(SPOILER ALERT)

Developed by Hopoo Games and published by Gearbox, Risk of Rain 2 is a rogue-like shooter that takes place on Petrichor 5, the last known coordinates of UES Contact Light, a freighter shipping company for millions of things from common, household items to highly illegal, military contraband, which was struck down from an unknown entity in the cargo and is sent soaring down from orbit and to the planet’s surface. However, an evacuation pod containing the few survivors come crashing down along with the ship and are forced to attack the hostile creatures that inhabit the planet in order to survive and return to the ship.

And with Risk of Rain’s story over, about a year later, UES Safe travels on a rescue mission arrives at the unmarked planet in search of remaining cargo and to rescue any survivor who has survived this harsh world. So they set off, deploying ten troops to land and discover what truly awaits them on the planet. Now enough with the Risk of Rain 2 story, let’s move on to the gameplay.

Risk of rain 2 is a major overhaul to its predecessor by going the extra mile to convert the series into a 3d landscape, the game also contains many features from the original, but changed to the extreme for it to flow with its new design. It also has introduced many new mechanics and characters for you to use. The pacing of the game is absolutely perfect, along with bosses that overtime will either overpower you, or you will overpower them, So I think I should set this up in a structural analysis so that everything is covered.

Step out of your landing pod and be prepared for many enemies to appear at once. They start off as weak as you, but begin to increase in power the further the difficulty bar rises, introducing more powerful enemy types and elements as you continue. And the best way to keep up with their ever increasing strength, the items from the fallen cargo, of course! after defeating enough of the creatures that inhabit the planet, you may use the money that you have collected to purchase a cargo chest of any kind, as long as you have enough money.

After gathering enough items from the current stage, you must teleport. It is the only way to progress further, and the longer you wait, the stronger the boss will be from activating it. Once you’ve activated the teleporter, as said before, a boss will spawn and must defeat the boss all the while charging the teleporter by being in its range. After defeating the boss/bosses, you a rewarded with either a random uncommon, or a field found item that is related to the boss you defeated. Then once the teleporter is charged, you may go to the next stage if you want, or the Lunar Bazaar.

On stage 2, it’s mostly the same except for the stage your are currently on and the creatures that live in this part of the planet, but the environment changes drastically, from the grassy plateau named the Titanic Plains to the Abyssal Depths, an underground landscape with a crimson red tone. You’ll be teleported to either a marsh or The Abandoned Aqueducts, water used to flow throughs these once thriving aqueducts, but now it has been contaminated by the tar which almost seems to be sentient. When beginning the looting phase, you will notice that the prices for all cargo have have been increased, as well as the amount of currency dropped by the monsters.

When exploring these worlds, be sure to look out for a newt shrine. Newt altars offer access to powerful yet crippling lunar items that could double your damage and half your health, making it more of a skill based item. However, these items don’t come free. To activate the altar and have access to these lunar items, you will have to f

ind lunar coins. Lunar coins are sort of a premium currency that can only be collected by either a random drop from an enemy, or obliteration. Once you do have lunar coins, you can give one to the newt altar and will grant access to a blue portal AFTER the teleporter event, you also cannot give a lunar coin to the altar if you already have charged the teleporter, so in summary, You may only be granted access to the portal if you have NOT activated the teleporter and you have already purchased an altar.

Hidden Realms:

Upon entering the blue portal, you will be in the Lunar Bazaar, a bazaar that is between time that is. Time stops and the difficulty bar will not rise in this place, allowing you to take a much needed break if you want to, but that’s not the end of what you can do in the bazaar. Due to it being a bazaar, you will find a shop keep selling lunar items, as well as green and red items that require 3 or 5 of your items to use, so think of it as one of the 3D printers you’ve come across, except they take either 3 grays or 5 greens and in return a green and red item. There is also a survivor who has been encased in the crystals that are remotely here and nowhere else. To free them, you will require ten lunar coins which once again can either be collected randomly from fallen enemies or from obliteration, and yet the features in the bazaar continues. Two final features are in this bazaar, the ability to choose where you’d like to go next stage, and a secret null portal that lies deep below the bazaar. It’s your choice if you’d like to seek it out and take a gamble on your chances of survival once entering the hidden portal.

Some other hidden realms that are not as important as the Lunar Bazaar are the Gilded Coast, a forgotten land that lies behind the gold portal, the Void Fields, a cosmic prison where there seems to be no breathable air outside of cell vents, or perhaps it’s more than just no air, the Bulwarks Ambry, a very strange plain the can only be reached by inputting a certain pattern of shapes and symbols, and what lies behind the celestial portal is unknown by all who are do not enter it. However, taking any of these portals is completely optional and will grant you a significant power spike if you can deal with the consequences.

Once you’ve teleported to the 5th stage, or better known as the Sky Meadows, the teleporter will align with the planets moon, granting access to it and the final stage. You can of course un-align the teleporter to go beyond the 5th stage and not have to fight the final boss just yet. The teleporter is also the same as every other teleporter, except its look is more ancient and is kept much more hidden and covered while the average ones stick out like a sore thumb. Upon charging the teleporter you must either go to the moon, find the portal to the Bulwarks Ambry, or if you have the lunar coins, take the blue portal. These two other options are only for emergencies and could save you from having to go the final stage on accident or too early.

Upon being teleported to the moon, you will hear nothing but very soft distant sounds. It almost seems like there’s no life up here until you exit the teleporters chamber room, you will begin to see faint and close up figures of creatures you haven’t seen anywhere except here. Only two types of enemies spawn here, Grounded lunar chimera golems, which look like living tanks that can also take a beating before they perish, and the flying lunar chimera wisps, try to keep a distance from them or take cover when they begin to fire hundreds of little needle like ammo straight at you at an incredible speed. At the end of the path you will see an arena like structure, jump up to the arena and prepare yourself for the fight.

The first thing you will see is an orb that has rocks orbiting around it, then, a mysterious entity comes from nowhere and begins to charge you swiftly. Act quick, or you will be another victim of Mithrix, the King of Nothing. Now even though this is a structural analysis, we will not be going any further on this topic.

In summary, Risk of Rain 2 is an incredible game with great gameplay, along with some amazing characters who all have different playstyles and skills to master, and while it mostly being on the more difficult side of games, It can stilled be played on a lower difficulty or with artifacts that can affect your runs severely. You can also challenge yourself by turning on all artifacts, creating a chaotic battlefield of enemies and friends hitting each other while everything is exploding, to say it short, Risk of Rain 2 offer a lot a content and re-playability for its size, and I would go as far as to say its better than most triple-A games that are released today.