Feature of the series Risen is that it has no plot relation to the series Gothic, contrary to the expectations placed on Piranha Bytes, the pen (or rather, the code and pixel) of which own the first three “Gothic” games. At the same time Risen – this is in a sense our favorite Gothic on other script material. At least the first part of the series gave that impression.
We don’t yet know what impression the sequel will make on players. After all, there is still time before the game’s official release. But we can share our own feelings about Risen 2: Dark Waters, a preview version of which we had a chance to touch.
Smite me with the kraken!
The developers did not introduce ignorant players to the events that happened in the first part – there was no point. A vague prologue tells about the ancient gods, titans who inopportunely woke up in the water column, and other creatures of Cthulhu in easy adaptation to the local pantheon. We won’t be spoiled with a choice of character either – in the best traditions Gothic. Our protagonist is a nameless person, a hero from Farangi, the same pepper we led by the hand in the first part of the series. True, now he is a half-drunk lieutenant, depressed due to forced inaction.
One against all and all against one. Three opponents are a common thing for nameless gothic supermen.
It is clear that we will save our ward from despondency and laziness. He will immediately receive a dangerous task from the Inquisition, which is a bastion of order and civilization as opposed to chaotic and always drunken pirates. However, both of them suffer almost equally from the wicked actions of the titan Mara (in the local interpretation, she is by no means the goddess of love). Giant krakens, tentacled zombies and other unpleasant creatures sink ships, raid cities and generally behave not very friendly. Our one-eyed hero goes straight to the lair of the corsairs in order, being under strict cover, to find out where he can get a super-megaharpoon capable of killing the unruly goddess and all her hangers-on.
Translated, all this means that we have to spend pleasant hours in an atmosphere of piracy and a kind of island romance. Rum, parrots and girls of mild behavior coexist with painted half-naked aborigines, voodoo magic and the ominous ruins of ancient temples. It smells like Guybrush Threepwood, of course, and the developers don’t hide it. On the contrary, here and there they leave Easter eggs, not even eggs, but shells hinting at the acquaintance of the creators Risen 2 with a landmark adventure from LucasArts. Having stumbled upon a bandit named Largo in a dark corner, it is not difficult to understand who the allusion is to.
Arrgh! Or yar-r!
The plot seems quite linear at first. Side quests are mainly focused on earning gold, without which there is nowhere in the game, because only ringing metal opens the way for us to skills and abilities. In a global sense, our first task is to gain the trust of Captain Steelbeard, whose little daughter spoiled a lot of blood for us with her independent appearance and stunning figure back in the first part. However, it soon becomes clear that you will still have to stand at the forks in the plot. The Inquisition, under whose flag we initially walked, managed to seriously annoy the painted aborigines who wielded voodoo. So seriously that now the natives are ready to cooperate either with the pirates or with Mara herself in order to get rid of the overly annoying “bluecoats”. This is where we will need to choose with whom we are at the same time – either with shameless, but conditionally civilized slave owners, or with savages in loincloths. So everything is in order with the proprietary nonlinearity of the “piranhas” – it is in its rightful place.
Political correctness does not dictate the use of the words “monster” or “beast” in relation to such creatures. The formulation “alternatively peace-loving individual” will come to your aid.
Risen 2 generally reveals its secrets very gradually. The voluminous game world at first seems intimate due to the island organization. We left the small Caldera port and ended up on a small piece of land in the ocean called Tacarigua. What is there?? A town belonging to the Inquisition, in size more like a military camp, a pirate lair and a couple of caves. In the middle is a not exactly impenetrable, but not very friendly jungle: you know, rebels, jaguars, ruins of mysterious temples. No place to turn around. So we don’t turn around – we complete several side quests, chat with the locals, and pretty soon set sail to land on another island, where a slightly more significant “piece of work” awaits us. The feeling of the spatiality of the game world is not immediately formed, but when we manage to take in its entire breadth, we understand: yes, there really is something to explore here.
Gnome and https://goldbetspincasino.co.uk/ lightning
The same is true with the political situation. We begin our journey as a man loyal to the Inquisition, an agent who needs to work undercover to save the world. Then the point of view of the pirates is added to the tenets of the Inquisition – and it turns out that the pirate ranks are not nearly as homogeneous as one might think. Some of the Anchor and Roma knights are ready to fight Mara to the last, and some sold themselves to the harmful goddess for everything that bad guys usually sell to evil for. A little later we discover that besides pirates there are also wild tribes who generally have their own truth. But there are also gnomes – one of them will play an important role in the environment of the protagonist. This principle of gradually laying out trump cards creates a truly amazing feeling of the depth of the world into which the player will immerse himself.
Tasks of secondary importance are almost never built on the principle of “go and kill”. We are sent to collect some nonsense, follow the bad guys, deliver a package, settle a quarrel. That is, there is no far-fetched bloodlust for every second NPC. A minimum of dungeons forces us to spend most of our time outside: on land, in the sun, in the rain, in the forests – anywhere, but not in endless caves and crypts, which have already become a real scourge of the genre. Even the developers from Bethesda could not avoid the “dungeon fever” and the epidemic of unmotivated murders. But Piranha Bytes I could.
