Risen 2: Dark Waters Angry Review
Release Date: April 24, 2012
Platform: PC, Xbox 360, PS3
Developer: Piranha Bytes
Publisher: Deep Silver
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1 Offline Player
ARGGG YEE MATEYS! Angry Joe be on the high seas to review Risen 2: Dark Waters. Can the sequel improve on the original, finally uplifting the risen franchise into the big leagues? Or will it end up a stinkin’, bow legged, barnacle bottomed, blaggard of a game! Find out!
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354 thoughts on “Risen 2: Dark Waters Angry Review”
sorry for asking this but i want to know what song is the one that appears the voodoo like dudes
Risen 2? Better drink my own piss
it sucks soooo much that it hurts to play. and combat suck like hell
Normally I really enjoy games from places like Europe and Russia, they offer perspectives one could only get from being immersed in their culture. Unfortunately the whole pirate theme sounds like it was tacked on for marketing purposes here, and wasn’t explored in any meaningful way.
P.S.:
The Review was kinda fun although i completely disagree with Joe on Risen 1 and 2. The only RPG from this or last year i had more fun with was the Witcher 2 all others were kinda disappointing. As i said, this is my personal opinion. If people hate the game ok, i can live with it, but stop saying that your opinion is the only true one and all others are just dumb fanboys.
“Opinions are like assholes, erveryone has one”
I liked the game and the first part and i have much fun playing it, guess in the USA PB games are not so popular as here in Germany.
a good accurate review i bought bf3 because of your review of the multiplayer…nice 1
Joe i know this may not be the place but… I’m going to start doing let’s plays soon. The capture card and such is on it’s way, and i was wondering, how do you deal with such negativity on your videos? I know i’m going to get people putting me down in my post-LP review of the game but i’m not sure how to go about dealing with it. Any tips?
I’m not angryjoe, but I can give you some advice for i have posted things on the internet myself and gotten my share of bad or malicious feedback. I don’t post let’s plays or reviews, so i am not sure if mine apply, but here is my advice:
If someone just says ‘you suck’ or gives you bad commentary without basis or constructive critcism, just ignore them, for doing something like that only highlights how utterly immature they truly are.
But even with all this, you have to ask yourself this: Why am i doing this? Why am i making a let’s play video? To be popular? To give people something that makes them laugh?
Before you ask advice on how to deal with feedback, first build your foundation, starting with this question. Once that is done, the rest will come to you with work and effort.
I hope this helps.
First of all, Joe I have to say, thank you very much for making this site, otherwise I may have never found these guys and read their posts.
A big round of applause for
Valkenhayn1 and Brother
*Claps hands slowly*
You guys made me laugh so goddamn hard I literally pissed my pants and fell off my chair. Your comments were fucking GOLD, COMEDIC GOLD. Oh, there are more people I could mention but the pure stupidity, butthurt, and rage experienced by these two set the bar. Ladies and gentlemen, the new “Coolguy666″ and “Imsofat” of the AJ trolling latter. I hope you guys stick around, really I do, because your poor excuses of “debates” are so whiny, pathetic, and starved for attention I nearly cried blood after after the pain from my lungs grew more intense with the amount of laughter I inflicted on my computer screen. WOW is the only word I can use to describe you two, especially Valkenhayn1 who is a disgrace to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, or whatever German speaking country you came from. Ich spreche auch Deutsch, und ich bin lacht über dich.Du Stück Scheiße.
I fully expect both of you to reply and give me your blithering, inane and childish insults. Or you’ll try and act all sophisticated with no swearing and try to use “class” in a passive aggressive and utterly pointless way. Or, my favorite response, calling me childish and not worth talking to at all in order to attempt to compensate for lack of a good enough comeback (Btw, this whole post took me roughly less than 5 minutes to think up and write). All of which I would fully appreciate as it gives me something to laugh my ass off too. Either way, I still win and get a damn good chuckle out of it., and isn’t that all that really matters? My enjoyment?
Lol, with all the laughing and fun typing that post I completely forgot to sign in! Hah! Ooopsee daisies!
XD
Seriously though, Valkenhayn1 and Brother are whining, fanboys.
The problem with Joe is that he sucks dick at hard games. I can see him playing dark souls, rage quitting, then complaining that it is to hard and it sucks. Also he is unable to play real RPG’s. . Joe even said he maxed out his cunning. This is incredibly stupid to do early.(i’m assuming he did not put that much time into this game). In a real RPG it punishes you for poor stat placement and other stupid decisions. He is too used to Skyrim. A game designed so that anyone can play. I am not saying that this game is good, I am annoyed by many of the decisions PB made. However I would trust a review of this from spoony much more than Joe
^ Lawl U Mad Bro?
dang.
I’ve not seen this many fanboys come to the defense of a fail game since the epic fail that was Dragon Age 2. And Dragon Age 2 was better then this gem of failure. Ignore the butthurt Joe. Those of us gamers who’re not blinded by fanboy-ism respect your reviews and your opinions. Why? Because they’re 99% of the time right on target. This time included.
Yeah, but have you actually played Risen 2 to find out for yourself?
Or are you just being a sheep be agreeing with Joe before you’ve even formed your own opinion?
He gave the first game a 2 I believe, and I couldn’t disagree more, but I know it’s just an opinion, and I’m not a hater. Same here.
I should note I have not played Risen 2 yet, so I’m not defending it in any way, I just hate it when people call games terrible based of another person’s opinion, people need to think for themselves.
If you have played it and you hate it that’s fine, but if you are calling it terrible just based on Joe’s review, and not your own, that means nothing.
Why yes, Earthbound_X, I HAVE played the game. I thought Joe was generous with his rating of the game to be honest. The graphic glitches, even on the PC version, is pretty damn bad. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of these people who think OMGgraphics = bestGameEvar! I think game play > Graphics… but in this case, even the game play is just as bad as the graphics.
Alright, I was just wondering, some many people see reviews and trust them completely. I see that a lot in the fans of TheSpoonyOne.
I love Spoony, but some of his real hardcore fans are insane, hah.
I plan to get the game when Steam has it under 30 or so.
I know they released a patch that fixed some issues, and added some things.
I’m the type of people that will try a game I interested in no matter what reviews say, IGN game Silent Hill Downpour a 4, I’d give it a 9.
You’d miss out on a ton of games you might have like/loved otherwise if you only listen to reviews, and not yourself.
So I’m always calling for people to think for themselves.
Can’t believe your posting about the uselessness of reviewers on a review site. What scientist and critics have in common is the use of skepticism. Sheeple tend to have zero skepticism or scientific methodology to determine a theory. They just blow money where other’s might see a trusted reviewer, get an honest opinion in which you weigh out whether you’ll still pursue the game or give it a rental or wait for a lower price. Either way I’m sure many people who are impulsed by a particular game will go and get it. I like many who watch AJ knows he holds a pretty high bar for skeptic analysis and that makes it hard to sling shit to the cautious consumer. But yeah you can just solely rely on you own vast knowledge of experience that you’ve recycled from gut to brain.
I never said reviews were useless, they are good for information, and I really like Joe, I wouldn’t want him to stop.
I just don’t think any review should stop you from checking out a game you are interested in. At least give it a rent, well when the console version comes out.
Obviously if you weren’t interested with the game to begin with, I wouldn’t expect you to check it out.
I hope I haven’t come off as someone whose angry at this review or Joe any, like those “fanboys” as people have called them lower in the comments. Since that’s wasn’t my intent. I was trying to come off as more detached, watching from the fence kinda way, if that makes sense.
It’s Joe’s honest opinion as you say, and I’m fine with that. And as I’ve said, I’m waiting for this to go down in price as well, as I do with most games, so I’m not defending the game in any way, since I have played it.
Just saying people should keep an open mind is all. There are other opinions, and reviews after all. No one is more important then the other, at least it’s how I feel about reviews anyway.
Bah, meant for that to say, so I’m not defending the game in any way, since I HAVEN’T played it. Wish we could edit comments.
Why would I want to pay for a game that is being reviewed and otherwise posted about as being generally average/mediocre with terrible combat? Paying for that just encourages further dumbing down and general mediocrity which is something I cannot stand.
Did you miss the part where I noted that I’ve enjoyed quite few games that received poor reviews? Like Silent Hill: Downpour.
The first Risen also did not get the best reviews, and I still loved it.
That’s what I mean by thinking for yourself.
I would have missed these games if I only listened to reviews, and did not form my own opinions.
Oh, and BTW, this game have been getting some scores higher then this, I’ve seen 7s and 8s.
Watching and reading reviews can be helpful to learn ab out them, but never just use one example.
I’d say more the half of the comments here are from people who have not played the game themselves, and are just echoing what Joe has said, without even knowing if they’d actual enjoy the game or not.
