Risen 2 - PC Version Released

JDR13 said:

There's an explanation somewhere that Caldera is protected by magical crystals underneath the city.

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Not only that but I actually managed to enter the part of Caldera... That isn't ruined. Now the sugar import-export business sits on it's place.
But even if all things will become clear... Patty reuinon wasn't well made!

Anyone from Europe managed to get hold of a hard-copy of the game? If yes do the boxed version contain a manual in English or otherwise with gameplay details?

This many complaints from the target audience for this game! I'm sticking to my original post and waiting on this one (a first for a Gothic/Risen game) if not just passing completely. I loved Gothic 3 but I put up with so many negatives, I can't take the good with bad again from this developer. (I really like Risen 1 also)

Gorath said:

The beginning is weak. It gets better after a few hours, when you're in the pirate village. Then the typical Gothic atmosphere kicks in.

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I agree - it takes a while to get the hang of everything, but once you're there, it has the good ol' PB feeling.

So far, it's not a step up from Risen though. Roughly on par with it I'd say.

mbuddha said:

This many complaints from the target audience for this game! I'm sticking to my original post and waiting on this one (a first for a Gothic/Risen game) if not just passing completely. I loved Gothic 3 but I put up with so many negatives, I can't take the good with bad again from this developer. (I really like Risen 1 also)

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Trust me, it's at least as good as the first game was. It's also the most stable game on release for PB so far. I haven't had a single crash or freeze in nearly 20 hours of play time. Not a single quest related bug either.

A solid 8.5/10 for me so far, but I'm still only on the 3rd island. I'm playing on hard difficulty, and some areas are downright frustrating. (In a good way)

JDR13 said:

Trust me, it's at least as good as the first game was. It's also the most stable game on release for PB so far. I haven't had a single crash or freeze in nearly 20 hours of play time. Not a single quest related bug either.

A solid 8.5/10 for me so far, but I'm still only on the 3rd island. I'm playing on hard difficulty, and some areas are downright frustrating. (In a good way)

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Playing on normal (JDR on hard?! How the hell do you kill those ghouls on hard, on normal they're near impossible!), no bugs and no crashes either, last night managed to stole the ship and now I'm back in Caldera (not that I had to go here, but I wanted to loot those chests).

I'd say also 8.5. Music meets my taste, I have no problem with graphics others are experiencing, areas are not boring, temples have puzzles plus I went with voodoo option which turns some quests into the adventure genre! Hell I adore the lockpicking system - it's easier than other games, but now I don't quicksave/quickload nor care if I have enough lockpicks on me.

Seems I'm fascinated, but why not 10 then? I hated the shooting minigame (on normal, can't hit 10 of 10 at all and didn't solve that thing nor will bother with it anymore, but somehow I managed to solve hit 5-6-7 times after probably an hour of retrying and frustration), traps and first boss QTE sucks (jaguar QTE is in fact nice), fighting is too hard on normal when you just start (and have an option to train with several sword fighters where you lose unless you waste dozens of grog which feels like cheating), no manual (so it's unclear if plants with permaeffects can be turned into pots), quicksaves are all separate so you have to delete them manually etc etc, yes those are small things, but a game that wants 10 can't afford to have so many of them.

joxer said:

Playing on normal (JDR on hard?! How the hell do you kill those ghouls on hard, on normal they're near impossible!), no bugs and no crashes either, last night managed to stole the ship and now I'm back in Caldera (not that I had to go here, but I wanted to loot those chests).

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I found Ghouls tough but not overly frustrating.

Alligators on the other hand…


Yeah, the music is very good. In fact, I actually like it almost as much as anything Kai Rosenkranz did. If I didn't know otherwise, I would have thought it was still KaiRo.

I've improved "swords" and can solo pretty much anything (so far) except ghouls and aligators. For those I really needed a sidekick. You can't imagine my happiness when I cleared almost the whole island only to discover that there is actually a recruitable NPC on the island where you need to deal with cpt. Crow! And it's not an island, right, hehe? Anyways, aligators and ghouls were history.

