Tripwire says it's 'leaving no game behind' as it releases a surprise update for the 7-year-old Rising Storm 2: Vietnam

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam launched in 2017, and it was last updated more than three years ago, in June 2021. Or so it was until yesterday, when developer Tripwire Interactive dropped a surprise update aimed at improving server behavior and security, and fixing a number of VOIP-related bugs.

Updates to Rising Storm 2: Vietnam flowed reasonably regularly until the small 1.6.1 patch in June 2021; after that, it was pretty much dead silence but for a "community game night" in July 2021 and a double XP event for Halloween in 2023. Which is understandable: It's a seven year old game, after all, and concurrent player numbers haven't broken the four-digit surface since early 2023. Under the circumstances, a quiet fade-away is to be expected.

So why this new update? The short version is that people are still playing, and Tripwire apparently had some free time on its hands.

"Rising Storm 2: Vietnam still has an active community and we always monitor the feedback from our players," Tripwire marketing director Mike Schmitt told PC Gamer. "This new quality-of-life update addresses issues that were continually being raised by the fan base, and we were able to allocate bandwidth over the past few months to address them."

Here's the full list of changes:

General

• Improved server behavior and security.

VoIP

• Fixed general issues around muting other players as intended.
• Addressed issues in which players after exiting a server would still hear players from the server they disconnected.
• Addressed general issues in which players within the same party failed to hear each other.
• Addressed an issue in which Steam Client Headset device settings were not automatically detected leading to the microphone being inactive on the server.
• Addressed issues in which respawning players could hear active spawned players on the Spawn Point selection screen and vice versa.
• Addressed issues in which muted players become automatically unmuted after reconnecting to the same server.
• Addressed issues in which players could still hear players after ending a game session and closing the client.

It's great to see older games get continued support like this, and it's sparked a notable uptick in player numbers, which SteamDB indicates recently hit 1,390 concurrents—not huge, but a big jump from the few hundred who have been playing over the last few months. Still, fans probably shouldn't get too excited about a hoped-for Rising Storm 2: Vietnam resurgence.

"Given Rising Storm 2: Vietnam is a longer running game, updates may become less frequent," Schmitt said. "But we want to be sure our existing community, and new players alike, have the best possible experience with the game."

If you don't have Rising Storm 2: Vietnam in your library yet, now's a great time to pick it up. The base game is on sale on Steam for $1.24, or you can drop the big bucks—$1.49—for the digital deluxe edition, which includes a bunch of cosmetics and the soundtrack. Either way, it's 95% off the regular price, and short of a giveaway on the Epic Store (where it's also on sale, but for a bit more) I doubt you're going to get it any cheaper than that.