Risen 2: Dark Waters Interview

IncGamers is offering an interview with Deep Silver’s brand manager Pete Brolly on Piranha Bytes’ upcoming sequel to Risen. Among the things Pete talks about are the challenges of developing the title multiplatform, the lack of handholding, the factios and more. Here’s a snip:

IG: Risen 2 does away with a mini-map and the Fable-style in-game line telling you where to go. That’s a different approach from the one most RPGs of this type are now taking, are you worried that some players may find the going tough? Or is that aimed squarely at hardened RPG players?

PB: The game is definitely a hardcore RPG and is very classical in nature, but we have introduced some devices to make navigation slightly easier. We save all the dialogue for you to go back and look and see whether or not an NPC told you to go somewhere that you didn’t pick up on.

You can also put points on your map for certain missions to make it easier for you to navigate. We didn’t want to overcrowd the HUD with looks of mini-maps etc, it was very much a case of making immersion as strong as possible. There’s also an option to fast travel to previously visited locations.

I don’t think players will have too much trouble in adapting to the game, though. Once you start playing you’ll very quickly pick up on how the world works and how everything fits together.

IG: The two major factions that you can join in Risen 2 are the Inquisition and the Voodoo, what are the advantages of each and are you forever locked out from the one you don’t initially choose?

PB: If you choose the Voodoo option then you’ll lock yourself out of some Inquisition missions, as well as some skills that you could potentially learn. You will still be able to use your pistol and ‘˜dirty trick’ skills if you choose Voodoo, but you won’t increase your firearms abilities enough to use rifles, muskets or shotguns.

On the other hand, you will get the Voodoo skills and missions.

IG: What are some of those Voodoo skills?

PB: New dialogue options open up where you can actually manipulate NPCs, so you can pluck a hair from their head and make a Voodoo puppet based on that person. You can then use that to take on a quest.

For example, one mission might involve a ship that needs to be taken over but is guarded by enemies. You could fight them yourself or you could take over the commander and use him to dismiss the troops.

There are also combat skills such as a spectre that can be used as a melee weapon or to cast spells i.e. you can tell one enemy to attack another.