Risen 2 Weekend Roundup Post
I haven’t talked about it much on the site, but I’m also rather stoked about the upcoming open-world (or semi-open-world, at least) RPG from Piranha Bytes, Risen 2: Dark Waters. This is a direct sequel to their open-world medieval RPG Risen, itself a spiritual successor to the early entries in the Gothic series (which Piranha Bytes also crafted).
Where’s the interest for Ultima fans? Mostly in the people at Piranha Bytes. The German developer has made it clear, in the past, that their games are heavily inspired by the Ultima series, and they have more or less consistently tried to incorporate features in their game worlds that Ultima fans will find familiar. If you’re looking for examples of how to do NPC scheduling right in a 3D game, play something by Piranha Bytes.
Dark Waters is, granted, a bit of a different beast in that it fuses a Caribbean pirate flavour on to the typical medieval fantasy context. By all appearances, that will make for intersting results (imagine a game centered around Buccaneer’s Den).
As such, and because I do periodically report on the game on the site here, I’ve decided to start putting together weekend roundups of news, video, and whatever other material I come across related to Risen 2 and spotlighting its development.
Fighting a...crab...thing...
Risen 2’s Captain Steelbeard character gets profiled.
TeamXbox got what I can only assume is an exclusive look at one of the NPCs that will feature in Risen 2:
Captain Gregorius Emanuel Steelbeard is an old-school pirate: a man of honour with no manners. With his crew and his ship, the ‘Eleanor’, he used to plunder the shores of the Lost Realms and Khorini Island back in the old days, which is how he made a name for himself among the pirates.
They’ve got a few screenshots of the game, so do be sure to click on over for a better look.
The game’s release date has been announced!
Oh yeah…it’s probably good to talk about when the game is coming out. European gamers will get it on April 27th, 2012, while North American gamers will get it on April 24th.
Also, they’ve got a trailer for it, but I’m having issues with the embed, so…click through.
As I like pointing out, a lot of the world simulation stuff Skyrim is being acclaimed for, Gothic already did it in 2001 and Risen is only keeping it going!
At least I hope they do for Risen 2.