Combat is worse than previous Piranha games. Combat in Gothic 2 was great, Risen 1 was decent, Risen 2 is pretty poor.
I don't disagree, but it really does get better with more skills. And in previous games it was similar (if better). I remember how in Gothic 1 as a newbie I held one handed sword with both hands and could only make rudimentary swings left and right, and as I got better more moves unlocked and combat was more fun.
Speaking of skills, can someone point me to a trainer that can teach power attack for swords? I've met lots of sword trainers on the first island, but none that seem able to teach that skill. I'm all set to leave the first island. It's become fairly clear to me that sword fighting is nowhere near as useful as having guns on your side. I've been using the shotgun in most combat encounters and that's worked out well. When I try to use the sword against anything that I can't stun lock, I get stun locked to death myself. It's frustrating and ridiculous, but a good shotgun blast always helps.
I am well into second island and I only use sword (officer sword and now sabre) and do not have any problems...sure I need to step back and jump away sometimes (when animal gets a bit too excited) but usually I do that, drink a grog and proceed with killing said animal. I do not even own any kind of gun yet. As for trainer of power attacks, I seem to remember that the one in Caldera can teach that, although obviously until I get my own ship I will not be able to verify that.
I hadn't considered jumping as a viable way of dodging attacks. Regular animals like boars and the sand monster guys are usually no problem unless three team up to stunlock me to death. But tougher stuff like ghouls really reveal the deficiencies in sword combat.
I've never felt like jumping was a very good way to do anything in Risen 2, you are still going to get hit again but I guess if you hit the ground running you can reposition yourself. Making most of the sword skills in the game fucking useless against beasts/monsters was so incredibly dumb. I think I've had three major fights so far that it was handy having parry and riposte, everything else has been monsters that make those skills useless.
I played a lot of Risen 2 over the weekend and I find myself loving it, despite my complaints about sword combat. All of that is resolved by using guns, at least for me, so I'm happy. I'm getting close to leaving the Sword Coast. I really liked the encounter at the temple. Now I just need to do one last thing and I'll be able to leave. I'm really looking forward to exploring the other islands as well. Running around and picking everything up, killing stuff and earning cash and glory is a blast.
Well if you can lockpick you can start building the epic swords and they make swordplay bearable if still not that great. And you have Patti or whomever along to soak up hits allowing you to fight stuff like grave spiders with ease.
Also yeah it's a departure from Risen for sure but it still has snappy sarcastic writing that I enjoy. And the voice acting is for the most part very good.
I finally was able to get lockpick, but so far, even with a ring boosting my thieving ability, the best lock I can pick is something like 30. I need to bump that up a bit now that I've got guns up to 7. Regarding smithing, I haven't gotten that yet because it requires a 6 in Blades and I'm not willing to commit points there yet. Are there epic guns that can be crafted or just epic swords?
I haven't seen any schematics for any and I've got pieces for 5 different epic swords. So I'm guessing no.
So, Risen 2. The combat is crapastic, but apart from that it's a Piranha Byte game, not their best one mind, but is still has great exploration and an interesting setting. Too bad that the game feels unpolished, they clearly lacked time. I still played it like mad since I got it. I went the voodoo way, because the indigens are way cooler than the colonists slavers from the Inquisition, but I'm slightly afraid I'm going to pay for that because vodoo feels pretty underwhelming so far (granted, I've only learned how to use it and I'm still a bit lost), while guns are very useful because the melee combat is shit. I just found a great mod that makes the game look so much better and eliminates a lot of graphical problems, like the "inflatable vegetation" : Risen 2 antiwarp. It's only 217 KB and I really don't understand why the game didn't ship like that, but the results are spectacular. Give it a try !
Yeah that mod helps a lot, performance hit for me was negligible. I really like how bringing different companions changes the conversations with other npcs.
Fuu the game just got a small update on Steam and now the mod prevents it from loading on my machine. It works okay if I uninstall the mod, but then guess who's back ? The inflatable vegetation !
