Risen 2 - Preview @ World of Risen

[Gorath]

World of Risen posted a brand new Risen 2: Dark Waters preview ( and here in German). Last week publisher Deep Silver showed their E3 presentation to the German press, and it seems the embargo went up an hour ago. Expect many other previews with identical content over the next few days.
The author cuts right to the chase. His article is a good start if you want to know where the Risen series is heading.

The combat system has also been redone. Since you will not fight with shield and sword but with cutlass or pistol, one hand remains free. That can be used for different other actions. At this point the so called »Dirty Tricks« come into play. You will be able to throw sand into your opponent’s eyes. Or to confuse him with your pet parrot. The spectrum of firearms will be large. Weapons with one or more barrels, muskets, shotguns, pistols or special ammunition are supposed to provide a wide variety of firearms. Special attacks are sometimes more effective than normal attacks. By the way: The really good firearms are reserved to people who play friends with the Inquisition. As usual, the richest people have the best weapons.

Expected release date: Not before Q1/2012.
More information.

 

[coaster]

This sounds better and better. "Dirty tricks" sound like a lot of fun.

 

[Pessimeister]

Our nameless hero from the first game settled down in Caldera? I wonder if he met or had any dealings with The Creeper?

Bad cross-game jokes aside, this is looking like very fascinating stuff. Providing it avoids much of the cliche, stereotypical piratey stuff and has the classic Piranha Bytes touches and tone, I am very keen to see what they can do with the setting.

 

[DArtagnan]

I guess I was naive expecting a late 2011 release.

Still, it bodes well for the scope of the game - and since I'll have Skyrim, D3, and likely one of the major MMOs late in the year - I can wait patiently

 

[mazling]

I'd rather they get it right than rush to release. If they avoid sterotypes, it should be good...

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Oh, I could make do with some pirate stereotypes. We don't get those as often as some others
Bit sad about no shields - I always like sword/shield combat. Still the dirty tricks stuff sounds like a potentially fun idea!

 

[JDR13]

Special attacks are sometimes more effective than normal attacks.

Well I would certainly hope so.

I'm starting to get a little worried about the emphasis they seem to be placing on guns though. I would rather the focus continue to be on swords & magic, with guns being less common.

 

[Moriendor]

I'm starting to get a little worried about the emphasis they seem to be placing on guns though. I would rather the focus continue to be on swords & magic, with guns being less common.

You will only have access to the most powerful guns if you join the Inquisition so my guess is that there is only an emphasis on gun gameplay if you choose that path and that guns won't matter as much if you become a full-fledged pirate or if you join the not yet revealed third faction which is probably the magic (Voodoo) users.

So as of the info that is available right now I'm guessing it'll be something like this:

- Inquisition = Melee weapon + gun
- Pirate = Melee weapon + free hand for dirty tricks
- Voodoo mage = Either both hands free for wielding magic or melee weapon + free hand for magic use

 

[DeepO]

The world itself is planned to be rather large. Piranha Bytes says it will be about the size of Gothic 3. But of course you have to keep in mind that most of it will be water.

Ahaha.
Glad to see this clarified, but since the sea is not "physically" traversable in-game (afaik), the estimate is rather meaningless and without further clarification (which thankfully in this particular article was given) misleading.
They should use the landmass size for more meaningful estimates.