You play as the recent winner of the Tom Cruise lookalike contest, otherwise known as the returning hero from the first game. Only this time, he is a broken down man who suffers from a case of cynicism and alcoholism - think John McClane from Die Hard 3. After having taken down the Inquisitor in the first game, Risen 2 starts off 10 years after the events of that time period. The vanguard city of Caldera is under siege by the Titans, and the city has called upon their greatest hero (aka you) to take care of the sea creatures that threaten to destroy their trade ships that carry their means of sustenance in this crazy world. Thus begins ARRRRRRR swashbuckling adventure! (see what I did there?)
Throughout the game, the protagonist will grow from a simple kind of man with a sword to a pirate captain with a mighty vessel filled with a crew of hardy lads and lasses, including a Navigator to help lead your around the archipelago of islands that is the make up of the world. You won't be able to move the ship around yourself, but that's not really the direction the developers were going for, was it? A pirate captain never steers their own ship - they are too busy barking orders, pillaging villages, and jumping on whores! (I hope that's in the game)
Now, the crew will change its composition throughout the course of the game based on the actions and decisions the player makes. Piss off one of the pirate factions sailing the seas, and one of its members may not feel so inclined to join your crew. The idea is that by the end of the adventure, the player will have amassed a melting pot of crewmembers that each have their own unique story to tell of how they got on that ship. A unique feature of the game is that it allows the player to bring along one of their crewmembers as a sort of companion on shore during a mission or for exploration. Their function is a very simple one; they will support our hero as much as they can with whatever ability they can muster, but if they get knocked down when the odds are against the pair, things will get ugly pretty quickly. Your companions will also embody different archetypes, such as a marksman, a healer, and so on.
The weaponry and skills have also seen a much-welcomed exponential change. The developers wanted to go for a much more authentic pirate-y feel for the game's design, so they have thrown away the shield and in its place have given the player the ability to hold pistols, shotguns, shotguns, muskeys with bayonets,bombs, powder kegs, and even sand to throw in the eyes of the enemy. Each weapon has a melee function if you need to CQC your ass out of those tight situations. The combat itself is full of swordplay, with parries and counters coming into heavy use. You can even use your trusty parrot to distract an enemy before ramming your sword into their necks.
It goes without saying that the developers of Risen 2 heard all the complaints that their first game received and quickly set to work completely overhauling each and every single issue that they could find that fans had problems with. Even the guy demoing the game for us admitted that even they thought that the "characters looked like shit" along with the animations and graphics. Instead of suffering from bland and muddy environments, the living, breathable world is bursting with vibrant colors, big bright skies, deep oceans, and and extremely lush vegetation thanks to the inclusion of tone mapping that makes everything pop. The game even includes dynamic lighting, weather, and creeping shadows.
Everything in the world is also hand-crafted and hand-placed - no random generation, no cookie-cutter dungeons. The world's citizens even follow their own day/night cycle of getting up in the morning, go to work, come home at night, and hit the sack. Don't feel left out, however - any job you see people doing, you can pretty much do yourself.
One of the big problems that the original game was that it had a very shoddy console release, and that was due to the fact that Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes had decided only 6 months before the release of the original Risen to go ahead and make an Xbox 360 version, which lead to a whole mess of bugs and glitches that weren't ironed out before its release - the game wasn't even fully adapted as the HUD seemed squished in the middle of the screen. It was clear to gamers everywhere that Risen was simply never meant or should have been released on the console.
To make up for their mistakes, they started development of Risen 2 with a parallel path for all three systems (PC, Xbox 360, PS3) to ensure that they would meet the high quality standard they wanted for the title, and that the gameplay and the visuals were the same across all platforms. That also means that none of the features will be cut for any of the systems for a seamless experience. With a longer tutorial at the beginning to cover a longer exposition, you also will not need to have played the original at all in order to jump into the sequel.
From what I saw at E3 2011, Risen 2 is vastly superior to the original in every way shape and form, and the visuals hopefully help elevate the game to the top tier of the genre where it should have been before. Wrap it all up with a completely open world with zero invisible walls and load times, 40-60 hours of game time, and over 250,000 words of dialogue, and this title is looking mighty compelling. With a release not scheduled until the first half of 2012, that also leaves the developers plenty of time to check out the release of games like Elder Scrolls V and learn what else they can stand out from the pack. Any true western RPG fan worth their salt would do best to keep an eye out for this promising title.
