Recent reviews by Dragonus

Seems to be more of the same as first game.
Full game isn't even out yet, so there will be improvements (and innovations) later hopefully.

I recommend Risen 2 for full trilogy experience. However I give negative review due to multiple problems.
Dialogue: isn't often satisfying because of lack of consequences. You are supposed to go through every dialogue tree to get all quests and other benefits. This includes insulting people you don't want to insult and talking to people who are told not to like being disturbed.

Combat: enemy attack animations are faster than players, which results combat being grounded in luck because timing your own attacks doesn't make much difference. RNG decides how often enemies attack and how long combos they make. Maneuvering diagonally during combat breaks soft aim lock and you turn your back to the enemy and attack air. Throwing weapons are way too expensive and LIMITED in quantity = useless. Stack on throwing weapons is final boss' weakness though lol.

Difficulty: early game combat relies on your companion tanking hits for you, though fast enemies often run past your companion. Game will sometimes take away your companion during story, leaving you alone to get stun locked by wild beasts. Kick should have been unlocked without skill point investment. Eventually character becomes strong combatant. Consider cheating healing provisions so that you don't have to waste time running for free heals by sleeping in bed.

Items: some items that shouldn't be limited are very limited. For example I run out of "bones" which can't be gained from combat and I couldn't craft more items requiring them. Shops don't tell stats for certain crafting recipes, so you are buying pigs in sacks.

Siding with natives is somewhat disappointing because voodoo is very limited: you have 2 support spells, 1 debuff and 1 summon. Debuff (curse doll) is slow to cast and too expensive to be used regularly. Summon spell is gained in pretty late game and it's the ONLY use for death cult voodoo skill.

Other jank: Solving mystery about Garcia by yourself results in almost game breaking situation. It can be resolved but not in any reasonable way expected from quest designer. Pirate hideout's 2 distillery guys are hostile when entering their room, yet they don't leave from there and are quest givers (you can sneak from behind to start conversation). Some rooms can't be entered without jumping or rolling. Also achievement progression is bugged.

Decent fun for some time. There's jank here and there, such as getting stuck and guards spotting you through obstacles.
Unfortunately humans act like robots who patrol their houses 24/7. There seems to be some RNG in patrolling routes since sometimes guards do instant 180 degree turn that results in instant failed mission if you were thinking about sneaking behind a guard. Game doesn't tell exactly why alarm goes off so it's hard to do better next time.

Extremely short. Minibosses such as jailers feel very bullet sponge and Alucard's move sets are more limited.
Only buy from sale.

LoS 2 isn't the franchise killer I heard it to be. Combat is better than before since player can control camera and unblockable attacks are telegraphed with red glow and voice effect. Developers attempted to create connected metroidvania world map. Dialogue is more natural than in first game. Boss battles have cool design and they got mostly rid of that stupid Titan climbing of first game. Quick time events can be disabled in menu!!! DLC is extremely short but worth trying if you grab it from sale. Castle's living blood is disgusting and I like how it talks to Gabriel.

The bad: map shows only small sections and I have no idea where the paths are going to lead. Enemies still have weird stagger immunity and they can attack at any point. Sometimes they spam unblockable attacks in groups. Unblockable AoE attacks are way too fast. Stealth sections are annoying and in the end it's just dumb that you will never get to fight Golgoth guards proving that they are more powerful than Satan himself. There's unskippable time wasting animations and walking here and there - I would rather had seen a short loading screen (first game loads very fast). Story is somewhat weird and I don't understand how time travelling works when Gabriel doesn't use wolf medallion himself. Plan to kill Satan makes no sense since it's based on probabilities and Zobek would have easily busted the plan with his telepathic connection to Lieutenant and Alucard.

it's okay but very flawed. 3D artists did good job with architecture and environments. Combat is sometimes fun and ambiance can be enjoyable.

The bad: fixed camera angles block players view so you can't see when enemies are about to attack. Enemies can often attack when they are supposed to be staggered. Aerial attacks are useless because they only work on small and easy enemies while large enemies won't be staggered and you can't defend yourself while airborne. Unblockable attacks are badly telegraphed - many bosses have about 20% blockable attacks and I can't tell which ones.
Puzzles often overstay their welcome but you can see the solution by forfeiting xp reward. Puzzles and platforming is too often trial and error based.
There were to many places where I couldn't find the correct way to platforming sections without looking it up in youtube. Also DLC final boss is total BS requiring player to do aerial combat while boss does fast AoE attacks.

What is going on??? It feels like an open world game that has only side quests.

Combat isn't all that interesting with very basic enemy AI.
Enemies just run towards you for melee or walk and shoot like Star Wars droids

Tons of replay value through RNG and skill combinations. Nice visual style

Short and simple

Get the Deluxe Edition because all of the DLC missions are good in their own way.

Mission map design is better than SE 5, which has too much arbitrary obstacles to limit paths. Overall gameplay is satisfying.

On negative notes we have the AI behavior: Baiting individual enemies is impossible because whole minimap area becomes suspicious once you throw a rock, body is detected or explosion happens. Once suspicious you can't sneak past them because whole hive mind will know your position once a single enemy sees a glimpse of you (well you could idle for couple of minutes for them to return to patrol routines...). AI hides behind cover way too much instead of trying to locate player.

Enemy snipers spot you instantly when facing your direction instead of having limited scope view. Weapon mastery mechanic seems good at first but shooting 50 enemies from over 300m distance is absolute grind due to lack of opportunities.