You see this in pretty much all reviews.
People who have not played the games reviewed, and are just assuming, because the review told them to, like sheep.
Will we see a Diablo 3 review?
I have to say that I agree with Joe on this one, I just can’t get into Risen. I played it on the PC and it still just felt like it didn’t really blend together very well.
I also dislike the pirate theme, but that’s just me.
I agree with you on Risen; I couldn’t get into the game either. I tried and I could see why it has people who like it, but I am not one of them, simple as that.
A pirate theme game though, I have to admit it has a charm that appeals to me. But until one arrives that takes full potential of the said theme… Hmm, maybe if the crew behind Red Dead Redemption were given the task, that would be awesome.
Oh well, a dream for another day…
Just the title is a well owned distraction.
This isnt a pirategame thats for sure. Buying just because the title contains the word “pirate”. And the “waters”… hmmm if the title would be “black islands” then the whole game would make some sense for the customers.
What changes am I advise for the game? If we had the opportunity to tame the endboss. X)
Ok people i love PB and i love the gothic series! Also they say gothic 3 was rushed and wasnt finished cause Jowood made them, but risen has never been gothic! Gothic had amazing lands scapes, great combat, amazing open world and soo on, but risen hasnt got the charm and fun that gothic had! Pb may still be a good game designer, but they need to maby bring back some old elements from gothic 3 or refine them not take them away! U cant defend PB forever, but u can still have faith. Dont blame it on other people when they say something bad about PB game that its wrong. Its not and u know it, just have faith in Pb and maby their next risen or gothic what ever it is is going to be great!
Gothic 2 is my all-time favorite game. But the landscapes weren’t any more impressive in G2 than in Risen 2. The world of Risen 2 is lush and beautiful. If you say Risen 2 isn’t an artistically beautiful game (when it comes to the actual world), then you’ve obviously not been exploring the jungle during sunrise. It’s absolutely amazing to look at.
I took a screenshot yesterday. Uploaded to steam cloud. Check it out here:
http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/578955865668947229/AA94B52124EA6E31FFA778CD0950D3F2F3CB9CC9/
I’m sure you’re getting some hate for this review, Joe – there’s lots of germans out there, and there’s lots of international PB-fans too.
… I’m not gonna HATE on you, but I’m gonna be critical to some of your bulletpoints:
I agree with you on a lot of things. Faces are re-used, AI pathfinding is weird and often bad, combat is at times incredibly frustrating, boss-battles are rather anti-climactic and so on….
BUT! Let’s flip the coin. Skyrim. You gave it a 10/10.
-The game re-uses voices over and over and over again. Even the actors who “portray” important characters have voices for minor-league bandits too! Why didn’t this draw down the experience? Re-using faces is an issue with many RPGs. The original Witcher is the prime example.
Don’t get me wrong. Risen 2′s over-use of the same faces is not something I condone, I’m just saying it’s an often-used “trick” the devs use to save time in large RPGs that take dozens of hours to complete.
-AI pathfinding is atrocious in Skyrim too. Too many times do your followers get stuck in caves, and then you have to go get them later on. You aren’t even treated to a marker showing you exactly where you left the follower.
You showed an image of you exploiting the AI by fighting a man standing on a table, and he didn’t fight back. Well guess what, that’s fully possible in Skyrim too. You can stand behind a tiny rock formation or a bent-over tree, and just keep firing at enemies who keep running against the blockade. Don’t you believe me? There’s tons of youtube-videos on it. Try searching “Bethesda AI at its best” on YT, for example. User Mupp33n uploaded a video showing how you can exploit the poor AI. Yet Skyrim still got 10/10.
-Combat was frustrating as shit in Risen 2. It’s too simplified, and it was much better in Risen 1. You’re right about it. It’s too simple. BUT now, there has been a small patch released. 40mb. That’s pretty small, and yet it does great things. It adds a dodge-mechanic, and now you can block *most* monsters’ attacks too. SO it’s gotten much better now. The flickering is now gone, and a bunch of other issues have been fixed too. Of course, you didn’t play the game then, so it’s irrelevant. I’m just stating it for those curios. The game IS being patched up, and it’s already a much more smooth experience.
-Anyway, back to the combat, and back to Skyrim: The combat in Skyrim is repetitive, to put it mildly. You swing and swing and swing until the enemy is dead. It’s not BAD combat, it’s just repetitive. Sure you can say “yeah but you can combine magic and swords!”. Yeah well, in Risen 2 you can combine firearms with swords, with voodoo, with dirty tricks like throwing sand in a guy’s eyes or throwing coconuts in his head. Risen 2′s combat isn’t all that great, but it isn’t MORE repetitive than that of Skyrim – and most other RPGs out there either. Skyrim’s combat isn’t BAD, but if Risen 2′s combat helps pull the game down to a 4/10, then Skyrim’s combat should alone at least drag the score down to 8/10.
-Yeah, you can’t steer your ship manually. It’s too bad that you don’t have that feature in the game. But Risen 2 is an RPG in a pirate-setting, not a pirate-game with RPG elements. Having this feature would be awesome, BUT it’s not there – and that’s not something you should slaughter the game for. Once again, Skyrim: The game is all about dragons. From the early teasers, dragons were the central topic. Dragons are in the game, but how come I can’t fly my very own dragon? I CAN’T FLY A DRAGON?! GAME SUX!!!! Not to mention that dragon combat is repetitive and redundant as shit. Anyway, It would be COOL to fly a dragon, but it’s just an RPG with dragons in it. It would be cool, but the feature’s not there. There’s more than enough other features that weigh up for it.
See what I’m getting at here? Risen 2 is far from a perfect game. It has issues, and even as a huge Gothic-fan, I’m frustrated and angry at some of the changes from the original game (like no swimming, simplified – consolified – combat and so on)… but giving it a 4/10? Joe, you were solely focusing on the negative aspects of the game. SOLELY. Nearly ALL the issues of this game can be applied to most any other RPG – including Skyrim, a game you gave 10/10. Again, Skyrim is a way more polished game (though it was buggy as shit in the beginning too), and it has more content.
Now, I’m not saying they should’ve scored equally. But when both games have many of the same issues, and these issues drag down the overall score for one game BUT NOT THE OTHER, not even a tiny bit? Not even down to a 9/10… then don’t you think you’re doing something wrong? That you’re a tad biased? Or am I way off here?
I truly hope you’ll reply to my comment (though I understand you sadly might not have time to even see it written here). Feel free to continue this over mail, I would very much like to have a conversation about this with you. A friendly one, of course.
Holy shit that was long! :O
So pretty much all of your arguments can be applied to any game.
I hate to say this but bringing up Skyrim does not help your case in the slightest. Lets be honest the only reason you brought it up was because its the newest “popular game”.
I have no idea why people care so much. I enjoyed fable 3 it doesn’t mean it makes AJ opinion any less valid.
My main issue here is that Joe is inconsistent as a reviewer. If he feels that Risen 2 isn’t a good game, then that’s completely fine. WoW is supposed to be a great game, but I could never for the life of me get interested in it.
My issue is that he uses some problems of one game as reason to drag down the score, whereas the same problems in another game seems to not matter one bit.
The reason I use Skyrim as the main example, is because it is an RPG from a series of RPGs that traditionally has been considered a “competitor” to former Piranha Bytes-games. At least regarding the fans. I also use Skyrim because it’s one of the few games Joe has given a 10/10. I’m sorry, but bringing up Skyrim as a comparative example – both since it’s an fantasy action-RPG and due to the flawless rating despite being a flawed game in so many of the same ways as Risen 2 – comes as a completely natural thing to do in this regard, for me.
Again, my problem is the inconsistency. If AI pathfinding, for example, is such a huge issue for Joe, then it should have counted in Skyrim too. And a whole bunch of other games. It just seems to me like he’s being awfully negative to this game, and he doesn’t even focus a tiny bit on any of the good things.
Risen 2 is a flawed game. It was – before the patch, a borderline mediocre game. But it’s not a 4/10.
Also – rather off-topic but – how the hell does it make sense to attempt to give Risen 1 on consoles a better reputation/image/whatever by playing Risen 2 on PC? If he wants to give Risen 1 a better reputation, then he should play Risen 1 on the PC.
