one of the biggest updates yet (they added 2013 to the name)

Beautiful, sophisticated, yet brutal. Yes, like your new girlfriend, Risk of Rain is a ball of wonderment and pain.

In this rogue-like platformer, you run around each level trying to find a teleporter. Meanwhile, enemies spawn randomly; killing them gives you gold with which you can open containers with upgrades for your character. Once you find a teleporter, you fight a boss and ultimately move on to the next level.

The catch? The longer you play, the tougher the enemies become! So speed is of the essence as well as quick reflexes and mob management.

The artstyle for this game is pixel based, and it's wonderful how much character these little sprites have! The tiny animations are smooth, and watching an enemy explode into blocks of meat chunks is satisfying.

The music is also fantastic; it's a hauntin track that sounds like a dubstep/trance hybrid one moment and a thumping bass the next.

And the gameplay: oh boy, is this game tough! But you come out of it a better man (or woman) with blistered fingers and a beard on her knuckles (that goes for the women too).

So this game comes highly recommended! There are a lot of achievements/unlockables including new items and classes, so the replay value is truly up there. Do yourself a favor and pick up Risk of Rain!

This game is great. It has challange, it has diversity, it has high replayability. I'm 100hrs in and still haven't unlocked all items nor mastered all classes.

Pros:
-can be modded
-randomized gameplay
-challenging
-lots of in-game achievements
-each class plays differently​
-lots of items so you can try different builds
-fun coop
-you can add even more challange through artifacts you have to unlock
-big levels
-endless (there is an ending level but you have the option to loop as many times as you want)
-really long runs
-trading cards

Cons:
-setting up for coop might be difficult fore some players, as you need port forwarding to be a host. There are guides about this on the games' forum, but if you still don't understand them, maybe you have a friend who does and you can ask him/her to help you through teamviewer.
-I don't have any more cons, but it would have been nice if all of the in-game achievements were on steam as well

I saw some bad reviews pointing at some data loss bug. I had it too, and the devs were really kind to help and found out that it's related to the vcredist packs. It's either one is missing from your computer or it didn't install properly. Just reinstall all vcredists and it should be all ok. It only takes a few minutes. I hope that those who had this problem will see my review.

In the end, i'll give it a 10/10

Died brutally in a fire with lizardmen surrounding me and stone golems smacking my skull in, with white giants punching my guts into oblivion. Meanwhile, a giant magmaworm is flying around, smacking into me, burning me to death, while I'm already burning, and a green wisp is sniping me from across the map with his green ejaculation.
Death message: "That was your fault".
Yes, it was my fault I died brutally on my first run.
11/10, more than worth the money.

Stop adding me without even saying anything. Jesus Christ have some decency
serious review? serious review.
Risk of Rain is an extremely addictive arcade style 2D platformer shoot-em-up with roguelike elements.

Gameplay consists of dying a lot attempting to reach and activate the stage exit teleporter in each level, there are a total of 6 levels to complete per game before achieving TOTAL VICTORY

Online Co-Op, many characters with their own unique playstyle, randomly generated level layouts, and loads of items keep gameplay fresh and exciting so you can just get goat hooves and syringes and win instantly

• Gameplay
  
  Tight, responsive controls and enough characters to pick a playstyle that you enjoy make this an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.
  
  
• Graphics
  
  A charming, simple artstyle with smooth animations makes this game a treat for the eyes.
  
  
• Sound
  
  An expertly done soundtrack brings a LOT to the table, sound quality is good, sound effects aren't obnoxious.
  
  
• Story
  
  A very ambigous story, no definite answers are given, but clues are relayed through item logs and monster descriptions.
  
  
• Multiplayer?
  
  This game features both local and online co-op, the co-op system (especially online) is a bit excruciatingly buggy, but very fun to play with friends.
  
  
• Fun?
  
  The artstyle, gameplay, and unpredictability of this game make for an extremely enjoyable time.

Spend 90 minutes on a single run, upgrade your character to the point that you melt everything in seconds then enemies get to the point where you're killed almost instantly and you get instantly killed. Cry for 10 minutes. Then start a new playthrough. Good times.

risk of rain 2, but its 1

I wish there were more Roguelikes that was on the scale of Risk Of Rain.


Risk Of Rain is a platforming rouglike with it's own interesting universe, easy to understand controls, and crazy gameplay.

This is one of the few games that will help you feel like a god. The amount of power you can gain, from being a lowly survivor of the UES Contact Light that dies from a single bite to walking into rooms and watching the universe collapse every time you press "Z".

Every character that you play stands out from each other, having their own attacks, look, and feel. Not ONE character feels underpowered or overpowered compared to the rest.

Although this game doesn't have the absurd number of items like Binding Of Isaac has...what it DOES have is how every item is viable and doesn't completely topple your playstyle over if you get it. While this does mean there aren't many "weapon changing items", I find so much joy in even finding a common item, as it brings me one step closer to absolute destruction.

That's the joy I find in this game, it's to get as powerful as possible and go as long as possible. There's a nice story under it all (and good reason as to why the items in the game are even there) and if you really think about what you're doing...

You're the villain of this story, whenever you like it or not. The only way you could be somewhat good is if you blaze through the game as quickly as possible and killing as few as you can. The story's optional, though, and you can read about it when you kill foes in Rainstorm or Monsoon difficulties, since they drop logs at a slightly rare chance.

