Risen 2: Dark Waters

[Morgoth]

Terraria is a great game. I'll bite you for that!

 

The trailer looked interesting enough. But I need to make time for the first game, first. I'm in a place of second guessing all eastern european RPGs.

 

Germany is Eastern Europe now? God, I need to revamp my geography!

Poland nowadays is certainly more western than eastern Germany.

[HoonDing]

I'll disagree with your reasoning. There's some commonalities between the likes of Risen, Gothic, Two Worlds, Divinity 2, and even The Witcher for a subgenre classification. Doing some brief research, the specific nomenclature simply isn't settled. Not that the distinction doesn't exist.

Why not just call it "Euro RPG"?

[Drowsy Emperor]

If I'm wrong about it being the same style as Eastern European RPGs feel free to correct me on that. I may in fact be using "Eastern European RPG" wrong altogether, and it may be a more general european style.

 

The latter. There are not enough products for even a semblance of a unifying style to form.

I'll disagree with your reasoning. There's some commonalities between the likes of Risen, Gothic, Two Worlds, Divinity 2, and even The Witcher for a subgenre classification.

 

You could lump the first four together on account of similar production values and gameplay similarities but they're still derivative of American RPG's. The Witcher is the only one that is clearly eastern European in its visual style.

 

In my humble opinion of course.

[Tale]

If I'm wrong about it being the same style as Eastern European RPGs feel free to correct me on that. I may in fact be using "Eastern European RPG" wrong altogether, and it may be a more general european style.

 

The latter. There are not enough products for even a semblance of a unifying style to form.

I'll disagree with your reasoning. There's some commonalities between the likes of Risen, Gothic, Two Worlds, Divinity 2, and even The Witcher for a subgenre classification.

 

...no? You've cited wildly different titles, half of which aren't Eastern European anyway.

Origin is irrelevant to the classification. You don't class games by origin, but by similarities of game content and/or play. If you have a better name for the class, I'd welcome it.

 

And I'll disagree that they're wildly different. Though my play with a couple of the titles wasn't thorough.

 

Why not just call it "Euro RPG"?

Because it's painful to admit just how few RPG developers aren't developing in that style. Three, and they're all American. Don't take away my denial! Well, then there's the diablo clones.

[Lexx]

It seems even a decade isn't enough for these people to learn to make character models that don't look carved out of wood.

 

I like how their characters looked in G1+2+Risen, except the women. PB just can't into women models, they always look weird. :>

 

 

/Edit: What I am actually scared about is that Kai Rosenkranz isn't doing the music anymore, if I remember correct. Always liked his stuff, it's a big part of Gothic + Risen atmosphere for me.

Edited August 11, 2011 by Lexx

[C2B]

Words

 

Drakensang disapproves

Edited August 11, 2011 by C2B

[Drowsy Emperor]

It seems even a decade isn't enough for these people to learn to make character models that don't look carved out of wood.

 

I like how their characters looked in G1+2+Risen, except the women. PB just can't into women models, they always look weird. :>

 

They had a rough look that was in tune with the "raw" appearance and atmosphere of the game world, especially in Gothic 1's convict camps. But that was back in the day, now when the game world looks all shiny, detailed and crisp I find those models look outdated and blocky.

Edited August 11, 2011 by Drowsy Emperor

[GhostofAnakin]

That trailer actually looks pretty good. Is it still considered "release date: when ready"?

[Gorth]

If I'm wrong about it being the same style as Eastern European RPGs feel free to correct me on that. I may in fact be using "Eastern European RPG" wrong altogether, and it may be a more general european style.

 

The latter. There are not enough products for even a semblance of a unifying style to form.

I'll disagree with your reasoning. There's some commonalities between the likes of Risen, Gothic, Two Worlds, Divinity 2, and even The Witcher for a subgenre classification.

 

...no? You've cited wildly different titles, half of which aren't Eastern European anyway.

Origin is irrelevant to the classification. You don't class games by origin, but by similarities of game content and/or play. If you have a better name for the class, I'd welcome it.

 

And I'll disagree that they're wildly different. Though my play with a couple of the titles wasn't thorough.

 

Why not just call it "Euro RPG"?

Because it's painful to admit just how few RPG developers aren't developing in that style. Three, and they're all American. Don't take away my denial! Well, then there's the diablo clones.

Do you count Bioware as 'American'? I could have sworn they were 'Kanadian'

[trulez]

They had a rough look that was in tune with the "raw" appearance and atmosphere of the game world, especially in Gothic 1's convict camps. But that was back in the day, now when the game world looks all shiny, detailed and crisp I find those models look outdated and blocky.