It’s your opinion that it’s not a 4/10. But i think when you said “he uses some problems of one game as reason to drag down the score, whereas the same problems in another game seems to not matter one bit.” The reason it brought down the score in this game because it was very memorable unlike a game like Mass Effect 1 where there a lot of bugs but it was not as memorable because it has great things to support it and was easily forgettable unlike this game. But it’s all opinions. At least you brought up good points unlike Stew360 lol.
i like AJ, and i watched your vids for long time now, but this is probably the worst review ever. Before some fanboy start to say “it’s his opinion, he can whatever he want!”, he is a reviewer, he supposed to give us the hard-cold FACTS, not his opinions, or something that only happen to him because he created it. For example, if u r the person who want to jump around, mess the game up and do the quests in unpredictable order, u shouldnt go around and say “this game has a lot of broken quests”. it’s the same here.
too hard at the beginning?? it’s your fault for ignoring other important stats and just focusing on cunning. it’s a different rpg, u cant kill every enemy at the beginning. and it look like u didnt know how to map grogs and rums to quickbar either. and u didnt even buy some proper armor.
button-mashing combat?? many games have this type of combat system (two world 2). atleast here they tried to add something new (dirty tricks) which u forgot to mention.
pathfinding and exploitable AI?? well, there’re a lot of games with those problems, even your precious Skyrim and two world 2.
reused faces and lip-synching?? again, not a big deal. it’s from a small company. even big games have those like the witchers 1 (repeated npcs) or mafia 2 (lip-syncing).
can not swim?? once again, it’s the small company’s limitation, they cant creat huge world like skyrim where u can go wherever u want. “sea” in this game is like an invisible wall, a mountain in Skyrim, a border that mark where u can go, and personally, it’s not that bad, it better than the ridiculous invisible walls in other games.
bad boss battle?? i think it’s not that bad. and it’s better than nothing. if they didnt include those battles, someone gonna whine why there is no epic moments.
controllable ship with epic sea battles?? what do u think this is, an action rpg like fable or mass effect?? this is a normal rpg. it’s wrong expectation. and before someone say “armada of the damned has steelable ship and sea raids, why this one not”, check out some of its gameplay, it feel like a fable game, an action rpg.
I’m not PB’s fanboy and i not gonna defend this game to death. it’s just some feedback so u can make your show better, make it like “top 32 reasons why fable 3 sucks”: after watching that vid, i changed from liking that game to hating it, because it’s facts, convincing and fair.
Have you read what you just said? Most of those things that you said that Joe needs to disregard are what make a terrible game (Fable 3). It’s his opinion, and i fully agree with it except some small details, but he hits it right on with this review. You keep on saying “I’m not PB’s fanboy” but the more you say that in your reply the more i believe you are a fanboy. All his points of why the game is bad is fair. For example the small amount of developers, well there has been FAR BETTER games made with fewer developers. I hope you re-read your response and realize how dumb you sound. I’m not saying your wrong because it is ur opinion that this is AJ’s worst review, but your making too many excuses for why Joe gave this game a below average rating review.
yeah, it’s really fair to compare a small company who make a RPG, which is far more complicated, to another small company who make space combat games. And it’s you that need to read my post again. some of his point are unfair because those problems are very common, and they exist even in some of his high-score games like Skyrim and TW2. and some can be forgiven. if u refuse to admit that he is too harsh on this game, it’s you who are a dumb fan boy who dont listen to reasons and depend him constantly because it’s “cool” thing to do.
Life is not fair lol. I can tell that you don’t think before you speak. But his points are unfair in UR opinion and there’s probably no way i can change ur opinion because your head is so far in PB butt. I am a fan of AJ and i like his content but it’s just a opinion i guess and i don’t depend on him -_-. I don’t know why you said that LOL but i can tell your a complete idiot by the things you type.
actually, i think before i type more than u do. it’s you who constantly said that his points are fair without anything to back it up. “there’s probably no way i can change ur opinion” yet u couldnt say a single valid reason other than insulting me?? and that made me a idiot? real mature.
1 more thing, uninteresting story?? yeah, Skyrim and Two world 2 are really interesting at the beginning. You ‘re a prisoner, who got rescued (by a dragon->skyrim, by some orcs->TW2) because you are somehow special, as always. yeah, really memorable.
First of all, what kind of review only has facts in it? What if a review only said “this is a pirate themed action RPG. You can either fight face to face with your foes, sneak around in it, and so on”. Can you tell it’s good or bad from review like that? No, in fact it’s not a review, it’s an outline. Concept of good and bad is based around opinion and without it there is no indicator for us to judge. Funny thing is, you said “I think it’s not bad” and “Yeah, Skyrim and TW2 have really interesting story”, which is clearly your opinion.
You see, nobody are 100% right especially in a game review like this because it will be affected by that person’s tastes and style. Are you asking him to be a Gospel or something? What if he rated it harshly? We don’t have to take every word of his as truth and judge for ourselves. Plus he is an entertainer. Sometimes he got to knit pick something to make jokes out of them.
Second, if they can’t get to create a complex RPG in a right way, then don’t make it in the first place and start off with simpler stuff that they can handle. That’s just sound like poor management to me.
Third, instead of calling him a hypocrite and shoving your viewpoints to his face, why not tell us what makes this RPG better than what Joe says. Like, what does Risen 2 have that other RPGs don’t? What makes it special and what are its flaws?
i not saying he shouldnt put his opinions in his review retirely, but he should make it sound convincing, not totally biased like this. For example, why did he ignore some of the problems in his other reviews ( exploitable AI, unmemorable characters in Skyrim, button-mashing combat in TW2), but not here?? why did he look for every small bit of detail like reused faces and lip-syncing in this game, but not in other RPGs?? And knit pick every small bit of details for the sake of making jokes, even that it may hurt the sales of the game, is not too harsh for you??
“We don’t have to take every word of his as truth and judge for ourselves”. yes, but he is not no-body, he is a famous reviewer now, his word have weight and he made people think this game is worse than it actually is.
“why not tell us what makes this RPG better than what Joe says. Like, what does Risen 2 have that other RPGs don’t? What makes it special and what are its flaws?”
Like i said, i’m not a PB’s fan and this game is far from perfect. and i’m not saying that this game is better than Skyrim. it has similar problems to other games. what made it special is it’s a different kind of rpg, a change of pace from all typical RPGs right now. just because it’s different than what we usually play doesn’t make it bad. and i try to point out that AJ is too critical to this game just because it’s not what he’s used to play.
And i’m not shoving my point to anyone’s faces. it’s just a suggestion.
I assume you are saying that Joe lacks detailed explanations and examples. If that’s the case I agree with you, but I still think you are being egotistical. Flaws of Skyrim and Two Worlds 2, which you mentioned, are your opinion not his. Especially when you said “He made people think this game is worse than it actually is” That’s what people have to judge based on what Joe said.
His words alone can’t possibly skew the sales because poeple would decide wheather they want to support the game or not. If the game is better then it should sell accordingly.
Tell me though, if you aren’t a fan of PB then why do you care about their success?
because there are so few good developer that actually care about their games. this game may be bad to you, but they did put alot work in it, and they’re releasing patches to fix it. i want to support small companies, not just PB.
and flaws of skyrim and two world 2 are not my opinion, it’s facts. if u play them, u’ll see it obviously. and i wish that Aj do mention that instead of ignoring them like he did.
I can’t believe I have to say this but that’s real world. People have to select what they want. Don’t expect everyone to behave the same way as you do. We believe what we have to believe and that’s same for Joe. Why would you have to stick your head to someone’s belief just because you don’t like that idea.
World will turn accordingly to what people believe in general. If most poeple think this game sucks then the company has failed to meet our expectation. Thats it.
Aside from exploitable AI, they are all subjective. Memorable characters? When you mention such abstract stuff you can’t possible say that as a fact. In general, botton-mashy combat usually mean the player don’t have to do anything besides pressing bottons without thinking too much. I haven’t played TW2, but I assume that when Joe didn’t complain about the combat it must mean there are fair amount of tactics to stimulate the player. Wheather a game is botton masher or not is another abstract matter. So Joe didn’t ignored them, those elements just didn’t felt as bad as Risen 2.
It is true that I didn’t enjoy Skyrim as much as other people did and I can relate to what you said about the game, but that doesn’t mean it is a fact since each of us feel differently about each element of the game.
u got the wrong idea here. i not saying everyone should behave the same way as i do. i not saying AJ sux, this game is perfect and everyone should buy it. i just think he shouldnt be too criticial for negative sides only, biased and unfair next time. it’s just a suggestion for a better show. why so much hate??
if u havent played TW2, it’s combat is pretty much like Risen 2 with worse camera and lock-on system. human enemies will block most of the time, u just hit that attack button until they die. No one can say that TW2′s combat system is good, yet Aj completely ignored it.
I think it’s your writing that confused the hell out of us. I’m not even sure about that because you clearly attacked Joe by saying he is going to affect the sales of the game by the review. This shows how you wanted to make Joe a bad guy.
