The indie roguelike shooter Risk of Rain first released in 2013, garnering a cult following with its addictive gameplay loop of killing enemies, collecting items and gold, and constantly trying to stay ahead of the rising difficulty. Now, developers Hopoo Games have released Risk of Rain Returns, a remake aimed at bringing new life to the classic while also introducing it to a new generation of fans.
As a roguelike, Risk of Rain Returns features procedural generation, permadeath, and a core gameplay loop centered around growing stronger through each run. The basics involve killing enemies to gain gold and experience, which allows you to unlock new items and powerups from chests and shops. Equipping these items makes you stronger, but the catch is that the difficulty constantly ramps up the longer you take. It creates a thrilling risk-reward balance where you have to loot and explore quickly yet carefully.
With the remake, Hopoo Games has revamped the visuals, added new characters and content, and overhauled the multiplayer. In this review, we’ll see if these changes help Risk of Rain Returns recapture the magic of the original while also feeling fresh and appealing to newcomers in 2023. Does this remake stand on its own or simply bank on nostalgia? We’ll breakdown what’s new and improved to help you decide if it’s worth leaping back into the rain.
Frantic Roguelike Action
At its core, Risk of Rain Returns sticks to the same addictive gameplay loop that made the original a hit. You play as one of 15 different survivors, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. Once you crash land on the planet, your goal is simply to fight through hordes of enemies, collect items and gold, and find the teleporter to the next stage.
It’s a straightforward roguelike formula, but executed brilliantly. Killing enemies and opening chests earns you gold that can be spent at shops. Here you’ll find an ever-changing array of items that confer bonuses like attack speed, lifesteal, or critical hit chance. Equipping these items makes you stronger, but the catch is that the difficulty constantly ramps up the longer you take in a stage.
This creates a thrilling risk-reward balance where you need to loot and explore quickly yet carefully. Taking too long means you’ll get overwhelmed by enemies. But rushing ahead means you may be too weak to handle what’s next. Finding the right balance and getting that perfect build where your items synergize into an unstoppable force is extremely rewarding.
Compared to the 3D action of Risk of Rain 2, the original’s 2D platforming gameplay takes some adjusting. Movement feels tighter and fall damage is far more punishing. You’ll need to carefully navigate gaps and ropes while also dodging enemies. It’s challenging at first, especially for those accustomed to the freedom of the sequel. But once it clicks, the platforming opens up new dimensions like exploiting enemy placement and finding creative ways around hazards.
The roster of 15 survivors all play very differently with their own strengths and weaknesses. The Commando is great for beginners with his rolling dodge and powerful charged shot. Meanwhile the acrobatic Loader fills a high risk, high reward role with her rocket punches and grappling hook. Unlocking new survivors and alternate skills through challenges adds plenty of variety.
Playing cooperatively is a great way to take on the challenges with a friend or three. Couch co-op with shared screen chaos returns, but now with a massively improved online multiplayer system. No more fiddling with IP addresses and ports. Instead you can easily browse lobbies, set rules, and quickly jump into games with players worldwide. The new team-focused abilities for survivors add synergy when playing together.
Overall the gameplay remains challenging yet immensely satisfying. There’s a thrill to barely making it through a heaping mob of enemies and bosses because your item build gave you just the right tools. While veterans may pine for the freedom of the sequel, Risk of Rain Returns recaptures the purity of the original formula in a tighter, more focused package. Once you adjust to the tighter platforming and faster pace, it becomes just as addictively fun.
Fresh New Rain
While remaining faithful to the original, Risk of Rain Returns adds a substantial amount of new content to discover. Three new survivors join the fray, including the Pilot with jetpack-powered aerial combat, and the support-focused Drifter who can provide buffs. Unlocking these new survivors and learning their abilities adds variety and replayability.
The biggest new feature is the Providence Trials – over 40 bite-sized challenges that unlock alternate skills and skins for survivors. These mini-games range from tests of mobility to accuracy, placing you in restricted scenarios with particular items or survivors. They provide a nice change of pace from the main game while allowing you to expand your roster’s capabilities.
