Risen 2 Questions and Ramblings

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Hey everyone!

First of all, PLEASE, no spoilers in this thread! Thanks!

Recently I got back into gaming after taking a little hiatus and I decided to finally try Risen 2. After playing about 5 hours so far, I have to say that I'm very impressed by this game. I don't have a lot of experience with Piranha Bytes games; I've played Risen 1 about halfway through and a few hours of Gothic 1, so I somewhat knew what to expect but I wasn't an expert or anything. I really enjoyed Risen 1 and thought it was a very deep and immersive game, and Risen 2 takes things even further in the depth and immersion department, IMO. It's also a very rewarding game, much like the first Risen.

Anyway, I had a few questions.

I just met Jack and learned about the termites stealing the sugar. I tried to follow them and found the nest but I get bombarded by a million of the little buggers and I die pretty quickly, even when chugging rum. How can I deal with this better? Is there some way to only fight one or two at a time?

Can I explore this first island at a later point to find things I missed? What I mean is, some spots are too hard for me to beat so I'd like to come back later when I have a companion and some more levels in order to comb the island better. Is that possible or does this island get locked off at some point?

Patty left my group to join Steelbeard and I don't have a companion currently. This termite quest and other quests would be easier if I had Patty along again. Is there another companion I can gain during this time? I'm still on the first island and certain enemies like giant crabs and jaguars are very hard and take a lot of resources to defeat.

Thanks in advance for any tips on these!
 
I figured out the answer to question #1. Awesome. For anyone interested, it is:

Wait until the workers go for the sugar and ambush them. Kill one or two of them and if the rest come, run away until they forget about you. Rinse and repeat until all the workers are dead and you're able to go into the nest.
 
2. Yes you can return later
3. Later you'll have them back and a few more to choose among

Play it as nonlinear game. It's not really an openworld like Gothic was, but you can (SHOULD!) still skip something and return to it later.
Crabs are tough? On that island you'll see a godlike spider creature you definetly cannot beat before visiting a few more islands.
 
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joxer said:
2. Yes you can return later
3. Later you'll have them back and a few more to choose among

Play it as nonlinear game. It's not really an openworld like Gothic was, but you can (SHOULD!) still skip something and return to it later.
Crabs are tough? On that island you'll see a godlike spider creature you definetly cannot beat before visiting a few more islands.
Click to expand...

Thanks, joxer!

I was able to kill crabs because Patty would kick them over. I guess I have to learn the kick ability and try them again.

I also encountered the grave spiders and they mauled me, so yeah. I'm glad I can come back later.

The game is not open-world? It seems pretty open to me. As I said, though, I never played Gothic much so I can't really compare them. I take it Gothic has a bigger world to explore?
 
Which one? Gothic 3 is probably 20 times bigger. :D
The openess should mean 632532883465832 sidequests you can do independantly. Sadly, and unlike three Gothic games, landmass is not the only thing reduced in this game.
 
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Wow, Gothic 3 must be huge!

I just finished the first island. It might be smaller than Gothic 3 but it's still a pretty nice size. Lots of content and exploration and it had a nice pacing and focus.

Onward I go! :)
 
Honestly, and although I've forgotten how really big it is, IIRC Gothic 3 is bigger than Skyrim. Not only that, it has so much different content it never needed endless respawns to keep you exploring and "wasting" hundreds of hours on it. The only mob that can't be killed is a pack of dingos in the desert, everything else will not return once you kill it.

One thing more to say, I loved Risen 2. It's not a perfect game, but it still had the charm of Piranha Bytes. I was lucky though - I play my games on PC. Apparently, the console version was a disaster. ;)
 
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A world bigger than Skyrim's with Piranha Bytes attention to detail sounds amazing. I'll definitely have to play through the whole Gothic series at some point in the future.

For the record, I play all my games on PC now, too. Have for the past year or 2. I even sold my Xbox 360 because I didn't play it anymore. I'm a converted PC gamer. :)

Also, I think Risen 2 is about as good an RPG for my tastes that I'm going to find these days. It's got everything that I like about RPG design. Not perfect as you said, but pretty darn good.
 
I enjoyed Risen 2 a lot but it's still PB's weakest game imo. They went backwards on the combat from Risen I think. I'm starting to get jaded with mega rolling all over the place in action rpgs rather than a proper block system. Although in Risen 2's case the dodge rolling was patched in I believe and I would guess it was very frustrating without it. Apart from that there is a lot to enjoy.

