I was generally unimpressed by the act of pulling the trigger. Or, at least, if they do, they're covered up by the flashy numbers that fly off enemy bodies like fireworks. Normal enemies similarly can absorb a full clip before expiring, and their animations don't really betray the damage they're taking. Boss opponents here require an armory's ammo to take down. Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike first and foremost, but its third-person shooting wouldn't feel out of place in a loot-shooter. This makes the shooting here substantially more engaging than it would be otherwise. Or you could buy two bleed perks and watch the numbers bounce off at twice the rate. So, a perk that causes enemies to suffer bleed damage can stack on top of a perk that causes fire damage, reducing your enemies into a bloody, burning mess of flying damage numbers. The nuances of your build are determined by the perks you pick up along the way. But, the majority of the upgrades you pick up along the way are additive. Should I swap out the slow, but powerful Broadsword, in favor of the Blood Sword, which will leave my enemies bleeding out? But, in Risk of Rain 2, your core weapons never change.You will, at times, need to decide what special attack you want equipped. In similar games, I frequently find myself doing cost-benefit analysis upon finding a new weapon. Unlike other roguelikes, Risk of Rain 2 doesn't require many sacrificial choices. Or, you could go all-in on offense, collecting damage modifiers until you're taking boss monsters out in a matter of seconds. So, if you want to transform the glass cannon Huntress into a non-glass cannon, you can buy and equip healing perks that help to shore up the class' defensive deficiencies. As in most roguelikes, each run is the process of creating a build and leaning into different strengths and weaknesses as you progress. This is where Risk of Rain 2 is at its fascinating best. To turn the tables in your favor, you need to kill enemies to collect money, then take that money to the various crates that litter each level for an unlockable boon. Each boss is a bullet sponge on its own, and the standard enemies don't stop attacking just because you're in a boss fight.

The catch is that if you run headlong into a boss fight, you're likely to get stomped. That difficulty slider never stops ticking up, so it's in your best interest to find and defeat each boss as soon as possible. As you explore, the world is gradually filling up with enemies the music is, smartly, slowly building to an all-out guitar-wailing crescendo. Get lost long enough in your search for the teleporter and you may find an underground passage where you can find a hidden code etched on a tablet, which can be used to access a secret realm. Or you might summon double the boss monsters for a shot at double rewards. You may want to sacrifice half your health at the Altar of Blood for rewards down the line. In between entrance and exodus, Risk of Rain 2's world is full of interesting decisions and secrets. Each level ends when you find and activate a teleporter, summoning a boss monster, which you must defeat to use the portal. At the top right corner of the screen, a meter slowly moves right, upping the difficulty from Easy to Medium to Hard (and up and up and up until the difficulty bar just reads 'HAHAHAHAHA') as a run progresses. But then you're assaulted by a horde of low-level creatures. It's generally pretty chill and evocative for the first few seconds. That's its greatest strength-and its only real notable weakness.Įach run begins with your Survivor emerging from an escape pod onto a hostile alien world. Risk of Rain 2 is all climb until you reach the summit. But I can say that Risk of Rain 2 is a breakneck experience that builds and builds and builds. I didn't play the game during pre-release, so I can't testify to how much content this version adds to what was already there. At the end of a run, you can see every advantage that you have collected, all hanging off of your once-simple character model like fuzzy dice on a car mirror.Īnd, as it launches into 1.0, Hopoo Games' third-person shooter roguelike has a year-and-a-half of early access in its rearview. This is the kind of game Risk of Rain 2 is. Each of these baubles represented a perk we had acquired over the course of our headlong rush to the final boss. A leech was suctioned onto my head, a teddy bear stuck to my shoulder and John Lennon glasses stretched around the front of my domed helmet. My co-op partner had three syringes filled with glowing green slime jutting out of his hip, a sword at his side and a crown on his head. As we prepared to take on Risk of Rain 2's final boss, we took a moment to take stock of our Survivors.

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