I expected False Son, but what I've got is a false DLC.

Ahem.

Gearbox gave us another new DLC, which is Seekers of the Storm. This DLC adds some contents, including new items, areas and even more lore to read (if you’re into that). Of course, the main course of this DLC is the False Son, which I suppose is an amalgam between three guardians of Petrichor V: Mithrix, Providence and Aurelionite. So, what do they add into this DLC?

Seekers of the Storm adds more content as I said above. Plus, they added Halcyon Altar that leads to the False Son ending route. Not only that, if you successfully complete the Altar event, you’ll get to choose 3 out of 5 items similar to those of Void Cradles, but with more choices and better rewards overall.

New Elites.
They added two new elites, Gilded and Twisted. Gilded is a Tier 1 elite that steals your gold if you’re attacking them while the barrier is on, and Twisted is basically if you had to deal with enemies with Razorwires. Twisted elites will give an area buff to nearby enemies that will retaliate back if you attack them. This includes any area of effect damages or proc hits.

Items? New items.
Most of the items included in this DLC adds some kind of gimmick, like Warped Echo that splits and delays incoming damage, Sale Star that gives extra item on first opened chest, and an absurd item which is Sonorous Whispers. Basically, it acts like 56 Leaf Clover from Risk of Rain 1/Returns. (Now, to think about it, few of them are basically re-skinned ROR1/RORR items…)

New Areas, New Musics, Great Art Direction.
Personally, I do like the new areas. They added new areas with a quite decent style, especially these new areas that lead to the new ending. I love this part of the DLC. Not only that, I liked the new soundtracks. The music, composed by Chris Christodoulou, with (I guess) two guest artists, which are Stavros Markonis and George Karayiannis, made an exceptional soundtrack that, until this review, I still listen to. They truly cooked on the soundtrack!

Survivors.
There are new survivors in this game, which are Seeker, a support archetype character that can revive others, Chef, a returning character from Risk of Rain 1 and a secret survivor. There are some that I do like from this, mainly Seeker as a whole which fits so well for multiplayer and is still a beast in solo plays, but I do have something I don’t like, which I’ll elaborate later.


Overall, it’s an acceptable amount of content, however… I can’t recommend this. At least, not yet.

Fixed bugs.
There were some bug fixes that were fixed, fortunately. One of them are mainly the FPS-based tick that changed the way the game plays. Basically, if you play the game at more than 60 FPS, the game’s logic goes faster. Otherwise, it’ll be slower. It’s already fixed in the new update. Pretend this part of the review doesn't exist anymore.

Items aren’t good…
While they added more items, I don’t like some of the items, which are basically useless. For example, Knockback Fin that only knocks enemies back, without anything else. And of course, the infamous War Bond that ONLY gives you more gold on every new stage. Somehow there is something worse than Interstellar Desk Plant, but at least the plant is actually useful.

Chef and the Secret Survivor…
Let’s discuss the survivor, once again. While Seeker is the best and also my favorite survivor in this update, the other two… aren’t as good. Chef plays so weirdly. The skill synergy doesn’t really work, in practice. Not only that, the Sear skills don't allow you to use any other skills. Really, it’s a death wish to use M2 most of the time.

The secret survivor, which is the False Son, is actually so powerful… too powerful, actually. But it fits as a boss character. You know what’s wrong with the survivor? The animation makes it so janky. It feels so odd to even play sometimes. It needs so much polishing, just like any other part of the game. I swear, two of these survivors felt like they’re only being playtested for 30 minutes.

Twisted Elites are Twisted.
And I don’t like the Twisted elite either. It still triggers so far away, even if you’re out of the elite buff area. If you hit anyone inside the area, and it somehow procs your items, your run might as well be dead. They should nerf it, so the damage only triggers inside the area.

False Son is Basically Mithrix but Worse.
Okay, I’ll be honest. False Son is actually balanced. In design. However, the visual and audio cue is barely there… It makes it feel so unfair. If only they gave it proper cues, then it’ll be great.

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm adds more content, which includes items, areas and more. While there are some new contents that are added into this game, not only are they not that much to begin with, they’re also not close to the quality standard of this game as a whole, especially the items, and the introduction of Twisted elite that feels too unfair.

Personally, I will give this DLC 6/10, but I won’t recommend it still, since considering you can get a higher quality content which is Survivors of the Void with the same price (or even lower with a discount). Not only that, for some people this can be a 4/10 considering these problems above can be a major one especially if you're considering looping your runs for a lot of times in one session.


This review is made for our Steam Curator group, ReArchivu.
For more details, please check our Steam Group and Steam Curator page.