Risen 2 Dark Waters Catch-all

Vector wrote:

Has anyone tried using a 360 controller on the PC? I've found the PC controls so good that I wasn't tempted.

I've been using a 360 controller, and it works great. I had to speed up the camera considerably; the default is way slower than it is with a mouse. I'm not far in, but so far I'm really liking it. The graphics look good, and I'm able to run everything on high settings on my laptop. Having finished Risen definitely adds to the experience, with the recurring characters and references to events in that game.

Finished! (30 hours 55min on the clock)

Really enjoyed that. A little rough around the edges, but great fun nonetheless - and it avoided the problems Risen had 2/3 of the way through when it just stuck you in endless linear fights with frustrating enemies for most of the rest of the game.

Worth noting that there's a point of no return just before the final boss and then the game just ends with no chance to explore further, so best to keep a save prior to that for DLC/further exploration (not tricky, since the game saves aproximately every 3 seconds in a new slot anyway ).

The boss fight itself...

Spoiler:

Was shockingly brief and easy, given the build up - I had more trouble fighting that monster on the Thieves Island than Mara herself. Disappointing, but I'd rather that than it be horribly frustating

Still a better ending than Mass Effect 3 though

There must be an easier solution to something I just went through,

Spoiler:

The monster you fight on the Thieves Islanad that steals you weapons.... I assume there is a puzzle type solution to this but never figured it out. Eventually it got stuck and I was able to wittle away at it, but it doesn't seem right.

Curious how others handled this one.

Wakim wrote:

There must be an easier solution to something I just went through,

Spoiler:

The monster you fight on the Thieves Islanad that steals you weapons.... I assume there is a puzzle type solution to this but never figured it out. Eventually it got stuck and I was able to wittle away at it, but it doesn't seem right.

Curious how others handled this one.

Muskets. Failing that, shotguns. Run around and shoot him. Bombs might work too but I haven't used them. Have your crew member deal damage and distract it. Don't bother using dirty tricks and it stops and allows the jerk to get close. Also, have spare weapons. He ate my musket and my primary sword. Luckily I can't bring myself to throw away unique swords so I just equipped one of the others I had been carrying. It's an interesting fight but doesn't work well within the confines of the combat system.

I'm at Maracai Bay. Biggest location since the Sword Coast. I wish there was a quick travel location at my boat. Very annoying having to make that hike.

I really like the size of the maps. Some are large (Tacarigua, The Sword Cast, and Maracai Bay) while others are very small (Caldera, Antigua, Isle of Thieves, and Treasure Island).

There isn't as much replay in this as there was in Risen. The only major choice, so far, has been Voodoo or Muskets and that's really only a couple of quests. Seems to drastically change how you play the game, though. Almost all battles have been extremely easy since I got the musket but I seem to lose out on very interesting ways of solving quests.

Wakim wrote:

There must be an easier solution to something I just went through,

Spoiler:

The monster you fight on the Thieves Islanad that steals you weapons.... I assume there is a puzzle type solution to this but never figured it out. Eventually it got stuck and I was able to wittle away at it, but it doesn't seem right.

Curious how others handled this one.

I used...

Spoiler:

the magic spear you get from the earth temple. It can't be swiped out of your hands (whether becase it was designed that way or whether it's just a side effect of being an important quest item I'm not sure). That plus my flintlock whenever the cooldown was charged. Bombs and dirty tricks probably work ok as well - anything in your off-hand probably.

stevenmack wrote:
Wakim wrote:

There must be an easier solution to something I just went through,

Spoiler:

The monster you fight on the Thieves Islanad that steals you weapons.... I assume there is a puzzle type solution to this but never figured it out. Eventually it got stuck and I was able to wittle away at it, but it doesn't seem right.

Curious how others handled this one.

I used...

Spoiler:

the magic spear you get from the earth temple. It can't be swiped out of your hands (whether becase it was designed that way or whether it's just a side effect of being an important quest item I'm not sure). That plus my flintlock whenever the cooldown was charged. Bombs and dirty tricks probably work ok as well - anything in your off-hand probably.

I forgot about that! It was what I eventually switched too. Works great.

How many more islands/areas are there for me to explore after Maracai Bay?

Vector wrote:

I'm at Maracai Bay. Biggest location since the Sword Coast. I wish there was a quick travel location at my boat. Very annoying having to make that hike.

There should be the "return to boat" option (bottom middle of the screen under the map)? Might be disabled at certain points, can't quite remember.