Completing trials is now the means to unlock the new alternate skills for survivors. These skills shake up playstyles in interesting ways. For instance, the Huntress can swap her glaive for a tracking arrow barrage, while the Engineer can deploy mini turrets instead of platforms. Mixing and matching these alternate skills creates tons of options for customizing your survivors.
On top of new characters and skills, Risk of Rain Returns adds new items to discover in your runs. These can do anything from boosting stats, conferring bonuses after kills, or providing unique effects. More items means more potential for crazy powerful combos if you get lucky with the procedural generation. There are also new enemies to keep veterans on their toes.
The levels themselves have been redesigned with more alternate paths, secret areas, and hidden walls to blast open. Exploring these expanded stages offers more rewards for curious players. The new dynamic 3D backgrounds add more eye candy while traversing the foregrounds.
Even the final boss, Providence, has new tricks up his sleeve in the final fight. His attacks and phases have been expanded to provide a fresh ultimate challenge. Long-time fans will have to be on their toes with how the climactic showdown has evolved.
Overall, the new content provides both depth for seasoned players and plenty for newcomers to work towards. The Providence Trials add mobility challenges to hone your skills while unlocking more capabilities for your growing roster of survivors. It’s enough to make Rain Returns feel like a refreshed version rather than just a fresh coat of paint.
A Sight and Sound Reawakening
Risk of Rain Returns pays homage to the original pixel art style while giving it a major face-lift. The 2D sprites have been reimagined in high definition, adding finer animations and small flourishes that make everything pop.
The survivors and enemies especially benefit from the HD overhaul. Main characters like the Commando and Huntress have smoother animations and tackle their foes with more over-the-top effects like screen shakes and particle explosions. Seeing the Commando’s charged shot obliterate a line of enemies in a shower of pixels simply looks incredible.
Larger enemies and bosses also benefit greatly from the visual enhancements. Their attacks light up the screen with colorful blasts and auras that add a sense of impact missing from the original. When the massive Stone Titan slams the ground, it feels suitably epic as dust and debris scatter. The Vagrant and Colossus have never looked so impressively imposing.
The environments also receive excellent visual redesigns. The backgrounds are now dynamic 3D set pieces that add depth and life to the 2D foregrounds you traverse. Lava flows, waterfalls, and other elements make each biome feel more immersive. The Hive Cluster looks especially impressive with its web-filled caves and neon-bathed alien structures.
Small touches like new weather effects, idle animations, and more make the world feel alive. Secrets and interactable objects are now more visible rather than blending into the dirt-colored background. It’s still recognizably Risk of Rain, just illuminated with modern flare.
Matching the modernized visuals is an audio package that retains the series’ sublime synthwave soundtrack. Fan favorite composer Chris Christodoulou returns with chill, haunting melodies perfect for the desolate planet. Upbeat boss themes kick in at just the right moments to get your blood pumping. The audio design overall is crisp, from the meaty weapon sound effects to ambient environmental tones.
Thanks to the visual and audio overhaul, Risk of Rain Returns doesn’t simply coast on nostalgia. It feels like a true current-gen reawakening that breathes new life into the classic pixel art style and soundtrack.
Accessible Rain, With Some Limitations
Risk of Rain Returns offers a fair number of accessibility options to tailor the experience. Players can extensively customize the difficulty before each run, tweaking damage taken/dealt, enemy health, and more. Turning the heat down makes runs more feasible for learning the ropes and experimenting.
The range of difficulty settings combined with the ability to unlock permanent upgrades does a decent job at accommodating different skill levels without compromising the rougelike challenge. Options for faster movement and health regen can also help ease frustration for those struggling with the platforming.
However, there are some glaring accessibility shortcomings. Chief among them is the lack of text scaling options. The small text size can be difficult to read from a distance. This oversight makes Returns less accessible for visually impaired players or those sitting far from their TV.
The multiplayer revamp also currently lacks options for crossplay between PC and consoles. Wider cross-platform support would allow more players to enjoy the online coop together.
While Risk of Rain Returns isn’t flawless in its accessibility options, the wide range of difficulty customization and assist settings still allow players of many skill levels to experience the addictive rougelite action. Adding more flexibility like text scaling and crossplay would remove the remaining barriers to entry. Until then, it remains enjoyable for most thanks to the difficulty options, but could still improve its accessibility further.
