METAL GEAR SOLID 5: THE PHANTOM PAIN

Metal Gear Solid 5 is and always will be a stealth masterpiece, and while nothing will even diminish the game’s mechanical strengths, its open world doesn’t quite stand as tall. The open world maps are full of vast stretches of nothing populated only by the occasional enemy patrol, and getting from point A to point B ends up feeling like a chore. The emergent sandbox of the game’s web of mechanics does alleviate some of those issues, but by and large, it’s hard to shake the feeling that The Phantom Pain’s open world wasn’t executed nearly as well as it could and should have been.

Piranha Bytes has announced that its pirate fantasy franchise, Risen, will be getting a third installment and will act as a successor to the second game, Dark Waters.

Full details on the game will be coming out in the upcoming issue of cover of German magazine PC Games, including the specific release date and release platforms, but we do have a few screenshots and artwork images from the game, and you can check them out above. It’s pretty clear that there’s a pretty massive visual jump between 2012’s Dark Water and this new third installment.

When we played Risen 2: Dark Waters back when it was released, we thought that while it had some noticeable flaws, it was still an enjoyable game. In our review, we gave it a score of 7.5 out of 10, saying, “Risen 2: Dark Waters will give you a genuine RPG experience, but it gets a lot frustrating sometimes.”

Did you enjoy Risen 2? Are you excited by this announcement for a third Risen title? Tell us in your comments below.