On paper, Risk of Rain has all the ingredients I love in my indie games: a rogue-like action side-scroller with unlockable upgrades and snappy combat. And yet, after having tried to get into this one for the third time, I can savely say: no sir, this is just not for me.
Pros:
+ combat feels responsive and snappy
+ the timer for using the special weapons feels fair enough
+ large amount of upgrades to find and combine
+ the teleporter hunt is a unique element to the core design
+ levels hide some upgrades and secrets in plain sight
+ plenty of difficulty options available
+ this new update brings a lot of optional elements to the game
Cons:
- the standard difficulty scaling is pure frustration
- the player character is far too small for the large environments
- initial movement speed is far too low
- fall damage is a terrible design decision
- there is no (mini-)map available for no apparent reason
- damage taken is not perceptably indicated
- graphic style is dark, muddy, and undetailed
- environments feel uninspired and their architecture unintuitive
- timed difficulty system is at odds with the vast level sizes
- money does not carry over between levels...
- ...and the scaling cost for items is absurd by the third level
- item names are not indicated anywhere outside of the menu
- bosses are brick walls that can easily overpower players
- music is bland and forgettabble
Playtime: Roughly 1 hour with this new version. At least 10 hours combined since the game first came out.
Blagic Moments: The first attempt ending with a quick and painless death after roughly 20 seconds. Feeling the stressful core design again after all these years. Running to one end of the map only to find that I wasted my precious time.
Magic Moment: Scrolling through the endless list of unlockables and realizing that I am finally giving up on this game for good.
Verdict:
Risk of Rain Returns, and so does my dislike of this game. Even after all these years and plenty of upgrades to the game, the main issues have still not been adressed. The characters and most enemies are far too small on the screen and frequently get lost in the action. Navigating around the mostly ugly but vast biomes is tedious and unfun, and having to frantically search for the teleporter is at odds with searching for necessary but expensive upgrades around the map. Enemies spawn out of nowhere and become bullet sponges after a few minutes, and even upgrades like flying turrets never feel like appropriate answers to their unrelenting attacks and movement speeds. Losing all the hard-earned money after each level just feels like a unnecessary fuck you to thrifty players that precludes tactical decisions. The list goes on and on.
In short, no design decision here really adds up, and it's a complete mystery to me why this has amassed so many fans over the years and even produced a sequel. But I am willing to admit that this might just be one of those cases where I "just don't get it", and maybe, that's fine.
Still, I think even fans of the genre can savely skip this.
Pros:
+ combat feels responsive and snappy
+ the timer for using the special weapons feels fair enough
+ large amount of upgrades to find and combine
+ the teleporter hunt is a unique element to the core design
+ levels hide some upgrades and secrets in plain sight
+ plenty of difficulty options available
+ this new update brings a lot of optional elements to the game
Cons:
- the standard difficulty scaling is pure frustration
- the player character is far too small for the large environments
- initial movement speed is far too low
- fall damage is a terrible design decision
- there is no (mini-)map available for no apparent reason
- damage taken is not perceptably indicated
- graphic style is dark, muddy, and undetailed
- environments feel uninspired and their architecture unintuitive
- timed difficulty system is at odds with the vast level sizes
- money does not carry over between levels...
- ...and the scaling cost for items is absurd by the third level
- item names are not indicated anywhere outside of the menu
- bosses are brick walls that can easily overpower players
- music is bland and forgettabble
Playtime: Roughly 1 hour with this new version. At least 10 hours combined since the game first came out.
Blagic Moments: The first attempt ending with a quick and painless death after roughly 20 seconds. Feeling the stressful core design again after all these years. Running to one end of the map only to find that I wasted my precious time.
Magic Moment: Scrolling through the endless list of unlockables and realizing that I am finally giving up on this game for good.
Verdict:
Risk of Rain Returns, and so does my dislike of this game. Even after all these years and plenty of upgrades to the game, the main issues have still not been adressed. The characters and most enemies are far too small on the screen and frequently get lost in the action. Navigating around the mostly ugly but vast biomes is tedious and unfun, and having to frantically search for the teleporter is at odds with searching for necessary but expensive upgrades around the map. Enemies spawn out of nowhere and become bullet sponges after a few minutes, and even upgrades like flying turrets never feel like appropriate answers to their unrelenting attacks and movement speeds. Losing all the hard-earned money after each level just feels like a unnecessary fuck you to thrifty players that precludes tactical decisions. The list goes on and on.
In short, no design decision here really adds up, and it's a complete mystery to me why this has amassed so many fans over the years and even produced a sequel. But I am willing to admit that this might just be one of those cases where I "just don't get it", and maybe, that's fine.
Still, I think even fans of the genre can savely skip this.