Together in the Rain
One of the biggest areas of improvement in Risk of Rain Returns is the online multiplayer experience. No longer held back by archaic direct IP connections, the remake introduces a full-featured lobby system with the polish expected of modern games.
Creating or browsing games is smooth and intuitive. Hosts can name lobbies, set tags and filters, kick unruly players, and start matches quickly. A pre-game lobby lets players select their survivors and vote on rule options like friendly fire and artifacts to modify runs. This level of customization and control is a massive upgrade.
Once in a match, the action holds up well in online co-op. Levels are synchronized properly and gameplay remains responsive even with higher pings. The new teamwork-focused skills for survivors provide opportunities for synergy when playing together. It’s extremely satisfying to combo abilities for maximum chaos.
The only downside is the lack of crossplay between PC and consoles at the moment. But even without this feature, the online multiplayer experience is night and day compared to the original’s primitive offering.
On the local co-op side, the madness of 2-4 players crowding one screen returns. The difficulty scales appropriately to offset the manpower, but the hectic shared view can make playing tricky. Still, for those who can handle the sensory overload, local co-op amps up the action and provides laughs when everything inevitably goes wrong.
Overall, playing Risk of Rain Returns together with others online is now quick, smooth, and customizable. The excellent netcode and variety of options provide a polished multiplayer experience that stands with the best of modern games. Provided crossplay gets added, the new online features will give this remake legs for cooperative mayhem with friends across platforms.
The Rain Has Returned, Better Than Ever
After over a decade since its original release, Risk of Rain triumphantly returns with this excellent remake. Risk of Rain Returns deftly walks the line between remaining faithful to what made the first game special, while also introducing a range of updates and features that make it feel fresh in 2023.
The core addictive gameplay loop still shines just as brightly. Managing the constant push and pull between looting and progression remains captivating, especially when you assembling a powerful build. The pixel art visuals receive a gorgeous HD overhaul brimming with details and flair. Iconic survivors feel new again with enhanced animations and effects. The phenomenal soundtrack sets the tone perfectly.
Yet Risk of Rain Returns is far from a simple nostalgia play. A wide range of new survivors, alternate skills, items, and enemies provide plenty of discoveries for returning fans. The Providence Trials add creative challenges to unlock this new content while testing your abilities. And the completely revamped online multiplayer elevates playing together to new heights through quick matchmaking and extensive options.
Some limitations of the original remain, like restricted platforming and shooting. The core formula also stays very familiar, which could disappoint those seeking major innovations. But accessible difficulty settings make enjoying the thrilling roguelike gameplay possible for all skill levels.
Overall, Risk of Rain Returns is an exceptional remake that respects the original while confidently evolving the experience. Effort was put into not just improving visuals, but meaningfully expanding gameplay variety and multiplayer functionality. The result is a tight, focused package bursting with chaotic fun and looking gorgeous in the process.
Both first-timers and longtime fans will find plenty to love about this enhanced version. Risk of Rain Returns enters the pantheon of great modern remakes thanks to additions that feel substantial rather than tacked on. It has set a new bar for the series and laid solid foundations for continued new content. The rain has returned – and the future looks brighter than ever.
The Review
Risk of Rain Returns
Risk of Rain Returns expertly revitalizes a roguelike classic with substantial new content and massive multiplayer improvements. The captivating gameplay loop remains addictive while the visual and audio overhaul brings modern polish. Some minor limitations persist, but overall this remake sets a new standard for the series with its fresh take on a formula that maintains tremendous replay value.
PROS
- Addictive core gameplay loop remains strong
- 15 unique survivors with diverse abilities
- Tons of unlockable alternate skills and items
- Gorgeous HD visual overhaul with smooth animations
- Excellent soundtrack enhances the experience
- Over 40 creative Providence Trials add challenges
- Greatly improved online multiplayer functionality
CONS
- Restrictive 2D platforming compared to sequel
- Harsh punishment for falling and touchy jumping
- Lacks major innovations to core formula
- Small text size with no scaling options