So are you saying that Joe should look for more fan’s feedback and show his opinion based on those imformations? If that’s what you are saying, yeah that’s gona improve the quality of his review.
i’m sorry that i didnt make myself clear. im not gonna attack someone just because of their review. in my original post, i said this is just some feedbacks for the show. And “affect the sales of the game” or “wanted to make Joe a bad guy” are not the point here. The point is that joe gave out the biased impression about 1 game (that;s what “He made people think this game is worse than it actually is” mean.) i just want him to fix that. Again, i not hate him or boycotting his show because his vid’s still funny, and some of the point are hit right on. Its just a suggestion.
if u can read MrJenssen’s post above, he said exactly what i tried to point. If u can stop being joe’s fan for few seconds (sorry if u’re not), u can see that his review is too biased and unfair. If u cant, then i give up because i cant find better word to say than that.
one other thing.
“Second, if they can’t get to create a complex RPG in a right way, then don’t make it in the first place and start off with simpler stuff that they can handle. That’s just sound like poor management to me. ” so i guess what u tried to say is why a RPG developer make RPG games?? totally make sense. how can they make “simpler stuff” ( i guess it’s FPS) if they dont know anything about it??
I didn’t say they shouldn’t make RPGs. I’m just saying they should’ve made a better project plan to make a better game. A game can fail because of the creator’s ambitious scope. When that scope is too huge for them to manage, then they may run out of time or run out of budget before finishing the project.
see, that’s what i tried to say: AJ made u think this game is worse than it actually is. i have the game, and i swear it’s not felt rushed or unfinished, with tons of bugs and glitches as the developer “run out of time or run out of budget before finishing the project” like u say. And how can u know when “that scope is too huge”?? this game isnt that ambitious, they didnt try to compete with huge firms or aim for new audiences. they’re still in their comfort zone now.
When did I say Joe caused them to fail?
Also, I pointed this out because other small companies have made better games. They made it possible because they knew their capacity and how to make a good business plan. Wheather Risen 2 was ambitious or not, it was obviously too much for them to handle. If other small companies knew how to make a good plan to make good games then why not PB?
“When did I say Joe caused them to fail?” i never said that. u not getting my point. “it was obviously too much for them to handle.” it is NOT too much to handle, because this game is alright and playable. they DID knew their capacity, that’s why they didnt want to take risks and try something new.
When I said “When did I say Joe caused them to fail?” I was refering to “AJ made u think this game is worse than it actually is”, which you said.
Again you are mixing up the concept of fact and opinion. “This game is alright” is definitely not what others think. It is your impression. I’m sure there are other people who share your viewpoint, but we think the project was too much for them because the developer didn’t meet our expectation. May be they are satisfied by their work but that’s not going to make them successful especially without criticism from a reviewer like Joe.
For now, my rating for this is 2.0/10, In my very honest opinion It needs some work, I tried the game out and it was buggy as hell, I just hope PB makes a risk about the next sequel to Risen, if it worked out and played well, we’ll talk. Gothic 2 was amazing, I just hope Risen 3 will bring home the goods.
My final, personal rating for Risen 2: 2.0 – need some work
just my curiousity, what bug or glitches did u encounter?? because i played like 20hours+ and i havent met any.
Hey Joe!
Were you drinking beer or soda during your review?
I tried Risen not too long after it first came out, and I was not impressed. The Gothic game were fun. But Risen was bad…just horrible. I dare not try this one. I wanted to play Armada of the Damn more than this. I’ll just stick to Sid Meier’s Pirates.
I have to ask, if the gameplay is meh for this, why does Skyrim get a pass?
its gameplay sucks balls.
Not defending this game as I have NO experience with it (or it’s predecessor) so ya. But it seemed no worse than Skyrim’s gameplay. At least the story seems better than Skyrim’s zzzz one.
I’ll prolly pick it up when it’s cheap though. Not now.
Its gameplay doesnt suck balls, sure, its simple, but its extremely easy to learn how to fight, theres shitloads of things to do, you can explore a lot, it has a lot of good ideas, and sure, the story is what you have seen many times before, but it is still executed well, and you should know that i will protect Skyrim to death.
Also, you shouldnt compare Skyrim with Risen 2. They are two entirely different games.
The gameplay it self doesnt make the freaking game! Skyrim had one of the greatest open worlds of all time, it has soo much to do, everywhere u go u can find new caves and stuff and the gameplay of skyrim was never bad it was maby little choppy at first, but skyrim had other things good with it! I dont say PB is a bad game developer, but they need to take more risks maby even take mechanics from gothic or just refine what the gothic series did well and make it better. Also add a story and boom uve got a good game, but Pb right now is just having difficulties getting their game done proppely. Just have faith and dont start writting angry comments on forums or blogs cause ur a die hard fan and cant respect other peoples opinions!
ARGH! This game deserves to walk the plank and fall into Davy Jones’ locker!
Also RIP monkey. He was truly a better man than any of us could hope to be.
Pretty damn sad. I loved Gothic 1 and 2, but Gothic 3, Risen and apparently Risen 2 still have the same problems as Gothic 1 did. PB did not evolve one damn bit in the important aspects in the last … what … 15 years?
That crappy combat system was fine back then in Gothic 1, also because the scenario, the setting, the story, the characters were great and made up for a lot of the technical shortcomings. But Risen did not have that excuse, I still very much regret buying that game, even at like 15 bucks. Just wasted money.
Hell, I loved the three factions in Gothic 1 but they did the same damn thing for *every* game. Paladins/”Good guys”, “Bandit-like faction” and “tribespeople, voodoo guys, religious guys, whatever”.
Their animations, jumping, running, fighting, suck, their combat system sucks and it seems they’re fine with it, delivering the same shit over and over again. I defended them in the past because I loved Gothic 1/2 but … nah, not anymore. Get your shit together PB.
To be fair, Gothic 3 wasn’t bad once you patched the fuck outta it. But, that doesn’t excuse having to do that.
I haven’t played Risen, so I have no say in how good or bad it is same with Risen 2.
And do you really thing Gothic 1 had the same combat system as this? Did you actually play it? The actual initial release (not sure if a later one changed it). Cause you would hold a button and then use the arrow keys to swing the sword the way you wanted it to swing. It was somewhat interesting. Not the best control scheme or utilized as well as it could have been, but it wasn’t simple “herpderp 1 button attack” like every Elder Scrolls game or later Gothic games (which made me sad when they changed that in later games).
I love how upset people are getting about it. Why do people take the review so seriously? I mean these videos are to entertain people and give them some points to consider before they purchase a game. Joe is a game reviewer but he is also an entertainer, if his job was solely a reviewer he wouldn’t have time to make skits and his videos would be basic. I love how the one guy claims Joe isn’t a real gamer. I’ve played games for about 21 years starting at the NES and I can honestly say that I have not honored every game I’ve played and that games developers. Some in fact deserve nothing but insult. Why should we honor games or developers that cut corners? and dishonor the gaming community. Isn’t their job to provide us the gamers with games that are fun and work? and if they do not provide us with this isn’t that called failure!? Not everyone will see it that way because we all have different tastes and desires from our games, but that doesn’t make someone a gamer or not. Do you even know what a gamer is? someone who plays games lol not some dolt that says every game deserves credit. So should we give E.T. Credit or how about LJN games? How about Movie license games do they deserve to be honored? To the people are feel insulted this is what I have to say “It’s a game, get over it” but hey you are entitled to your opinion but when your opinion is you hurt my feelings because some guy I don’t know personally says a game I enjoy sucks then maybe you should rethink your life because boo-hoo. Not everyone thinks Skyrim is good but does that mean its bad? no it just means some people don’t like it while others do. If you cant deal with people sharing their opinions especially for something so trivial as video games then I feel sorry for you because I dont know how you will make it in life.
Some other points. Joe gave the game a shot and went into it with an open mind. It sounds like he really tried to enjoy it and he listened to the fans of the series to give it a shot. You should not be mad at him for doing something you wanted. If he hadn’t made a review for this game you probably would have been begging him to make one. Just be happy he actually gave the game a shot. He made some good points that if you really think about make a lot of sense. I mean Video games (Especially RPGS) are suppose to make us feel like we are playing the role of the main character and if you don’t feel like a pirate then the game is failing.
Also, Really you can’t sail a ship? whats the point then! That’s like making a wild west game with no horse. It would be like if the only way to travel to different towns in Red Dead Redemption was to take the Coach.
poorly implemented ideas and missed opportunities… make Risen 2 an average game ..RRRRRR
look he’s name is angry joe you have to be stupid to think that he’s not gonna speak he’s mind here I mean hell would you yell at AVGN for being to mean to your game or your this or that he’s putting on a show if you don’t agree post something on youtube not on the man’s site and try to be an ass about it.
Skyrim – Dawnguard FTW!
The game looks lasy as heck, this should be a DLC for 10 bucks.
