Risen 2 previews.
More Risen 2 previews.
Even more Risen 2 previews!

Some notable commentary includes RPS’ thoughts on the game, which suggest that it might be a somewhat harder-core RPG, as far as combat and leveling up are concerned, than other notable offerings that have come out these last few months. And yet, still fun to play:

The spider-death is indicative of the kind of RPG that Risen 2 is. It retains that notion of baddies too tough to kill being just down the road, demanding that you spend a bit of time buffing up in the local area before you set off on your quest. After last year’s Skyrim and The Witcher 2 I found this a little awkward, but I imagine the effect will wear off after a while.

What hasn’t been awkward, so far, at least, is the general gist of the combat. It’s quite actiony and lightweight, somewhere between what The Witcher 2 was doing and what Amalur does, but immediately playable. Swish your sword about and hit the enemy, without any need to lock into a specific baddy. As your skills improve, of course, so your capacity to kill dangerous monkeys increases. Your companion gets stuck in, too, although I am not sure if she actually does any damage. What I am also slightly mystified by at the moment is how I supposed to differentiate between particularly baddies being tougher than others. It’s been a bit trial and error. What’s also been trial and error are the game’s traps, which you get a quick time-event style spacebar-hammering chance to avoid, and these have so resulted in my wearing my surprised face, and an instant death for the nameless protagonist.

Other reviews have labeled the combat as clunky, however…which makes me wonder whether the disparity in commentary isn’t due to the fact that things are very different between the console and PC ports of the game.

Sun, piracy…and golems!

PC Gamer has a bunch of screenshots up showing off the jungles of Risen 2‘s world, a spider fighting an alligator, plenty of firearms…and golems too. And lots of sunshine!