Risen 2 impressions thread

Some quick post-patch impressions after a couple of hours of playing:

- Warping/morphing has not been entirely fixed. It's much less noticeable though and only happens in the distance, not up close.
- The AI when attacking from behind has not been entirely fixed either. I just had one fight where I could kill an enemy from behind and it wouldn't turn around to attack back.
- The jaguar AI seems to be more broken than before. All it does now is it's running around all over the place to find an angle of attack, then charges in, locks you down (where you need to free yourself via a QTE) and it repeats that pattern infinitely.
- DoF remaining turned on after a cut scene has unfortunately not been fixed yet.
- Overall the graphics somehow seem worse than before to me. If I had to describe it properly I'd say the game looks more "grainy" or more "coarse" than before. Not sure if something broke (like AA no longer working properly?) or if it is just my imagination…
- Flickering has definitely been reduced (though it's not totally gone either)
- Achievements are still not unlocking correctly - I dinged 10 in "Cunning" tonight and did not get the corresponding 'Rogue' achievement

Originally Posted by joxer
Um… Was it JDR who asked about trying powder kegs/bombs in the swamp ruin? I've tried, nothing happened, but I've noticed that "doors" on that one are the different than the one we can open with the cannon. You can't get near these "doors" - just as there are the same ones in M. bay.
It's highly possible we cannot enter those ruins by any means which is a shame.

How do you open that door with the cannon? Is it just about aiming right? I can't seem to get it open…

Yes. Aim quite high I think.

I've had my second post patch game crash still in Caldera. I might go back to the untweaked config file.

My impression of the patch is more positive.

Flickering shadows seem to be gone completely for me.

The NPC ai is definitely improved, although I never found it to be terrible to begin with. In the places I tested it, NPCs reacted immediately to me drawing my sword.

I'm pleasantly surprised by how well implemented the dodging and ability to block monster attacks are. It makes monster combat easier but not stupidly easy.

The only thing that concerns me is the part where it says crew members can no longer be killed by monsters. I didn't test it, but does that mean they don't even get knocked down now?

I've seen Patty knocked down by an early jaguar so I expect it's ok.

There's a new version of the warping foliage mod.

With tweaks from here, that mod, the new patch and shadows turned down one notch, essentially all the flickering seems to be gone.

Originally Posted by Alistair
I've seen Patty knocked down by an early jaguar so I expect it's ok.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about how some monsters can pin you to the ground. What I mean is… can companions still run out of health and get knocked out of the battle until it's over?

Guess we'll see.
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Although people don't like the lack of swimming, this game does have fantastic shallow water. You used to slow down when you entered water and waded, and that seems to have been removed, but it's great looking and very atmospheric. It seems like they could add 'swimming' in the same way they use the rowboats - i.e. at hard coded spots. The only advantages are - it would be easy, without having to make actual swimming work everywhere, and they could link it to constraints through the dialog box - 'Choose the one item you'll take between your teeth' It's hard to see it being less fun than climbing is now…

How odd dodge was "left out". Much better with it in, makes fights more fluid and less stilted.

Maybe this patched version of the game will give PB a better metascore for the console version. I doubt it though. Mainstream gaming sites seem to hate PB games.

You mean "pay to get a good review" sites? Y'know… Sites that gave almost 100% to DA2?
Honestly, I hope such sites hate Risen 2 even more.

I find the funniest dialogue comes from pickpocketing. Usually they say something like "No-one ever gets one over on me!" and the hero goes "If you say so …"(Received 200 gold). Makes me chuckle every time.

Originally Posted by Lemonhead
Maybe this patched version of the game will give PB a better metascore for the console version. I doubt it though. Mainstream gaming sites seem to hate PB games.

sadly yes

Originally Posted by hwfanatic
My first impression was: the game leaves much to be desired.
After 20 hours I feel pretty much the same.

I wanted to finish the game before passing final judgement but I can't make myself play any longer. Some 45 hours in and the game is just boring. Lost interest 20 hours ago. Such a waste. Everything about it seems wrong. 5/10

Where are you after 45 hours?

Somewhere along the lines.

Almost done then.

This is barely a spoiler but I wouldn't want to annoy anyone…

Haven't purchased this one yet. I may have waited long enough. *checks price on steam* - still full price.

Patched and improved makes this very tempting. But if I can hold out a little longer I'm sure the price will drop or there will be a sale.

Given it spent almost no time in Steam's top 20, I think it'll be on sale very quickly…

And to be honest, they messed up combat and rendering so badly that I have no sympathy.

I don't think there will be a substantial PC sale before the console release in August. Maybe a -10% discount or something minor but they're not going to cannibalize their own product.

However, it does indeed look like the game was a complete commercial failure (at least on Steam). They released the game when there was barely any competition around and couldn't even stay in the top 10 Steam sales for more than a week or two. And that's for a game that doesn't even have a retail version in the US so people that want to play it MUST use a digital service to buy the game.
Then if you follow the Steam charts on a regular basis and look at how even fairly obscure/mediocre games manage to hold their own among the top 10 at times, well, there's strong indications that Risen 2 must have outright bombed so far.