A massive upgrade from the original Risk of Rain, this indie game sequel brings RoR into the world of 3rd person shooting. The game is available for Xbox, Ps4, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Google Stadia. Sporting stylish, yet simple cel-shaded graphics, the game throws you into the mix with no instructions, but it is clear that you are to survive. You eject from a life-pod launched from outer space, and shoot, slash, bomb, or otherwise bludgeon randomly generated enemies with force until they are downed. As a rogue-like game, you can expect a difficult, different playthrough every time you pick it up, as several parameters are randomized. This is a game where you will die a lot, as you never know exactly what to expect when you play. The game is hard, especially when you're first getting used to it. However, the game provides so much content and so much to enjoy that it gets hard to put down despite the endless death that awaits you. The fact that the game is set to have three separate paid DLC packs that expand the game in the future means the content just keeps getting better and better.
[For parents section near bottom detailing possible offensive content. Unconcerned individuals may skip it]
Characters
The character roster is well-stocked with eleven characters (more to come), each of which plays so differently as to encourage further playthroughs. You start out with the Commando, a jack-of-all-trades that is great at ranged combat. You can quickly unlock a Bandit with a high-powered, short-range shotgun, a speedy Huntress with a tracking bow and arrow, or a slow-moving mech that deals high damage at the cost of low movement speed. Some characters have special unlock processes that are a little more difficult to figure out, unless you have an internet connection and a search engine. There is a character for everyone to enjoy! Each character has a special set of challenge achievements that, though difficult to complete, enable new skills and abilities that drastically change how each character plays. It's almost like having a main class and a subclass with abilities you can mix and match at the start of every playthrough.
Levels
There are 5 tiers of worlds to progress through, with one of 2 possible worlds being generated at each tier, for a total of 10 different main levels. There are hidden levels to discover, and if you progress properly, you will face a brutal, yet excellent final boss. You can also opt instead to skip the boss and either end the game at a hidden realm, or do an endless survival for as many waves as you can manage.
Each level is wonderfully different from the last, and each communicates an excellent feeling of spacey, sci-fi atmosphere. Exploration is rewarded with more loot, more unlocks, and continually incessant combat.
Loot
There is a massive amount of loot to collect in this game, much of which becomes available as you unlock it by completing a wide array of in-game achievements (all of which are in a logbook that details how to unlock them). The loot grants a variety of buffs to your character, all of which are useful. Loot is discovered through chests scattered at random through every level. The chests open by paying money when you find them, which money is gained by killing enemies. The loot, like the chest locations, is randomized and based on the various unlocks you have achieved. You might get a syringe that boosts your attack speed, a shoulder-mounted, tracking missile launcher that fires at random, a pink gemstone that greatly boosts damage when you're at point blank range, or even a pair of shades that boost your critical hit chance. The best thing about the loot is that everything is stackable; you can get 5 syringes and attack 75% faster, or get four "feathers" that allow you to jump four additional times midair. With the randomization factor, you can have wildly different builds with each playthrough, making this game wonderfully replayable.
Enemies
The enemies are surprisingly varied, in that there are around 5 variants apiece of the 21 current basic enemies you can run into that add extra challenge to each skirmish. You might fight a basic Beetleguard that whacks you with a lot of damage, or you might get a Blazing Beetle guard (also called an "Elite" enemy) that deals high damage over time if it touches you. And you can still get whacked with a lot of damage.
There are also eleven main boss enemies, each of which again can have Elite variants at higher difficulties, and a final boss. There are a handful of hidden boss enemies that are well worth finding, as they yield some excellent rewards.
Enemies start out spawning very slowly. Eventually, there will be so many so fast that you can easily be overwhelmed without an adequate build for your character. The randomization of every piece of loot makes getting a good build difficult at times, which can make the game frustrating. However, the developers added an excellent way to address this issue:
Artifacts: In-game mods
On the fifth stage, you can find a hidden area where, with a little help from Google, you can open a portal that allows you to unlock a series of Artifacts, each of which modify the game drastically. Some make the game more challenging ('cuz why not?), such as one that makes every single enemy an Elite enemy, or another that makes it so that enemies drop bouncing bombs when they die. Others make things sooooo much easier, such as the Artifact of Command, which allows you to choose what loot you get when you open a chest. These mods can be engaged all at once (which is suicide. Have fun!), or you can pick and choose which you use. This makes for excellent variety of the game, as you can manually change a number of features to your liking. Some of the modifiers feel like they make the game so hard at times that there's not much point using them, but others are total game changers. The ones that make the game easier sometimes make it a little too easy, as it feel like they break the main challenge mechanics of the game, but that's where you can up the ante with more challenge mods, or even play on a harder difficulty.
Graphics
The graphics are an odd, yet somehow pleasant fusion of cartoony and serious tones, with vivid colors and striking visuals that make for fairly entertaining battle scenes. The animations of the characters and enemies are basic - there's nothing here that says that it's a AAA game. For some, that can be a deal breaker. As an indie game with an indie studio budget, the game executes its main points perfectly despite its simplistic graphical style. The simple graphics make a smooth, 60 fps possible, though the more hectic moments begin to lag the frame rate pretty fast on consoles. This is due to the rather insane number of enemies and calculations occurring with each attack or weapon collision, but it's generally tolerable enough that it doesn't interfere with the game play. The cell-shading makes for less CPU/GPU consumption to allow for more carnage onscreen with less slowdowns than the game would have if it had AAA graphics. On a high powered PC, the game would likely play butter-smooth from start to finish.
For Parents
The game is generally clean and cartoon, though it contains a large amount of violence with fighting and killing alien creatures. There is blood only when certain pieces of loot are used or when certain enemies attack you, such as the Imps. Small amounts of cartoony, red splotches more or less flicker around bleeding characters, but the blood itself is rather fake looking. With the number of onscreen enemies that appear, it can be hard to notice the blood during combat. No gashes or gore are ever seen.
The logbook has a large number of "lore" entries that expand the rather limited story of the game. The lore entries are small textbooks or short stories that frequently discuss scenes of significant bloodshed with occasional horror/suspense elements.
For Christian players, there are some enemies and lore entries that depict what some may term "demons" coming from a realm that may be considered a Hell of sorts, though no allusions to these things being directly satanic are ever described. These, and some references to ritual sacrifice in the lore entries, may be considered distasteful to some. There is occasional language, such as "Damn" or "Hell" in the logbook. No sexual content is described or found anywhere in the game. The much of the T rating for the game comes from the lore entries, which contain the most graphic descriptions of violence in the game.
Verdict and Opinion
I personally enjoy this game immensely, and it is one of the few I feel like I can pick up at any time and still have fun. As an indie game, it is unusually polished and contains such a fantastic amount of variety that I recommend this game to any gamers I find. For $25, I think it is well worth the money. The difficulty can be irritating for more casual gamers, but the rewards for "risking the rain" make it easier to want to come back and keep trying. I'd give it a 8/10, as the difficulty may be a bit much for some gamers, and the graphics are very simplistic.
Download Risk of Rain 2 from Steam, or your favorite console's online game library!