Reply 760 of 6850, by JmanP
wrote:I’ve been playing Risen 2 for the past couple of weeks and wow, I’m really loving on it. It’s an action RPG by Piranha Bytes who […]
I’ve been playing Risen 2 for the past couple of weeks and wow, I’m really loving on it. It’s an action RPG by Piranha Bytes who have been creating amazing open world RPG’s since releasing Gothic in 2001. I loved the Gothic series too, excluding of course Gothic 4 which was produced by another developer after Piranha Bytes split with their publisher and lost the rights. With no rights to Gothic Piranha Bytes dreamt up ‘Risen’, which was pretty much just Gothic in a different world. The first Risen was a great game despite a weak ending.
Risen 2 has been on my to-do list since it was released 2 years ago, but I’ve been on a mostly retro games kick since then. I gotta say that going from the world of pixilation and 8 bit sound to a modern game is making the experience all the more enjoyable. Risen 2 – which is set in an open-ish world (islands) looks and sounds stunning. It’s a tropical, quasi Caribbean pirate themed storyline with voodoo, fantasy monsters, tomb raider-esque temples to explore, and of course plenty of ridiculous pirate characters and cheesy dialogue. It’s very hard to describe really, and although it didn’t get great reviews I think it’s a brilliant mix of setting, real time combat (which gets a lot more interesting as you progress), and a solid, unique RPG mechanic. Something important which I think the reviews missed is the wonky humour that Piranha Bytes inject into their games. Risen 2 has me laughing out loud every time I play, and as much as I love the TES series, bringing a smile to my dial is not one of its achievements.
So if you’re looking for an interesting take on the RPG genre in a handcrafted world, I’d strongly recommend giving one of Piranha Bytes’ efforts a go. There’s a demo for Gothic II here – this is what got me hooked.
This is an awesome game! I might have to get this back out myself and have a blast