Under my Umbrella
Long before I started writing computer game reviews on the site a game called Risk of Rain captured my heart. A roguelike, I think that’s correct, side scrolling shooter with a clever core mechanism around time. Thankfully it has now had a new version released and I have fallen once more into its embrace. Risk of Rain Returns brings a new gloss of paint to the older game, while also making it the definitive version. Get your galoshes and wellies on, we are going to get soaking wet.
The core of Risk of Rain Returns is an action, side scrolling shooter with time as your greatest enemy. As the time increases enemies get tougher and more numerous. The danger level increases in the top right of the screen. Starting out at “Very Easy” it climbs to simply read “HAHAHAHA” after “I SEE YOU” and “I’M COMING FOR YOU”. This game does not mess around. Your task is to find the teleporter on each level and get to the next area. Eventually you make your way to the crashed ship you arrived on and get off the planet, or die trying. Mostly the latter.
Risk of Rain was in the pixel art style and the sequel is no different while improving every aspect of the look. The camera is zoomed in on the action making characters and enemies have more personality. The sniper’s gun looks heavy and cumbersome. The Enforcer plods away behind their shield. The pilot glides smoothly from the sky.
The characters are the reason I come back to RIsk of Rain again and again. Each character has a different skill set and their own challenges. Figuring out how to play each one well is part and parcel of the difficulty of Risk of Rain. When you do get a successful run with a new character it is a moment of triumph and elation.
A lot of the time I don’t manage a run, but I still love trying. You start out your plays with just the commando. This is a straightforward character with some ability to stun, and dodge roll to get them out of trouble. As you play the characters get weirder. The pilot can launch himself into the sky while dropping bombs below. The Huntress excels at leading enemies in a merry dance. The sniper requires a steady hand and a cool head as everything around you descends into chaos.
Where Risk of Rain returns differs from its progenitor is that characters can unlock different skills. This was a feature of Risk of Rain 2, and it provides options and variety to your attempts. The alternative skills are still in keeping with the character, but give you the option to perfect your own build. These abilities can also be unlocked through a set of mini-challenges that test your skills with each character, and give you a taste of what you can do with each class.
Of course a lot of the success of a run in Risk of Rain Returns depends on the numerous items you can pick up along the way.
Items are how you build your character buffs over the course of a run. From simple damage buffs, to extra jump height, and spinning frost around you on a kill, there are loads of items to pick up and discover. Now this being a roguelite you will unlock more items as you play, locked behind achievements. The majority you will unlock just by playing, others you will have to go and do specific things to get. Thankfully there is a list of all of them you can go and look at so if you want to plan a run around getting a particular unlock you can. Crucially none are ‘essential’ to making a certain character make sense.
A feature that Risk of Rain Returns brings from Risk of Rain 2 can help you more accurately pursue a build. Items are picked up from chests across the levels that you open with money you get from kills. Most are grey and will give you a random item. Some are coloured and will give you damage, healing, or utility items based on colour. This makes filling in the gaps in your arsenal a little easier, though it is still luck of the draw if you will see the correct type of chest.
Returns also adds some other tweaks to the way you get loot. You can come across timed caches that give you loads of a single item, but they expire after a certain amount of time passes. Weighing up if they are going to give you the boost you need for the cost involved is tricky, but it really can be worthwhile.
Equipment adds a 5th skill to your bar, albeit with a timer attached to how often you can use it. These can be very powerful effects and choosing the right one for your run can be the difference between getting off the planet and being mocked by the game for losing again. Returns mixes this up as well providing places where you can turn on a given equipment for a one off price, or giving you a choice of 3 instead of a random pull from a chest.
All this goes towards making your builds feel more controlled and purposeful. You can fill in the gaps in the class you have chosen, or amplify their abilities with your choices. It can feel overwhelming at times when you have equipment icons strewn along the bottom of the screen but you can always mouse over them to remind you what they do.
Risk of Rain Returns is overflowing with generous considerations for its players. There are loads of options to tweak the controls. Presets give you the setup of the original game, its sequel, or the new control scheme specific to this remake. You can tweak further from there changing almost everything about the control scheme and how the game operates to suit your playstyle. You can even change what items can drop, making the game feel exactly like the original rather than how the developers what the game played in Returns.
Risk of Rain is one of my favourite games of all time. When the sequel came out I was very excited about it, but ultimately disappointed. The move to 3D meant that you could no longer easily parse the situation you found yourself in at a glance and I just found it too difficult. I wanted to go back to the original game, but felt I had spent my time with it. With this remake, I can revisit it with a whole new perspective on what made the original game so great.
Risk of Rain Returns is very hard, don’t misunderstand me. It’s an extremely challenging game, but you get into the flow of it and start to understand how to win. You’ll find yourself coming back to it again and again, trying a new character, or seeking out a particular achievement. I am so glad it is back and that I can recommend it to you. There has never been a better time to get absolutely soaked.
I bought Risk of Rain returns with my own money.
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