Just an FYI, a patch was recently released that fixes the graphical glitches, supposedly the AI/pathfinding (havent tested) and adds dodge and blockable monsters among other things. Sadly only german patch notes available currently.
Yep, that’s a step in a good direction to help the combat.
You want a good pirate game?
Check out Sid Meiers Pirates.
You get a sandbox the size of the Carribean, loads of ships to capture or sink, cities to raid, treasures and lost cities to discover, governors daughters to marry, evil spaniards, letters of marque, galleons, frigates, an epic quest to reunite your lost family, and best of all…. plunder and pirate music!
It’s an old game, but it’s aged well. Also, it’s been adapted for the iPad. The port works extremely well with multi-touch controls.
In my opinion, the best and most complete pirate game ever conceived.
)
(Until Rockstar games makes a Red Dead Redemption style game with pirates instead of cowboys
Hey Joe, have you played Two Worlds II: Pirates of the Flying Fortress?
how is it on xbox?
The console version aren’t out for a at least another month.
Ja Avaloner, geh DnD spielen zu scheiss nerd, rofl.
Über so ein kleinscheiss hier zu heulen, du bist ne pfeife.
Weißt du eigentlich wie lächerlich du dich machst..oh….ich vergaß ja, im Internet hat jeder Eier so groß wie Grapefruits.
Merkt man an deinen “Ich nehm den begriff Rollenspiel in sachen Gaming viel zu ernst” antworten wa?
Lass dir was besseres einfallen als solche flames, die sind so 2004.
Joe, you should differ between humanoid oppenents and animals. It seems you are just a bad player, because the attacks of humanoid opponents are blockable. You just have to push the right mousebutton. Common, you are just too stupid for this game.
For the ppl who really are interested in Risen 2 and will give it a fair chance:
for the awkward vegetation there is allready a mod, and for the pop ups some ini-tweaks. With them a lot of the techical issues are gone.
In the end it really is average, but not as bad as Angry Joe claims.
Maybe you should actually watch the review as he mentions it, it shows that he knows that he can block, because he actually blocks in the game and just a few seconds afterwards the attack overrides his block.
MUSS JOE VERTEIDIGEN RAH RAH RAH, man bist du ne null.
There are some issues with the combat system, with the new patch even less, but when you block against humanoid opponents, it works. If Joe wants to interrupt the enemy with a counter attack without having counter attacks learned it is no wonder he get hit. just fucking block the attacks and wait until the opponent is done with attacking and attack then. Or learn from someone how to counter attack.
And @Joe:
In Skyrim you talk about the great fighting system and how flexible it became (it didnt) and now you are butching about a combat system because it test you? Seriously? You better of with casual games and ligth core games like Skyrim.
And who was to stupid to fight humanoid opponents? I would understand if you got rolled up by a alligator (the first time they are just way too strong so I had to kite them and kill them that way) but agains humanoid opponents? What da fuck? Just block their attacks and nothing will happen to you. If you are too greedy and do tou much of button smashing because you are used to button smashing from Skyrim, yes then you are too stupid for the game. Get it.
LOL. @Meroxx
“Joe … you are just too stupid for this game.”
Average huh?
5/10 is Average.
What did I rate the game? 4/10? -1? OoooOooo. Soo much worse right.
Perhaps you’re too stupid to count, or too stupid to rebut all the other negative aspects I pointed out about the game? (Combat, Story).
Oh wait its personal preference! In my opinion Risen needs to step its game up, its easily the weakest of the RPG franchises being released lately.
Well said, Hey Joe whats your take on the future of the fallout series?
Well said, supreme commander! This series hasen’t been good so far at all, and it’s need to amp it up if they do try again for a Risen 3. Otherwise, they need to stop while they’re ahead, and take some time to figure things out
“I could care less who the game is ment for, if you put it out on the market people who have never HEARD of gothic are going to play it. So that is definately a very lame excuse. Apparently gothic fans are used to inferior and buggy RPG’s nice.”
Joe on Risen 1 and its fans.
And
In response to MissAshley
“Whhhaaatttt?
How is expressing my displeasure with Online Pay Passes “Self-Entitlement”. Do you not think there are others out there that don’t like this practice? Oh give me a break with this “people’s gamer crap”, its a freaking show with a premise of Angry Joe vs. Corporate Commander don’t take it so seriously. I only assume to give my own opinion and speak for those that have similar opinions to me. I dont have to preface every single thing I say with “This is just my own personal opinion” that would be unreasonable. Its a show.
“Perceived loss of revenue” why is it the gamers responsibility to pay twice for something because gamestop and other companies choose to resell their games. how it is the gamers fault, how is it your fault? Answer please.
I dont understand why people are so butt hurt over this “Joe thinks hes a champion” thing. Its a freaking show, in my show im a superhero, I went with this because I thought it was fun. Calm the hell down. Why do i need to explain this?”
On Blisteres Thumbs
but u gonna admit it: it’s a part of joe’s fault that why the game is difficult at the beginning. why did u ignore all other stats to get your monkey joe?? u not supposed to get a monkey that soon. u need to put pts and money to blade skill to survive first. i got my monkey at the end of antuaga. and by the look of your vid, why u still not have proper clothes even at sword coast?? u know this isn’t Skyrim or dragon age when u can just loot 500g-worth shirt lying around. most of the cool stuff is at shopkeepers.
“its easily the weakest of the RPG franchises being released lately” i beg to differ. it might be bad from the perspective of america where the majority of gamers love arcade games like skyrim and KOA. but European like this type of games. this’s probably the developers’s fault because they not try to aim for a different market. so if u hate risen, i cant see why u will change your mind now.
personally i think it’s alright game. it’s something different from most of rpg of there. i dont want it to be yet another mainsteam, hollow arcade game. lower your expectation (wide open world, epic sea battles with dozens of ships…) and know this isnt Skyrim, u may actually like this game.
Behold our fearless leader! RAH! RAH! RAH!
You know you’re getting adicted when just after an Angry Review is released your’e already waiting for the next one.
I been hooked for a while
Hello
Ive read a lot about your responses on the internet and therefor i can get a good picture about your Ego and niveau.
I hope it doesnt sound arrogant when i demand a certain level of entertainment, I dont need weak responses which can be countered without any effort.
After all you are popular and not user32122 in the skyrim forums.
Beforehand I have been gaming for 25 years and make a living off being a Programmer in said business.
Because of that i rate games differently anyway, which you only do if ever made a game yourself and had fans on that basis.
And not with youtube videos or who bribes me money or what facade i have to put up.
Normally weak opinions dont interest me, I wont deal with every single user here who will go up in his arms.
I want the reviewer.
As for myself, i only state my opinion because i got into programming games because of the Gothic series, and because my brother shows me every video of yours because theyre funny – until now.
For me personally that acted angriness and shouting is a bit too much, but everyone grows up.
I enjoy watching the angry videogame nerd, i always say nothing is better than the original, right?
But that surely is a minor matter, and uninteresting for you.
First and foremost you can see me as a critic of your work.
Its almost a personal insult against the Risen and Gothic fans, as well as the developers.
There are enough silly quotes on the internet of you talking about Risen 1.
Theres a lot of games out there that you are allowed “warn” about, but talking this game and the whole Series down is not fair.
You call yourself a gamer, so we understand each other dont we? I mean, did you really come up with those negative points yourself?
Im glad i didnt have to read “Why cant i ride dragons and shoot fireballs pew pew LOL” -1 Point
Something that isnt needed in a game like Risen 2 as a negative point? Are you serious?
Or does Skyrim lose a point because i cant drive a car in the game?
I wont proceed in comparing a game made by 500 people to a game made by 20 people which was made with heart and together with the community,
20 developers which had very rough times.
“A true Gamer honors the the hard work that developers put into their games”
PS.
You owe an apology to the Gothic and Risen community.
for example:
“My review was too harsh, im setting too high standards for the wrong game”
I wont get mad if you wont show some decency.
Goodbye and good luck on your future internet endeavours,
Im hoping for a professional answer that can be taken seriously.
Stop being a fanboy, he complains that you can’t raid enemy ships in a fucking PIRATE game, you know the VERY definiton of piracy is ” an act of robbery or criminal violence at SEA.” not on land, geez those gothic fanboys are so annoying.
I assume English is not your first language.
Also, why are you demanding that he apologizes for his own opinion? Yes, it was harsh, and yes, perhaps unnecessarily so, but that doesn’t mean that he has to apologize for his opinions on the game. Everyone in every field has to deal with people who bashes their work, and this is no exception.
If anything, Joe’s review made me actually want to try the game, he bashed it, but he did list out all the good points too. It’s appealing to me to start out weak and work your way up for instance, and a lot of the negatives of his I could pretty much work with.