Island wise, I think you've pretty much listed everything of note (although I missed a couple of sidequests) apart from the Isle of the Dead (which is small but a nice change of scenery - might be voodoo specific though) and the Water temple (which is really just one small area).

I think there's one island on the map that you never visit, but that could be for the wind temple DLC that's not out yet.

There was a patch that significantly changes the combat.

Patch Notes wrote:

Features
- Most monster attacks can be blocked now
- Player has the ability to dodge during combat

Bugfixes
- Fixed issue with flickering trees in far distance
- Fixed issue with SLI graphic cards
- Fixed a crash with 7.1 sound system configuration
- Fixed a crash during climbing
- Fixed issue within return to ship option
- Fixed rain in interiors
- Crew members can't be killed by monsters anymore
- Player get the cunning potion after he crafted it
- Fixed issues with skill teachers

Balance/Tweaks

- Maximum amount of automatic saves was limited to 10
- Improvements in monster combat AI
- Improvements in character AI if they get attacked from behind
- Improved vegetation rendering
- Improved object view distance
- Improved terrain rendering

- Simplify cannon sabotage in Puerto Isabella
- Merchant on Sword Coast sells Rum and Grog
- Removed exploit for shooting game
- Mara's health increased
- Stealbeard's hat can't be sold anymore

I was wondering why I could suddenly dodge. Thought it was something I misses this whole time. Glad to see you can now block monster attacks. Only reason I died early on was because of monsters attacks constantly causing interruption. Tree flickering was bothering me too. Lots of great tweaks there. Especially for the cannon quest.

Anyone know what the shooting mini game exploit was? I had to lower the game difficulty to easy to play it. Was that it?

Edit: Massive thanks to Stevenmack. I wouldn't have noticed the "return to boat" button without him.

I'm not sure if the Isle of Dead is voodoo specific. I have a quest for it but can't access it yet. Might open up when I complete Maracai Bay.

I thought I just didn't know how to dodge before last night when I started using it. Of course my first dodge was by mistake, off the edge of a cliff, to my death.

Vector wrote:

I'm not sure if the Isle of Dead is voodoo specific. I have a quest for it but can't access it yet. Might open up when I complete Maracai Bay.

Isle of Dead opened up before Maracai Bay for me.

Did you go Voodoo or Musket?

The Island of the dead quest / access triggered for me once Chani joined my party (village chief's daughter from the sword coast). The quest was to track down and speak to a certain recently deceased pirate and find out where he hit his Mara artifact.

Spoiler:

He also has an awesome scene-stealing entrance when first summoned

As it is, there was an alternative way of finishing that quest anyway, so perhaps it's totally optional.

Although I did get to make a sweet voodoo rod which I could use to spawn said ghost pirate as a third party member whenever I needed to

Also Chani is excellent to keep around as a healer.

stevenmack wrote:

The Island of the dead quest / access triggered for me once Chani joined my party (village chief's daughter from the sword coast). The quest was to track down and speak to a certain recently deceased pirate and find out where he hit his Mara artifact.

Spoiler:

He also has an awesome scene-stealing entrance when first summoned

As it is, there was an alternative way of finishing that quest anyway, so perhaps it's totally optional.

Although I did get to make a sweet voodoo rod which I could use to spawn said ghost pirate as a third party member whenever I needed to

Also Chani is excellent to keep around as a healer.

Just got to the Island of the Dead. Naturally happens during the story if you went with the Protectors at the Sword Coast.

Apparently there is a huge game stopping glitch (or it appears that way) if you do things in a certain order in Maracai Bay.

I'll spoiler how to avoid it but I won't include any story spoilers:

Spoiler:

-do all of the quests in the tribal village EXCEPT for finding the traitor
-go find the hidden entrance to the temple
-go find the traitor and tell him to wait
-talk to the Shaman and finish his dialogue. The traitor quest will fail
-return to the traitor and let him return to the base

Without doing this you will be forced to fight an entire village and will miss some important cutscenes.

About 6 hours in--still in Tacarigua--and it's got its hooks into me pretty deep. I really like the direction they've taken; Risen was very fun, but the setting was pretty generic. Risen 2 makes me want to drink rum and plunder some booty.

I recommend Pyrat (pirate) rum for sipping neat. And not because it's extra thematic.

Vector wrote:

Apparently there is a huge game stopping glitch (or it appears that way) if you do things in a certain order in Maracai Bay.

Doh!

I guess it wouldn't be a Piranah Bytes game without a couple of glitches. Finaly made it to Maracai Bay, and still loving this game.

conejote wrote:

About 6 hours in--still in Tacarigua--and it's got its hooks into me pretty deep. I really like the direction they've taken; Risen was very fun, but the setting was pretty generic. Risen 2 makes me want to drink rum and plunder some booty.

