Risen 2: Dark Waters

May not be the best Piranha Bytes game, but it is a Piranha Bytes game nonetheless - very enjoyable niche game that scratches the itch no other company or RPG game can address to this day.

What is Risen about?

A classical open world game with RPG Elements, like the Gothic-Series (from the same creators). Three Titans have been awoken from their slumber and wreck havock, the world is in shambles, but there might be a way to at least get rid of one of the three - not easy as there are still conflicts in the different parties of the survivors. But you will use wits or sword to stay alive.

Recommendation?

Yes and No - it depends on the players tolerance. If you are a person who likes challenges and who is bug-tolerant, then you may enjoy the game. You can play Risen 2 without playing the previous Risen-1 to understand the plot. It offers a rich world with rough characters and some interesting quests and plot here and there. I really liked the conversation-location functionality, where people start talking about their relevant information for you and bound to quests, which helps the immersion into the game a lot. The fighting system is kind of smooth and offers high paced (fencing) motions. And most interesting is the non standard skills which include taming monkeys and parrots, using dirty tricks, including salt and fire for fighting and much more. Additional mini-games like a drinking challenge or shooting practice are very nice additions and well made.

In the light that this game is cheap nowadays, think about if you want to try it. Risen is a hard game where the beginning sucks, because you do not have enough money, not enough fighting power and occasional bugs are annoying, but other then that it is an interesting game. If you are still hesitating, better stay away, as the pain points get even to veterans sometimes, otherwise have fun.

Other info

Risen 2 is not just a continuation of Risen 1. The idea to go away from the standard fighter, thief, magician skill trees from Risen-1 gives this game something unique and interesting.

Additionally the story might have changed a tiny bit in nuances, i mean, our hero - now with hair? - claims to have won against a fire titan, but is somehow lacking his armor and Patty, Severin and Carlos look a little bit different. And now there is talk about not only Titans but Titan Lords controlling the beasts. Does that hurt - not so much.

quite fun able to run an older game no problems

An interesting pirate setting, but it’s not the best in the series. The gameplay feels a bit outdated, and some mechanics could use improvement. Still, if you enjoy pirate themes, it's worth a try.

Amazing new mechanics like parrot or monkey but all locations were small and really similar to each one. To summarize 4/5. Will start the 3rd part of the Risen and hope that would better.
But all "Piranha Bytes" RPGs still best in genre.

The huge amount of reports I found of people having constant problems with crashes, including recent reviews on large channels, tells me that this game doesn't work well on modern machines.

I tried almost everything recommended, from starting the game in compatibility mode to installing 4GB patches, and nothing worked. As soon as I left the tutorial area, the game became unplayable due to the constant freezes that softlocked my system.

The crashes in this game are the kind where you can't even access the task manager.

And as if that wasn't enough, you still have a very distracting constancy of pops in textures and effects.

So I don't recommend it, even though they are giving the game away almost for free.

Piranha Bytes games are an acquired taste. You learn to tolerate the jank, the horrendous combat, and the lack of production values ​​because at the end of the day there is a captivating experience at the core of these games.

Tolerance for me goes away as soon as the games stop working.

And frankly, from what I know about the game and from what little I've been able to play, it seems like a pretty obvious downgrade from Risen 1, apart from changing the theme to something focused on pirates (Which as far as I know was quite divisive).

The combat looks and feels even worse, who knows how.

And instead of a modestly sized open map, you have several small islands that act as a miniature version of what you're already used to.

The cynical and sarcastic tone of the characters seems to be there at least. And I was willing to embark on this adventure. But unfortunately i won't be able to.

This is a case where you might be better off revisiting Gothic or Risen again or just jumping straight into Elex, which has its own problems, but at least it works.

Whle not without issues, Risen 2 is a fun pirate adventure, even if slightly worse than the original Risen. The cast is fun, as are the quests and the locations to visit - if you want a solid pirate-themed RPG in a colonial setting, give this one a shot.
Note that this is now an older game - download the 64-bit patch (or just download here - https://ntcore.com/?page_id=371), so you don't get frequent crashes.

There are A LOT of bugs - use the guides at your leisure and especially once you meet "Garcia" - do yourself a favor and use the guide or you might lose hours of progress!

Happy sailing, pirate!

Yesss So tough! You gotta get good!

Перше враження було: "што?".
Перша частина має дууууже умовний стосунок до другої, буквально два речення на початку, все. Але... сама по собі гра класна - не ідеальна, але захоплює. Сеттинг "Піратів Німецького Моря" - перша і остання спроба Піраній в оригінальність.
Дерево навичок цікаве, складність - достойна, напарники - шикарні, фракції наче є, трохи головоломок. Квест досить різноманітні. Битви з босами - барахло, всі проходять в одну хвіртку, за однаковим сценарієм.

