GB Feature: Risen 2: Dark Waters Review
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The main focus seems to be on having each island be an isolated classic Gothic/Risen-style map in itself, where each time you explore with fresh eyes and have to uncover secrets and solve quests to progress. Piranha Bytes did this part fairly well. While the game has a number of main quests you have to do, the way you can approach them does vary somewhat based on your specialization as a voodoo magician or a gunslinger or swordmaster, and while there are some "fetch" and "kill" quests, a large portion of the quests have more depth and often offer multiple paths. One example would be in the Inquisition city of Caldera, where you need some information from the archives that are inside the Council's Buildings, which you can't just barge in to. There is also a discussion in the Council whether to sign a treaty with Mara (your main antagonist) or not, which you can get involved in or choose to ignore. The gain access to the building, you either accept a nobleman's help to dress up as a messenger and steal a signet ring from one councilman to forge a letter, or you use your voodoo skills to take over the mind of that same councilman, in which case you have a much easier time finding the info you're looking for, breaking into his own office for incriminating info, and you can even decide to call a council meeting and vote against the treaty with Mara.
While options are fairly strong in quests, and most of them have a pretty interesting design (a number of "kill the monster" quests aside), one thing the game lacks is consequences. Since you don't join a faction, there is no closing off options on who to talk to or learn from. Even worse, locations never really close to you or turn against you. At one point you steal an inquisition ship straight out of their harbor, and when you return later to that inquisition fort, they are still friendly to you, and only a few people even acknowledge you stole their ship.
Each island is explored separately, you don't even have a map for them when you start out, there is no quest compass, and map markers are only used if you know the exact location (if you have a treasure map, for example). That keeps providing a new sense of wonderment and exploration that usually only lasts for the first few hours of a Gothic or Risen game. In general, while each island is fairly small, they take at least a few hours to explore, and have the usual hallmarks of Piranha Bytes' games. There's ledges to climb to find small troves of gold and booze, treasure maps to follow to dig up pirate booty, and enemies wandering around to fight. Some maps are pretty dense (like Maracai Bay), some are a little emptier in treasure to uncover and enemies to fight, but overall, the draw of exploration is as effective as it is in this studio's previous titles. In rewards, the game offers not just gold and booty, but interesting legendary items that give permanent boosts, as well as parts of high-level weapons you can forge.
