Risen 2 is set of not too long after where the original game finished off, and Titans are still a big part of the games storyline. After taking on a mission that requires the unnamed hero to be kicked out of the Inquisition and land on an island rife with pirates. Whilst hiding up your Inquisitor past the hero must set off in search of a rumoured ship that can sail the monster infested seas safely, and thus help take down the Titans.

We got a look at the game with the guys at Piranha Bytes who showed us both the PC version and an early build of the 360 version too. Starting our gameplay session in the harbor city of Caldera we got to have a look at how the world of Risen 2 works. First off you can sail between all eight different islands available on the vast world map, but not until you find yourself a ship to sail the seas with. Towns are now vibrant hubs of NPCs going about their business and hold conversations with each other. These conversations are there to do more than just provide a believable backdrop for the player; in fact they allude to current available quests and missions that are going on in the world. The world also has rules to adhere to which really add some depth to missions and general proceedings. One instance is of heading out into the world shirtless doesn’t really sit well with the residents of the town, trying to see the mayor you will even get escorted out of the hall by guards for being scruffy, people will see you as a vagrant rather than an educated or well off individual. Taking out your weapon in a town will also be met with hostility from many individuals too. To top off the illusion of being in a world of pirates and debauchery the language of many of the characters really reflects their personality, there’s plenty of effin’ and jeffin’ for any fan of the English language and the pirate theme really runs though the entirety of the games dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue (no pun intended), the games conversational options are very similar to the originals, you can choose from a variety of responses that have different emotional connotations. You can keep talking to entice someone to attack you rather than face the legal wrath of striking first, although this is a world of pirates, as mentioned before, there are still laws in place! When talking to others too the voice overs were working really well and although seeming a bit wooden due to timing its very promising for a title that is early in its development to have such advanced voice acting already. Similar can be said for facial animations too when talking, they haven’t been fully implemented but already they are shaping up well. Dialogue options and choices also effect how the world is shaped as altering politics and political thought also changes how the gameworld is run, this means upon returning to old areas things could be vastly different or very much the same.

When it turns to combat Risen seems to flow well on both PC and Xbox 360, you can parry, counter and throw objects with what seems like relative ease, magic skills also make an appearance alongside enchanted weaponry. This means that by mixing it all up you could create some fun and interesting combat situations. Situations that really mimic the style of some of the best swashbuckling Hollywood adventures, throwing coconuts and parrying blows. To add to the crazy mix of combat you can also  Of course combat isn’t always necessary to solve every situation, as there are multiple ways to go about doing simple as well as complex quests. One instance was finding shoes and a shirt, we could either go loot a shirt or gain money to buy one, and even then you could exchange the shirt for information that would then circumvent your original need for the shirt and thus open up alternative quest paths. Sidequests are also an integral part of Risen, just like with many RPGs, and so there is plenty to do alongside the main story; one large addition is searching for weapon blueprints scattered across the entire world meaning you can get some really powerful and interesting weapons too.

Of course what was most promising was to see how Piranha Bytes has focused on rectifying the problems that seemed to dog the prequel. After receiving universally bad reviews for the 360 version of the game, which was really unfortunate as the PC version received excellent reviews, Risen 2 has focused on developing it simultaneously instead of porting it across. The build we got to view was a few months behind in development in comparison to the PC version, so frame rate was slow, however the game worked and ran perfectly and looked like, when it caught up with PC development, it would be a perfect fit for the console.

Risen 2: Dark Waters is rammed with features and a deep world, it really seems like an interesting project and has a lot of potential and a worthy sequel for fans of Risen, and enticing for those who have never ventured to the series before. It is shaping up great, and for a game that nobody officially knew about until Gamescom 2010, the project has really come on well behind the scenes.

You can keep up to date on all the Risen 2: Dark Waters news, here at TheGamersHub, whilst you wait for it to launch on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in 2012.