If you liked Risen ,Risen 2 will be worth it for you. They upgraded a lot of game mechanics and the graphics, a little bit ,there are now decent quest markers so no more fumbling around. The combat is pretty basic but still enjoyable and it's a Pirate RPG , no naval combat though but it doesn't subtract from the game imo .
I've played for 28 hours now and I'm only halfway through . Because it's so old I recommend purchasing when it's on sale or in a bundle deal . Just one more thing, save constantly ,like every 5 minutes . Quick saves don't get overwritten so you can and should go nuts, not because of bugs bad but it's possible to soft lock the game if you for example when talking to a fisherman too early ,you do his quest and he never let's you ask for fish, which you need to progress your journal keeps telling you to get fish but it's impossible .

Risen 2 Dark Waters Review

Review is after completing the main story, all available side quests and obtaining all of the artifacts. Also played Risen 1 previously to completion.

Pros:

• Interesting story about vanquishing another titan.
  
• Some fun side quests on each of the islands.
  
• The pirate theme adds to the game, making it different from the first game.
  
• Good plot twist in one of the islands in the main quest.
  
• Some unique weapons.
  
• Some hidden artifacts that add bonuses
  
• Final battle was easy and fun. Was able to go all out on the baddie. Good fun.
  
• Console activation and easily used cheat codes that make this game bearable and enjoyable.
  

Cons:

• No mini map. Convoluted navigation.
  
• Somehow our hero from Risen 1 has completely forgotten all skills.
  
• Unclear objectives locations.
  
• Very interesting loot, most of the time.
  
• Sprint is time based, not action based. Start sprinting, stop, stand still and watch as your guy pants heavily as if he had run a mile.
  
• All ships look the same.
  
• Too much backtracking for side quests.
  
• Enemy faces are repeated throughout the entire game.
  
• Had to redo the fight before the final fight due to a game crash during a cutscene.
  
• After the final cutscene, the game ends. There is no free roam afterwards.
  
• Voodoo is not that impressive. I found muskets to be the better option.
  
• Vegetation increases when walking towards it.
  

Advice:

• Cheat! This game is an absolutely unbearable slog without cheat codes.
  
[*]Add large amounts of gold and glory to your character. Enjoy the rest of the game fully. It's a much more enjoyable experience.

You need some grog!
Overall Score: 6/10 with cheats 4/10 without cheats

После первой части это какой-то ужас

It's a very traditional Piranha Bytes RPG where you want to get lost. With lovely quirks and story telling.

Caveat: I am a fan of every game in the series from Gothic to Risen 3. This one has a few different things like guns, easy teleport options, and monkeys, but its pretty similar at the core.

It's well written, well acted, the graphics still hold up IMO, and it was a lot of fun to play again. I had forgotten it enough to enjoy it all over. I wish they were still making games like this.

This game is an unplayable abandonware.
The menu loaded but it was simply unable to start a new game, it just ended up freezing on a black screen.
I applied some fixes such as PhysX reinstall, .ini edits and file verification. After that at least it started and played the opening cinematic.
Then right after loading into the tutorial room it CRASHED MY PC into a complete power down - shut down.
Maybe one day GOG will patch this to a working condition in their games preservation program.
THQ Nordic and Steam obviously don't care they are selling broken shit that can potentially damage your hardware.

it is good

If you're into Piranha Bytes games and love a pirate vibe, this one's totally for you.

El pero juego de Piranha. Se me ha hecho largo. Tiene muchas cosas que no me gustan pero me ahorro escribirlas.

nice game play and story. a classic.

Janky but charming pirate shenanigans

Took like 45 fucking minutes to launch (stuck on 'updating executable'), farted around with compatibility bollocks and when it finally did launch, I was presented with shitty graphics and terrible, shitty combat and jank all around... And it was just pretty fucking boring and failed to hook me from the get go. Note to self: Just play Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim instead because 99% of all these other fantasy games I purchased years ago that kinda looked like them suck actual donkey balls. So I'll just Fus Ro Dah this shit from my HDD after I collect the trading cards. Thanks.

A good sequel to Risen 1 that you'll likely enjoy even if you haven't pleyed the first.

Kinda like the first one, the first 3/4 of the game is what I enjoyed the most thanks to exploration and the immersive environment. I have to say that level design is a bit of a step back: Risen 1 was set ona single island that had interesting level design, it was compact but vertical; Risen 2 has multiple smaller location, I therefore expected them to have more depth, but that is not the case, exploring is still very enjoyable but for a different reason: progression.

Like basically every Pyranha Bytes games, a good progression system is one of the pillars of the experience (together with an immersive setting and the intrinsic motivation to explore it). Progression is good for to main reasons: a balanced economy and the player always needing more power. Progression is also the main drive for exploration: as you always need more EXP and money, killing mobs and finding treasures is always rewarding, but this is a double edged sword, because once you become strong enough, towards the end of the game, exploring becomes less interesting and more dull.

Combat is weird, it has less depth compared to Risen 1, this makes it a bit obnoxious at first, but it's simplicity makes slashing through enemies a bit more enjoyable compared to Risen 1 after you get some power.