Almost every level has a artifact hidden in it, but you have to be lucky to roll the version of the level that has it. Every Artifact changes up the rules of the game, and gives interesting changes to it. Like, the lower the health something has (including you) the faster you will run, everything exploding with a shower of Creamator explosions when they die, a random skill of yours locking every minute..there's even one called Command that tosses out most of the RNG of the game and gives you chest drops when you get an item. The chest color is the rarity of the items you recieved, and you can pick whatever item from the item table you please. It's balanced, though, that the window you select items is real time, and you cannot move until you pick an item.

When I mentioned "easy controls", this game really does have simple controls. four buttons mapped for your movement, and four buttons mapped for your skills. You can even use a controller.

This game gets interesting when you bring in your pals for co-op, while making it even more chaotic. The game's completely viable solo, but the difficulty becomes interesting in co-op. Do you let your friend take the item drop, or do you snag it for yourself?

There's also a forced item sharing button, which balances out the items for players. Though, me and my friends agree this system is incredibly annoying, so take that with a grain of salt.

The music of the game is an interesting contrast from the chaotic blitzplay of the game. Even the most intense of the soundtrack is actually quite nice music to sleep too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ypzpl02Rps

If you want my personal favorite piece from the game, it has to be Surface Tension. It's also a boss track, usually used for the Wandering Vagrant boss.

The bosses in this game will be intimidating and will pose a threat, like any boss will, but as you become stronger, you may be able to start one shotting them..and..as you progress even further, normal foes will be replaced by bosses. Ever faced twelve giant magma worms, three overloading ones, six vagrants, and ten colossi at once?


Despite all my praise for the game, though, I do have a gripe about the game. Though, it doesn't bother me too much.

The levels and item count.

The levels will soon feel repetitive, since you will learn their layouts pretty quickly...but at least the levels themselves have different setups. Though it doesn't help that the setups only change the minor places.

The items aren't in a vast quanity, where you will always find new ones...but, hey. Every item is viable to helping you become stronger. I'd rather have this than several items that are "considered" low tier and useless.

Overall, this game, albeit not a masterpiece or a gamechanger for everything that comes after it, it's a really fun game that's even one hell of a ride with friends.

And you know what? That's all I want to ask every once in a while. For the fun alone, I'd highly reccomend the game. The characters are colorful and vastly different from each other (along with having a lot of them) the items you can pick up are ALL great, none are trick items or downgrades, the game chugs on to become blitzplay after you start slaying... It's worth the price.

One more thing to mention. Every item in the game itself has a bit of story on it. Some of the Item logs are even begging for their own stories.

I'd play this over Binding Of Isaac anyday.

You've crashed. On a planet. It's a planet made up of wierd and strange things, creatures that up until your arrival quite likely existed in peace and harmony, and then you brought yourself, your mass of crates which have scattered around the landscape, and the teleporters you so desperately need to get back to your now scuffed up transport ship to get out of dodge.

Whilst on the surface the game is very much a case of guns blazing and murder everything in sight, as you dig into the lore and entries of the game, what you'll learn is that the planet was more or less *fine* until the ship crashlanded, spewed it's cargo all over the shop and you, in your size twelves and large caliber weapons, decided to cut a swathe through the landscape to get out.

Congratulations, you are the risk of rain the locals keep talking about. Don't you feel just awesome?


Starting the game the first time gives you access to the beginner class - Commando. This class is a good place to learn how to deal with the game, and a balanced set of skills that should see you progress at a reasonable rate. All the unlockable classes are tailored towards specific styles of play, and generally require specialist approaches to get the most out of them. A good example is the enforcer, which is far slower and less mobile than the commando, but due to his riot shield, can essentially soak -ridiculous- quantities of damage from the direction he's facing.

Later classes are even more specialised, opening up classes that work from afar, or specialise in deployables or traps, or have other means of dealing with situations. In short, every class feels unique, and has their own combos and specific ways to work things out. Furthermore, with the items that you can collect, every class will evolve differently based on the drops you find. The Enforcer in one playthrough will be an entirely different Enforcer in the next. Even if there are some items you'll ideally want to grab each time.


The graphics might be pixel art, which by this stage you'd think have been done to death, but on the contrary, the clear, concise design and the very well thought out vision ensure that this game always looks stylish and well presented. This is a game that revels in looking good, and always ensures that the player is in control of what's going on, even when there's a -lot- going on at once.

Combined with the precise and well balanced combat, along with the great sense of atmosphere, is potentially one of the best soundtracks of recent times, going alongside things such as Don't Starve, Deus Ex : Human Revolution, and Really Big Sky. A good soundtrack sells the atmosphere, and in this case it's been captured perfectly, possibly one of the best soundtracks in my library.


Risk of rain was one of my top picks when I bought it, this has not changed and it still remains one of the greatest games available on steam. Along with the legends like FTL, like Dungeons of Dredmor, Risk of Rain should be considered essential gaming for anyone who wants to get their hands into the genre of "Roguelites" that contains things like Spelunky and co.

Verdict : Essential

Writer and columnist for Just Reviews, where you can get similar fine reading material. Join our group, follow our curations, and throw me a like if you would like to keep up to date with our efforts!

Fantastic game, a bit difficult at first, but it becomes very addicting and fun. It has a ton of unlockables, like items and characters, which gives it tons of replayability. Just a little tip: dodging is VERY important! :D