I just read that there is no Hero's Crown potion recipe, so if, like me, you're running around with a Hero's Crown in your inventory waiting to get the recipe, just go ahead and eat it.
Generally speaking in Gothic games I've had more fun just eating +stat plants as I found them anyway, rather than hording them forever until I could make potions as I did at first. The game plays just the same, only minus the time sink and without the resulting small power boost -- which you don't need anyway since their games tend to get a bit easy at the end.
Apparently they just patched in dodging and beast blocking. Will have to investigate. At least it's not paid DLC!
It only gives you an additional +1 anyway and this game is far less rigid than Risen 1 was with how you build your character. Shit still doesn't respawn though.
Blatantly stolen from Alistair over at Qt3: I'm really glad to see the 10 quick save limit. I'm a compulsive quick saver and was having to go into the save game directory and cull them periodically.
Yeah the autosaves being create anew all the time were god damn annoying. The dodge/roll and blocking are great additions too.
It's a lot less annoying now with dodge/block. I'm back to playing the game. Now I'm happily raiding the camps of the poor savages and stealing from their ancestral tombs. Because I'm a pirate, dammit! The animation for the dodge is well done, which makes me think it was clipped from release rather than added later in response to criticism. Seriously...no block or dodge on animals was ruinious, especially in the early game (where I originally quit).
I'm really in love with that game. It was pretty rough at the beginning, but with the patch and a bit of leveling (I guess I'm getting close to the last third or so, I'm starting to roll over most things I encounter in the wilderness) it's a really great game. The setting is pretty wonderful, and they nailed the feeling of the jungle islands. There's so much potential with the pirate theme. Piranha Byte games are always about exploration and ressource management, and that setting is perfect for it. I'm dreaming of a Risen 3 with actual sailing, more ressource management, better companions with whom you could raid... It would make such an amazing RPG if they could keep their sharp writing and worldbuilding. There's definitely a potential to grow from where they are. Of course that's mostly a pipe dream because they don't have the budget to expand that much, and I'm under the impression that the rough launch got them bad press and I'm not sure it will sell all that much. I hope they can ship a succesful 360 version, but I'm not sure the console audience will endure the beginning. If only PB had Bethesda's budget... Sure they might blow it on a bloated monstrosity, but they might also make the best RPG ever. On more pragmatic terms, how are the DLCs ? I'm tempted.
I just started on the Temple one but Treasure Island was a fun little romp. They probably shouldn't have put the dlcs unlockable by console commands though.
Well the Storm Island dlc is pretty terrible. No interesting reward for doing all of it beyond some gold and it's pure padding (you have to revisit every location in the game and occasionally fight some really annoying monster types,) Also finished the game, for the most part I enjoyed it. Grave spiders are harder to fight than the last boss though.
If anyone else is interested in how this is done, I found this over at GameFAQs: Edit: Nevermind. It appears this workaround was patched out with the last update.
I just finished the game. Took me about 38 hours, steam shows 45 due to my replaying few hours (plus time in menus etc). I am a bit sad it is over. It was thoroughly enjoyable for me, especially after the patch and getting more combat skills. I loved the exploration. There were quite a bit more islands than I expected. Gnomes were great, I loved Jaffar. Ending was satisfying. I just wish it didn't end yet. Cannot wait for PB's next game...now I want them to make Risen 3 with the same hero.
