serious review? serious review.
Risk of Rain is an extremely addictive arcade style 2D platformer shoot-em-up with roguelike elements.

Gameplay consists of dying a lot attempting to reach and activate the stage exit teleporter in each level, there are a total of 6 levels to complete per game before achieving TOTAL VICTORY

Online Co-Op, many characters with their own unique playstyle, randomly generated level layouts, and loads of items keep gameplay fresh and exciting so you can just get goat hooves and syringes and win instantly

• Gameplay
  
  Tight, responsive controls and enough characters to pick a playstyle that you enjoy make this an incredibly fun and rewarding experience.
  
  
• Graphics
  
  A charming, simple artstyle with smooth animations makes this game a treat for the eyes.
  
  
• Sound
  
  An expertly done soundtrack brings a LOT to the table, sound quality is good, sound effects aren't obnoxious.
  
  
• Story
  
  A very ambigous story, no definite answers are given, but clues are relayed through item logs and monster descriptions.
  
  
• Multiplayer?
  
  This game features both local and online co-op, the co-op system (especially online) is a bit excruciatingly buggy, but very fun to play with friends.
  
  
• Fun?
  
  The artstyle, gameplay, and unpredictability of this game make for an extremely enjoyable time.

Category	Score
Gameplay	10/10
Graphics	10/10
Sound	10/10
Story	10/10
Multiplayer?	Local and online co-op.
Fun?	Yes!
Overall	10/10

I played this game a little. It was fun.

Where do you begin with a game like Risk of Rain? It's so new and original, yet so classic and oddly memorable that we can all adapt to it rather quickly while not feeling like we're repeating something playing it. Most "pixel games" as they call them I see now are simply normal games... with pixel-y art styles. This is one of those games that actually blends well with the art style, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Let's talk about gameplay for a sec.

Gameplay: Risk of Rain will kill on your first run. If this does not happen, you are probably a carrier of Jesus' will and strength on Earth, because it's pretty dang hard to pick up on your first go. But to help, I'll elaborate on just how NOT to die. You are given the Commando to start out with, and classes like the Bandit, Enforcer, and CHEF will be easy to get early on. Every character has 4 skills, kind of like LoL, except you don't have a basic attack outside of them - They're all you got. Most classes tend to have a movement-enhancing skill in their third slot, and a powerful skill in their fourth. The Commando is no exception. He has 4 basic skills which are very easy to learn and starts with above-average high health to help beginners.

Unlocking Stuff: Unlocking stuff isn't as easy as you would think. You're probably going to start on Drizzle, the easiest game mode. However, if you're a wimp, the game won't save any of your progress (This includes item logs), and no monster logs will drop either. If you want 100% completion, you're going to have to step it up. Most characters are unlocked by doing special things or filling requirements. No surprise there. The Huntress and Mercenary are pretty hard to get, asking for 15 monster logs and 5 game-wins, respectively. But don't worry - You'll get there if you like the game.

Items and YOU: Items are, without a doubt, THE most key tool you need to survive the night. When you start out, you will find items randomly from boss kills, chests, imp vases, shrines, and other places. Chests require money, imp vases require you to hunt down and kill a few frantic imps, shrines are like casinos, and bosses should be obvious - Kill em for good stuff. Most (Keyword - Most) items can stack. A few, like Thallium, can not. This is why the RoR Wiki is your field guide for items here. Items give you various buffs and bonuses, and have the power to make or break you depending on how you use them and your luck with finding items that suit you. Once you start picking up Artifacts, hidden items that you can activate to change gameplay once you die, quit, or win, can alter some things - But I'll let you figure that all out.

Difficulty: There's two ways this game changes difficulty - One, by choosing your difficulty on the character-select screen, and two, by slowly raising it during gameplay at a speed dependant on what difficulty you chose. This makes for very adjustable learning curves that will suit you everywhere. Artifacts can also help or hinder you if you're good at using them or not, for example; The Glass artifact cuts your health to 10%, but gives you a HUGE damage boost (Used to be x5 damage but they nerfed it, I have no idea what it is now - Don't worry, it's still fun as heck if you don't get hit!). Remember to start and progress at a rate that you're comfortable with, or else you might not have as much fun.

