Risen 2 - Preview @ Ripten
 

Ripten has a short preview of Risen 2, although it doesn't add much of value:
More information.

"Just don’t expect to be able to free sail around ala Two Worlds 2, as travel between the lush islands in Risen 2 will occur via a cutscene every time you pick a new destination. "

Oh. I didn't pick up on that from the other previews. Disappointed. Been a fan of so called 'free sailing' in CRPGs since Ultima 5 and said goodbye to it in Ultima 7. Would have quite enjoyed it in the Risen/Gothic style.

I do have Two Worlds 2 however, didn't get very far yet. How is ocean travel in this game?

In Two Worlds 2? You just get one little boat and it comes fairly late in the game after you already have gotten via teleport to the second continent (unless you sort of cheat and water walk to it early on). There's also not a ton of sutff to really see and do on the land masses where the main quest doesn't take place. It's still kind of fun, I think, to explore a bit and see some of the vistas but don't expect too much from it.

Now the expansion that is coming out soon is supposed to add a new large boat and deal with pirates so it sounds like it really expands on the sailing but we'll have to see how that ends up.

I didn't realize the loading thing either. Oh well.

Not so much of an open world then….kinda sucks. These guys don't do very large worlds well though, they are the more medium sized areas.

Having load screens doesn't mean the world is smaller or more linear. I'm sure it's divided up for performance reasons more than anything else.

I'd rather endure an occasional load screen than suffer stuttering because of world streaming.

Absolutely.. Worked really well in Gothic1-2, i really prefer them over Gothic3's streaming.. I can't remember if Risen had loading screens.

"Open world" in those games would most of all require swimming…

If it's load screens at a certain point but one large map then okay fine. If it's completely separate maps though and you just sail your boat automatically from one to another that is a little disappointing.

There's actually no difference if you think about it. What does it matter whether it's one map or multiple maps if there's load screens anyways?

Not having manual control of the boat sucks, but it's not a deal breaker. They announced that early on so it's not coming as a surprise.

If you can chose to visit the different islands at your leisure then it's an open world, no? Loading screen or not isn't really a factor IMO.

Going against my current trend, I have to agree with DN.

If I can't control the boat - and I'm facing load screens for each journey - that's a big disappointment to me.

I see no problem with loading screens. Seriously many rpgs have them and are still successful. This isn't call Elder Scrolls and I'm grateful its not.

From what I read it only happens when you change Islands anyway. Also they already stated your ship will be just like the Normandy in ME.

I agree that it would have been nicer to sail around yourself. But it's not a make or break for me.

I just thought the open world was a series of islands with continuous water between them you could sail. I did not know it was effectively 3 or 4 open worlds connected by loading screens.

It's not a huge issue or anything, but it's a bummer.