If anything, the repeated map design comes as something of a welcome addition, as you become ever more familiar with layouts and hiding spots through subsequent attempts. The distribution of upgrades is random, however, so your experience from one run to the next will never be the same. Unlike its predecessor, maps here aren’t randomly generated from the off it seems that there are a couple different potential maps for each level, and Risk of Rain 2 picks one at random when you spawn into a new level. Even when you feel overpowered, there’s an ever-ascending chance that an especially difficult ‘Elite’ enemy may spawn to ruin your day, or that you might overestimate your effectiveness and find yourself horded by an impossible wave of enemies. Finding the balance between these two options is something that’s difficult to nail down perfectly, which makes the moment-to-moment action a constantly stressful, yet enjoyable, experience. On the other hand, staying longer in a level gives you more time to grind out extra character levels and scour the map for every upgrade, buffing your character substantially so you’re ready to face the hefty challenges to come. On one hand, it’s in your best interest to get to the later levels-which are inherently more difficult-before you let the timer run on too long and see the difficulty level inflated to ridiculous heights. See, every fifteen minutes, the overall difficulty will ratchet up another notch, but every passing minute sees minuscule adjustments to enemy health and damage output. The game’s title, however, comes from a fascinating flexible difficulty system that encourages you to push the limits of each level, while punishing you for doing so too much. Along the way, myriad enemies will spawn at random and attack you with everything they’ve got, but if you can overcome them, you’ll be rewarded with XP to raise your character’s level and Gold to buy upgrades from various chests scattered at random across the map. You start out each level by crashing down onto the map in an escape pod, and your goal is to find the next teleporter as quickly as possible so you can progress to the next level. Luckily, it’s a minor and mostly inconsequential omission, but for those of you that pay plenty of attention to detail and appreciate this kind of storytelling in a game, be aware that it’s still being made.Īs for the core gameplay, Risk of Rain 2 does a remarkable job of feeling almost exactly like its predecessor, right down to many of the same upgrades, characters, and enemies making a return appearance. Many of the logbook entries are missing and instead contain a boilerplate in-universe ‘coming soon’ message to lampshade the fact that the developers haven’t yet gotten around to those details. Though these are mostly well-written from the start, this is also where the ‘early access’ nature of Risk of Rain 2 is seen most clearly. The logbooks are where most of this story comes in, dripping you tidbits of info and hints of greater lore in item and enemy descriptions. Any semblance of a narrative won’t be found in the main game mode, however, as there your first and only concern is shooting everything that moves and madly collecting as many power up chests as you can find. The story of Risk of Rain 2 is about as basic as it gets, simply following the exploits of a ragtag group of misfits as they attempt to escape from an alien planet. Fortunately, the team opted instead to push itself, producing a sequel that manages to make the jump from 2D to 3D flawlessly, while also adding in some cool new features in the transition. After Risk of Rain-a 2D action roguelike-saw a successful release in 2013, it would’ve been easy for Hopoo Games to have gone the ‘safe’ route with the sequel and simply offered fans more of the same when Risk of Rain 2 came about. Even the series’ that most consider a success-such as the Super Mario games-can struggle with it Super Mario 64 was a fantastic entry, but it could be argued that the true gameplay of the 2D games didn’t show up in 3D form until 2011’s Super Mario 3D Land. Many franchises-such as the Sonic the Hedgehog and Castlevania series’-arguably fail to make the leap gracefully, stumbling to nail down what it is that made the originals special.
#RISK OF RAIN 2 REVIEW SERIES#
It’s always fascinating when a 2D game series makes the jump to the third dimension, as the developers are given the impossible task of keeping the gameplay more or less the same while also instituting huge change. While we unfortunately cannot revisit games on an individual basis, it should be noted that the full, updated game may have addressed issues detailed below and offer an improved experience. Since this review was originally published, Risk of Rain 2 has left early access.
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