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Risen 2 beta ?? Initial impressions (nothing real guys, Nda)

msxyz

Augur
Joined
Jun 5, 2011
Messages
296
The game release has been pushed back by one month. It looks like some of the criticism towards the beta reached DeepSilver, after all.
http://forum.deepsilver.com/forum/s...se-date-delay-for-the-console-versions-AND-PC

That's just for the console versions.
If you scroll down the thread, you'll see the announcement that also the PC version was delayed.
NVM it seems the announcement was changed recently: only the console versions were delayed.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
Just finished the review copy, which is the full game...uh...except for Treasure Isle DLC (lulz).

It's a PB games through and through. I had to restore to a different path 25 hours in coz one quest-vital NPC didn't spawn. Piranhas gonna Byte.

(also lockpicking does require talent minimums, sorry if my preview wasn't clear on that)


Solid improvement? Really?
I attributed it to him perhaps feeling it's better than the sum of its parts. That or world design has improved or something. Dunno. Perhaps Brother None could explain?

Sorry, didn't see this before.

Quest design in Risen was fairly awful. Beating up guys to get them to hand over parts. Barely any use of dialog skills.

Risen 2:
- Very frequently uses dialog skills (silver tongue and intimidate talents as well as the nuff said skill) as alternative mission paths, or to bypass tough fights/situations.
- High thievery talent for lockpicking and pickpocketing is not required but is definitely a boon. Not just for frequent looting/pick-pocketing, but it pops up with some regularity in quests as an alternate solution.
- Alternatives are a big thing. You take the voodoo skills or gun path about 8-9 hours in (the beta cuts off well before this, I think? Preview copy cut off shortly after it). Voodoo has a lot of quest-related stuff, where you mind-control people to bypass certain segments. It's not huge, and the game determines when it's possible (obviously, there's no realistic way to do it otherwise), but it provides nice alternatives. At one point you have to get into the Inquisition's council building. If you don't have the voodoo skill, your only option is to work with a merchant and disguise yourself as a messenger, and once inside you'll have to either use sneak skills, combat skills, dialog skills or a combo to get what you want. The other option is voodoo mind-controlling one of the councilmen, for which you need to pickpocket or buy a wig (for his hair, oddly enough), and then it's fairly easy to both get the information you need and even coerce the Council into a positive decision for you regarding the main quest (though I didn't get to see if this has any consequences long-term).

Gothic 2 did it better. So did Gothic. But the main conclusion here is "it's a typical PB game", and I adore PB games, and I enjoyed this one. It's not a straight-line improvement on Risen but it's at least as good as Risen (which in my view failed in a lot of quest design and in the last half of the game being a mindless combat romp). One thing it's awful at? Consequences for actions. At one point you steal an inquisition ship, and not even the inquisition camp you stole it from turns aggro. I don't even know.

Review in a few days when the embargo closes. Won't reveal anything more until then, sorry :p
 
Self-Ejected

Brayko

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Eh, I choose to look the fact that the game is more consolized as a good thing, where's Bethesda and Bioware need some worthy market competition. I hope to see PB in the future as the consolized RPG devs that aren't all that bad, and stay relatively true to their roots as a "PB game".
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
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Messages
5,673
No matter how "consolized" PB tries to make their games, they'll never reach such a huge audience as Beth or Bioware does, never. It will remain a niche developer.

Yeah. Especially when you see how half-heartedly and clumsily some of this stuff is implemented, like QTE and killcam (THANK GOD YOU CAN SWITCH IT OFF IT'S SERIOUSLY HORRIBLE)

It's a shame. You can't help but feel Risen 2 could've been much better if it was more focused, and especially more focused on the important stuff.
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
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Maybe after their contract with Deep Silver is fulfilled, they can take their Gothic Licence and kickstart a new Gothic series.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
They don't need to use Kickstarter. They'll have no problem finding a publisher - their games sell fuckloads in Europe.
 
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Brayko

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They don't need to use Kickstarter. They'll have no problem finding a publisher - their games sell fuckloads in Europe.

I read somewhere that Gothic 1 lost money, Gothic 2 broke even, and the expansion Night of the Raven finally saw a bit of profit. I would rather see their games Kickstarted without publisher pressure and give them plenty of breathing room to release a relatively solid and stable game.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
I do wonder if there's much of a point in investing so much in Xbox 360 and PS3 ports, especially since by all notes I've seen from my fellow previewers, the ports aren't very good. And how many console players are really looking for an RPG where the main draw is that you are set free in a world to make your own mistakes, are pretty much never offered a quest marker, and have to figure out quests on your own? I mean, it's not a challenging, high-falutin' game by our standards, but nor would it seem to me to have a huge draw with the Skryim crowd.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Thanks BN, sounds like it will definitely be worth buying, though ultimately slightly disappointing (which, honestly, was the case with all PB games).

