Risen 2 - Officially Announced!

Everybody knew it was coming, now it's official. Deep Silver announced Risen 2 at their GC press conference. Risen 2 is "in development at Piranha Bytes for console and PC".
A release date has not been clarified.
Found at Golem.de.
More information.

Great news!

Good to hear. I'm hoping they'll try something a little different with the setting this time round - Risen was great, but at times it felt like I'd already played the game before, having gone through many of the same scenarios in the first two Gothics.

Depends on the force of the fans. Perhaps they don't want anything to be changed ?
And inhowfar are they actually listening to them ?

Well, well, well….

Looking forward to hearing about what will change… Hopefully, they'll balance the content a little better, and not go crazy with the underground sequences.

I love dungeons, but not samey ones throughout half the game.

Rest was near perfect, though I wish they'd go more towards Gothic 3 than Gothic 2.

YES!!

However, I too hope for a more creative setting, as well as better pacing and general gameplay distribution.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Looking forward to hearing about what will change… Hopefully, they'll balance the content a little better, and not go crazy with the underground sequences.

I love dungeons, but not samey ones throughout half the game.

I thought the dungeons were quite well designed, but it became a bit tiresome having to do all of them in a row in the later chapters. It would have been better if they'd been spread throughout the game instead.

Originally Posted by DPB
I thought the dungeons were quite well designed, but it became a bit tiresome having to do all of them in a row in the later chapters. It would have been better if they'd been spread throughout the game instead.

Agreed about the spreading out.

But, to be honest, I think PB suck at making dungeons, and they never really made them well. Risen represents their best attempt yet, but they still basically recycle the same 3-4 puzzles in an environment with almost no variety. Not to mention VERY few kinds of enemies.

Look to the old Dungeon Master clones, or Ultima 9 - for how I prefer my dungeons to be designed

As for the rest of Risen, I think it was positively superb. No one does open world environments better - and I think the engine handled seamless loading magnificently.

I wouldn't mind more variety in terms of character development, but with the other improvements, it will be a minor issue.

Good news, let's hope the game ending will show much improvement.

Great news, Risen was a decent game. Though I'd expect to see something new and not just G2 Remake.

I love Dungeon Master's dungeon a lot but Risen's, from the underground areas I played, were more like an action RPG iirc. What is it with the constant stream of RPG's that are designed around a constantly scrolling landscape instead of a well designed area that can be taken more slowly, be absorbing and more memorable with creative puzzles?

This immediately shoots to the top of my most anticipated releases, along with The Witcher 2.

Originally Posted by Daroou
I love Dungeon Master's dungeon a lot but Risen's, from the underground areas I played, were more like an action RPG iirc. What is it with the constant stream of RPG's that are designed around a constantly scrolling landscape instead of a well designed area that can be taken more slowly, be absorbing and more memorable with creative puzzles?

I'm not really sure about this.

PB strikes me as a bunch of artists, but maybe they're simply not good at dungeon design?

I mean, in my world - you only include a dungeon if you take the concept to its fullest. Otherwise, just focus on what you're good at - and in this case, it would be more overland areas.

Anyone having played D&D in their youth, should have a decent understanding of what makes dungeon exploring so fascinating. Risen definitely missed out on that aspect, as did all their other games.

Originally Posted by DPB
It would have been better if they'd been spread throughout the game instead.

Yeah. And basically the same goes for quests and decision making, which is to a degree a problem of all Gothic games bar the third one.

I really hope they won´t abandon the dungeon crawling element.
They were certainly on the right track in Risen. Fewer, better designed dungeons with some multiple paths/puzzle solutions for different builds would be great.
This element is sorely lacking in the action/RPG genre.

Great news! If R2 is like chapter 1 in Risen then I'll be a happy customer.

Funny, had no idea this was coming. It suspect it will be a great game but I must say that Risen was kinda like old wine on new bottles for me. PB should be more ambitious.

YESSSSS!!!!!

RIsen 2 and witcher 2…I don't know which one i'm waiting for more

A new PB game is always a good thing.

Risen's combat system is perfect. I hope they won't change that to some idiotic button mashing like Gothic 4.

WOOO! Party time!