Risen 2: Dark Waters – review

Famed for its back catalogue of unforgiving PC games, developer Piranha Bytes surprised with a more accessible take on the RPG with the original iteration of Risen from two years ago. After they grafted a rum-soaked piracy theme to its formula for Risen 2: Dark Waters , the game was released to mild acclaim on PC in April, with a transition to consoles in mind. A transition that, it would seem, did not go well. Technical problems abound, at least on the PS3 version – the game looks five years old yet chugs and stutters throughout, marring what is essentially a solid, if unimaginative, role-playing adventure. There's plenty of content to keep players busy with a lengthy central quest, a refreshingly deep combat system and large, open world islands to explore. But fatigue soon sets in thanks to a flat storyline, repetitive dialogue and a script that is, at best, witlessly profane.