Conclusion: Oh yes, this is a game you need. Don't even ask why, just get it. It's 10 bucks. It's awesome. Once you know how to use and abuse the artifacts and characters, you'll pretty much be playing something like a God Simulator with every run, finding new ways to use your characters, match items, and have fun with MULTIPLAYER - That's right, MULTIPLAYER! Also, achievements in the form of READING AND KNOWLEDGE! Also, THE GAME LAUGHS AT YOU WHEN YOU DIE and gives SNARKY REMARKS! The art-style is AMAZING! The music is AMAZING! The gameplay is BONKERS RADICAMAZING TIMES TEN! Just! Get! This! Game!

The rain it is talking about is your tears.......

Risk of Rain is an action-platformer with roguelike elements, with some interesting mechanics wich I'll try to explain the best I can.

Even if you start with only one playable character, there're ten of them total, and each one plays differently, thanks to his own four attacks.
As time passes, difficulty will increase and enemies will spawn endlessly until you find the teleport, wich makes you fight for one last endurance round; beaten that, you can advance to the next level. Like other games of this genre, you can find active/passive upgrades (like piercing shots, increased defense, missiles and so on), but you can level-up too by collecting experience. An interesting fact is that powerups do stack, so you can have increased effects by collecting more of the same.
Once you've completed enough levels, you can choose between replaying them to gain more loot, or going to the final one; you can easily grind more powerups if you want to, but the game can be beaten in less than a hour in a good run.
Bear in mind that this is the kind of game where things get bad pretty fast, and you have to start all over again.
Pixelated graphics are really good, but sometimes the action on screen become a little too chaotic. Chaos apart, gameplay is overall pretty much solid and fun.
The game's soundtrack is AWESOOOOOME, I love it.
Also, this game has coop, playing with other people works well and in my opinion some classes are not meant to be played alone.

Reccomended if these features caught your attention, and/or if you have friends to play with.
I don't think Risk of Rain is a masterpiece, but it's a really solid game.

Roguelikes have exploded as a genre lately, largely due to the number of indie productions out there exploring interesting ways to take an absolutely classic title and bolt new mechanics to it. Games like FTL, Rogue Legacy and Paranautical Activity instantly come to mind, taking randomised areas, crazy power-ups and eternal death as a basis and building them into something new and fresh.

Risk of Rain takes the idea of an impossible Roguelike to new heights. The hook of this 2D action platformer is rather simple: it literally gets harder with each passing second. Immediately the player needs to make a conscious decision: do you grind out the game in the first few minutes when the enemies are few and far between, farming gold and unlocking passive abilities that will help you when you reach the ten minute mark and all hell breaks loose? Or perhaps you want to rush through as many stages as possible before the difficulty curve rises. Risk of Rain is all about risk and reward, and while it doesn't necessarily break genre conventions, it manages to provide a compelling twist on basic mechanics.

Players are given access to a number of characters, each with four unique abilities that will aid them in combat. Each of said abilities has a cool-down timer after use, so learning which character fits your play style, and how they fit in with the rest of your team is imperative for survival. In the beginning you only have access to the assault trooper, but after multiple runs you will slowly unlock a cast of devastating characters that will help you see the game through until the end.

Once you select a character it's game on. You are dropped on a hostile world, filled with enemies. Each enemy killed will net you some gold, which can be spent unlocking chests found in the level, or taking a gamble and spending some at a divine statue. Sometimes this will yield you amazing items, other times it will take your money and laugh at your tears as you received nothing at all. Each time you use one of the statues the cost goes up also, which often had me throwing money away at it three times before I realised I was broke.

There are tons of items throughout Risk of Rain that will give you the upper edge, most of them offering passive buffs against your foes. There are a select number of consumable items you will find along the way that can be used to get yourself out of a tight jam, and there are also some helpful assault and healing drones that you can spend money repairing so they will follow you around and help against the onslaught of enemies. Just like any Roguelike, learning how to use these items in unison is key to survival, and after a dozen or so runs, you will begin to understand how it all fits together.

