Unpolished, Uninspired, and Badly Dated
I looked forward to this release, jumped on the Steam offering, and now wondering if I should have waited for the reviews.
Last week I started playing 'Legend of Grimrock", I paid 15 bucks... I had more fun, more fist-pump out of that game than "Risen 2" could ever muster for 50 bucks.
The game is an unpolished, uninspired and dated looking game that is unintentionally humorous... foliage grows on trees as you watch, zooming in toward you as you walk, objects pop in & out like the game "Rage", not as bad, but it's very obvious.
Combat is so bad to start I thought I must be missing something, to call it a mindless click-fest is to be kind... you kill All the creatures by running up to them, clicking mouse wildly while holding the forward arrow down, so much fun...
The game is further marred with language that is thrown at you seemingly to impress children and JR High adults that games can use the F-word, like using this jargon somehow makes them more Pirate like... more threatening, but it sounds so contrived, like a 12 year old trying to be tough.
More fail... If you enter the water and walk 2-3 steps too far the screen goes black and you are whisked to the beach with no warning, no reason other than you went too far... are you to assume you passed out in the water and were carried to the beach and awoke unaware of how you got there?!
Questing is the meat of the game, yet it's typical RPG questing leading you by the nose through a story only a bored child would get interested in reading. In fact the story was ripped from Risen 1 and expanded in to a lame branch involving pirates and an island that you are to explore and build your character. Where other games (even Risen 1) present a place a player can be eager to explore, I felt no such urge, the place looked like Risen 1 but with more foliage... that grows as you walk toward it (omg does this look Bad!), same boring NPC's doing the same things as in the first game.
My advice is to wait for the company to issue a patch to clean up this mess, or wait until it hits the bargain bin, even then make sure there are no other games you want to play or this mess will sit until you are bored enough to give it a try.
I can only hope Deep Silver takes my 50 bucks and uses it to make a game we can play without wondering... WTF?!
They can do it, they have done it... but if Risen 2 is an indicator of all they are capable of I suggest a few changes... smoke less weed, drink less beer, and give the dead weight in your offices the boot to make room for those with fresh ideas and the ability to translate them to a game we can have Fun playing.... that is if you can survive this debacle.