Risen 2: Dark Waters Interview

The folks at RPG Codex had the chance to conduct an interview with Björn Pankratz, project director on Risen 2: Dark Waters, and as customary with the Codex, the questions are more in-depth and critical than most interviews. Here’s a sampling:

7. Björn Pankratz said that the dialogue system has been improved and that we’ll get more distinctive answers that will help us “shape our character”. Care to elaborate? Any chance to see stat- and skill-checks in a PB game one day?

We’ve changed the character development system from ground up, and some of the skills also influence the choices the player has in dialogs. Plus we also tried to create more optional answers for each dialog giving the player the chance to ‘˜role-play’ a lot more with his character.

8. According to Daniel Oberlerchner, Risen was too non-linear (people could go anywhere, which, apparently, was an issue). Risen 2 promises to be more linear, with mandatory quests blocking access to new areas/islands. Do you think it’s a good idea? If yes, why?

We don’t think that linearity in general is a good idea. It actually depends when in the game it’s used. At the start of the game more linearity is good, because the player doesn’t know a lot about the game world, the controls and the mechanics. If at that point in the game too much freedom and too many choices are presented the player is overwhelmed. So we decided to make the game start a little more linear than usually. But later in the game, when the player has already mastered all the basics, freedom and openness are good. And that’s the way we implemented it.

9. Also Daniel mentioned that the difficulty of the first game was “frustrating” in the beginning, so to, uh, welcome new players you can’t die in the first few hours. Any concerns that lengthy tutorials (according to Daniel, the first island IS a tutorial) and low difficulty can turn off the hardcore audience?

No, that came across the wrong way. We don’t believe in lengthy and boring tutorials. The game starts in a small area, and every time the player does something for the first time we explain to him how to do that. But it’s still already the real game! So you dive right into the story and the game world, and learn to master the game as a side effect.