Risen 2 - Preview and Video @ GamingLives

There's a Gamescom preview of Risen 2 at GamingLives with the author having experimented through the German version on display. The result is some general observations on the game, without the usual input from a publisher representative or the like:

As is customary whenever I get my hands on an open world title, I like to ignore everyone and run off to do my own thing.  It means that I may end up wandering into a level twenty quest location, as was the case with Vindasel in Oblivion, but it also means that I get to quickly understand the terrain and how best to approach certain aspects.  It didn’t quite work out that way with Risen 2, however, as I wandered down to the beach and was immediately mesmerised by the sight of a hulking galleon (although I’m sure pedants would point out otherwise) and a mid-day sun glistening on crystal clear waters.  The water in Risen was always incredible, and I remember standing at the edge of a stream in awe, watching it caress smoothed pebbles as it found its way to a frothy drop, to the point where I dragged Lorna through to show her both the realism and attention to detail.  I didn’t think it could be improved upon, but Piranha Bytes have clearly tweaked something somewhere because I had that overwhelming urge to “drop trou” and dive in for a quick swim.

The combat was as intuitive as the previous game, although it could be argued that I was already familiar with the play style and was therefore geared up to switch over to muscle memory.  Either way, it was a bit of a kick ass experience in more ways than one.  As is touched on by Daniel, the initial island is more or less what we’ve come to know as a tutorial level by modern RPG standards in that it’s almost impossible to be killed and serves more as away to familiarise the player with techniques and controls. Having said that, I still had one or two cans of Wupass (now with no added sugar) opened up on me thanks to my lack of any real weaponry.

They also have a video interview with Senior Brand Manager for Deep Silver, Daniel Oberlerchner, on the same page.