In these days of play-it-safe sequels, it’s unusual for a game series to shift gears — or in this case, adjust sails — so drastically from one entry to the next. But in moving from a more generic high-fantasy setting to the salty waters of the open seas, Risen 2: Dark Waters is garnering a lot more of our interest than its flawed predecessor ever did.
The ship-in-a-bottle summary of Risen 2 goes something like this: it’s Pirates of the Caribbean meets Fable meets Skyrim, with early results that are intriguing to say the least. We played approximately one hour of the 40-plus-hour role-playing swashbuckler, and we’re already hungry to resume our foul-mouthed, British-accented pirate careers.
Our time began with a save file that loaded us many hours into the campaign. We’re after a captain known as Slain because he has an artifact we need in order to kill a boss monster. We’re at a grotto (yes, like at the Playboy Mansion, except with drunken, smelly, disgruntled pirates instead of naked Playmates). Approaching Miles, who’s clearly three sheets to the wind, doesn’t go well at first.
“Got some barrels of water for me?” we ask while totally 100% sober, needing them to curry Slain’s favor.
“No can do buddy,” he replies, citing an embargo on exports. Oh, he wasn’t done: “Water? Why the f*** do you want to drink that anyway?”
Perhaps, in his drunken state, we can get some more information out of him. “This looks like a s**t job. Why do it?” we jab when asking about his barrel-herding profession.
“Well…*hic*…that’s complicated. Sometimes I drink a bit too much.”
“You don’t say,” we reply.
Snark and sarcasm, as you can see, are baked into almost every conversation. After conversing with another nearby barrel worker, Butch, we figure out that Butch is in charge and won’t release the embargo and, thus, we can’t get our H20. So we stroll back over to Miles and ask how we can get Butch “out of the way.”
It’s here that developer Piranha Bytes tells us that there are multiple ways of treating scenarios like this. We could bribe him, lure him into a nearby cave and then eliminate him, or possess him via voodoo-doll means and get him to tell the other workers that the embargo is off and the water barrels can begin flowing again.
We try the latter first, acquiring a lock of Butch’s hair (using the old, “Hey, look over there!” trick as a distraction) and combining it with an emerald and a couple of other materials in order to create a voodoo doll. Activating the mini-Butch, we’re given control of the barrel boss, so we walk him over to his underlings and tell them to cancel the embargo. Problem solved.
Next, we load another save file and this time tell Butch about treasure hidden “in the very back” of a nearby cave. We head over together, and just as he’s figuring out that this is all a ruse, we use the “’Nuff Said” skill that results in us pulling out our pistol and shooting him in the face mid-sentence. Fortunately, we’re in a cave with no witnesses, so there’s nothing to clean up or cover up!
We wander around a bit, hacking at disgusting cave spiders and giant crabs. The former required us to quaff a lot of health-restoring rum in order to bring down, while the crabs let us test out Risen 2’s pet system. By selecting a parrot as our alternate “weapon,” we were able to unleash our chatty tropical companion on our crustacean foe, distracting it long enough for us to high tail it in the other direction and escape the fight. Meanwhile, you’ve also got a monkey helper, whom you take control of in order to gather loot and annoy people.
The combat is reminiscent of Fable, as properly timed button presses unleash more devastating attacks. And you’ll be able to spec your character however you like, with primary attack methords revolving around swordplay, firearms, or voodoo. You’ll collect allies to help you on quests and in battle, too — simply return to your ship at any time in order to swap followers. Finally, we were damn impressed at the lack of loading times within the island, no matter if you’re indoors or out. If it gets the layer of polish that its predecessor didn’t, we could be in for a whale of a pirate-y good time.
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PUBLISHER: Deep Silver • DEVELOPER: Piranha Bytes • MULTIPLAYER: None • RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2012 • FOR FANS OF: Fable, rum, profanity
