I took out three ghouls with Patty (who is now a distastefully done Angelina Jolie-look-alike-wannabe) within the first hour of exploration with only 1 skill in Blades and couldn't believe it - that just wouldn't have happened in Risen.
Definitely one of Risen 2's many flaws. You can defeat
every enemy early on with Patty at your side. Even if Patty gets knocked out, you just need to run away and she will be auto-resurrected back to full strength instantly once you lose aggro. Then you just go back in with Patty and continue the fight where you left off until the mob is dead. There is zero challenge involved.
Just don't use a companion and leave them at the ship you say? Nope. You never know when/where your companion might provide some useful advice or a humorous snarky comment while you're exploring the world.
The character interaction is one of the game's saving graces so leaving the companion at home is no viable option in my opinion.
Anyway, they could have very simply avoided the whole issue by either making companions mortal (forcing you to reload) or at least exhausted (after a K.O.) for some time (like a one or two minute cooldown timer before they'd be able to engage in any kind of combat again). And finally it might have been a good idea to give mobs at least a slow and steady health regen to avoid the cheap hit & run tactics.
This is just one of the many, many mind-boggling issues in Risen 2 though. There is a problem that is very easy to identify. There is a very simple and obvious fix. And yet PB chose to ignore the whole issue and left it as it is.
If you are the kind of gamer who pays attention to detail then be prepared to be driven crazy by many such obvious oversights throughout the rest of the game.
I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that I'd ever agree with a cesspit review but the Codex reviewer is 100% spot on when he says that someone needs to kick sense back into PB. It is simply incomprehensible why they chose not to address even the most obvious design flaws.