OMG so blocky, my eyes burn!

 

[Morgoth]

The game still looks silly and amateurish though. There's no unified direction at all.

[Nightshape]

It seems even a decade isn't enough for these people to learn to make character models that don't look carved out of wood.

 

I like how their characters looked in G1+2+Risen, except the women. PB just can't into women models, they always look weird. :>

 

They had a rough look that was in tune with the "raw" appearance and atmosphere of the game world, especially in Gothic 1's convict camps. But that was back in the day, now when the game world looks all shiny, detailed and crisp I find those models look outdated and blocky.

 

I love how people defend sh'art!

[Drowsy Emperor]

It seems even a decade isn't enough for these people to learn to make character models that don't look carved out of wood.

 

I like how their characters looked in G1+2+Risen, except the women. PB just can't into women models, they always look weird. :>

 

They had a rough look that was in tune with the "raw" appearance and atmosphere of the game world, especially in Gothic 1's convict camps. But that was back in the day, now when the game world looks all shiny, detailed and crisp I find those models look outdated and blocky.

 

I love how people defend sh'art!

 

The art was functional at best but the game world design was great and made Oblivion (G3), NWN (G2) etc. look like the work of a 10 year old at the time.

[Lexx]

Well, to be honest, I don't care if anyone says that Gothic's (1/2) graphic sucks, because I like it and that 's what matters to me. :>

[Morgoth]

Well, to be honest, I don't care if anyone says that Gothic's (1/2) graphic sucks, because I like it and that 's what matters to me. :>

How cold of you. And there I hoped people around here would care most what matters to meeeeeeeee!!!

[Lexx]

The way some people jump up on the graphic train everytime with every single game, I wouldn't be surprised if it really is like that.

[Tigranes]

The game may have sh'art by whatever standard, but to be frank Gothic 3 still looked better than Oblivion. Was rather disappointed Risen decided to drown itself in a hallucinatory wave of megabloom, though.

[Zoraptor]

G3 actually had about the best use of bloom/ hdr I've seen so the transition to the industry standard several dozen nuclear devices were recently let off nearby/ your eyes are covered in vaseline type in Risen was a disappointment.

 

Shame G3 gives me the worst case of z-fighting I've ever seen at the moment.

[Wombat]

Visual is quite important for main-stream games but I have got this habit of not expecting too much from the characters in Gothic series. If they are trying to go for main-stream, I think they need to polish the character models a bit...for even Bethesda, who is now a leader of sandbox style action RPG genre, seems to have done quite an effort in this area.

 

One thing I felt lacking in Risen compared with Gothic series is humor. Humor in Gothic series is not witty or sophisticated at all but the numbing humor fitted the "art direction", somehow, I think. (Is that only me who chuckled at the jumping animation of Risen?) To some extent, the crudeness itself formed the world of Gothic and I wonder how they would appear if they polish graphics.

[mkreku]

http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/ris...gameplay/360030

 

Polish cam of Risen 2..

 

But it does show a lot of in-game action. Character models look funny as usual, but the game looks good!

[Lexx]

For me, the animations in dialogue look worse than in Risen. Or it's the whole scenery, I don't know. But now after seeing this for a few seconds, it looks really really weird and bleh to me.

 

/Edit: Checked out some Risen gameplay videos on yt. Doesn't look *that* much worse, but I really don't remember it to look like this. Maybe it's just because I am watching a video and don't play it in full graphic quality on my monitor, I don't know... but it's really weird.

 

The face animations are better / more detailed in Risen 2, but still looks very unnatural... even more than in the first Risen or the Gothic games.

Edited August 18, 2011 by Lexx

[HoonDing]

So Patty is confirmed as a companion.

 

I love the over-the-top dialogue animations. They remind me of Drakensang or Divinity II.

Edited August 18, 2011 by virumor

[Undecaf]

I wonder how much the huge reticle (and its timed "something" - the orange outlining) will allow for misses. Or is the timed thingie similiar to AP's timed crit reticle (was it for criticals or just straight aim? I can not remember).

 

Anyways, looks as expected. A bit rough, but it'll see some polishing still, I'm sure.

Edited August 18, 2011 by Undecaf

[Labadal]

 

One of the things mentioned is that enviroments will not be entirely handcrafted.

[Tigranes]

 

Part II, factions. Gnomes are now recruitable/talkable/etc, and their entire culture is based on thievery, wherein you work to achieve a magnum opus, stealing something you will take with you to your tomb.

 

Game still looks delicious, really looking forward to it.