Risen 2: Dark Waters

If you played and enjoyed Risen you'll probably like Risen 2 as it's a worthy follow-up. It definitely has it's problems but if you can look past those flaws there's a gem of a game underneath and there are plenty of things to love about it.

PROS
Great world and setting
Funny dialogue and characters
Slow but rewarding character progression
Enjoyable and varied sidequests
Great lockpicking minigame
Well realised weopons (the muskets in particular are a lot of fun)

CONS
Very buggy (jittery animations, bad texture pop in, character and environment pass through)
Graphics are mediocre at best
Combat starts off quite dull but does improve (though not drastically)
Occasional, VERY bad framerate drops

Despite it's flaws I'm enjoying it more than many recent games and would definitely recommend Risen 2 to anyone who can look past a games flaws. If you're the type of person who likes very polished triple-a games, however, give this one a miss.

i thought after the quality of the first risen game which i had loads of problems with this would be better.
the graphics are so poor i can't read any of the dialogue on the screen,
see the quest itinery properly,the map is just one blur you can,t see where your going. no other game has given me this amount of grief. it is deffinitley not worth the money.i think this game will probably go the same way as the first for trade in!

I have to say whenever I get a new game of this style I'm always skeptical due to the conversion made from PC. This did not disappoint. The game takes around 40 hours to complete and felt just about the right amount of time. I only had one glitch in the whole game which is quite excellent for a game of this size and content.

As with all games of the Risen / Gothic series if you're not a hardcore RPG fan this will be too difficult for you and you'll end up with a broken controller or smashed TV. (or a critical review!)

Upon completion I felt good about playing the game, not felt that way for a couple of years after playing a game...

I've been playing for well over an hour now and the game is beyond glitchy. The graphics are bad, the framerate is constantly chugging and the animation is terrible (just look at the main character sprint). The conversations look unfinished with characters and camera angles stuttering around like crazy. Sometimes the characters don't even say their lines. I also hate the way the developers dealt with the day to night cycle and the shadows. Instead of smoothly moving throughout the day, the shadows will just kinda jolt forward every now and then. You cant help but notice it and it looks really cheap. There's a lot more things to hate as well. Like when you fight a warthog and it makes the same sound over and over with each hit. Actually the combat in general is pretty poor and in no way satisfying. Just keep hitting X until something dies. Also, the voice acting is pretty terrible AND what is up with your character saying "I don't have gold enough" when he cant afford something. It's even subtitled correctly! "I don't have enough gold"!
It may seem like I'm being overly critical but I was hoping for a much better game. I assumed they would have learnt their lesson from the first console port of Risen, but it doesn't look like it at all. The only one redeeming thing about this game is the title music, which I think is awesome. I cant much comment on the story right now, but not even the best story on earth could save this game.