Game review: Risen 2: Dark Waters
Risen 2: Dark waters
Time to hoist the jolly roger and “avast me hearties” into the world of pirates with RISEN 2: DARK WATERS, the latest rpg from DEEP SILVER.
This is actually a sequel to RISEN by PIRANHA BYTES and has been out on PC for a while now, taking the inevitable the leap into consoles.
When I saw the word “pirates” I expected to see lots of leaping around and piratey type of stuff, with peg-legged bad guys, parrots upon their shoulders, with plenty of catchphrases, and much skulduggery afoot.
Instead we get a much more serious attempt at portraying that period in time, in fact a little too serious at times.
It’s a game filled with monsters, ancient Gods and strange voodoo magic.
A heady and interesting mix you would think, but unfortunately RISEN 2: DARK WATERS is just another open world rpg, that is not the best out there, but not the worst.
The player doesn`t get to choose the character, so you play an nameless character, the same guy as the original, a sort of rebel with an eye patch, and a very posh English accent.
The story begins in the port of CALDERA where you are holed up with your troops after fleeing in the first game, with all kinds of things going on around you.
Gods battling in the North and part of the city aflame, a KRAKEN stopping supplies entering the city by sea, so things aren`t looking too rosey for our hero.
Then one stormy night a pirate ship is sunk, and amongst the survivors is PATTY a female pirate who appeared in the first game.
So you and PATTY team up and journey to the pirate island of TACARIGUA where you meet STEELBEARD, who joins the quest to find three artefacts, which when used in conjunction with a special harpoon will kill the TITAN LORD MARA the ultimate baddie.
So what we have here is a quest game, centred around a few islands, which is interesting but not original, with plenty of side missions available to keep us occupied.
There are a wide variety of weapons available, including guns, and you can upgrade your character with outfits and weapons as you progress, with plenty of items to collect including, chests, some of which need special skills to open them.
The thing that lets this game down is the dated graphics, it reminds me of an old PlayStation 1 game.
Character movement and game mechanics are dull and uninteresting, and the voice overs didn`t help much, the rather clipped British accents reminded me of the old British movies of the 1940s.
I also thought the liberal use of bad language was unnecessary.
The story itself is dull and uninspiring, with some tedious dialogue delivered in an unconvincing manner that just wasted time, fortunately you can skip the cut scenes.
RISEN 2: DARK WATERS has some promising ideas but they just never surfaced and we are left with an average rpg game that could have been so much more.
The use of bad language was a major error, it won`t make the game more real, or interesting if it’s filled with swearing.
Summary
DEEP SILVER had all the ingredients to make a great game with RISEN 2: DARK WATERS. Instead, through poor design decisions, have produced a mediocre rpg, littered with bad language and annoying game mechanics.
If it didn`t have the bad language this game would have appealed to younger gamers, as the violence is quite tame and acceptable.
I give RISEN 2: DARK WATERS 6 out of 10 mainly because it isn`t that good, but better than most, which says a lot for the others.
©theleet
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