Risk of Rain 2 has been taking up tons of my time lately, and I can’t stop playing it.
Its addicting gameplay comes from the fact that there are so many ways to play the game, as well as the thrill of becoming overpowered with tons of items.
Risk of Rain 2 isn’t a game for everyone, but I’ll give you my thoughts about the game to help you decide whether you want to buy it or just pass on it.
Gameplay
Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelite horde game where you focus on upgrading your characters using powerups, and progressing to the next stage. You start every game by selecting your character and difficulty, and then completing stages as fast as possible.
Every character has unique skills that change the way you play the game, and even changes the types of items you need to get. A run will start out pretty slow, with low level enemies spawning every so often, but the longer you play the harder things will get. At the top right of the screen there’s a timer that slowly increases the difficulty, which incentivises you to beat the stage quickly.
Every enemy you kill drops money, which you can use to open chests with drop random items or buy items from the multi shops that let you select 1 of 3 powerups.
The cost for these items increases as the game gets harder, but enemies will spawn more often and drop more money. You complete each stage by activating the teleporter, and then defeating the boss that spawns.
If you die at any time, you lose every single one or your items and start back on stage 1.
What’s great about Risk of Rain 2 is that the game lets you become as overpowered as you want. There really isn’t a limit to how powerful you make your character, and you can keep playing as long as you want.
The game is so addicting that literally hours can do by without you even realizing it. All the time I’ll do an hour long run, die, and start over without a second thought. There’s just something insanely gratifying about getting a bunch of strong items and wrecking thousands of enemies with it.
Overall, Risk of Rain 2 is a purely gameplay based title, and it excels at what it does.
Characters
The 10 playable characters in Risk of Rain 2 are unique and force you to completely change your playstyle. All players start out with Commando, a character with dual pistols and a dodge ability. You use Commando to unlock a new character such as Huntress, who has the best maneuverability skills and attacks that follow enemies.
Once you get the first few characters, you need to complete harder challenges to unlock the other ones. My favorite character, Captain, is unlocked by beating the final boss, which I won’t spoil for you in case you decide to get the game for yourself.
The character you choose will determine what types of items you want to get. For example, Huntress does an insane amount of damage when paired with Crowbars, or Captain does a massive amount of bleed damage when Paired with Tri-Tip daggers.
Each class also has different abilities that you can unlock by completing challenges using that character. Eventually every player will find a character they like best, but every single class is fun to play.
Music
One thing you’ll immediately notice is how great the soundtrack is. Videogame soundtracks can make or break the game, and Risk of Rain 2’s soundtrack is pretty amazing. It’s so unique that it’s hard to imagine the game without it.
The music perfectly complements the unique graphical style, and don’t seem to get old even after dozens of hours of playing.
Replayability
I think one of the biggest factors deciding whether or not a game is worth buying is how much time you can get out of it. If you look at the Steam reviews, you’ll regularly see players with thousands of hours in the game.
Normally I don’t enjoy rogue-lite style games, but Risk of Rain 2 has pulled me into the genre. It’s so easy to lose hours of your day by playing this game that I’ll often have to force myself to end a run so I don’t spend my whole day on it.
There are some gameplay modifiers you can unlock called Artifacts, which can completely change the way you play. For example, there’s an Artifact called the Artifact of Glass that’ll make you do 500% damage but give you 10% of your your maximum health.
The Artifact of Swarms will make double the amount of enemies spawn on each level. Each of the 16 Artifacts that you can unlock by going to a special stage and completing the challenge.
The various characters combined with Artifacts, random powerups, random stages, and randomly placed teleporters all come together perfectly to form a game that’s different every single run, and the amount of modifiers will help keep the game fresh and exciting.
Buy or Pass?
I’ve talked so positively about the game that I’m sure you’ve realized that I think the game is worth buying. It’s been a long time since I found a game this addicting, and it’s one of the most unique games I’ve ever played.
Its Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam is a telling sign that it’s a good game, but some people might just not enjoy these types of games. There’s not really a developed story, and the bit of lore that is in the game is still unfinished, so if your personal taste requires a good story then you might be disappointed with that.
The game can also be a bit grindly and difficult to unlock new abilities, but I personally enjoyed grinding for those things. Most importantly, you need a good amount of time to play Risk of Rain 2 since the average run can easily be over an hour.
If none of those things sound like negatives to you, then I think it’s definitely worth a buy.
I’ve gotten a lot of time out of it, and I think most people will as well.
