Ive never heard of Stonekeep but it's on Steam.
oh so I'm a good chunk into Risen 2 again. The reason I dropped it the first time was because I decided to be a magic user for once and it turned out that magic in Risen 2 is not for offense, it's for doing weird stuff like disguising yourself as another person. So I got kind of bummed and stopped playing. This time I decided to specialize in muskets and swords along with thieving and persuasion. The game is pretty good about giving you different options to go with, like slashing vs. piercing, pistols vs. thrown items, intimidation vs. persuasion, that sort of thing. Overall it is a bit more forgiving that Risen 1 and certainly Gothic in that you can buy armor upgrades as long as you have the money - there are no qualifications to buy armor or weapons except for voodoo and muskets, and I'm pretty sure you can get along in the game without either of those things. Enemies are also not as imposing. While there are some that will kick your butt, you're not just limited to killing chickens until you upgrade your sword.
But what is terrible about the game, and I think this was true of Risen 1 and I think Elex as well, is the stealth. It's like the worst stealth system of any game ever and the devs have never seen fit to improve it. Basically, stealth is crouching and staying out of eyesight. Not one or the other, both. And certain rooms are off limits, so if you step into them without crouching, someone "hears" you and kicks you out. But as long as they're not looking at you and you crouch before you go in, you're fine. So often, stealing from a room consists of walking just behind the person who is facing away from the doorway, crouching, and then walking across the threshold. Then you're good. And they can still catch you in there as long as you aren't in the act of stealing. So if you're on your way out and stop crouching too early, they'll charge into the room and say something nasty to you. But as long as you get out quickly they'll leave you alone. You can also just beat them up and come back and they won't care. Just terrible.
But overall I'm just a sucker for piranha bytes and I can live with it because I enjoy all the other systems in the games. And Patty.
