By Alec Meer on June 25th, 2012 at 11:00 am.
Piranha Bytes’ spiritual, Pirates of the Caribbeany Gothic sequel Risen 2: Dark Waters made its somewhat deflating presence known last month, but if one man’s one thousand words on wot he thought about it aren’t enough to cement your buying decision one way or another you can sample a demo now.
There’s a magic button which will install it over on the right-hand side of this here Steam page. The demo includes the beginning of the game, which from memory means scripted squid-assaults, beach combing, crab-fighting and talking to a woman wearing an impractical shirt.
Risen 2 is quite literally OK, but only just. To be honest I’d point you in the direction of the also heavily-flawed but far more ambitious and stereotype-avoiding Game of Thrones if you’re after a role to play right now.
25/06/2012 at 11:11 roryok says:
Piracy is killing gaming
25/06/2012 at 12:24 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Arrr ye sure matey?
25/06/2012 at 12:47 roryok says:
Of course I am. Look at these charts
25/06/2012 at 13:24 roryok says:
Charts. like on a ship… Tough crowd.
25/06/2012 at 13:44 ElvisNeedsBoats says:
I treasured your comment but you may want to dig deeper next time.
25/06/2012 at 16:45 Mattressi says:
Go on; I’m hooked.
25/06/2012 at 20:26 Nihilexistentialist says:
I really wish people would quit parroting this line of thought.
26/06/2012 at 00:56 Big McLargeHuge says:
I had you pegged for a smarter person than that.
25/06/2012 at 11:16 oceanview says:
Deep silver’s suits killed what was left of that great piranha bytes flavour. couple it with day 1 dlc and the usual unfinished release and you’ve got what is sure to be my greatest dissapointment this year. I have high hopes for wasteland 2.. if that doesn’t deliver then i’ll go replay Planescape and cry myself to sleep.
25/06/2012 at 13:14 abandonhope says:
I’ve spread my bets around to more than just Wasteland 2, but if it ends up sucking I hereby offer to spoon you so you don’t have to cry alone.
25/06/2012 at 11:39 oceanclub says:
This reminds me to go back and finish both Risen and Gothic 3 sometime; two games which make me feel that games sometimes really are too long.
P.
25/06/2012 at 11:50 Ninja Dodo says:
Gothic 3 has some good ideas but the game is spread FAR too thin. You’re better off replaying Gothic 2 with the Night of the Raven expansion if you haven’t already.
I played through some of Risen 1 and found it better than Gothic 3 but not as good as the earlier Gothics. Haven’t tried Risen 2 yet.
25/06/2012 at 12:04 Njordsk says:
I loved gothic 3, but didn’t play the 2.
The lush forest, the arid desert and to finish to rough moutains. I loved the environnement and felt completly free in that wonderful world.
That and killing orcs indeed. I still recall taking the “sultan”‘ seat, great memories.
25/06/2012 at 12:15 oceanview says:
gothic 2 with night of the raven is wonderful, graphics will be slightly dated but don’t let that be a reason not to play it.
Look for gothic 2 gold edition.
25/06/2012 at 13:18 abandonhope says:
oceanclub… oceanview… are you two friends or something?
25/06/2012 at 12:26 Eukatheude says:
Yes. It was a deeply flawed game, but i still remember it very fondly. Its scale was epic, and exploring the world was, somehow, more satisfying to me than any other open world title. I can’t quite explain it, but my travel from the central city to the southern capital was one of my greatest gaming experiences. The ending was somehow underwhelming, but actually arriving at the end of such a massive game did bring a lot of satisfaction and already a feeling of nostalgia.
Risen on the other hand was “just” a good game. I tried getting into the first two games, but the first was so bugged that i just couldn’t get past some hours into it, despite trying several times – and what a quirky game was it. The second one, i must say i never seriously tried playing it, though i hear most consider it the best in the saga.
25/06/2012 at 11:39 Njordsk says:
Has it been patched correctly?
25/06/2012 at 11:46 roryok says:
anyone know when this is pegged for release?
25/06/2012 at 12:02 Hammers says:
I hope I’ve got rum on my hard-drive to install this demo.
25/06/2012 at 12:11 MeestaNob says:
Apparently Avast! anti-virus is giving false positives, matey.
25/06/2012 at 12:08 Gentlemoth says:
I’ve heard demos is good for the sales of your game. I’ve also heard demos are good to provide upon release of your game, especially if it’s not a AAA title.
25/06/2012 at 12:15 MistyMike says:
Is this game better than Witcher 2?
25/06/2012 at 12:25 EPICTHEFAIL says:
Incoming fanboy airstrike.
25/06/2012 at 12:47 roryok says:
Risen 2 involves swords. You know what else has swords? Diablo 3. Discuss.
25/06/2012 at 12:54 EPICTHEFAIL says:
You know who else used Godwin`s law? HITLER!
Discuss.
25/06/2012 at 13:00 mr.ioes says:
I did nazi that coming.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3pupxy/
25/06/2012 at 12:46 Njordsk says:
Very hard to surpass Witcher 2 in my book. Didn’t play risen II though.
25/06/2012 at 13:07 Avish says:
It’s technically and physically impossible.
25/06/2012 at 15:18 deadly.by.design says:
To compare two similar games, one must remember to take the Inverse Wench Property into account.
q=(g*w)
25/06/2012 at 15:39 DodgyG33za says:
Surely you mean q = g / w otherwise it is not inverse
25/06/2012 at 15:52 MistyMike says:
I find this question relevant since I’m currently enjoying Witcher 2 and I feel the game could be described as an evolution of Gothic II and Risen is a direct descendant of the Gothic series.
25/06/2012 at 16:24 Zenicetus says:
Compared to the Witcher series, the Risen series just has far less polish.
25/06/2012 at 20:16 baozi says:
An evolution? More like another kind of game, isn’t it? The Witcher 2 is cool but it has very little of the openness of the Gothic series. The feeling is totally different.
(Note that I haven’t played Risen 2 (well, half an hour or an hour or so of the demo, up till now).)
25/06/2012 at 16:52 DrGonzo says:
I preferred Risen 1 to The Witcher 2, but loved them both and highly recommend them both. Risen 2 however is dreadful. Really poor, doesn’t feel like it has anything to do with the first game, the difficulty isn’t present, it’s just permanently easy as pie. The writing is full of terrible jokes, it’s almost Fable. Bring back the grey miserable and almost boring Risen 1 I say!
In fact, I might just go back and play it through again…
25/06/2012 at 15:43 Shortwave says:
Someone on here once pointed out to me that sometimes releasing a demo at launch isn’t as counter-productive as it might seem at first glance, I mean.. When the game is terrible that is, such as in this case.