As of writing this review, Risk of Rain 2 is still in effectively an Early Access period, with its planned June update on the near horizon. Despite being someone who abhors pre-orders and shies away from early access titles, as a huge fan of the first game I couldn’t help but see if the stellar game that was Risk of Rain 1 survived the shift to 3D. And I can happily say the series has not survived…it’s absolutely thrived. Risk of Rain 2 is a gorgeous love letter to the first game, with gameplay arguably better than its predecessor thanks to the third dimension, visuals and music that are a joy to indulge in, and an insane amount of potential and promise that I have no doubt the tiny team of Hopoo recognizes and will capitalize on, if the sampling we already have is anything to go off of.

Gameplay

Risk of Rain 2 is a class-based, third-person, action rogue-like. In most ways, it is exactly like its predecessor. There are different characters with unique abilities that emphasize different playstyles, a variety of interesting enemies and bosses, chests randomly stocked with a plethora of different items (many of which unlocked through performing different tasks on your runs) that enhance you in various ways, and perma-death. Just as in the last game, you spawn in different lands scattered with chests, shrines, enemies, and the teleporter. Activating it starts an event where a big boss and lots of enemies rapidly spawn while you stand nearby, ‘charging’ the teleporter. Complete the event, hop through the teleporter, and go to the next area—rinse and repeat as you get more powerful to match the increasingly-strong enemies and bosses.

However, the third dimension introduced in Risk of Rain 2 adds an incredible amount of depth (pun intended) to the combat of the game. Whereas I-frames and tanking were your only real options for evasion in the 2D predecessor, in RoR2 evasion and mobility are shining stars. You can run around enemies, leap over them, dive out of the way of projectiles; the movement of RoR2 feels satisfying and works perfectly with the re-designed enemies and mechanics for the 3D space.

The rogue-like aspects of the series are also fantastic. This was largely to be expected—Hopoo really nailed that satisfying feeling of growing in power with random items providing tons of unique effects, and fighting powerful monstrosities. Item selection is still sparse compared to the finished first game, but I have no doubts we’ll be getting a ton of fun new additions to add to the already-passable arsenal. I’ve got over 100 hours in the game and can assure you, there’s already enough variety now! Bosses and enemies are very unique and interesting; again, more would be much appreciated, but with that promised already I have no real worries there—I’m already enjoying fighting what we have.

Balancing issues aren’t too prevalent, though hopefully as development continues a few small gripes I have will be addressed. Damage does get a little absurd late into runs, to the point where only one-shots are realistic threats—the addition of armor mechanics from the first game would be great. Fire damage is also still over-tuned in my opinion, and some enemies need slight reworks. But overall, the game is in a great state balance-wise.

Storytelling

Sadly the weakest aspect of Risk of Rain 2 thus far. As it’s in Early Access, most of the item and enemy descriptions are blank, and it lacks the final stage that Risk of Rain delivered. These all are promised to be finished by the end of the year or so, but it is definitely a problem at the moment. However, I will note the few things that do have descriptions paint an arguably more interesting story than even the first game had, so I’m extremely excited to see how this aspect will grow and development—what we have hints at an incredibly strong aspect of the game to come.

Replay-ability

Just like its predecessor, Risk of Rain 2 boasts incredible replay-ability. The RNG nature of the game means no two runs will be alike, and combined with the unique playstyles of the several different characters we already have (with more to come!), there’s a ton to see and try out. Maybe one run you’ll blast everything away instantly with a crit build with Commando, the next you’ll develop an obsession for fungus as Engineer, and another you’ll be zipping around the map swinging a samurai sword like a madman. The Red and Lunar items especially contribute to this, as their rarity means each one will change up the run substantially with their unique and powerful effects (Except for H3AD-ST v.2, they need a massive buff ASAP!).

Visuals

I will admit, I was skeptical of how good the visuals of Risk of Rain 2 would be. After all, I had fallen in love with the gorgeous pixel art of the original, how could that possibly translate to 3D? Well, I can happily say Hopoo absolutely blew me away with what they came up with. The game’s cell-shaded style looks positively amazing, with stark and vivid colors being a feast for the eyes. I especially enjoy the slightly dark nature of the lands themselves, which make your colorful-item-covered character seem all the more ‘wrong’, in a good way! Enemy designs translated fantastically as well, especially the Magma Worm, a classic staple from the first game. There are few games that have genuinely taken me aback with a particular visual; some games have certainly wowed me with their overall design, but very few have ever made me pause and just say…woah. This is one of those games—standing at the mouth of a frosty whitish-blue cave and staring out towards a frozen beach in the distance, and staring as a blinding white-orange enormous Magma Worm erupted from the ground and soared high into the air with a deafening roar, spewing firey rocks around it—yeah, it’s safe to say the visuals are better than they’ve ever been in the series.

Level Design

This of course goes hand-in-hand with the visuals, but the stages we have so far are absolutely beautiful. Each has their own unique design, and the later levels perfectly emphasize the growing hostility of the land itself towards our character’s continued journey (and slaughter). There are some problems with the gameplay design thus far however—the Roost feels a little boring and uninspired compared to the other levels, the Abysmal Depths have a lot of empty space and just get way too dark when enemies start messing with the lighting (Looking at you, Overloading Worm!), and the Gilded Coast is just a absolute pain in its current design for basically no real reward. There’s definitely some room for improvement on this point, and more stages are definitely needed, but what we have right now is by no means bad gameplay-wise.

Sound Design

Just like the first game, the muted music of Risk of Rain 2 is fantastically chill. No one track is very special in my opinion, but they all perfectly set the tone for each level and menu, often without you even explicitly noticing them. In addition, enemies sounds notably great and in some places even improved—wisps and especially lesser wisps are not nearly as annoying-sounding as they were in the first game, for example.

Overall

Overall Risk of Rain 2, even in its current very incomplete state is an absolute blast. Every aspect of it that’s complete is, in my opinion, a improvement over its predecessor—visuals are gorgeous, sound design is a bit more polished, gameplay is undoubtedly more nuanced and interesting—and the aspects that aren’t yet complete—item/stage/character/enemy variety, storytelling—already show incredible promise. Even if Hopoo were to announce this is actually the complete game, I would still be able to recommend it, and given I have absolute faith in them to flesh out the game further I am unable to recommend it enough.