I have to admit I'm surprised how much I've enjoyed the pirate theme.

Just beat the game last night. Finished every possible side quest too.

Spoiler:

The last two fights weren't difficult at all but considering I had spent the entire game becoming a total pirate bad-ass, I can forgive that. Not a huge fan of reusing the Earth Titan boss battle for the Kraken. I spent more time missing with the spear than I did in actual danger.

It's weird that there isn't a post-game save. Seems like they intending there to be one and then didn't put it in.

stevenmack, you are correct about Steelbeard's ghost. He isn't available to those that chose the musket. Musket or Voodoo is a very interesting choice. It seems you miss out on A LOT of story options and neat tricks if you pick the Inquisition but the musket makes you incredibly powerful.

All in all I am exceedingly happy. I thought this was a brilliant game. Perfect length, excellent exploration, and an interesting combat system once the player can choose voodoo or muskets. Best pirate-themed RPG yet.

So, anyone know where I can find the cannonball? It's the last thing in my quest log before going to the water temple.

I think the cannon ball is...

Spoiler:

..bought from the inquisition merchant inside the temple where you first land at Maracai Bay

stevenmack wrote:

I think the cannon ball is...

Spoiler:

..bought from the inquisition merchant inside the temple where you first land at Maracai Bay

Thank you Sir! It was just where you said.

I just realised the air temple DLC is now available on Steam.

Gargoyles have infested the world of Risen 2: Dark Waters. Explore the mysterious Air Temple to uncover the mystery that surrounds it as you embark on an extensive new quest. Explore and discover an additional island with new characters, quests and enemies with up to 8 hours of additional playtime.

however general opinions that I've read are that it's probably not worth the current asking price (it was apparently a freebie with the german collectors edition, about the same amount of content as the treasure island pack). Probably going to grab this next time I see it on sale.

stevenmack wrote:

I just realised the air temple DLC is now available on Steam.

Gargoyles have infested the world of Risen 2: Dark Waters. Explore the mysterious Air Temple to uncover the mystery that surrounds it as you embark on an extensive new quest. Explore and discover an additional island with new characters, quests and enemies with up to 8 hours of additional playtime.

however general opinions that I've read are that it's probably not worth the current asking price (it was apparently a freebie with the german collectors edition, about the same amount of content as the treasure island pack). Probably going to grab this next time I see it on sale.

Ditto. I'm a little distracted with Diablo 3 right now, anyway.

stevenmack wrote:

I just realised the air temple DLC is now available on Steam.

I picked this up, and will let you know what I think of it.

Risen 2 is 66% off on Steam. That makes it only 16.99 which is a fantastic price for this game.

After seeing only 66 on the metacritic for this game, I read up on some user reviews. Are they correct? Is this really a departure from the old school Gothic style of subtance?

MoonDragon wrote:

After seeing only 66 on the metacritic for this game, I read up on some user reviews. Are they correct? Is this really a departure from the old school Gothic style of subtance?

I didn't think so but my only exposure to Gothic was Risen and this is very much Risen. Definitely one of my favourite games of the year. Others on here seemed to have as much fun with it as I did.

I think if you liked Risen you will like this game.

I played the demo a little bit, and just bought the main game on Steam.
Held off on the DLC for now though.

Vector wrote:

Risen 2 is 66% off on Steam. That makes it only 16.99 which is a fantastic price for this game.

I saw that yesterday, didn't grab it, and now it's back up to full price. Argh!

Oh well, maybe for the Christmas sale...

10 months between posts, yep, that's officially a necro. So I picked this up during the last big Steam sale and I've got a few questions.

I'm only a couple of hours in and the performance has been horrible. I've probably spent half of that 2 hours just changing up graphics options. The system I'm using can generally run every new game at high or ultra with no problems but this game just chugs. It seemed like the only thing that affected my fps was dropping the resolution, whether I had everything else set at low or ultra didn't seem to make a difference. It ran fine for a bit but then seemed to slow down again for no apparent reason. Did anyone else have this problem when the game was initially released? Oddly, I'm enjoying the time I've had with the game so far so I'm willing to put a bit more time into it to make it playable.

When upgrading my character is this the type of game where it's going to be better to pick a skill or two to work on or does it toss points at you like crazy so you can try them all? For instance, could you put equal points into cunning, voodoo and swords or are you going to need to just focus on one or two things?