Risk of Rain - An Indie Review

Things We Liked:
Clear, Retro Art Style
Easy to Learn, Hard to Master Mechanics
Every Item is Awesome - always want another one
Difficulty Timer is an Interesting Concept


Things We Didn't:
Can be Frustrating (but I like that)
Some Items (consumable items specifically) can be Unintuitive - normally wasted
Classes Are Hard to unlock - takes longer to change up gameplay



Overall Score - 7/10

Risk of Rain is my personal favourite rogue-lite game on Steam. With a simple 4 button combat system and an interesting timer mechanic.


This game has a strong retro design with 2D, 8-bit graphics, which I'm not normally a fan of but works in this game.

This difficulty timer mechanic is really interesting to me. Every game starts relatively easy (depending on the difficulty you chose at the beginning) and gets progressively harder the longer you spend on a life (you only have one, of course) until you die or beat all three bosses. I've only ever faced two, and only ever defeated one (although I have defeated all three on separate play-throughs).


Speaking of which - the enemies and the bosses. The enemies are good. They get stronger, spawn more frequently and different, harder enemies appear. As you spawn in a level, you have one primary aim - get to the teleporter and get to the next level without dying. Secondary objectives include collecting as many items, experience and money as possible. Once you find the teleporter, you must activate it. doing so will spawn the boss of that level and you must wait for the teleporter to charge - and defeat the boss. Once you have, enemies will stop spawning but you must kill all that remain from before you defeated the boss.


The actual boss design is strong. They are essentially massive, more powerful and generally destructive forms of other minions you meet - almost like a king of theirs or something - you get the idea. You learn how to deal with their attacks from fighting minions previously but separately, in a relaxed environment. To fight the boss, you have to pull on everything you've learnt in practice and use them on this humongous version, with a ridiculous health pool and all the minions he brings with him.


So what are the combat mechanics like? The controls on keyboard were a bit weird for me ("k" to interact and arrow keys to move etc) so I have changed them, but doing so is easy to do in the menu. Controller is also supported.


The combat itself is a simple layout that MOBA players will be familiar with - a 4 ability system with cool-downs on each ability, aimed with which direction you are facing. It's a simple to learn, hard to master system I really enjoy. Each class has its own abilities and different stats - there's so much replay value here.


I love this game. It's a lot of fun to have a quick life while I'm waiting for Martin to come play CS:GO with me. A great game to pick up and play quickly, but can be frustrating and to be honest a bit annoying, not least because of the controls layout. (Um, what? I always wait for you...)



Euan