I'm done with Piranha Bytes after ten hours of Risen 2. Gothic was one of the best games I've ever played. The combination of casual brutality and immersion made for a fantastic experience. I quickly discovered that everything in the Gothic world was going to annihilate me, and navigating through it felt like putting together a massive puzzle with all the edge-pieces missing. But I didn't mind because the world felt real. I could watch each individual going about his life, from cooking food to going back to his hut to sleep. And so beating the odds and finishing the game felt like a real achievement. Gothic 2 lost a lot of the elements that made Gothic great. Lee went from being the Count of Monte Cristo to a generic camp leader. The plot was explicitly defined instead of something I had to figure out as the game progressed. But like most people I didn't mind, because Gothic 2 fixed most of the technical issues in the original. The combat was somewhat responsive, and the production values were exponentially better. Also, the game didn't take over a minute to load every time I died, which is nice considering I still averaged one death every thirty seconds. Risen was okay. Piranha Bytes updated the graphics and the gameplay. But the things I loved about the original Gothic kept on fading away. The AI features that made Gothic feel like a real world weren't as developed, and the three faction system was identical to Gothic 2. There wasn't much improvement on the model aside from the graphics. Still, Gothic 2 with an updated engine was a nice experience, and I didn't mind. Risen 2 is a mess. The character AI that made their previous games interesting is still there, but it has regressed to the point where I'm not sure why they bothered. NPCs spend all night eating dinner, and teleport to their destination when they finish. The spaces don't feel lived in. There's a lighthouse on the first island that's three levels tall, but when you go inside it's a hut with no way to access the upper levels. The character animations are horrifying. Everyone waves their hands around like they're on crystal meth, even when they're not talking. I couldn't stop myself from laughing while Patty performed wheel-of-fortune gestures during the concluding dialogue with Steelbeard, despite not having any lines. My main issue is that each iteration brings me farther away from what I loved about the original game. I'd happily spend $60 on a game with dated graphics that improved on all the elements I loved in Gothic, but Piranha Bytes isn't interested in that, and I'm not interested in buying their games anymore.
Risen 2 definitely gets better the longer you play it, I enjoyed it a lot. Sure, it's pretty rough, but the jungle is great, and some of the latter lands are much better than the starting island.
So don't bother with the 360 version. It's terrible. Also it doesn't have the dodging that was obviously missing from the original release and was patched in later. Risen 2 is such a goddamn disappointment :(
So I know opinion is kind of divided on this one, but can someone just tell me simply: if I loved the original Risen on the 360, which I did, will I love Risen 2 for the 360 as well? (PS the competition is The Witcher 2)
Too late, already did. I do still want to play Risen 2 but the general sense I got from reviews and the relevant threads was that The Witcher 2 is definitely the higher priority.
To be honest I haven't played Risen 2, just read about it (and Witcher 2 really is that good). I've been eyeing Risen 2 as well, now that I'm out of other RPGs to play...
I've played both. Risen 2 is good, but takes some time to ramp up. I know a staple of the Gothic/Risen series is that you start out underpowered, but I felt you started out really underpowered in Risen 2, and stayed that way for too long. To a point where it felt frustrating and restrictive, actually. Witches 2 is a great game, period. One of the best RPGs. It's not even a close contest.
I finished both, on PC though. Witcher 2 is my GOTY2011 and one of the best games I played, so yes, play that first. But Risen 2 is well worth experiencing. It is very entertaining pirate romp with funny dialogues and worthwhile exploration. I was sad when it was over, such a fun adventure. However PC version got patched and that patch added some very nice stuff, like possibility to dodge in combat if I remember correctly. Not sure if console version got this patch too.
The one big structural change between the two Risens is that the second game is divided over a number of islands. This means that stuff you'd find by exploration in other PB games (the New Camp, the monastery, that WHOLE OTHER CONTINENT) is not available to be found. Exploration becomes a lot less epic because of this IMO. If you love Risen 1, I expect you'll at least like Risen 2 but you might feel the first is the better game. I did enjoy its pirates and islands story though. If I had one criticism it would be over-familiarity with all those PB game systems, which don't seem to have taken one step forward since their first game. The Witcher 2 is great, but also dense, hard and demanding. It's not at all easy to remember why you're doing what you're doing at any moment. Sometimes I like to fire up an RPG just to cruise round and enjoy the world and a bit of adventuring around whatever comes up - W2 doesn't offer that particular experience, while Risen 2 does in a lot of places.