I'm playing it on hard.

I love it… I've played 5 hours, which isn't much - I know. But the atmosphere and setting are both perfect. I have zero issues with the combat system, and even at first there's depth to how the non-human AI behaves. You have to learn how they move and how to approach them. It's not just about slashing them and hoping not to get killed.

My two biggest issues are:

1. Balloon plant effect - but I'm already getting used to it.
2. Length. I worry that it's too short, especially for such an amazing game.

Overall, I'd be surprised if it's not at least as good as the first Risen. It all depends on how they've balanced pacing, and I have a feeling they learned from Risen in terms of not overdoing dungeon exploration.

I was really worried, given all the bashing it's been getting. But this is true PB style gaming.

It kills me to think about them getting yet another bitch-tsunami from the press and so many gamers - because they deserve better. I'm really glad I chose to support them again.

Oh, and I even think the music is really, really good

Back to Risen 2.

DArtagnan said:

My two biggest issues are:

1. Balloon plant effect - but I'm already getting used to it.
2. Length. I worry that it's too short, especially for such an amazing game.

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I was probably first who posted about those shrinking plants, but as I said there - I like it! So it's probably not a real issue but it depends do you like that effect or not.

As for the game length… I'm 18 hours into the game. Yes I know, too much of time playing since it got released, but I'm free during the weekend and got hooked. There are 10 "islands" in the game and I just managed to steal the ship on the third such location. Unless other 7 "islands" are just a quarter of the first three I don't see how am I supposed to finish the game in 30-40 hours like all reviewers did. And honestly I don't plan to rush anywhere and track only the main quest - besides there are chests in the jungles I still wasn't good enough to open and I'll certainly return to those - as you'll find out like I did - you may stumble upon legendary items or treasure maps that lead to such items in chests! Not a spoiler since I won't tell you where is it - but by returning to previusly unopened chest I managed to get an item that gives +1 blades! Crime pays, hehe

Amazing game you say? Welcome to the club!

One of those rare instances in which I'm in total agreement with DArtagnan.

But yeah... I'm also closing in on 20 hours, and I'm still on the Sword Coast. I can easily see this being 40-45 hours for me.

So is it just a sip of the Gothic feeling/atmosphere like Risen 1 was or is it as full-blown game on its own?

DArtagnan said:

... You have to learn how they move and how to approach them. It's not just about slashing them and hoping not to get killed...

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Could you say more about this? Because when I do it it's all about slashing and hoping not to get killed...

SpoonFULL said:

Anyone from Europe managed to get hold of a hard-copy of the game? If yes do the boxed version contain a manual in English or otherwise with gameplay details?

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I have the Polish box. The printed manual and the printed guidebook is in Polish. Officially there are two language versions for you to choose during installations: Polish and English, but I see files for the Czech and Hungarian as well. Unfortunately I don't see an English PDF with a manual anywhere; the Polish printed manual says "the extended manual should be on the DVD, but might not be there due to technical reasons, if so contact customer support and you'll get the link". There's also an audio CD with the game's soundtrack tossed in and a big (unfortunately useless) map.

So you can buy this and play in English... BUT be warned that Steam sees this as "Risen 2 (Eastern Europe)", whatever the consequences of this are.

Elwro said:

I have the Polish box. The printed manual and the printed guidebook is in Polish. Officially there are two language versions for you to choose during installations: Polish and English, but I see files for the Czech and Hungarian as well. Unfortunately I don't see an English PDF with a manual anywhere; the Polish printed manual says "the extended manual should be on the DVD, but might not be there due to technical reasons, if so contact customer support and you'll get the link". There's also an audio CD with the game's soundtrack tossed in and a big (unfortunately useless) map.

