Risen 2 - patch #1 released

After starting Risen 2 last night on my PC, Steam updated the game with a 50MB patch. The official Deep Silver boards have a German changelog, which improves some aspects, fixes some issues and, most importantly, the infamous filckering of distant objects on NVidia is gone. Couldn't find English changelog swo far, so here's the German text:

Features
- Spieler kann nun die meisten Angriffe von Monstern blocken (Player can block most monster attacks)
- Spieler verfügt über einen "Ausweichen"-Move im Kampf - doppeltes Drücken der Richtungstasten bei gehaltener rechter Maustaste / im Parade-Modus Y + Stick rechts/links/hinten bei Controller (Player can dodge in combat)

Balance/Tweaks
- Es werden nur noch maximal zehn Autosaves angelegt
- Verbesserung im Angriffsverhalten der Monster KI
- Verbesserung im Angriffsverhalten wenn Charactere von hinten angegriffen wurden
- Verbesserung in der Darstellung der Vegetation
- Verbesserung der Sichtweite für Gegenstände
- Verbesserung der Darstellung des Geländes

- Kanonen sabotieren in Puerto Isabella ist jetzt wesentlich einfacher
- Händlerin an der Schwertküste verkauft jetzt auch Rum
- Exploit beim Schießen-Minispiel entfernt
- Lebenspunkte von Mara erhöht
- Stahlbarts Hut kann nun nicht mehr verkauft werden

Bugfixes
- Bäume in der Entfernung flackern nun auf NVidia Karten nicht mehr
- Probleme mit Grafikkarten im SLI Verbund gelöst
- Absturz bei Verwendung eines 7.1 Soundsystems behoben
- Selten auftretenden Absturz beim Klettern behoben
- Fehler bei "Rückkehr zum Schiff" Option behoben
- Fehler bei Regen in Innenräumen behoben
- Crew-Mitglieder können nun nicht mehr von Monstern getötet werden
- Spieler erhält nun das Item-Narrensaft nach dem Brauen
- Fehler beim Erlernen von bestimmten Fähigkeiten behoben
- Diverse Exploits entfernt

More information.

Hmm, While Dodge is most welcome indeed, this one:

- Spieler kann nun die meisten Angriffe von Monstern blocken (Player can block most monster attacks)

I am not so sure. It makes great sense when using a shield (both from a realism and gameplay perspective) but otherwise, not so much…

Also good to see they are improving Monster and NPC AI…

English changelog is available on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/news/7933/

I'm amazed it actually includes completely new things like dodge… not only some minor tweaks. This + the speedtree mod will make the game even better (but also easier).

Sounds like a great patch!

Hope it's not too easy as a result of both blocking and dodging.

Originally Posted by srabuseen
I'm amazed it actually includes completely new things like dodge… not only some minor tweaks. This + the speedtree mod will make the game even better (but also easier).

Yeah, I was really surprised that they implemented dodge like that out of nowhere and did it so quickly. It makes me suspect that it was something they had already worked on but just didn't have time to finish before release.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Sounds like a great patch!

Hope it's not too easy as a result of both blocking and dodging.

I loaded up an old save after it was patched, and I have to say I'm impressed. It even makes me wish I had waited till now to play it, even though I still had a great time.

The flickering shadows are completely eliminated for me. The morphing foliage is still there, but that never bothered me much anyways.

I really like the way dodge works though. It's not an automatic evade for the player.. you can still get hit during a roll if you time it wrong.

I loaded up an old save after it was patched, and I have to say I'm impressed. It even makes me wish I had waited till now to play it, even though I still had a great time.

The flickering shadows are completely eliminated for me. The morphing foliage is still there, but that never bothered me much anyways.

I really like the way dodge works though. It's not an automatic evade for the player.. you can still get hit during a roll if you time it wrong.

Are you done with the game?

Final playtime and how long was the DLC?

I've already started over - so I probably won't do that again. But dodge would have been a great thing in the beginning.

My final save post-end boss is 64 hours and 32 minutes. My total time according to Steam is 98 hours!

Those numbers are no doubt slightly inflated by the fact that I left the game paused on several occasions while I was doing other things.

