Risen 2: Dark Waters Review: Lack Of Quality And Intrigue

Risen 2: Dark Waters Review: Lack of Quality and Intrigue

Risen 2: Dark Waters
PS3, 360
Action/RPG

Risen 2: Dark Waters is a pirate themed open world action/RPG filled with numerous quests to partake in. However, it’s tough for me to recommend that anyone go through with playing this game. I ran across so many issues with this game, many of them right at the start. From the beginning you’ll notice that the game has presentation issues where the camera work is awkward when involved in a conversation. I suppose we can write that one off as a personal opinion and less of an issue, but in my opinion the camera work is awful. Once you have the opportunity to start moving around, you’ll notice loading issues that cause the game’s performance to slow up – both of these things are noticeable right from the start.

The game begins with a boat being sunk just off-shore by a kraken and it is your responsibility to find survivors. You find a woman being attacked by a few creatures which is where you will get your first taste of combat. The combat is simple and the opening fight makes you feel like the weakest person in the world and that actually continues for a while. The fighting is not that much fun and when you mix that with choppy gameplay due to loading, it’s not a good combination and really makes you wonder what you are getting yourself into.

Going back to the presentation, the way it sets up the storyline is so very uninteresting and there is absolutely no pull to want to drive you to continue on. I didn’t even care for the menus and it doesn’t have the best navigation system to help you find your next destination. However, once you do you’ll be met with tasks that once again come off as uninteresting and tedious. The bad thing about all of this is that it’s all noticeable right from the get-go and is by far, more than enough, to turn you away from this game.

Gameplay Footage

I continued on, but was met with further issues including one where I fell into water and the game reset me on the surface. The bad thing about this is that the entire screen was black when it reset me and I couldn’t see a thing. So, I quit and loaded up my saved file and when it loaded back up it was still a black screen. I decided to try my other save file and the same thing happened. I even started a new game and it was still a black screen. The only way to fix it was to quit the game entirely and load it up again. The game to me, feels like a rush job and they really could have spent a lot more time polishing it up.

Like any open world adventure, the game does cause you to fall off track and want to screw around a bit. With the lack of good presentation in the game’s story and quests, it’s easy to want to explore the world and see your own things. It has moments where the game looks good from a distance, not so much for when you see things right in front of you. The character animations are average as well and nothing to be impressed by. As you explore the world there are items littered all over the ground for you to pick up and use for health when you need it, which will be quite often. There are enemies such as hogs, monkeys and jaguars to name a few, and if you hang out along the shoreline you’ll see other sea creatures there as well. You’ll even come across larger enemies that can really do some damage to you, so it’s important that you pick up every item you see along the way.

In this world of pirates, other pirates are very protective of their stuff. If you go into their home without permission you will be met by a blade unless you leave immediately. Also, every time you pull out your blade you will be told to put it away. If you accidently swing then you better quickly “skip” away. You automatically run in this game, but it’s faster to use the jump button which looks more like a skip to me. In fact, you’ll spend a whole lot of time skipping around this game, but you should do yourself a favor and just skip this game all together.

It has all your basics that you would expect from an open world game and from an action/RPG title. You’ll be able to upgrade your guy in specific areas and you’ll be able to buy and sell items, including new weapons. The entire process and presentation again is just not well laid out and does not come across as gamer friendly.

This game offers a horrible presentation overall and doesn’t have a great gameplay experience due to loading issues that cause choppiness. The story also doesn’t have a single bit of intrigue at the beginning to pull you into the pirate themed setting. That leaves you with a game that was not put together well. There is something else that I didn’t like about the combat in addition to it feeling fairly basic; I couldn’t lock on to a specific enemy. That’s something that is always helpful, especially when you get turned around. The one good thing about the game is that if things aren’t going your way then you should remember you are hanging out with a bunch of pirates. This means that there will be a lot of drinking going on and that includes a drinking game! You can play a mini-game and try to out-drink one of the other pirates. You can even bet money on it! Check out the video below, and don’t worry, if you don’t have enough gold you will be able to just drink. I wish I could drink without having any gold.

Drinking Game – ”I don’t have gold enough”

This is a game that should not be played unless you absolutely love the idea of the pirate themed open world setting and that you have an incredible amount of patience and forgiveness for its lack of quality and intrigue.

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  1. I was so excited when I first heard the news for a new Risen video game coming out! Too bad it, to most of the internet community that I’ve seen anyway, didn’t live up to it’s hype. I’m glad I read up on games beofre I buy them!