So you can buy this and play in English… BUT be warned that Steam sees this as "Risen 2 (Eastern Europe)", whatever the consequences of this are.

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Thank you for your reply. You just confirmed the problem of absence of an English manual which many people on the Deep Silver forums are complaining about. What is wrong with PB and DS - no English manual?

Again thanks for the reply.

Jazzwhatever said:

I've got an old computer, geforce 8800gts, duocore chip, been playing the game for 2 hours and no problems so far. I really like the setting. Hope you guys can enjoy the game too!

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That's under the min reqs, what settings are you running it on and does it look worse than Risen1 did on that hardware at the same fps?

They still havent fixed this bug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZIebJT6X1_A

I wonder why they even had the beta test since they didnt seem to fix any of the bugs that was present in it.. hopefully they're working on it.

DArtagnan said:

I'm playing it on hard.

I love it… I've played 5 hours, which isn't much - I know. But the atmosphere and setting are both perfect. I have zero issues with the combat system, and even at first there's depth to how the non-human AI behaves. You have to learn how they move and how to approach them. It's not just about slashing them and hoping not to get killed.

My two biggest issues are:

1. Balloon plant effect - but I'm already getting used to it.
2. Length. I worry that it's too short, especially for such an amazing game.

Overall, I'd be surprised if it's not at least as good as the first Risen. It all depends on how they've balanced pacing, and I have a feeling they learned from Risen in terms of not overdoing dungeon exploration.

I was really worried, given all the bashing it's been getting. But this is true PB style gaming.

It kills me to think about them getting yet another bitch-tsunami from the press and so many gamers - because they deserve better. I'm really glad I chose to support them again.

Oh, and I even think the music is really, really good

Back to Risen 2.

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Was going to write just about everything here, but you beat me to it. I agree wholeheartedly that the atmosphere is top notch. The blending of environmental noise and low key Kai-esque music has me totally absorbed, and on hard difficulty the threat of death is always there. The tweaks that Hiddenx posted on the forums also did away with most of the immersion breaking pop in that would occasionally ruin the illusion.

Bravo!

Alistair said:

Could you say more about this? Because when I do it it's all about slashing and hoping not to get killed…

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I can try.

For instance, the "giant crabs" have a fatal weakness where you can kick them, so they fall over. You have to time your kick so it connects when the crab is vulnerable.

The Panther uses "lunge-attacks" - where it moves back and gets ready to storm you, so you have to watch for it - and either kick it away, or run quickly to one side.

The Ghoul can be defeated by kicking - and then wearing it down by one attack at a time. I've yet to be able to defeat multiple ghouls like this, though - as they're very fast.

The Warthog can be provoked, and you can sidestep attacks by timing properly - and then attack from behind.

The Sand devils always attack in numbers - and the trick is to try and hit all of them, because they become very careful once hit. So, you can hit one - then quickly hit another, and another. Then you generally have enough time to finish one, before going to the next.

—-

These are but some examples of how I've been dealing with beasties in the early stages. I know Kick isn't there from the beginning - but you can get it very early if you want. It's a pretty basic move that I think all should have. But even without kick, there's a pattern to most enemies that you can exploit.

Perfect combat system? No, of course not.

Like all good Gothics - death is your teacher, and some frustration is inevitable. But, unlike what many people claim - it's quite deliberate and there's no doubt a lot of thought went into it.

It's the first game in ages I've played for a 14 hour session. It's absolutely fantastic so far.

If it keeps up - it will be the best PB game I've played.

One of the biggest surprises to me, is that it's absolutely beautiful once you get over the balloon plant thing (seems to be all but gone on the Sword Coast). I even moved my PC tower into the living room, and hooked it up to my surround system and my projector. Playing with an Xbox 360 controller - and it's just dreamy

Will someone please, those who play this game, explain to me why some reviews gave such low scores to this game? Did they play this game at all?
I never expected to have so much fun with a game that got massacred by some reviewers.