It’s no surprise that side quests in Risen 2 not only do they not destroy the fragile atmosphere, but on the contrary, they strengthen it. All tasks have their own history, moreover, they influence dialogues with other characters later. So, having absolutely independently stumbled upon a treasure hunter who died in his prime in front of the gates of an abandoned temple, we can later boast of this feat in a conversation with several inhabitants of the pirate lair.
It’s good that the hero can read, even if he has to run his finger along the lines, like in the first grade of elementary school.
Soaked with mother’s rum
In everything else Risen 2 is as little similar to the first part of the series as it is to Gothic. Literally everything has changed. The system of talents, skills and characteristics has been completely redesigned. What can we even talk about if our character is born without mana?? At all. Initially, he can only be a warrior who is capable of exclusively swinging melee weapons. But then things start to get interesting.
The role-playing system here is also maximally adjusted to pirate specifics. Instead of a health scale – “blood”. Bubbles with restorative potions replace alcohol for the inhabitants of the islands. The most successful is rum, which the local filibusters commemorate appropriately and inappropriately. Grog is valued much less and restores a little “blood”, but it will also do.
Classes can only exist in the player’s fevered imagination. Officially, our hero does not belong to any class. He’s just learning tricks here and there. You can find your “professors” in completely unexpected places. Who would have thought that the only useful action available in relation to a port prostitute is learning the tricks of eloquence!
New knowledge should be paid for in hard cash. And a lot. By the way, when we buy an extra point in the skill bank from another roadside sage, we have to listen to a portion of very real instructions from the teacher in dialogue mode. It looks funny, especially when, as the first lesson, the already mentioned lady of port behavior tells the hero how to seduce men.
And now – by his kidneys, by his kidneys! Although no one really knows where this crab’s kidneys are, hope dies last.
Stay away from voodoo!
Okay, but what can you actually learn?? And is the magic gone forever??
Not at all. It’s just voodoo now. It’s different. Thanks to voodoo, we can curse enemies in battle and brew potions. The ability to perform these complex operations is responsible for the characteristic “black magic”. In addition to this, the list of basic parameters includes mastery of blades, skill in handling firearms, protection and cunning, which accounts for both thieves’ and eloquence skills.
Each characteristic, in turn, contains three talents. For cunning and cunning, for example, these are “dirty things” – all sorts of vile fighting techniques involving sand, coconuts, parrots and other improvised means; “silver tongue”, thanks to which we convince our interlocutor to do what interests us; and, in fact, theft. That is, the craft of a pickpocket.
Along with parameters and talents, skills occupy an important place in the scale of role values. There are really a lot of “skills” in the game. Moreover, traditional for the genre, parrying blows and picking locks coexist with such exotic skills as creating voodoo dolls or training tame monkeys.
The fame accumulated in the process of passing helps to increase the characteristics – the same experience, but again with a different, more romantic name. After spending a certain amount of fame points, you can become “fat,” feel more confident with a blade in your hands, or delve into the secrets of black sorcery. But with skills the situation is more complicated: you can learn a new trick only by chatting with the teacher. Naturally, the level of development of a particular parameter directly affects the improvements available to us. If the hero is a naive guy, alien to deceit and cunning, the thieves’ tricks, which require a higher value of the corresponding characteristic, can be forgotten until we correct the situation.
You, of course, noticed a piece of a human skeleton above the door? So other guests are obviously paying attention. And they behave politely. For great is the power of the pirate art!
The pipes are burning
It cannot be said that the hero has to rely only on his own strength. In battle he is helped by his partners – the same beautiful Patty, for example. True, we can influence the actions of our allies very indirectly. Invite to join in some task, ask to wait a little, provide a bottle of grog from your own supplies – that’s all the interaction. But none of our assistants in battle will die forever. Maximum – he will fall and lie helpless until the end of the battle.
And our nameless macho is very mortal. An unsuccessful throw of sand in the eyes, a coconut in the head or a spear in the stomach of the enemy, coupled with too slow “clicking” of the mouse, can lead to death.
On the other hand, the protagonist can do a lot of things in battle. The situation when we first shoot at the enemy with a musket, then, when the bullets run out, throw a spear at him and finish him off with a saber, kicking from time to time, is a common thing in reality Risen 2.
In fact, I could go on for a long time. About dialogues in the spirit of “The natives are cannibals”? – They are rebels – aren’t they the same thing??». About food that can be chewed right during the battle, about the “crafting” system, cleverly integrated into the basic role-playing system. But instead we’ll allow ourselves a little grumbling. Just a little. Graphics in Risen 2 – not a fountain, let’s face it. The animation is crooked, the textures show through in some places. And even the videos could have been put together more lively, taking care of the smoothness of gestures and the authenticity of facial expressions.
The rest is a new creation Piranha Bytes promises to be one of the most interesting RPG projects this spring. If, of course, the game does come out in the spring, which we can only hope for.