We'll see if the gimmicks actually help with sales at all, I think it's really hard to figure something like that out, even retroactively.
 

mkultra

Augur
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
469
They don't need to use Kickstarter. They'll have no problem finding a publisher - their games sell fuckloads in Europe.

You think Brian Fargo or Double Fine has problems with finding a publisher? That's not the only reason to do a Kickstarter..

BN: did they fix that awful looking vegetation LOD (blowing up like balloons, looked really odd in the beta).
 

mkultra

Augur
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
469
Well, yes, Wasteland 2 couldn't find a publisher.

The game yeah, Brian Fargo no.. you can clearly see the direction PB is heading, DLC's, features being removed or dumbed down etc.. even if it's not as bad as it could have been if the publisher was EA or something. I'd love to see a new Gothic as a Kickstarter..
 

Cassidy

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Vault City
I do wonder if there's much of a point in investing so much in Xbox 360 and PS3 ports, especially since by all notes I've seen from my fellow previewers, the ports aren't very good. And how many console players are really looking for an RPG where the main draw is that you are set free in a world to make your own mistakes, are pretty much never offered a quest marker, and have to figure out quests on your own? I mean, it's not a challenging, high-falutin' game by our standards, but nor would it seem to me to have a huge draw with the Skryim crowd.

Not sure, but I think their ports are after the Dark Souls crowd instead.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
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Messages
5,673
Not sure, but I think their ports are after the Dark Souls crowd instead.

Good point. Though Dark Souls looks both more refined and harsher. Risen 2 is fairly easy, especially as long as you have companions.

BN: did they fix that awful looking vegetation LOD (blowing up like balloons, looked really odd in the beta).

Didn't stand out to me but the problem is still there. To be completely honest, the game ran pretty badly on my PC. Admittedly, it's far from top-of-the-line, but when a game like Risen 2 is running with more difficulty and at lower graphics settings than, say, Batman Arkham City, something is weird.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Risen and Dark Souls are nothing alike. I mean literally nothing, there is not one thing the "Dark Souls crowd" would like in it, and I don't see anything a Risen fan would like about Dark Souls.

It is like comparing Baldur's Gate to Ikaruga; the mentalities are so different.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
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Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Thanks for this -- I was still on the fence with a preorder... now I'll probably go through with it if I can still get it at $40 from GMG. As for a PB Kickstarter, I would gladly pay a base/entry level donation of $20 for a redone Gothic 1 if going for Gothic 4 would be too much out of the gate.
 

Aeschylus

Swindler
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Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Thanks for the mini-preview BN, this sounds like a welcome addition to the PB library.

Saying Gothic 2 did it better isn't much of a knock on it, since Gothic 2 is one of the best games of all time. Looking forward to this.
 

Metro

Arcane
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Messages
27,792
Good question. Also do you feel they made good on their promise not to make it like past PB games where it's a funnel effect -- choice at the start but linearity at the end. That is, does this one actually start out linear but offer divergent content towards the end?

Didn't stand out to me but the problem is still there. To be completely honest, the game ran pretty badly on my PC. Admittedly, it's far from top-of-the-line, but when a game like Risen 2 is running with more difficulty and at lower graphics settings than, say, Batman Arkham City, something is weird.

Hmm, this is troubling since I'd bet anything my rig is more outdated than yours.
 

Brother None

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
Jul 11, 2004
Messages
5,673
So now consoles are delayed and get yet another bit of extra content. Can't blame PB for their publishers being dicks about all this DLC shit, but by this point I'd almost be tempted to wait for a "full edition" of the game.

Dear Bro None, can you reveal how much time did it take you to complete it?

It's not loading for me right now (SteamWorks DRM, it's the best, it delayed my being able to play it by a full day too :D) so I can't check my hour logs. It's also a little hard to estimate since I was playing from my preview saves (10 hours in), then played 15 hours until I got stuck getting the final artefact because an NPC didn't spawn, so I went back to a different preview save (the first one was playing was the voodoo path, this second was the gun path) to see the differences in gameplay and consequences from the choice, and raced through the same areas clicking through much dialog and already knowing the maps.

Uhhh...

Something like Risen? 30-35 hours, without the Pirate Isle DLC, so probably 40 hours with?

Good question. Also do you feel they made good on their promise not to make it like past PB games where it's a funnel effect -- choice at the start but linearity at the end. That is, does this one actually start out linear but offer divergent content towards the end?

Hmmm. I'll talk about this more in the review. But short answer is: sort of, yes, but not precisely.
 

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