Risen 2: Dark Waters Previews

A couple more websites have penned their impressions of Piranha Bytes’ upcoming Risen sequel, Risen 2: Dark Waters, based on the game’s showing at the GDC a week ago. Atomic Gamer.

Onto the style of Risen 2. Much like you’ve seen with Piranha Bytes’ past games, the hand-holding is cut down to a minimum, so if you gain skill points, you will have to find a trainer that has the skills you want and do quests to gain his favor (or just pay a bunch of money, we’d guess) – all just so you can actually spend the skill points you receive. Beyond that, while you will get quests that tell you where to go, the game doesn’t put little markers on a map or compass to show you where off-the-beaten-path points of interest are. You have to find those yourself. As before, you raise skills however you like; there is no class system, so you can make a specialist, dual-class, or hybrid as long as you have the trainers and the skill points (and maybe gold) to feed them. You don’t make any decisions about your character when you start – he always looks the same and has the same voice. You’ll have plenty of choices later in the game, like the friends you choose (which will certainly make some enemies as well) and how you build your hero.

If you want to be a thief in this game, you’ll be on your own as well. You can’t rob people’s houses during the day since, well, they’re right there, but if you want to break in and grab people’s stuff at night, go for it. As before, characters will do their jobs in villages and cities, and they’ll stop to grab a bit to eat and go to sleep at night. Each character’s look will be more distinct this time around, as the developers can now equip items and accessories per-piece onto each NPC, giving each a more unique appearance.

TeamXbox.

The game is set across multiple islands to improve performance, as the game will only require a single load per island. With smaller maps, the overall game is still an enormous experience. The developers want you to grind your way back to earlier areas to solve puzzles you couldn’t before and in general build a powerful character. They’re aiming to build a world that doesn’t (impose visible barriers.) That means there will be a lot of exploration and you’ll see all sides of the social hierarchies. You’ll need to win the respect of different factions and you won’t be welcomed with open arms to most areas.