Recent reviews by Hugo

The story of Risk of Rain 2 is a heartbreaking one. This used to be a staple among roguelikes, with standout features such as its glorious multiplayer and very active modding scene. It was Hopoo Games’s lovechild, proudly displaying a sustained "Overwhelmingly Positive" review score for years at a time. Now look at it, clinging to a measly "Mixed", a shade of its former glory. This debacle coincides with the sale of the IP by Hopoo to Gearbox, an editor already notorious for giving a similar fate to several other games, with a sprinkle of wokeness added on top. The latest update introduced numerous game-breaking bugs and new content that shows a complete disregard for game balance, and for many players, it was the last straw.

If I had to pinpoint the core issue, I believe the game lost its spirit. The original vision is gone, as the new content takes the game in a completely different direction. Risk of Rain is a game that is highly infused with the intention and a certain craziness of its creators. As such, nobody will ever truly know why the game is named "risk of rain", or why one of the characters is a robot cook, or why one of the power-ups is a ukulele. The mystery is part of the artistry of the game, but that intention, I can wholeheartedly attest, is nowhere to be found among Gearbox's new sacrificial lamb.

That being said, there will still be mods for the new versions, and you can still have fun in multiplayer, provided the bugs are fixed—something I trust will happen eventually. There’s still a good time to be had in there, especially for new players. It’s just not the game I fell in love with back in 2020.

Going forward, I won’t be playing the new versions. Steam allows you to downgrade the version of the games you own, and that’s how I intend to play the game from now on.