Welcome to Risk of Rain 2! Released by Gearbox in 2020, it’s not yet popular at Lewis, yet Risk of Rain is a role-playing game that’s attracted attention in the gaming community.

Here’s what you will experience when you enter the world of Petrichor V: Beetles are swarming, gambling makes you better, and the moon will eventually blow up. You enter the game as one of nineteen survivors after your ship crash-lands on the planet of Petrichor V. You must fight through 5 stages to get in a rescue ship to return home. 

But, before we start, you may be wondering, “What makes this game different from every other role-playing game I play?” 

Well, this game is a Roguelike (a type of role playing game involving dungeon-crawling), which means that no two run-throughs (or runs, for short) are the same; you’ll get different items, different areas, and different bosses every single run.

The game also gets harder over time, which means you will encounter more enemies and stronger elite enemies who will deal more damage to you. So the more powerful you get, the more power the enemies get to keep the game balanced.

Risk of Rain 2 features four-player, online multiplayer, which, for the roguelike, predominantly single player genre is very special because now you and two of your buddies can cooperate while the third one steals all of your items.

So how can you be as successful as possible at this game?

Firstly, every survivor has a main attack, secondary attack, movement, and special attack. Whichever survivor character you play plays very differently from each other. Some will punch your lights out or use a sword or club while others use guns or projectile kitchen knives. Just two characters have lifesteal, which means they “gently” coerce all of the blood to come out of your body.

How do we get from one stage to another? We use the Teleporter. In order to find this Teleporter, look for sparkles in the air. But the activation process is not easy: you must first eradicate a boss before you even get through the Teleporter. Then you wait for a figurative ten years for the teleporter to charge and then you move on to the next stage and repeat . 

Thirdly and most importantly are the items–character upgrades that come at a cost. Every item you find will come from a chest, multi-terminal shop or (from my favorite method) gambling. Items are split into two categories: passive and active. Passive items just give you stat ups, and active items give you another button to press and a cooldown to wait for, but are definitely worth it.

Risk of Rain 2 also has its own Item Color Scale, or I.C.S for short. This is the border around the item to show its rarity. White is for common items, green is for uncommon items, red is for legendary items, orange is for active items, blue is for lunar passive and active items, and yellow is for rare boss-specific items. So a crowbar, for example, is a white passive item, while the radio scanner is an orange active item.

All of these items contribute to your build, and the build is how you shape your character. Do you want to hit harder up close? Then grab a couple of focus crystals (better melee damage). Do you want to shoot faster while hitting harder? Then grab predatory instincts (fire faster on critical hit) and 10 lens-makers’ glasses (basically guaranteed critical). You are building the character to how you want to play the character.

​So now you know some basic things about Risk Of Rain 2, from your character to the items and character build. The best way to experience this masterpiece is to play it for yourself with friends.

Words can’t do this game justice, it is my personal Game Of The Year, even if it’s six years old. It is so addicting to play, I was playing it while procrastinating on writing this article. But my words aren’t doing it justice, get the game, either on Steam or console for $25, a couple of friends, and play Risk of Rain 2 for yourself