As far as Treasure Island goes, well… just don't have high expectations for the length or content. I was pretty disappointed by it overall. I'd say it was little over an hour long for me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
My final save post-end boss was 64 hours and 32 minutes. My total time according to Steam is 98 hours!

Those numbers are no doubt slightly inflated by the fact that I left the game paused on several occasions while I was doing other things.

As far as Treasure Island goes, well… just don't have high expectations for the length or content. I was pretty disappointed by it overall. I'd say it was little over an hour long for me.

Wow, sounds great

I guess that means ~50 hours is a safe bet for me. It also means they're weren't lying about it being 50% bigger than Risen.

I had a feeling that pre-order DLC was pretty crappy, but you never know.

Thanks for info!

Nice, nice. Looking forward to playing this when I have put my new PC together. This and Skyrim. And Gothic 3 1.75. And finishing the Witcher 2. And, oh wait, about 6 other games waiting on Steam. Oh ye mighty gods…. anyway, sidetracked! I am glad, and slightly surprised that they already put a patch out, and a substantial one at that.

It took me just under 40 hours (51 hours reported by Steam, so a lot of reloading too), and I'm by no means a quick player. Treasure Isle was barely an hour for me, "at least 5 hours" promised by Deep Silver was a wild exaggeration to say the least.

Originally Posted by JDR13
As far as Treasure Island goes, well… just don't have high expectations for the length or content. I was pretty disappointed by it overall. I'd say it was little over an hour long for me.

Well this is just the island right? there was loads of stuff leading up to it to. Is Patty even in the game without the DLC?

Daniel.

Originally Posted by darklord
Well this is just the island right? there was loads of stuff leading up to it to. Is Patty even in the game without the DLC?

Daniel.

Yes, she is, you wouldn't be able to sail without her since she's the helmsman. Other than the Island itself, the only things added by the DLC are a few very short quests, definitely nowhere near 5 hours altogether.

Yes, Patty has a pivotal role, even without the DLC

You do do other stuff on that quest before getting to the island itself, but it's all kind of on the way to where you would be anyway in the main game. I think an hour or so is about right, but it's reasonably high quality content - it is actually scripted and voiced etc, not just a room full of combat like some DLC.

If you have to buy it in isolation, wait for half price at least… although because it's integrated into the world, I'm not sure how well it works if you try and pick it up after finishing the main game.

Ah well not to bad as a pre-order reward, probably not worth paying much for otherwise then.

Daniel.

Great news! All my instincts, reviews and comments read, told me to wait till a patch was released before even considering playing Risen 2. Not to mention PB always seems to have a patch in process, once they release a game.

I'm glad I didn't preorder. With the speed and content of this patch it feels like PB knowingly rewarded their preorder customers with free dlc and an unfinished product.

Hopefully there is enough replay value in the game for those who finished playing already to get some use out of what seems to be an essential patch.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I'm glad I didn't preorder. With the speed and content of this patch it feels like PB knowingly rewarded their preorder customers with free dlc and an unfinished product.

Hopefully there is enough replay value in the game for those who finished playing already to get some use out of what seems to be an essential patch.

The few issues with Risen 2 were minor annoyances at worst. It was far from what I'd consider "unfinished", and I have no regrets about preordering.

And yes.. it definitely has replay value.

Updates the game to v1.0.
Pity the dodge and monster block haven´t been implemented (as was, no doubt, planned) upon release. These two features alone would likely have made the reviews quite a bit more favourable.
Good to see post release support, at any rate.

Originally Posted by JDR13
My final save post-end boss is 64 hours and 32 minutes. My total time according to Steam is 98 hours!

Those numbers are no doubt slightly inflated by the fact that I left the game paused on several occasions while I was doing other things.

Slightly?
Because 64 hours seem pretty EXTREME to me .

Originally Posted by DeepO
Because 64 hours seem pretty EXTREME to me .

It probably is. I was very anal about doing EVERY single thing that could possibly be done. I also revisited every island at least twice to make sure I didn't miss any locations or chests that I couldn't lockpick earlier.

It certainly wasn't necessary, but I didn't mind.