Risk of Rain 2 was released into Steam Early Access alongside its publisher announcement last weekend at Gearbox’s PAX East panel. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the title since developer Hopoo Games announced the sequel to the 2013 indie roguelike on their blog in May of 2017.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Risk of Rain is an action roguelike in which survivors race against the clock to upgrade their characters from simple adventurers to impossible death machines. They must then find the level’s exit teleporter before the game’s difficulty level increases, resulting in stronger monster spawns in larger swarms.
In its current state, Risk of Rain 2 is exactly what fans of the first game would come to expect; a simplistic yet deep action game that slowly ratchets up the difficulty into a crescendo of wanton chaos. Players can explore the randomized levels solo or with up to four friends, as well as participate in the new Prismatic Trials, a time-limited leaderboard-driven mode that pits players against a static configuration of levels to vie for the fastest time. Other new additions include Lunar Coins – a collectible meta currency that is saved between games and levels for purchasing rare items and equipment on runs – as well as the obvious third dimension.
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As Risk of Rain 2 is still in Early Access, not all planned content is currently available. At the time of this writing, Hopoo Games still plans to add another 4 characters, dozens of items and equipment, some new levels and enemy types, as well as a true ending and final boss. For now, you just keep looping through the currently available set of levels and enemies until you die.
However, what Risk of Rain 2 lacks in end-game content, it makes up for with a fun and varied experience that lives up to the original and more than enough game to keep you busy while the developers gradually add more content and polish over their projected 12-month development cycle. It also appears to have a huge player base to boot; every time I tried matchmaking, I wasn’t waiting more than a few seconds before I was thrown into a full lobby, which is perfect for people like me, who can never seem to coordinate a game time with friends. That said, I’ve managed to spend 13 hours so far on the Early Access version of the game and am still going strong; those extra challenge items aren’t going to unlock themselves.
Risk of Rain 2 is currently available on Steam Early Access for $19.99 USD.
