Name: risen2header.jpg Views: 711 Size: 26.6 KB
There's an interesting trend lately of hardcore PC RPGs coming out of Europe, of which The Witcher 2 is only the latest and greatest so far.
One of the earliest entries in this sort of splinter genre was 2001's Gothic, a game that was extremely popular among its European audience despite being the first title put together by German developers Pirahna Bytes.

After a few Gothic sequels, the company introduced a new Pirate-themed RPG a few years ago called Risen and, this past week at E3, introduced that game's sequel to all of us. Just like the rest of this crop of European RPGs, Risen 2 seems a quality RPG wrapped in a not-so-great game.

The graphics are definitely better, and the controls are a little more usable than they were (Deep Silver, who's publishing the game, went so far as to show off bugs in the last version to the press just to make clear how much better the sequel was). But in the end, Risen 2 seems like it will have all of the pluses and minuses that this type of RPG always seems to have.