I never played the original, but I am a massive Risk of Rain 2 fan, so I gave the remake a try, and although I do not have many hours yet and have only beaten the final boss once, I still wanted to write this review. 

To start with, the visuals are a massive upgrade with the details that were added, making the pixel art lovely to look at. And Chris Christodoulou, the composer, came back to remake the soundtrack, and my god, he is underrated. The OST slaps so hard. Anyway, the actual game itself is where I may be a bit more critical. Unlike its sequel, this game is 2D, and it can be hard to see in a way. In RoR2, you can see farther because it's 3D compared to this game, where I have to scour the land more, which takes longer and makes the game harder as the difficulty increases over time. The game also feels slower and more restrained compared to its sequel, where one of the main reasons why I and almost everyone else love it is because it lets you become an agent of chaos, demolishing everything in your path. I am assuming Hopoo wanted you to be an actual survivor, so you have to fight and scratch more. I am also comparing the two games instead of judging the game on its own, but what I am trying to say is basically that Risk of Rain Returns did not give me an addiction like RoR2 did.

Bottom line: Perchance of Drizzle Comes Back is a great game with stunning visuals and a baller soundtrack, and though the gameplay does not do it for me as RoR2 did, it is still a competent game.

Before Risk of Rain blew up with its 3D incarnation there was it's cult hit 2D predecessor and if you never got the chance to dip into that version Returns truly goes back to its roots. For fans of the 2D version though this is very much an 'enhanced' re-release than a true 2D sequel.

If you own the first game you're going to be very familiar with Returns at first glance. Everything that was in the first 2D game is all here just with a healthy portion of new additions and upgraded sprites. It feels very much like they wanted to cash in on the new audience while giving those who didn't vibe with the 3D version a little something extra to justify the re-purchase.

Don't get me wrong, the new content is welcome. You have a variety of fun challenges for each class which unlock alternate abilities, and everything that there can be more of has more of it from player characters and bosses to maps, items, and monsters - though it feels like playing the base game with a bunch of packaged DLC being sold as a 'new' title.

Personally I really loved the first 2D Risk of Rain and never got into the hype for the 3D version so I'm happy for more of the same. The enhancements, additional content, rule and content customisation, game modes, and everything else make this a clear upgrade over the original but it doesn't do much to distinguish itself beyond the extras. Even so, I'm having a blast and will continue to chip away at this through the year. If you're looking for more rain it's here, but there's no risk of innovation.

"I had to kill him... so why do I feel like I made a terrible mistake?"

After nearly 100 hours of playtime and even more to come, this has easily become one of my favorite roguelikes of all time. Each survivor feels completely distinct and unique from one another, and they all have something fun to offer you, which is definitely something I find that some other roguelikes do poorly in comparison. I especially enjoy the way Pilot's kit focuses on movement and verticality, as well as how much Miner's Heat meter emphasizes that sort of "rush-in-go-beast" playstyle that I love so much.

This game provides a few different very welcome challenges. Dodging and weaving through and around hordes of enemies is not a particularly easy feat in a 2D environment, so the game rewards smart on-the-fly changing of tactics and positioning while (sometimes very brutally) punishing your mistakes, whether they're greedy or otherwise. That emphasis on clearing stages and collecting items in a timely manner to combat the encroaching difficulty also ensures you never feel too safe or comfortable. This makes items feel much more impactful to get, as they can sometimes be few and far between, which makes sure you don't immediately start snowballing passive effects and blowing everything in your path away. However, the game absolutely does let you mow through things as your run progresses, especially if you decide to start looping through old levels instead of going to the last one. And even outside of snowballing, this game has some really fun and fluid synergies between items and different characters.

Speaking of levels, this game is nothing short of beautiful, with some of the best pixel art and art direction I've seen yet. I really love how the credits scroll through side-by-side comparisons of each enemy's original and newly made sprites, showing that nearly every single one of them has had their design entirely revisited and expanded upon rather than simply being redrawn. This game doesn't only look beautiful, though; it sounds beautiful, too. I know everyone is always singing the praises to Chris Christodoulou and his music, but none of it is unwarranted in any way. 'Double Fucking Rainbow Returns' and 'Coalescence Returns' are my two absolute standout favorites of the entire soundtrack, but the rest of the level and boss themes are great, too.