Each level essentially has the same goal: find and activate the teleporter which will call in a randomised boss fight. The bosses are tough....really bloody tough, and they will definitely give you a run for your money. To make matters worse, the timer is still creeping up towards a harder difficulty, and regular enemies are still spawning into the world, which makes is a cluster of pain and misery. Once the boss has been defeated the enemies stop spawning, you are left to clear the last of them, and then you can teleport to the next level. Before you leave however, you better search for any chests you may have missed, because each time you teleport you will lose your gold.

Risk of Rain keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, simply because that ominous timer is always ticking in the upper right corner. Slowly but surely you see the difficulty status rise from easy to no chance in hell and the sweat starts forming on your brow. You want to make sure you survive the game, but you also need to do it as quickly as possible. It's an impossible task, one that is truly captivating and kept us coming back for more and more.

While Risk of Rain supports solo gamers, the true core of the game lies with the four-player co-op. When you're tackling the beasts of other worlds with three of your best friends, each playing a different character and you are all working in unison, the game really shines as something special. If you're not likely to play the game with friends, I'd almost recommend skipping it all together; that is how integral the multiplayer truly is.

Risk of Rain manages to pull off the pixel look with style and flair. The characters are enjoyable, the enemies are ghastly, and those tunes are fantastic. If you can swing a few dollars, definitely pickup the soundtrack from the website, it's right up there with Fez and Monaco in terms of great indie game albums.


Be sure to check out Nerd House Gaming for more reviews!

I can safely say that Risk of Rain is far better than it's clone, Chance of Percipitation.

This is one of my favorite Rogue-like game.
This game is good, you can end up playing this game for hours.
Even if you had died in the game, you will always try again and again and again.
"Easy to play, hard to master" can be applied to this game.
Every playable characters have their own unique playstyle.

The bad thing about this game is only the bug that still haven't been fixed even with the latest patch v1.2.0
Hope that Hopoo Games will give more love to this game by keep updating it.

When you do it right, you become a demi-god of death.

It feels great.

0/10 didn't rain once

This
game
is
AMAZING.

The mechanics are well-oiled (especially after the last updates; now, it flows smoothly). The OST is simply beautiful. The graphics create a unique atmosphere: the gameworld is dark-toned but not lugubrious; you feel lonely, but never properly desperate, and the scenarios are always enjoyable (even after countless hours of replay). Also, the storyline of sorts is gradually revealed via item logs and monster logs you acquire after some time playing - the game starts in media res. You don't need to know what's going on to enjoy it, but it surely adds to the flavor. I particularly like this form of storytelling: a very good game becomes more and more fascinating once you start realizing (well, perhaps not exactly) what's going on after some exploration. It reminds me of Diablo II in this point.

Most important, though, is that it is PURE FUN. Very challenging and very rewarding, it leaves me wanting more every time I play. Actually, I sort of developed an emotional attachment to this game; when I started playing it, I was somewhat distant from videogames (after 24 years of being a total videogame nerd), not really willing to play too much. This game (along with Papers, Please and some others) helped me "feel the magic" again, sorta like falling in love once more with your boyfriend/girlfriend after a period of strain and doubts.

tl;dr: FUN, rewarding, beautiful, challenging, cool, buy the hell out of it

Are you crying?
No... it's just the rain...

Amazing masterpiece of human mind.
This is platformer in which you should kill mobs which are spawning constantly until you activate portal. Also they get harder after every period of time so you wont mess around much. Difficult and easy (in different classes) so everybody can find a spot.

How awesome is risk of rain?


It's so awesome, it is one of the eight fold paths to gaming enlightenment. Right up there with speed running super Metroid, breaking 150 actions per minute in star craft and getting through all of half life with nothing but a crowbar. It breaks you first. Makes you accept that there is no hope and forces you to re-assess why it is you need to try again. You realize you are not playing for the win, you are playing for the playing. Your inner pixel art lotus flower opens up and only then will you make it to the end.