Story is more of an overall goal to the game, both the story and characters are not very deep but, like for Risen 1, I wouldn't call it bad, it's just not part of the core experience. The last bit definitely feels rushed tho: an underwhelming final boss with followed by a quick conclusion, I kinda wish they made a preper final boss and endgame dungeon instead of making Maracai Bay, which is where exploring and questing felt the most dull to me.

Better overall than Risen (the latter which had terribly horrible rank-awful combat). Old yet good enough... if you can ignore all its petty shortcomings. (Way easier to tolerate them than in Risen 1.)

The game failed to launch 6 times.

With a mod fixing the strange vegetation warp the game was suprisingly good fun.

Worthy representative of the genre. Recommended.

(Although there are a lot of bugs)

It's Janky a 5.5/10 game with bad combat and lots of tedium, which was designed to be played with cheats. But still a unique game with some charm and flair that is worth your attention if you like RPGs and have nothing else left to play.


Or if you feel like playing all of PB games.

It is better than Dragon Dogma, Kingdom Of Amalur, Dragon Age Inquisition, Shadows of Mordor, and Icewind Dale.

A praise you should take with caution as those games are really bad and I couldn't finish them nor play them more than a few hours.
Risen 2 has enough charm to make me want to finish it.

It doesn't hook you like Risen, and it's less pretty.
It is just overall a meh game that isn't that interesting, but not bad to make you want to never see it again.
As an avid RPG fan, I'm glad I played it, and I'm glad I finished it.

The only proper pirate RPG in the market, competition keep shooting themselves in the foot (a certain AAAA game for example) What is this business strategy called PB ?

To my disappointment, I had to quit because a npc got stuck in the main quest line because of a bug.

The developer who designed the weather and made rain go with CONSTANT thunder, I really hope the dude stopped working in gamedev and does something more suiting him like being a janitor or smth.

A good sequel to the first Risen albeit with a few random twists in the world-building and lore. Combat is still clunky and slow to respond as it is in the original but it is noticeably better tuned in this installment. The story managed to keep things interesting at a good pace and the dialogue is a major contributing factor there, our Nameless Hero has so many funny responses to various ludicrous events and NPCs help by being equally ridiculous thus causing many bouts of laughter.
The only negative criticism I have to point out is the frequent freezes and sudden crashes to desktop that became quite irritating over time coupled with an increase in visual glitches and bugs as opposed to the original.

Template:

---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Mehh, nothing special
☑ Clunky
☐ Good
☐ Very good
☐ So fun!

---{ Story }---
☐ No story
☐ Not great
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Captivating
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Graphics }---
☐ MS-DOS
☐ Bad
☐ Decent
☑ Good
☐ Beautiful
☐ Masterpiece
☐ You forget what reality is

---{ Audio }---
☐ I wish I was deaf
☐ Bad
☐ Not too bad
☑ Decent
☐ Good
☐ Very good
☐ Eargasm

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Moderate
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Unforgiving
☐ Difficult
☐ Souls-like

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Only if you care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Average grind level
☐ A bit grindy sometimes
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ Depends on you
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ Infested and broken

---{ Game Size }---
☐ Floppy Disk
☑ Old Fashioned
☐ Workable
☐ Big
☐ Will eat 10% of your 1TB hard drive
☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it
☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Price }---
☐ You could also just burn your money
☐ Not recommended
☐ If you have a spare coin
☑ If it's on sale
☐ Worth the price
☐ It's free!

---{ Audience }---
☐ Everyone
☐ Kids mainly
☑ Teens and older
☐ Adults only

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☑ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

More Glorious Jank

A fun, though low-budget RPG. Unlike all other Piranha Bytes games, structurally, Risen 2 is not a reassembled Gothic but something closer to the older Bioware games.

In fact, if you break down the components of the game individually, Risen 2 is quite a mediocre game. Although I previously compared it to Bioware titles, the plot here is very weak. While the story has some interesting moments, it is predictable, the characters come across as quite dull and the dialogues sometimes feel overly simple.

The combat system is one of the most controversial parts of the game. It’s very clunky and unresponsive, especially in the beginning, lacking depth or complex combos — it's just simple button-mashing. The only way to defeat enemies is through sword fighting. Yes, there are firearms in the game, but they are positioned more as a supportive tool.

The graphics were outdated even at the time of the game's release. While the environment looks pretty good, the animation and character models have aged poorly. Additionally, the lighting in the game is very strange — it's highly contrasted. At times, the game is too dark, and at others, it's overly bright.

Despite all its flaws, this game has one quality that makes it truly appealing — its world and atmosphere. Risen 2: Dark Waters perfectly captures the spirit of pirate adventures. Exploring the game world is incredibly engaging: uncovering its lore, visiting new islands, and searching for treasure is quite fun. If you appreciate that, Risen 2 is a must-play game for you.

German RPG classic with beautiful hand-crafted open world. Still worth a try in 2024

Great game!

Started playing this as soon as I got the first one done with my expectations in check as I had heard this was a bit of a downgrade however I must admit I find this more fun then the prior game in a number of ways.

Like most I'm a sucker for anything pirate themed especially for an RPG and wish we got more. Like the first game, a bit of a learning curve at the beginning but stick with it!