I used to play the original risk of rain with my roommates in undergrad. We would play this game alllll the time into the early morning hours. When I heard gearbox purchased the rights of the franchise Iwas skeptical like many others. So this remake would help us understand how gearbox would treat Risk of rain - a test for them. As a long time RoR player, I can say they really put some heart and soul into this. The game is polished and feels like the original, but also has some fun additions to squeeze a bit more gameplay out of it. I can say that I am beyond happy to see this title return. Not only return, but triumph at it's goal of reviving this decade old game. The providence trials are creative and just flat out fun. The new loadouts (RoR2-esque) give some flexibility in playstyles for survivors. The new items are inventive and sometimes just ridiculous. The multiplayer is smooth. Everything kinda just works. Some little nitpicks I have is that the new maps have a ton of new variants, so I get lost very easily. Not only do I get lost because of new layouts, but because they are absolutely massive maps. Movement options are hard to come by and I only get a few each run due to how few items there are on the map. I generally enjoy playing this title with more people rather than by myself. I think that's normal though, most games are better with others and I'm glad this game shines in this aspect. The music remasters are great and I'm glad they kept consistent with Chris.

Overall I love this title, definitely a star in a year with many great titans. Oh and it's $15. Well worth the money.

I must own up to the fact that I misjudged Risk of Rain Returns a bit in my first review. Some points I made still hold true for me (like right/left aiming and the rope mechanics), but other than that I think it is very addicting and fun. I wanted to let it rest for a while, but I couldn't, so here we are.

RoRR is just as addicting as RoR2 is, and does actually improve a bunch upon RoR1. After finishing the initial 2 stages, speed ramps up and the game feels very satisfying. I must say, the only real tactic for this is kiting, dodging, shooting etc. etc., but it's impossible to design it in a different way in a 2D environment.

The challenges in the form of Providence Trials were (controversily) refreshing and fun, despite people hating on it. I think it shows off new abilities and items very well, and puts you into a new perspective like manoeuvring through spaces and tactically using skills. That being said...

The Final Judgement trial needs some tweaking for sure. The only thing that messed me up in that challenge were the first two stages due to overly-present elite enemies. However, I also think that it is difficult in a fun way, because you actually have to tactically use skills instead of avoiding-spamming enemies all the time.

The thing I am definitely most excited for is the music and hidden art pieces, which are out of this world. I never really read item or enemy descriptions in Roguelites/Roguelikes, but these are very interesting and add to the overall world building.

If you like RoR2, I would still recommend for you to wait for a new update with improved aiming mechanics, unless you want to learn them really badly (just makes it more difficult). After that, you will definitely like it a lot.