Excellent 2D Action Platformer. Ever ramping difficulty, Leveling up, Tons of Items to augment your awesomeness, Loads of different enemies, and Permadeath keeps you on your toes till the very end...be it Victory or Death.

Punishing, but really enjoyable little rougelike with emphasis on fast paced action and easy to learn but difficult to master classes. Each class has it's own set of skills which will significantly change the way you play, but unfortunately only one (out of ten) is available from the start.
As with most rougelikes; levels, items and enemies are procedurally generated and permadeath is enabled but game never feels unfair, since every playthrough offers something new. Due to it's difficulty and random nature it will require speed, precision and adaptability. Luckily there are a lot of items spread out around the level that will provide passive and active bonuses like increased rate of fire or various status effects, as well as more interesting ones which I'm not going to spoil since discovering new item and monster log entries will be your main source of accomplishment in early stages of the game. However as you unlock more drops and get familiar with each class, things will get easier. This is the point where time becomes your biggest enemy (well...besides all the other big enemies). Game implements a timer in the upper right corner that will gradually increase difficulty as time passes, forcing you to find a balance between becoming more powerful and just getting to the next level with all your bits intact. It provides a nice compromise, keeping a challenging gameplay, but still providing the feeling of controling an unstopabble killing machine.

There are some problems on the technical side, like the occasional but gut-wrenching crash that will erase your progress and leave you sobbing, unresponsive controls in menus (especially if you're using gamepad) and problems with online co-op conectivity and Steam achievements. I would also be amiss not to mention brilliant sountrack and appealing pixel art.

All in all, in a sea of rougelikes this one manages to stand on it's own, providing responsive shooting mechanics, hordes of different enemies and items and a great balance between frustrating and adrenaline-pumping gameplay. A great value for money.

Dark Souls is difficult, isn't it?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA No.

Amazingly addictive rogue-like. I've never liked this genre before but it made me a convert. I can't stop playing it. Only downside is that there are a LOT of bugs. More than I've ever seen in a production title. I guess the Dev had to make some compromises to 're-make' it for the Linux and OSX releases.

Highly addicting platfomer roguelike game !

The attention to smalest pixel details put into this game is awesome. You see from the animation of it especially the characters.

*Character Options
There are different options of character that you can play and unlock along with your progress in game. Different character has different style of owning the game.

*Looting
Loot is the main element in this game, as you progress you can unlock even more loot. More and more until you become a demi-god , or not at all and you will die is shame.
You die once and you start over from zero, while actualy you only need to finish 6 level ,which you will only be able to get through by dying over and over again until you can beat the game. And you can never have enough of it. Trust me.

*Atmosphere
The music is good . It suits well with the game experience and overall character. The atmosphere of foreign planet and the mood of playing space-alien like game.

*Dificulties
Another main aspect of this game is also that the dificulties will increase along with the time you play the game from the begining. So if you are not fast enough to gain level or loot, and the dificulties increase , be ready to have a really hard time.

*Co-op
The good thing from Co-op is that you can owned the game with your friends. As much friend as you can , but the cons is that you have to share the amount of loot you get and that means you have to share your strength that you usually get when you play SOLO (where you can greedily have your own loot). But anyway playing this game with friends is really addicting.

I am really hoping to see another sequel of this game if it were to be made . And i believe everybody will feel the same too.

Can be turned into a hardcore Super Mario Brothers with enough headstompers and jetpacks
10/10 - Would Grind more Headstompers.

Okay, now seriously. This game is an 2D platformer shoot-'em-up with loads of Roguelike elements, and to tell the truth, it's an addictive hardcore game, and after over 100 hours, I still find myself enjoying this game (boy, what an year)

The hours of dying may get you mad sometimes (Damn you Jellyfish!), but that it is purpose. Once you get used to the difficulty, you will find yourself enjoying this game much more, and it doesn't get old. I think it is really worth your time. There is even a onlice coop mode, where you and your friend go all the way trying to beat the game (even with all the bugs), and with the artifacts, you can turn the game into your own challenge. It is really that good, just like The Binding of Isaac.