I do play a lot of action roguelikes so it really surprised me that this one became a favorite of the general audience. It's not exactly a bad game but after seeing the crazy amount of positive reviews on Steam, I expected something better. Something much better to be precise.

It sports overly stylized graphics, some ridiculous (visually) enemy designs, an annoying soundtrack and not very engaging action gameplay. Add low run variety to the mix - every single one feels more or less the same since the start of late game (4.-5. stage). The chosen survivor and their skillset does not matter that much anymore. Items are everything.

What I unironically enjoy the most about the game is the weird lore delivered in the form of item/enemy logs.

To say it was a letdown after all the hype would be an understatement. It's kind of ok but there are so many better to choose from.

Now that I've finally unlocked every item, unlocked every character, unlocked most of each survivor's skills and skins, completed a prismatic trial, played multiplayer, and beaten eclipse 8 (all in only a tiny 339.4 hours) I feel finally able to somewhat confidently talk about this game. This is a (almost) perfect roguelike with a subpar entry experience.

Have you ever done work, like put yourself in a position to get through an activity with required effort? Well... that's what starting to play this game is like. To be able to actually engage with the complete game there's a series of 10+ 'warm-up sets' you need to do before you finally get access to a satisfying substantial amount of the experience. You're locked to 1 character, their base 4 abilities (which are mostly bad), and 95 accessible items (technically 61 if you just count regular stage loot). To unlock the 13 other survivors, get to the 148 total items, and start using alternate survivor skills you need to grind, sometimes hard focus, challenges and fork over the $22 AUD for the DLC. That wouldn't be too difficult or troublesome if the challenges never got as complex/tiring as beat a prismatic trial (daily challenge) without taking damage, deal 1000000 damage in a single shot, perform the worst object manipulation you've ever done on a specific stage (unless you have a friend and get to unlock the aqueduct gate the easy way), charge a teleporter without being hit, or chase 20 of a specific enemy off a map that has edges (which requires looping for that enemy to be able to spawn on one specific map where this is possible). This sense of external progression to individual runs, while somewhat motivating, is never more justified than just going into config files or downloading a mod to instantly unlock everything. Trust me, I didn't and I regret it.

But once you've slogged through the mud and successfully charted a course to unlock each item and most survivors (or enabled a funny mod), you've done it. Now you get the brilliant reward of playing an amazing game over and over again. Before I get to the quality of playing the game, I wanna quickly highlight the meta-progression that actually doesn't like pain. The treasure hunt in unlocking artifacts is equally as optional and goofy as the rule-changes it grants. Alternate survivor skins are a nice signifier of your own progress in learning the game. The many alternate endings are simultaneously satisfying conclusions to runs in their own way and give unique reasons to undertake each challenge. The meta-currency of lunar coins creates a butterfly effect from your past stupidity impacting your current ability to beat a run (despite most lunars being kinda free run-winners).

Risk of Rain 2 has 3 core aspects of it's gameplay I wanna talk about that make each run fun and engaging to play. Most roguelikes require these 3 in some capacity, however in this game they are utilised in additive contexts to make this game shine like any reflection in a modern remake.
1) Every item you gain in a run can be useful in a build. It may not be useful in your current build, but most decisions on refining your build aren't easy to autopilot
2) There are plenty of well-defined builds in the game, but it has gratifying balance of build overlap. This allows just the right amount of resistance to switch build types mid-run, while still not making it unlikely to combine build types and create a franken-build. This forces you to roll with the punches while still letting you bedazzle your knuckles
3) The game has enough variance to give you runs that are very different to each other and allow for enough 'ha cool' moments even on multiple replays. A recent example is the Eclipse 8 streamer Race who's been forced into playing with a game-changing DLC item in every run, even as a viewer those runs are fresh
All 3 of these aspects aren't without context, they exist in an ability-focused fps roguelike with an ascension/prestige/heat/eclipse mode and extensive modding community. It's passively difficult to get bored of this game when each element of the game feeds into another, multiplying the total enjoyment possible by the amount of connections made in design.

Usually it's difficult to recommend a game to the aether of review site users given the vast difference in taste and overwhelming amount of noteworthy games. Not this time, this time I get to say the nonspecific you will probably like this game despite it's overwhelming introduction. I've got at least 100 other things to bring up about the game, even some negative, but I won't hog too much more of your screen (If Gearbox messes this game up I'm gonna be so mad).