Just finishing yet another replay of Gothic 3 and for some reason I noticed the respawns a lot more this time around. Not sure why because I know it was the community patch that re-instated/fixed the respawning and I've only ever played with CP so strange one. Anyway every time I play through Gothic 3 I am yet again reminded of what has to be hands down the best game soundtrack ever written for a game imo. Why oh why did Kai Rosenkrantz jack it in (to develop some game dev software ffs)?
 
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Another quick question:

I found a weapon that does 35-50 damage. The one I'm using does 20-40. However, the one I'm using also fortifies my piercing weapons by 10, meaning the Piercing Weapon stat is at 30. If I use the 35-50 damage weapon, it's a slashing weapon and my Slashing Weapon talent is only a 20. So, is it better to have an extra 10 in the talent or am I better off with the higher damage? Sorry for the math question, lol.
 
It's a while since I played Risen 2 but isn't Percing/Slashing Weapons a range from 1 to 3? If so wouldn't it indicate that each level would increase the damage by a third possibly. I don't know if the experts have figured out the damage formula for Risen 2 but you could simply see which one dispatches an easy monster by trying each on them or something like that.
 
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BrianOConnell said:
It's a while since I played Risen 2 but isn't Percing/Slashing Weapons a range from 1 to 3? If so wouldn't it indicate that each level would increase the damage by a third possibly. I don't know if the experts have figured out the damage formula for Risen 2 but you could simply see which one dispatches an easy monster by trying each on them or something like that.
Click to expand...

I don't have the game open right now, but in the Talent section, I believe (don't quote me), the stats look something like this:

Piercing Weapons: 20
Slashing Weapons: 30
Throwing Weapons: 10

Or something like that.

So it's a little bit confusing as to whether I want the higher damage or the higher talent level. I'll experiment and see what happens.

If this is Piranha Byte's weakest game that's really saying something. The rest of their games must be real masterpieces.
 
Fluent said:
If this is Piranha Byte's weakest game that's really saying something. The rest of their games must be real masterpieces.
Click to expand...

Well one man's opinion and all that. Others here might disagree. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Risen 2 a lot and the bad reviews say more about games journalism than the game but I would personally prefer G1-3 and Risen 1 over Risen 2.
 
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My ranking of the Gothic/Risen series - best to worst:

  1. Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven addin
  2. Gothic 1
  3. Gothic 2 (vanilla)
  4. Risen 1
  5. Gothic 3 (Fan Patched)
  6. Risen 2
  7. Gothic 3 (vanilla)
 
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BrianOConnell said:
Well one man's opinion and all that. Others here might disagree. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed Risen 2 a lot and the bad reviews say more about games journalism than the game but I would personally prefer G1-3 and Risen 1 over Risen 2.
Click to expand...

Well, I definitely appreciate the input. I'm curious about their games and have been for awhile now but just haven't had the time to dive into them as deeply as I would like. They are on my short-list of games to play, though.

HiddenX said:
My ranking of the Gothic/Risen series - best to worst:

  1. Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven addin
  2. Gothic 1
  3. Gothic 2 (vanilla)
  4. Risen 1
  5. Gothic 3 (Fan Patched)
  6. Risen 2
  7. Gothic 3 (vanilla)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the list, HiddenX! I will probably play through the games in succession from oldest to newest after I'm done with Risen 2.
 
Fluent said:
I will probably play through the games in succession from oldest to newest after I'm done with Risen 2.
Click to expand...

Best thing to do and avoid the vanilla versions of Gothic 2 and 3.
 
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HiddenX said:
My ranking of the Gothic/Risen series - best to worst:

  1. Gothic 2 with Night of the Raven addin
  2. Gothic 1
  3. Gothic 2 (vanilla)
  4. Risen 1
  5. Gothic 3 (Fan Patched)
  6. Risen 2
  7. Gothic 3 (vanilla)
Click to expand...

I pretty much agree with this list. It should be mentioned though that all Gothics are sort of a lottery. The first 2 due to the non-intuitive interface (I loved it!), the third because it was a buggy mess and even the CPs could only fix the technical side. It has absolutely wonderful parts, but also a weak start, clicky combat and in the later game an ice area full of dark white things on light grey ground.

Gothic & G2 must have ca. 3 times the interaction density of Risen 2.
 
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Gorath said:
Gothic & G2 must have ca. 3 times the interaction density of Risen 2.
Click to expand...

Wow! That's nuts.

Oh, and I figured out the weapons bit. The weapon that does 35-50 is much better than the 20-40 weapon, even with a lower talent level. I'm able to kill things quicker, so yeah. Just in case anyone was wondering.
 
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