It’s your own response that makes me reconsider. If the community around this game is this hurt over some guy who isn’t that big of an internet personality bashing the game, and are actually demanding an apology for his own opinion (I accept that opinions can be wrong, but in this case, not so much), then I don’t want to be involved with you.
goddamn anybody ever seen a bigger loser than this dude ” Brother?”
Go cry somewhere else that your favorite game sucks and start sucking hulk hogans dick brotha
Ok, lets talk like adults.
First i find you very passive agressive.I would apreciate if you stoped comparing Joe to AVGN, or talking about growing up (Which i personally think is something people say to feel superior to others), those insults make you less of a critic (thats what i think at least).
Second he makes a game review where he shows the game and speaks what make them good or bad games.So if you dont like it you can go and speak WHICH PARTS he is wrong.If he is unfair with your game you can watch the review and see which parts he didnt pay attention.
Third “My review was too harsh, im setting too high standards for the wrong game”?So this game can have lower standards?Joe reviewed many games without budget, some where very positive.If they can keep up with Joe standards why cant your games?
Fourth i dont remember him complaining about the series.He reviewed the “Risen” and “Risen 2″ one at a time and both where bad by Joe standards.
Remember Joe just want everyone to play good games, that’s why he does this reviews and that’s why he need standards.If you think he’s wrong prove it.
Oh my god, reading through your pathetic whining pissed me off more than playing Mindjack (I rented it from a library for free, and i still feel like i was scammed.). He has to apologise for giving an honest review about a game? Wow.
Get something straight: A reviewer gives an HONEST, PERSONAL opinnion about a game and whether he would recommend it to people or not. They don’t do it to please fans of the franchise. If you want dishonest reviews like that, check out meta-critic, you’re bound to find one there.
AngryJoe reviewed that bad parts of the game, but also the good ones so it is a well-balanced opinnion and asking him to give an apology for that is utterly ridiculous.
If he had just come out and bashed the game without any basis, that would be a different story. But he didn’t, he even at the end gave an advice to the developers on how it would be possible to save this franchise. But if the developers do not listen to the opinnions of reviewers or third parties, then it is a slippery slope to becoming the next Capcom.
And don’t even try to pull the ‘but we are only 20 developers, not 200 like the people who made Skyrim’ card, that is bullshit and you know it.
There are plenty of games out there made by crews of even less than 20 people that are of excellent quality.
They are having hard times? So? That’s not an excuse, nor is it our problem.
Reading between the lines here, what your post boils down to is:
“I’m a fan! I don’t want people bat-mouthing a game i like, take it back!”
If you don’t want to hear constructive criticism, just go outside and put your head into the sand and spare us of your fanboy whining.
I know you want to stand up for something you like, hell, I like certain franchises and games myself that most would consider mediocre or bad, but just because I run into a review or opinnion of someone who didn’t like it, I don’t go into fanboy rage and write something like what you did, I just accept that the opinnion of these people is different from mine, and leave it at that.
Grow up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_Bytes
Employees 22
http://geminiwars.camel101.com/
Employees: 3
Arrowhead Game Studios (Magicka, The Showdown Effect, and more)
Employees: 11
That’s just 2 examples, one very recent. There are tons of examples of companies with FAR less or equal to 22 employees that are producing high quality games (as well as compelling satisfying content).
The small developer card doesn’t work here. Sorry.
And don’t forget Mojang. Minecraft was originally made by just Notch and is now just a team of 12 employees who bring out all the improvements to the game.
Nice avoiding you pathetic coward.
http://geminiwars.camel101.com/
Employees: 3
“Arrowhead Game Studios (Magicka, The Showdown Effect, and more)
Employees: 11
That’s just 2 examples, one very recent. There are tons of examples of companies with FAR less or equal to 22 employees that are producing high quality games (as well as compelling satisfying content).
The small developer card doesn’t work here. Sorry.”
But they only makes small games compared to PB. space combat (geminiwars) and linear action game (magicka) are much easier to make than a rpg, with a lot of dialogs, many branching paths in story and quests, and open world. i not saying their games are gigantic, but it’s unfair to compare them like that.
Im asking myself whats left to say about this guy. Just leave your dirty hands off the Gothic and Risen series.
Do you want a Spike award for your perfomance on RPGCodex?
I guess you were left looking like an idiot on these forums, just like you do in your interviews.
Valkenhayn, Lets leave this clown.
Bro-Fist!
@Brother your the only one who looks like a idiot on these forums
Zelix needs a promotion, lol Well said man. And Joe is right, the number of people have no bearing on the quality of the game.
You’ve been gaming for 25 years, so you’re older than 25. How does someone older than 25 act like this? Like a pathetic little child that cries when he doesn’t get his way.
You’re happy for Joe to dislike many, many games. But the second he dislikes the game you’re a fan of you’re asking for an apology?
You are a colossal moron and you need to learn to take criticism of something that isn’t even about you.
Allow me to summarize your post Brother:
“Hate Hate Hate. Fanboy Fanboy Fanboy. Petty insults. You are so immature. How dare you talk badly about a game series you don’t like. There arent many developers so you should feel bad for when you say they did a bad job. Petty insult. Appologise for your opinion. Random quote with no reference that was probobly made by a guy who made a bad game that a few people like. I in no way plan on justifying the flaws in the game logically and will simply say that you are so wrong that you insult the developers.”
Is that about right Mr. Brother?
After reading this I can see your arguement on many levels, but sense you are a programmer you would have to bias your review to your tech knowledge of how games are made and how important the artistic looks and feels of the game determent your actual review of said game.
Joe is someone who just got the game, has no back ground in creating a game and just wants to enjoy playing it. This is what the average consumer would be more or less when they buy this game. His review is honest to his opinion and his reaction of play it. To some it is nice, better after updates were issue, but that does not mean he has to give out an apology to you or anyone on how he felt of the game or how he review it. He seen it how he seen it.
To confuse the difference between someone who makes games and one that plays games…there is more that do not make games or know the hard work put in, but at the same time most it is the same for the makers not caring what the gamers want in the game and just produce it cause they know it will sell just cause of name and cause of fan base. At least they try to do better then the last game, as most further advancements normally degrade over time and shows there might be good in a 3rd installment.
So to make such a critical opinion as to how joe did is this, your developer background is useless in a review, to being a fan boy of the games that they made is pointless due to the review is about this game and this game only, and to force and apology for Joe show how much of a dick you are and show that he really need to learn that he does not answer to Fan boys, prissy developers or trolls they are trying to get attention. I hope brother that you enjoy your leave cause you will not be missed.
Wow, how does it look up there sitting on your high horse? If you really cannot take a person’s opinion, then you shouldn’t really be reading or watching any reviews, that was your first mistake. As for your so called superiority, just by working as a programmer for a living doesn’t give you a more justified opinion than any other gamer here, it makes you even more pathetic than you sound. I would of thought in the field you’re in plus your “25 Years” of gaming experience you could distinguish the difference a good game and bad game. Not just because a few developers put such hard efforts into a below average game, should automatically make it a great game.
And no, Joe doesn’t owe your fan base an apology. Last I checked you weren’t their official spokes person and don’t deserve shit. Get real, this game is below average. Joe done his best to balance out the positives and negatives.
So why don’t you take that so called 25 years of gaming experience elsewhere and GROW UP!
Keep up the great and super entertaining reviews Joe. You’re a breath of fresh air when it comes to your reviews.
WOW when i read this i could not believe a person who has been playing video games for 25 years wrote this. He has to apologize for his opinion?!?!?!?! WTF i mean come on now that’s preposterous. And i hate that you say he has to lower his expectations since it only had 22 developers, NO there has been way better games made with fewer developers. Joe has to compare it to other RPGs and Risen 1 and 2 come up fewer short. I hope you realize that and change your childish reponse.
You have to compare Risen 1 and 2 to other RPGs that have been released recently and only good one that comes to mind is Witcher 2 which IS awesome. Skyrim is a ok (below average) RPG with serious issues, but it does have a huge (empty with buggy and repetive pointless quests) area to run around in with an even more broken combat than in Risen.
Why was the Witcher 2 so awesome you cant even customize your own character?
*sighs* When in the name of Melitele will Gamers of one kind of Role-Playing-Game, just let people who enjoy another type of RPG play their kind of stuff without taking out their pricks for a size-contest?
I myself like the Witcher 2 (and Witcher 1 for that matter) because of the storytelling,, the atmosphere, the environment and even for its mechanics. It just appeals to me and feels right.
The Elder Scrolls Games, i could never connect to. It seemed all so generic to a certain degree, the story so loosely interwoven. And i almost never get fun out of Sandbox-Games. Except for Pen&Paper-Games which are the real deal when talking about “freedom” for me.
