I am playing risen 2 right now.
although I really liked risen 1 (and love the gothic games) risen 2 never appealed to me. I dont like pirate settings in general and the bad reviews didnt help either.
I picked it up at the summer steam sale and funny enough, I really really like it. from the beginning the typical gothic charm is there (piranha games are the only ones I play in german) and thegame itself was okayish, surely not as good was risen 1.
but now after a few hours when the whole game world opens up I really enjoy it a lot, I'll definitely finish it before playing risen 3, and I am looking forward to that one a lot. the videos look pretty good, magic is back and looks awesome. and if they keep the usual piranha charm, the many choices, great pc interaction and the opposing factions, I'm pretty sure risen 3 will be another addition to the already great RPG year 2014.
but I really forgot pretty much everything about the story of risen 1, is there somewhere a summary of the story? the one in the official wiki is by far not deep enough to understand everything.