Risen 2 comes out tomorrow! The sequel to my favorite western made role playing game. Not my favorite by far or anything, but certainly my favorite in many areas.

This one I'm a little worried about for several reasons:

*Combat is updated but still looks clunky. Which is fine by me as long as they keep it simple.

*Soundtrack is done by somebody else. The soundtrack was my favorite part of the last game. If they mess that up, I wont forgive them.

* 7 small islands to explore, and fast traveling. So instead of getting lost in one big land mass, it's 7 small ones, and you can jump around to complete and find everything. I vow to never touch that feature, because it ruins immersion of exploration and travel for me. Unless you use it as a paid taxi service like Morrowind, where you have to have a planned route of which travel hubs lead to which other locations.

* Lack of fantasy theme. This may be good for many people, but I prefer the Risen 1 fantasy over pirates any day. As much as I love Sid Meyer's Pirates!, this one is different...

* IGN called it Pirahna Bytes most "accessible" game yet. Whatever the hell that means. I don't want Risen 2 to be accessible... I want it to be hard and damn confusing!

* Not that I'm paying attention to these folks, but some of the critics aren't that into it.

Now for the things that will be impossible to mess up.

* Beautiful locations and upgraded graphics engine. Looks amazing.

* Guns. I like guns.

* Party members. Like a talking gnome, a monkey, a parrot, and some pirate people.

* You get a pirate ship.

* Still looks as immersive as ever.

* Better looking main story. Although the side quests were the reason I liked Risen 1 so much.

I think this review is pretty good.
And I'm sure many other things I haven't considered. All in all the game is guaranteed to be good, but I have doubts it will surpass its predecessor. What are your thoughts on it?

I thought Risen was great and had been looking forward to Risen 2, but the fact that it uses Steamworks means I'll be waiting until it drops into the sub-$10 price range before I consider buying it.

This. Exactly this. I really enjoyed Risen and thought it was a helluva fun game. When Risen 2 was announced, I was quite looking forward to it. Unfortunately, since it's tied to a client, it now goes into my "I'll buy it when it's on sale for $5 or less" category.

Doesn't unlock until Friday here, damn internet and its oceans. This is the best review I've read so far.

http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/107840-risen-2-dark-waters-review.html

I don't know about risen. It was nice and all but it was like a Gothic reboot with nicer graphics, same gameplay and a weaker story. While those are not bad things, it didn't really bring anything new making it kind of mediocre. I had no idea they were gonna ditch the fantasy stuff and that makes me really interested. I like adventure rpgs and Gothic I'll always remember as my favorite but i never got into the fantasy stuff, I'm bored of the same dragons and dungeons and wizards and imps and orcs and all that, I find that stuff lazy. There should be more non-fantasy rpgs around.

I always thought Gothic was too clunky to really enjoy but Risen was a great action RPG. Looking forward to playing Risen 2 when I get home in June for sure.

I am not too worried about it being more "accessible." Often that can be a good thing, despite internet rage from niche audiences indicating otherwise. As long as it's not as dumb as Oblivion I am good, and I doubt PB would go that far.

I'm sure there will be patches, updates and DLC in the future for this

So in this case I think it's worth waiting to see how the game will shape up in the future

As a Gothic enthusiast (every RPG should be like Gothic, basically) I am touching myself improperly in anticipation for this.

The combat makes me slightly nervous though, dodging seems to be out. Blocking seems to play a role still, though, so it's not turning into a hack&slash, at least.

Also, swashbuckly pirates instead of swords, orcs and fireballs? Yes please.

I am a Gothic enthusiast (Gothic 2 Night of the Raven is my favourite game ever), and I have pre-ordered the game, but I am afraid that PB have lost touch with their fans;
- The game is quite short, and there seems to be plans for a lot of DLC. I don't like chopped up games. The devs have misled us; They promised a game that was 50 pct bigger than Risen, yet those who have tried it report that even a completist can finish it in 30 hours. That just doesn't do it for me.
- Small land mass, and not as open as it used to be (and exploration used to be one of the main selling points)
- They have exclusive in game items that only those who buy a certain german edition of the game will get. That's pissing on their international fans.
- They have dumbed down several aspects of the game.
- The combat seems dodgy.

I'll probably still like it, but my love for PB is fading away.

So we are 8 hours into tuesday for me on the west coast and I can't download the game yet. What the hell?

EDIT: It's out on the 27th according to Steam. So where does it release today?

It looks great but the fact its £40 on Steam with day 1 DLC puts it into 'wait for sale' territory
I will admit I am worried about the combat though as Gothic 1 and 2 and Risen (which Gothic 1 and 2 combat inspired) all had great combat that didn't need changed and new system apparantly takes a while to become fun

Played beta of Risen 2 and decided not to buy it after the experience. My playthrough of the firstrisen on xbox was terrible thanks to game killing bugs so sorry but I wont survive that again.

24th for Europe, 27th for us.

Waiting on a 50% off sale for this one. Risen was just terrible. No, not the game itself, but its combat. Clunky, badly explained, damn impossible to figure out. I'll get this one for cheap, that way I won't feel bad is combat is as horrid as it was the first time around and I end up not playing it much.