But this is just my taste. Feel free to have yours and enjoy as much Elder Scrolls, Risen, Witcher, Monkey Island or even Lula 3D if you like.
What i myself get out of Joes Review is an honest opinion i know how to rate for me. But he can’t command me what to buy and what not to buy in the end. It is always up to me… the customer to vote with my wallet.
Thanks for reading.
Haha, it’s almost like I’m looking at mirror image of myself typing your comment.
If your taste in gaming is like mine you should enjoy Might and Magic 6 & 7. Both games don’t have much to offer in terms of storytelling but you get to create your own party members and roam around confined areas packed with secrets and loots. They are also hard core RPGs because you have to take care stuffs like foods when you travel to another area, your party’s fatigue, and status effects which won’t go away until you treat them. Combat is in first person and it can either be done by real time or turn based when you hit the pause button.
I didn’t enjoy Elder Scrolls series as much as other people did because it is less structured as a game. The game has this huge world where you are allowed to go wherever he wants, but because there isn’t much structure to it there aren’t any solid outcomes from your actions. The fans say TES series is great because you can have your own story. But what story is worth your trouble where it has no solid reference or consequence that doesn’t affect the game in any significant way? It is fine to have a fully explorable world, but if the size of the game has to water down numerous contents like quests and storytelling, your world better have intricate economy or something. In this regard Skyrim has improved over Oblivion, but it still feels static and without compelling stories and quality quests, there isn’t much drive for the player. Sure you can feel a sense of discovery by searching for quests and items but most of them end up being stale and insignificant.
Although M&M series doesn’t have significant plot, each dungeon, quest, and area are all distinctive. There aren’t much copied-and-pasted content aside from monster placement and common items. The developer made this possible because maps are much smaller, and it restrict the player to go everywhere by placing obstacles that require certain skill or quest to complete.
yeah your right let bigons be bigons. I really don’t like people who attack games that people like because their popular, or be little them on websites because they feel their choice in gaming is different… it seems just to childish,
Customizing your character doesn’t exactly do much when you don’t actually affect the world or it blows up from a glitch. Plus The Witcher 2 is a different kind of an RPG with a more focused story and combat, Skyrim by it’s nature is unfocused and it tends to ruin a lot of stories because they have quantity over quality.
You’d probably like the band Alestorm Joe, a pirate metal band.
Personally I’m holding out for the console port which apparently was being made along side the PC version and see how well it performs. Both technicly and practicly as a game.
For Risen 3 how about a an ancient Rome theme, a drak celtic theme, colonial theme, steampunk theme like Ravensdale, arabian/old west desert theme or even a mash up of all of the above.
Looked them up on youtube! Pretty excellent guitar work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROhsZayay-Q&feature=fvst
If you’re a die hard fan of the Gothic series you might get some enjoyment out of the Risen games since those are basically carbon copies of those old games. But the dumbing down/downright idiotic design decisions regarding the combat and character systems are a real disgrace. Never mind the boring story, because honestly, PB has always been shit at storywriting and technical skills.
In this case, going with even the name “Risen” seems like a really bad idea since it obviously tries to be a whole new game. Why not just make a pirate game with its own title?
Alas, it seems that Sid Meier’s Pirates! will be the last great pirateering game on these shores fer a while, arrrr! (Monkey Island doesn’t count – it’s a great adventure game, but it has more of a pirate theme than pirate gameplay)
just play Sid Meier’s Pirates, enough said
Honestly never interested in buying this game. I didn’t even know it was a game before this one. Everything Joe says I can see by watching gameplay or trailers.
You can’t control your own ship? What a wasted opportunity
I’m glad you mentioned the Gothic Series. I wanted to point out that they’re the reason PB has still somewhat of a fanbase. And it’s also the reason why I played Risen 2 (and the Pirate theme too, of yourse). I wanted to see the progress Risen 2 made.
Now… when I was a kid, Piranha Bytes made groundbreaking RPGs with Gothic 1+2. At those times, the games received much much praise. And it was deserved. I don’t know how different their team was back then, though. As Gothic 3 came out… the game was basically junk, and scared off a lot of fans. It ruined the entire series basically. Everything that made the series good, was thrown out of the window.
Their were some problems between the Publisher and the Studio PB, as they say. But I think ther’s more behind it. And that’s supposed to be the reason why the game was released too early. A few years after that, the publisher went broke. No one was really that sad ^^
It’s really strange, PB didn’t made any sort of progress after that. Every Risen game was even far behind the original Gothic-Series. And while everyone else went on… PB still can’t even reach the old times.
Too bad… I don’t think you’re right. PB doesn’t produce high budget games. I don’t think they will go broke. They will continue making these mediocre games (while the competitors reach to the skies). And I’ve lost hopes on them. I’M STILL ANGRY THEY FUCKED UP GOTHIC IN THE END THOUGH! So, they kind of deserve it.
They didnt deserve anything, if you used your brain for once and did some research youd know that it was Jowood, the publisher, that put pressure on them with Gothic 3, then fucked them over and took the Gothic License and made the abomination called Gothic 4.
Coming from germany myself I should support PB, but I hated all their games untill now, the gothic series is a bunch of garbage, I mean gothic 2 hasn’t even a proper inventory screen, no doll where you see what your char wears, its just a window showing what items you have, there is no way to sort it or anything and that game came out 2002.
The only game I actually played for a longer time was Gothic 3 and guess what..jup it still sucks aswell, I mean I played it longer than 2, considerably longer, because I uninstalled that game after merely playing it for 10 minutes, which by the way is 4 times shorter than installing it, in those 10 minutes I was killed 3 times, because I dared to explore anything other than just the straight way to the town.
Gothic 2 allready pissed me off in the beginning anyway, when the mage tells you that you shall tell noone that he is there, excuse me but your big ass TOWER is standing literaly a few hundred meters from a town, I could just glance in that direction and see you, not to mention that there is no other way away from the tower so you *have* to go to the town and anyone who comes from the town and goes in that direction will eventually see your tower anyway, so there you go mastermind..I shall tell noone where you hide, because a evil genius you are not.
Did I also mention in that case that you meet not one, but ~two~ npc’soutside of the town and on the road, the first one could throw a freaking rock at the tower and probably allready searched it, as he is hunting goblins or whatever and the second one is merchant with a broken down cart, as far as I remember, how the f* can there be a merchant on a 500 meter road, that just leads to a tower and is filled with dangerous monsters, that makes no sense at all !
Goddamm I hate games that piss all over logic in the very first moments of the game itself.
I feel ashamed that you come from the same country as I do.
*sigh*
>the gothic series is a bunch of garbage
That’s why it has so many fans, and received the highest scores.
>hasn’t even a proper inventory screen
Not a big issue. Inventory is inventory. You can’t argue about tastes. The ivnentory works, and it doesn’t really matter if you prefer the Morrowind inventory.
>that he is there, excuse me but your big ass TOWER is standing literaly a few hundred meters from a town
No 3D-RPG was EVER on a 1:1 scale. That’s just how it is. Gothic was a little bit more packed with content and with less ‘running through an empty environment full of enemies’. Do you even understand how that’s a design decision? Instead of running a few miles through streets you had a much faster paced gameplay. And that’s a good thing.
Modern games usually have early on fast travel, to skip running around through boring fields.
And no… you couldn’t see the tower from near the city. And the ‘tower’ was not very high either.
First… let’s use the ‘logic’ you claim to have:
The mage is IN the tower. So you’d have to go IN the tower to confirm his existence. In which case he might kill any intruder. Too complicated for you?
He wants to hide his presence from the PALADINS. But he also might have said that, to protect you from saying things that might endanger YOU, by associating you with him. Still following? Or braindead already? You have to take critic, if you act all angry and throw a tantrum.
Now the second NPC is a merchant, but his carriage is near his bench he’s sitting on. A bench in front of a SPLIT way. One leads to the Tower, and the other leads to a peasant. The peasants even ask you to get something from the merchant, so take a guess where the merchant has been heading. There are also no dangerous monsters, on the road in the very front of the city, ok?
So, basically everything you said is garbage.
“That’s why it has so many fans, and received the highest scores. ”
Madden also has alot of fans, that doesn’t mean its a good game.
“Not a big issue. Inventory is inventory. You can’t argue about tastes. The ivnentory works, and it doesn’t really matter if you prefer the Morrowind inventory. ”
Games in the past WAY in the past even have inventory screens, for gods sake there are Dos games that have a goddamm inventory screen, heck Penumbra has a better inventory screen and thats not even an RPG, its just insulting to your fans to produce this kind of garbage and there is no excuse absolutly none, saying its not even an issue makes you a fanboy.
