.
Risen 2 would be a much better game and dare I say an amazing game if...
1) They had kept the combat from the first game (have swash buckling animations for pirate weapons like scimitars and conventional medieval fighting for other melee weapons)
2) instead of railroading you into joining the pirates, the pirates, the inquisition and the natives could all be optional factions that you could join.
3) Chests should have loot that actually makes sense. Too many times you stumble into random chests in the middle of nowhere that have 10 gold and 1 provisions, it makes no sense.
4) Make it so that you can fail intimidation and persuasion checks.
5) Why the fuck can you not swim in a game with a pirate setting? Add back swimming which Risen 1 didn't have either (for some reason) and also keep the free form climbing that Gothic 1&2 and Risen 1 had rather then limited climbing in the Risen 2 that we got.
6) The story would obviously need a re-write to accommodate these changes and the combat from Risen 1 although great may need to be tweaked a little bit to work with the glory system.
7) They should have kept crystal magic from the first game and reworked it into one of the factions (maybe inquisition as an optional path).
Do all of these and the pirate setting would actually enhance the game setting from the first game setting apart Risen 2 as it's own setting away from Gothic while also not limiting the player's role playing potential of forcing them to be a pirate. It would still keep the standard 3 faction system from all of Piranha Bytes previous games
If Risen 2 Dark Waters did all of those things then Risen 2 would have been Risen's Gothic 2 equivalent, but unfortunately Risen 2 was a mediocre game. There was so much potential to be had in a renaissance pirate/Victorian period themed role playing game and they squandered every last potential from it.
I couldn t even finish it while Risen 1 I couldn t stop playing it till the end.
Just an update and fyi here's some more previews of Elex 2.
th-cam.com/video/Jyb1xi20n5Q/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/gUTdrfUhXQM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/CEDoAjZ45jc/w-d-xo.html
I cannot explain it. I see all the flaws. I can understand the critics. Risen 2 is not underrated as many other PB Games (like Elex or Risen1). Risen 2 ist just not a good game. But i LOVE this game. I have finished it multiple times and i just love it. Its the worst PB game by all means. But i just love it.
I'm a "very" silent lurker...
I have watched almost all of your PB reviews.
Your discriminate reviews on these games echo my own.
You have mastered the storytelling and acknowledgment of every PB game made.
The video commentary and editing alone... I feel would make the original developers tear at the eye.
(Please check out TNR's blog as well)
Syrup aside, I can't help but wish you were shadow-hired by PB (now THQ Nordic).
It takes someone like you to really highlight what made these games amazing for consumers.
I could go on about your skill in dissection but let me put this out there:
"Those who were captured by Gothic (1&2)..."
"Those who thought Risen 1 was a (somewhat) return to Gothic..."
"Those who thought ELEX 1 was different but a return to standard PB elements..."
All we can do is hope your review on ELEX 1 (and the new ELEX 2 gameplay) is well received.
Not to mention the stellar breakdown on the Gothic 1 remake (now shuttered by THQ).
I feel like if we (as consumers) had a kickstarter or place to fund original PB developers, we would.
Thank you for your exhaustive time/effort on these reviews.
I think I speak for many fans when we appreciate your ability to speak to our core feelings on why we love PB games.
One important point to metion:
Unlike previous piranha games Risen 2 and 3 is written to younger audience.
The speech animation, jokes, funny characters, always there is something funny in story. And if you liked previous games for being realistic with dark atmosphere you will be very disappointed.
Risen 2 and 3 feels like a lego game in terms of atmosphere.
Its funny but i can rly feel how so many of pbs games fall of at the end. At the start of the game they are intrigued by their new ideas and setting and front load everything and towards the later half of the game they realise that they don't have the skills or ressources to make their ideas work and have to force themselfs to finish the project. Thats at least the feeling i get from most of their games.
I loved it. Played back on ps3.
Aye, Tortuga!
For Glory you have to engage every npc into battle and farm them once