There's not a whole lot to work with here narratively, as even though there are a substantial amount of log entries for items and survivors alike, they're mostly there just for flavor text and/or minor worldbuilding. However, even despite this, Providence manages to be quite a memorable and compelling character (at least in my opinion). The game's narrative is primarily told through the unlockable enemy and environment logs, written by the player as they document their experiences of making it through a hostile and unfamiliar planet. These are very well-written, and the accompanying art of each enemy really gives them a lot more personality and context in-universe that would otherwise be impossible to express using the resolution the game is played at. Taking a step back and looking past the surface after beating the game and reading through the enemy logs can really make you think, especially Providence's.

All of my criticisms of this game are pretty minor all things considered, but I think they're still worth noting. Providence Trials are a very fun and interesting way of teaching players about abilities and game mechanics as they unlock them. However, while most of these are fun and neat, I did find some of them overtly tedious and just not very fun to accomplish. The same can be said about a few non-trial achievements; many of them will be unlocked naturally just by playing through runs as different survivors, but there are a standout few that are just tedious or too luck-dependent. On top of this, some of the hardest or most annoying challenges in the game have particularly unimpressive unlock rewards in comparison. This isn't always the case, however, as I think the unlocks behind plenty of other hard achievements are absolutely worth it, such as the unlocks for Shattering Justice and Ancient Scepter. One last very minor criticism: the only enemy redesign I dislike is the Imp Overlord. The main design goal of the Imp Overlord is to be frightening; its log entry even starts off with a frightened "Oh, why me?" However, I think its central eye is way too overly detailed in its redesign, to a point that I don't find its gaze particularly piercing anymore the same way the original design did. However, this is quite literally the only single problem I have with this game visually, and it's about the redesign of one single minor boss.

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Providence
FAVORITE BOSS: Providence
FAVORITE SONG: 'Coalescence Returns..'

tl;dr risk of rain returns is awesome and i think you should play it

i think this is the first in-depth game review ive made before it was fun i will try to make my next one more condensed and concise

Balatro has replaced this as my current roguelike so I'll mark this finished for now even though I might come back to it eventually. I wasn't compelled to go for the 100% but I did get to 90% after almost 50 hours and I can say that this game took over my life for some time. The original Risk of Rain holds a special place for me as the first roguelike that I really got into. It's my favorite genre and I'm happy that Risk of Rain Returns improved the original pretty much in every way possible. I love the better pixel art, the updated soundtrack, the new characters, skills, items, etc. One memorable moment for me was when I won my first run and I got to hear the choir rendition of the main theme that plays during the credits, it felt so... right. So yeah, I really really liked it. One of these days I'll finally try Risk of Rain 2...

For the past decade, so many different big titles have been getting remastered and remade so much so that it has become a bit of a joke. That’s why it surprised me when I heard they were making a remake of the original Risk of Rain. It’s not very often you hear a remake for an indie game of all things and especially one you put a great deal of time into. A bit of a hot take but I was always one who preferred the original Risk of Rain to its sequel. I always felt the first one was built better for single-player and it also doesn’t have a final boss that I hate. This announcement turned into one of my most anticipated games of this last year.

Having finally gotten around to it and sinking around a dozen hours into it, I can confidently say that this is the definitive version of the original title. The graphical update is extremely pleasing while staying true to the simpler sprites of the original version. Also, the basic movement and combat feel more streamlined to match the fluidity of Risk of Rain 2. What really makes this version worth playing is the large amount of new content. The new characters are a blast to play as with their skills translating well into 2D. The Pilot especially is one I want to spend more time with as I really enjoyed learning their skills in the trial levels

Speaking of trials, the new Providence Trials are an incredibly inventive way to think about how you can use each character differently and it’s a way to unlock new skills and costume skins for each character. I wanted to try out each trial as soon as they unlocked to see what sort of creative spin on the game’s mechanics the developers would devise. Not all of these trials are extremely fun as some of them feel a little too needlessly difficult or confusing to figure out what you are even needing to do. For the most part, though, they are a fun set of levels that rewards you with skills that add added depth and customization to each of the characters which is the most stellar addition to the game.

While I did enjoy all the new additions, I was left wanting a little more from this remake. As someone who put countless hours into the original, this remake is just more of the same in a lot of ways which isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just not compelling me to come back to it as often. The lack of any updated music tracks was another reason this game initially felt like it was just a facelift. I absolutely still enjoyed my time with it though and am planning to go back and play some more soon, hopefully with some buddies. If you enjoyed the original Risk of Rain, you owe it to yourself to try out Returns as it is a stellar improvement. If you are someone who has only played Risk of Rain 2, I would still encourage trying this game as its different dimension of play does offer playstyles that are separate from the sequel.