24 Apr 2012
27 Apr 2012
Ideas on what could have made it better: 1. To start they could have given you a more reatsilic pirate experience by pointing out that pirates were murdering, pillaging criminals. Playing as one (even just undercover as one) you'd have to make tough choices about alliances, dodging naval officers who don't know you're on the same side and trying to stay a good person while probably having to kill innocent people. Of course that's trying to balance realism with voudou pirates but harder things have been accomplished.2. Maybe a faction system where more glory as a pirate means you have more friends among pirates and tribes (and access to voudou power) while more accomplishments as an Inquisition agent get more help from soldiers and access to secret Inquisition weapons. You can get access to warriors, secrets and powers from the tribes but can't become one of them until a special event near the end of the pirate route (which precludes becoming a full pirate).3. After the first 3-4 early missions everything you do has a consequence. Following Inquisition orders to kill a corrupt noble means that the pirates you're with have a harder time finding a friendly port and you lose the bribe money that kept you away (and helped you buy the supplies you need). Helping a tribe recover their sacred skulls gets you access to important tribe sorcerers but the pirates are angry you wasted time on something that doesn't get them paid and the Titans you fight will get stronger as a result of the skulls. Blowing up a navy quartermaster's office helps protect nobles who were selling you military goods but the chaos means you have to rely on weaker soldiers to fight Titans and the tribes don't give you anything for doing this.4. Every time you go up a rank in Pirate Glory or Accomplished Agent (think up better names someone) you automatically preclude items, powers and allies from the other two factions to represent less trust or gratitude from them. At the end of going up in a faction you basically lock yourself into that. As a pirate captain you get the power to unite the pirate fleets and control the waters but you've cut ties with the Inquisition and the tribes just tolerate you, as a tribe sorcerer/war leader you get the power to summon your own Titan/BECOME a Titan but you cut ties with the Inquisition and the pirates just tolerate/fear you, as the Inquisition Marshall you can gather all the royal navies into a force and get the best Inquisition superweapons AND purge the corrupt nobles but the pirates know you're an enemy and so do the tribes. It's possible to not finish moving up all the way in the ranks and so you have multiple allies (even pirates and Inquisition together for the final battle) but you don't have the full benefits that completing your ascension would give you.5. A sense of hopelessness around Titans. These things are called TITANS so they're supposed to be powerful. Every time you fight one it shouldn't be throw the spear at the weak point'. It should be call in a lot of favors and hit them with everything you've got'. Ideally a Titan fight would be part of an epic battle between major forces, or a fight against a weak Titan that's still being woken up and you're cutting off the power.6. It'd be hard to implement, but a ship combat system and at least one battle against a Titan with the ship. Inquisition ships are the best for fighting on the seas with great firepower and armor but fairly slow, pirate ships are good for fighting around the reefs and have good firepower and good speed but little armor, tribe ships have good firepower (or magic) and incredible speed but no armor against anything that isn't a Titan.7. An ending that's more than choosing button 1, 2, or 3 at the end (I'm looking at YOU Deus Ex HR and Mass Effect 3).A: If you end as a full pirate your pirate fleet controls the seas, the Inquisition and royal navy are crushed, the tribes all fear and respect you and the islands pay tribute to you. Of course rape, murder, theft and lawlessness reign but what do you care about the little people? You're the pirate king, you've got all the gold, women and servants you could want and you're looking at expanding your overseas empire to the New World.B. If you end as a tribe leader then the Inquisition and navy are crushed, the pirates are disunited and careful to seek your approval and the tribes are a united force controlling the islands. Too bad what happened to those colonists on the islands but they wouldn't go on their own. You're the first emperor the tribes have had in centuries, you've got the (hopefully) fan favorite tribal warrior for your wife and you two are building up your forces to make sure that no one else tries to take over from the New World.C. If you end as an Inquisition Marshall then the pirate fleets and tribes are crushed, the corrupt nobility that were rotting the system have been purged and the islands are ruled by the Inquisition with the royal navy providing muscle. Too bad that the colonists calling for popular rule and all the cool people among the pirates and the tribes had to die but the insane cultists trying to free the Titans proved that the world needs law and order. The Inquisition council carefully listens to you, the (hopefully) fan favorite noblewoman spy is your wife and you're planning to use the new wealth and unity to spread order to the New World.D. If you didn't fully commit to one faction before the end then it ends in uncertainty. How you handled certain missions decides if noble rule has been replaced by a democracy, if the genocidal Turka tribe is in power or not, if the Inquisition mended ties with the royal navy etc. Whether or not you're loved one responds depends on how you handled their side quests. Ultimately it's a time of uncertainty and the chaos that the Titans started is about to hit with full force.8. Allow gamers to play as women or men. Change the genders I mentioned in number 7, heck even allow for lesbian/gay relationships.Anyone want to add anything?
Replyit is not possible to run the 64 bit widnow 7 on 32 bit system ,,for this you have to download the 32 bit version of the widnow 7 .you can also try the ie7 with 64 bit , that will not be installed on your system so try to download the 32 bit widnow 7 and install it on your system and there is no software or way by which you can convert the 64 bit into the 32 bit . This whole depends upon the hardware .hope!!!!!!!!!!!!it will help.
Replyit is not possible to run the 64 bit winodw 7 on 32 bit system ,,for this you have to download the 32 bit version of the winodw 7 .you can also try the ie7 with 64 bit , that will not be installed on your system so try to download the 32 bit winodw 7 and install it on your system and there is no software or way by which you can convert the 64 bit into the 32 bit . This whole depends upon the hardware .hope!!!!!!!!!!!!it will help.
ReplyWell, the PC version was fucking good, by the way.
ReplyNot perfect, of course, but damn good. Easily better than most of those uninteresting "triple A" RPGs.
"a truly lackluster experience riddled with bugs and glitches but made better by an absolutely incredible story"
ReplyWhat the heck are you talking about? I played the game before the first patch was released and consider it one of the RPGs with the fewest bugs in recent years. Are you sure you're not confusing it with Gothic 3 (also by Piranha Bytes)?
I also strongly disagree with you calling it a "lackluster experience". For me it was one of the most engaging experiences since Morrowind/Gothic 2. And the story was definately OK, but calling it "absolutely incredible" seems be taking it way too far, even for a fan of the game like myself.
Oh, I thought there were a lot of issues with the game, but I really enjoyed the story. From the time I spent with the game, though, there were a lot of graphical issues, especially when it came to rendering and a mess of screen tearing issues. Mind you, I was playing the poorly-adapted Xbox 360 version, so I got the short end of the stick.
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