“No 3D-RPG was EVER on a 1:1 scale. That’s just how it is. Gothic was a little bit more packed with content and with less ‘running through an empty environment full of enemies’. Do you even understand how that’s a design decision? Instead of running a few miles through streets you had a much faster paced gameplay. And that’s a good thing.”
You by chance ever played an OLD Game, you know OLD games that have alot more to show, old rpg games where you actually go and explore and even 3d Games, might I mention Summoner here, that managed a bigger world aswell with less ressources aka including a world map.
Furthermore just don’t let mage mention it, than I wouldn’t even have a problem with this or just let me walk for two or three minutes, it won’t kill me and actually draw me in alot more, Gothic 3 had the balls to pull that.
“Modern games usually have early on fast travel, to skip running around through boring fields.
And no… you couldn’t see the tower from near the city. And the ‘tower’ was not very high either. ”
Doesn’t matter, Fallout and so on can be played without fast travel aswell and you have to discover the playes in the first place, so there..your argument goes out of the window.
Furthermore there is only ONE way to go, there is NO way that someone would NOT have seen it, because a four story high tower on top of an hill/mountain is so not visible.
“First… let’s use the ‘logic’ you claim to have:
The mage is IN the tower. So you’d have to go IN the tower to confirm his existence. In which case he might kill any intruder. Too complicated for you?”
And you allready lost, the mage himself said that he transported the tower there or that he recently build it or something, in case I’m wrong here excuse me, its been over 5 years that I looked at this garbage,
So unless in this gameworld its not uncommon to see a 4 story tower appear out of nowhere, than I guess you can expect some mage to be sitting inside.
“He wants to hide his presence from the PALADINS. But he also might have said that, to protect you from saying things that might endanger YOU, by associating you with him. Still following? ”
Seeing how the paladins probably know you anyway, you know being the big hero from that camp of criminals, I guess its fair to say that I don’t need a reminder that shouting around who I’m and what friends I have, might endanger my person.
“Now the second NPC is a merchant, but his carriage is near his bench he’s sitting on. A bench in front of a SPLIT way. One leads to the Tower, and the other leads to a peasant. The peasants even ask you to get something from the merchant, so take a guess where the merchant has been heading. There are also no dangerous monsters, on the road in the very front of the city, ok?”
Wow..I NEVER heard of a road going nowhere except to you know a tower that NOONE is supposed to know about and a peasant and a merchant standing somewhere in front of a town, which entrance is..well just leading to said road, man this game makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?
Furthermore there are wolves right next to him in the woods, some kind of deadly killer monster in the Towns trench and some kind of insect monster on the right hand site of the Townwalls, meaning unless you are just a dumb peon with no sense to actually explore you are going to be fine, but you walk away from that yellow brick road and you are toast.
Bottom Line is..stop being a fanboy and actually play a good game for a change, because honestly..defending this crap makes me pity you, because obviously you never played better games, thus holding this game in high regards.
Du solltest echt aufhören deine scheisse hier reinzumüllen du vollhonk.
Mit deiner sinnlosen Gothic flamerei, n Gothic fan als fanboy flamen und dann selber n Joe fanboy sein, echt nice alter.
Junge, schäm dich einfach für deine schlechten versuche eins der besten rollenspiele aller zeiten runterzureden.
Skyrim ist scheisse, und du bist scheisse.
Ich glaube weder Novo noch ich brauchen jemanden wie dich in einem Gespräch.
Ein Flame würde heißen das ich keienrlei Argumente habe, aber meine Argumente konnten bis jetzt nicht widerlegt werden, es gibt kein richtigen Inventory screen und die Sätze des Magiers machen null Sinn.
Du solltest Abstand davon nehmen mich als “Joe Fanboy” zu bezeichnen, wenn mein Beitrag meine EIGENE Meinung war, oder habe ich im Video die Stelle verpasst, an dem diese Dinge aufgegriffen worden?
Wäre es nicht ein schon viel zu weit vebreitetes und benutztes Argument, müsste ich wohl dein Alter in Frage ziehen, denn wahrlich Gothic ist beileibe kein Rollenspiel, nicht einmal Skyrim ist ein wirkliches Rollenspiel..schlicht und einfach kann und wird es *nie* ein wirkliches Computerollenspiel geben, da man immer in den Grenzen des Spieles arbeitet, man imitiert eine Rolle, die durch das Spiel vorgegeben ist und geht auf einen Spiel vordefinierten Gang entlang, also..sei einfach leise und behalt deine Beleidigungen für dich.
Bah, what a strange opinion that is. I’m sorry, you make a good point, but it still somehow doesn’t change anything.
Yes, the inventory in Gothic 1 and 2 could be better, but it works. But why do you miss a doll? Why would you ever need that when you can freakin’ see your character anyway.
And your argument that the starting area doesn’t make real world sense may be true, but irrelevant anyway. You know, in Gothic series, Elder Scrolls series, Might and Magic series, Nevewinter Nights series, Baldur’s gate series, Knights of the Old Republic series, The Witcher series, Diablo series, Dragon Age series hell in EVERY frickin RPG you survive fireballs, dragon’s breath, 304902 slashes thrusts and smacks from swords clubs daggers and all sorts of stuff even though it doesn’t make sense either. Yet people are somehow ok with that. Gosh, you must really hate video gaming overall. No game makes sense.
I actually remember myself being glad for the starting area in Gothic 2 when I played it for the first time. Compared to Gothic 1, it was quicker and that mattered. The first game had a very secluded starting area where you had to run downhill for like 10 minutes ’till you reached some civilization finally. Until then, nothing interesting really. Just some herbs to pick up, an easiest mob in the game to kill and poor starting equipment from skeletons. No reason to return there later at any point in the game.
The Gothic franchise isn’t garbage. PB however cannot make games very well. Gothic 1 and 2 have so many little issues that it should be, as Joe would say, a chore to play, yet it somehow isn’t. I mean come on. Everyone has live memories of the mine crawler queen in Gothic 1? The Old Mine overall was freakin’ difficult because of the mine crawlers, you saved the game after every mine crawler you managed to kill and then you are supposed to go after the queen. You stock up on potions food everything you can find, drink coffee, meditate and concentrate. Then you move on and it gets dark. The creepy red web. And then duh. You find out the queen is immobile and with slow attack animation. Each time you hit her, her attack animation resets. Quite a boss battle really. You swing left right for 15 minutes with your onion slicer ’till she drops dead
Nowadays we call these games broken, but back then, it didn’t matter.
The game still had that vibe that no other game had. The Gothic atmosphere. That is the best thing about it. Something Gothic 3 nor Risen franchise didn’t have. Good story that progressed nicely and with cool choices and quests. It’s simply bewitching to know you can choose freely whom to join and that someday you maybe get to wear that awesome armor this guy by the gate is wearing, lolThorus.
So yeah, that’s it. You aren’t a genius if you found issues with Gothic games. They have a lot of them (controls! Non functioning spells! Unblockable creatures!! etc. etc.) but it doesn’t matter. Maybe we found something in the game you succesfully ignored. Myself, I had a great time through Gothic 1 and 2 and when nostalgia comes, I gladly play them even now.
And I do not expect PB to release a similarly good RPG anytime soon. Gothic 1 and 2 are oddities in game industry. Games that work, but shouldn’t. Their other games simply suck (Gothic 3 is kind of OK once patched and all, but it just does not feel like Gothic anymore) and I personally think PB are trying to make a game they can not. They make good compelling stories but they are still trying to create a open-world exploration RPG of sorts which sucks. Gothic series are NOT sand box exploration games
What pirate worth his wait can’t swim? I think that One Piece bit at the end came a little late wouldn’t you say?
Was debating whether to get this game, probably won’t now or if I do it’ll be when it’s a great deal cheaper and used.
Joe most likely threw OP in there for some stock pirate footage. The joke was too far apart to actually disparage the series. Furthermore, Shanks and Mihawk can swim.
With the lack of sailing a GREAT opportunity was missed.. sea battles with other pirate ships, random monster encounters, heck.. maybe even some crew management
Well, I’m from Poland, where The Witcher was born and I must say that Gothic and Risen series are so much popular here… that all I see are unicorns and rainbows. Well I can understand why Gothic is popular, I enjoyed first three games myself, but the fact is that others here are blinded by those games to the point, where I see no bad opinions about Risen or Risen 2. It’s insane! While all over the world reviewers are calling those games “below average”, here everyone is calling them great games… It’s like a whole different story, like we can make a great RPG, but we can’t see flaws in other games.
For me however it looks like Piranha Bytes had forgot that time hasn’t stopped, they’re making games that would be great ten years ago… and it’s a damn shame!
Well, I’m not the best person at recommending what a game needs when I haven’t played it yet, but sailing would have helped a lot. At least we have The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker.