Risen 2 Preview – Deep Silver’s Community Day 2012

Introduction

At the 23rd of March, Deep Silver invited several members of the Risen community to their headquarters in Munich for the second Risen Community Day. The first one, two years ago, revealed the new teaser and allowed the invited players a first glimpse at the new Risen 1. The second community day was quite similar. After a short introduction and presentation, the visitors were allowed to play Risen 2 Dark Waters for themselves. The version available was not limited to the area of the beta version but included at least two regions of the game. Unfortunately, the time available only allowed us to play a bit into the Sword Coast region which follows Takarigua. Hence, the overarching story of the game still remains a mystery.

Story (Spoilers)

Deducing from what we could see so far, the world of Risen 2 resembles a knock-off of the colonial period of our own history. There is the old world, from which the Inquisition comes and where the game begins. Like giants in the playground, the Titan Lords wage war against each other and destroy everything around them. The only reason that Caldera, the last fortress of the normal humans, still stands is because the Titan Lords are too busy with each other to bother with the humans. But everyone knows that as soon as one of the Lords is victorious, he will try to conquer the entire continent and march on Caldera as well.

The only hope of the people of the old world is the new world which seems free of the influence of the Titan Lords. However, evacuating everyone to the newly discovered continent on the other end of the world comes with two problems: First, the oceans are controlled by Mara, another Titan Lord who commands a mighty kraken to sink ships. Passage is extremely dangerous. The second problem is that the new world is not uninhabited and the natives are basically used as slaves by the technologically superior new arrivals. Which is not exactly the foundation for a good neighbourship.

The hero of Risen 1 is now an officer of the Inquisition but he does not take that responsibility seriously. Even though he defeated the Titan in Risen 1, the world is still on the brink of collapse. This made him become a drunkard. The game starts when a ship tries to reach Caldera in the middle of a nightly thunderstorm. However, the ultimate doom of the ship is not the storm but a giant kraken which attacks it shortly before it reaches the safety of Caldera’s harbour.

Carlos, commander of the fortress in Caldera, orders the nameless hero to go to the beach and search for survivors in the shipwreck. The hero arrives just in time to save Patty, the daughter of the infamous pirate Steelbeard from part 1, from some monsters which attacked her on the beach. Back in the fortress, she explains that the pirates are fractured. While some follow Mara, others resist her. Her father being part of the latter group, he seems to have found a weapon against the kraken.

And so, Carlos orders the hero to go undercover. Officially stripped from his position as officer of the Inquisition, he is supposed to infiltrate Steelbeards crew and acquire the magic weapon. This is where the game really starts. Your first stop is the island of Takarigua where you need to find Steelbeard and convince him that you are worthy of joining his crew.

Presentation

The overall graphics seem a little frumpy compared to other recent titles. It is a somewhat irritating that some textures are highly detailed while others have a rather low resolution. The animations of the characters are often too exagerated (anyone remember Stan from Monkey Island?), except for the facial expressions which are rather limited.

Compared to Risen 1 however, certain improvements have been made. Women now have their own skeleton and animation set. No longer are their limbs twisted in weird manners because they had to fit into a skeleton made for males. Also, members of different factions have different animations. This stirs up memories of Gothic 1 and 2. Members of the Inquisition are the rather stiff, goose-stepping military type. Pirates are relaxed and often drunk and staggering. Natives are proud and somewhat arrogant but very agile in combat.

There is also the new anti-aliasing provided by the game engine which edges look more smoothly. And of course, the level design is on the upper hand of the scale. But that is to be expected from Piranha Bytes.

Gameplay

The old system from Gothic or Risen where you would earn experience points and then learning points with every new level has been removed.

Instead, you gain fame points. You do not have to wait for the next level and can immediately invest them in your character’s attributes. By a simple click in the character screen. Teachers are only needed for skills like the dirty tricks (special combat moves, i.e. kicking you opponent, throwing sand in his eyes, etc.), intimidation or persuasion, or for resistence skills. In this, the game seems a little bit like Drakensang with its Upgrade XP.

You sometimes miss the option to partake in useless activities. Such as sitting down on a chair, drinking or eating (with animation), turn a skewer over a fire, etc. Stuff that has no direct benefit for your gameplay but makes you feel to be a part of the world. In Bethesda’s Skyrim, the problem of the useless activities (such as wood chopping) was solved by making it useful. You get wood chunks as result which you can then sell to earn some money. In Risen 2, the problem of useless activities was solved by removing them.

Controls

The free camera proves to be a setback from previous titles. The game puts only objects in front of the character in the focus, not in front of the camera. So when you use the mouse to look around, you never notice whether or not some objects can be interacted with. You have to turn the camera, then press the forward key to turn the character as well. It makes investigating your surroundings very tedious and seems to hold little benefits for players.

The thing you will probably notice first in combat is that you cannot dodge attacks anymore. Which is very problematic against animals. Attacks by human opponents can be blocked but not animal attacks. In Risen 1, you had to dodge them. In Risen 2, you can basically do nothing. Officially, the dirty tricks are supposed to replace the dodging. You have to kick animals or shoot at them in combat. But those actions have cooldown period during which you are helpless again. And you need to learn them first which also uses up some of your fame points.

There is also a stun effect which renders you helpless for a short period when an enemy hits you. Similar are the new quicktime events. Some enemies will overwhelm you, throw you down and keep attacking you. Then you have to quickly press the spacebar to get back on your feet again.

In the author’s opinion, both stun and quicktime events are bad choices for any roleplaying game because they break immersion. After you have familiarised yourself with the controls, you control your character on a sub-conscious level. You do not have to think about which to key to press to do something, you just do it. Like driving a car or a bicycle. That allowed your conscious mind to complete immerse in the game world. Taking that control away from you (stun) or suddenly changing it (quicktime event) forces you to consciously adapt to the new situation. You realize yet again that you are not part of a fantasy world but sitting in front of a computer, pressing keys. But it seems as though the majority of the market disagrees with me and fancies the action and variety it brings. So you’ll probably enjoy them in Risen 2 as well.

Conclusion

The story, as far as it is currently visible, seems interesting and the pirate setting – while not appealing to everyone – is unquestionably a rare treat in RPGs. Graphics and animations are no jaw-dropper and could be better, but are still good enough for a roleplaying game. The level design can easily compare to any other recent RPG out there. Some gameplay changes might leave players scratching their head, others (like the dirty tricks and the new animation sets) will most likely be quite welcome.

Sandbox-type roleplayers will probably be better served with Skyrim as Risen 2 offers little in matters of non-story roleplaying or interaction with the world. Story-type roleplayers might yet find the game a decent catch, provided the story (which we still do not know) has sufficient narrative qualities and offers enough choices and consequences.

In any event, the game is still very PB-esque and it was fun to play. I deeply regret that I cannot report anything about the voodoo magic but I did not get that far.

If you liked the other games of the developers from Essen and can live with the mandatory Steam binding, you should definitely take a look at Risen 2, too.