(Update: Gearbox doesn't even give me 24 hours after posting my review before they release their first update silently breaking the meta-progression with vields, made one of the artifacts an ARG instead of a treasure hunt (and the image is of a model in the game that doesn't actually have the code in the public release), silently changed the scanner, broke Loader's audio, leaked DLC files, and increased load times by an excessive amount for how little was supposed to be added. Like did somebody accidentally merge a test version into the release? Already, modern Gearbox shows it's innate desire to pump meaningless content into genuinely impactful works of art, and degrade the piece through their fundamentally greedy practices (like why would you even put effort into a free update? FOR THE SAKE OF CREATING GOOD ART YOU SHARE-WORSHIPPING SLUG MARKETERS). I am partly overreacting as the overall game has kept it's meaning with some minor positive and negative additions, however I also confidently claim to understand the intent behind Gearbox's actions in the past 5-6 years, and trust me when I say it's very unlikely that they want to fundamentally contribute positively to the artform. Wonderlands review coming soon containing more examples of Gearbox's unsavoury existence)

Really makes you feel like exposing yourself to nature's retribution from an entire planet terrarium

Ultimamente eu venho bem envolvida em roguelites/roguelikes e o motivo é provavelmente essa obra prima aqui.
No começo eu tive uma dificuldade enorme de pegar o jeito, considerei até reembolso, mas eu percebi que tava sendo impaciente demais e decidi continuar jogando. Ainda bem que eu fiz isso.
O jogo não tem dó nenhuma, tu vai sofrer no começo E depois de já ter pego umas boas horas também, mas quando tu começa a entender como ele funciona, as mecânicas, pegar o jeito dos personagens, como lidar com os inimigos, decora o que cada item faz, planeja de forma estratégica quais itens são melhores pro que tu quer fazer, pra situação que tu tá e pro sobrevivente que tu tá usando, a experiência se torna EXTREMAMENTE divertida.
Acredito que as duas principais mecânicas do jogo sejam a do aumento de dificuldade com o passar do tempo e o fato que os itens e os efeitos deles "stackam". Por exemplo, o jogo tem um item que te dá +25% de velocidade de movimento. Se tu pegar dois desse item, tu ganha 50%. 3 deles, tu ganha 75%, e por aí vai, e isso vale pra todos os itens, todos eles tem algum ganho que vai aumentando com a quantidade que tu tem. Isso significa que em algum momento tu vai ficar MUITO forte, e pra lidar diretamente com isso, a dificuldade do jogo vai aumentando de acordo com o tempo que tu tá numa run. Os inimigos vão ficando mais fortes com o tempo, assim como você. E assim como você, eles também não tem um limite (dá pra chegar no ponto da vida deles ficarem negativas)
E essas coisas são apoiadas por outros sistemas bem interessantes, como as impressoras 3d, que servem pra tu trocar um item teu por outro, ou as multilojas, que te dão 3 opções de itens diferentes (as vezes tem o mesmo item 2 vezes na mesma loja) e tu tem que escolher um deles. Existem algumas situações no jogo em que os inimigos conseguem pegar itens, e os itens realmente funcionam pra eles. É maravilhoso. Tem também os vários artefatos diferentes que modificam tua run de diferentes formas, como spawnar apenas inimigos de elite, ativar fogo amigo, se um player morrer todos morrem, toda vez que tu entra num stage novo você spawna com outro sobrevivente aleatório, e etc. Tem as diferentes classes de itens que funcionam de maneiras diferentes, como os itens lunares, que te dão uma vantagem gigante E uma desvantagem bem significativa.
E como se não bastasse essa gameplay genial, que tem um skill ceiling lá no céu, onde tu pode ou morrer em 2 segundos ou virar um Deus da destruição e deletar tudo no mapa inteiro com um clique do mouse (o que é incrivelmente satisfatório), com todos esses sistemas incrivelmente intrigantes, o jogo ainda é visualmente LINDO demais, e tem uma das trilhas sonoras mais fodas que eu já ouvi na minha vida puta merda

(o final boss desse jogo é perfeito, só queria deixar isso claro)

This is easily my favorite roguelike of all time. Each run feels random, but not so random that you have no control. In fact, it feels like you have just enough control that every run is in your hands. Each character is unique and fun in their own way. There's just so so much replicability, especially with eclipse mode letting you take your skills all the way to the limit. I genuinely think this game has ruined other roguelikes for me, like now whenever I try and play new roguelikes, I get tired of them so quickly. Thats how good this game is.