It's raining spacemen, halleluiah, it's raining spacemen!
Risk of Rain 2 is yet another indie roguelite, in this case, it's a third-person shooter-thing in which you must go from world to world by activating various portals. It's also one of the very few game that uses the touch pad on the Switch's screen... even if only to navigate menus.
The first thing that should be said... is that the game is incomplete. The game inside the cart is incomplete. Sure, they have added about two new characters, a proper ending and final boss as well as artifacts through free patches, but the game shipped incomplete, no two ways about it. Mind you, I'll also mention that I played the game unpatched, as I always do, and I came out quite satisfied with what is on the cart, but having features advertised as 'coming soon' left a bitter taste on my mouth.
In the game you play as any of 7 character classes, each character being very unique, having 3 offensive skills and a defensive skill, all of them running on a cooldown timer, although the basic attack can be used indefinitely. The objective of the game is simple: Grow stronger, activate the portals and get to the Obelisk. It's a constant battle through time, as the game gets harder and harder the longer you play, so it's in your best interest to find the portal quickly, activate it, defeat the boss and get to the next planet. But not too quickly, you'll want to murder as many of the endlessly spawning enemy as you can, for not only do you level up, but you'll want to open chests to find various items that will grant you various perks and buffs, like barriers, healing, missiles and even equipment that takes your X button slot, granting you a fifth ability. And finding duplicate items isn't even a negative, since effects can stack growing stronger and stronger. And did I mention the items appear ON your character? They end up looking so goofy!
The game is a bit small in scope, there are about 7-8 different worlds/biomes, and they are pretty small. The maps themselves never change, but the placement of the chests, their contents and the teleporter always changes, and which boss you get when you activate the teleporter is somewhat random too. I found the teleporter a bit hard to find sometimes, which I think was addressed with one of the patches. I suggest giving the game a few chances and starting on the easy difficulty. When I first tried out the game... I hated it. I didn't understand it, I activated the portal, a huge boss spawned and murdered me. I didn't understand anything, probably didn't even understand the controls. Months later, specifically now, I tried it again and I liked it. And I kept playing over and over and over again, the game definitely sank its teeth in me.
I think it's a bit of a mistake to hide characters behind somewhat obscure unlock conditions. At first you only have the Warrior, which is fine, and before you unlock anyone else, he is pretty. Then I unlocked the Huntress, which was made unlocked by default in a future patch, and.... I hated her, I did, I found her super awkward to use.... until I got a few worlds in and I understood how to play her, I didn't like her as much as the warrior, but she wasn't half bad, and I got my first game clear with her, unlocking the Mercenary. The Mercenary is the game's single melee class, and he sucked.... until I got a few worlds in and I fell in love with him, absolutely my favorite class, he grows stronger the more on-kill effect items you get on him. The thing is, every character is incredibly unique, in both how the traverse the environment and play, which is why I feel the game should come with more characters unlocked by default, or make them simpler to unlock, because I feel players would get so much more enjoyment out of the game if the could find their favorite class faster and easier.
The game can be played in multiplayer, which I bet is amazing, but online only. And, almost as if to make up for the fact that the game shipped incomplete, this release includes the original Risk of Rain. It's basically the same game but in 2-D. A lot of enemies, items and characters originated here, in their pixelated glory, and I got a kick out of seeing the same exact gameplay but in 2-D, it works really well this way too! I found RoR 2 to be more fun, but RoR 1 is definitely worth a look, if anything, it almost feels like a demake, at least if you play RoR 2 first like I did!
I'm not happy that Risk of Rain 2 released incomplete, but, BUT, thankfully what is on the cart is really fun and the rest of the game came out as free updates. As far as my taste goes, I didn't find it as fun as Dead Cells, but it's a good way to pass some time, just try not to get hooked while on your workvshift.
8.0
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