Risk of Rain Returns was just announced by Hopoo Games and Gearbox Publishing. It is set to release in 2023.
Risk of Rain Returns Remasters and Old Roguelite Classic
Gearbox Publishing, the company behind publishing indies likeRemnant: from the Ashes,Tribes of Midgard, andHave a Nice Deathrecently acquired Hopoo Games' IP. For those unfamiliar with the team, Hopoo is responsible for the charming passion project Risk of Rain and its sequel.
Specifically, the acquisition was announced in November. Just over a month later, Risk of Rain Returns was revealed.
What the Risk?!
The original Risk of Rain was released way back in 2013. It was an action roguelike platformer where players would choose from different characters and battle wave after wave of alien foes. The enemies would increasingly get more difficult as the clock ticked, so players had to choose whether to advance through levels quickly or farm enemies for more powerups.
Permadeath was one of the main features of Risk of Rain, and it will be no different with Returns. All of the various item upgrades and perks that players would pick up in a run are lost entirely, and there was no specific “meta progression” likeHadesorDarkest Dungeon 2.
Enemies, powerups, and even level layouts were randomly generated in order to keep each and every run feeling fresh and exciting. It also helped that there were (initially) 12 unique characters with extremely different playstyles. You could also call upon 3 friends to participate in a 4-player coop experience.
The Risk of Rain Returns!
Now, Gearbox and Hopoo announced Risk of Rain Returns. Instead of going full 3D like Risk of Rain 2, the developers are going back to its roots and making it much much shiner again.
Moving to a remake will allow Hopoo to be able to fully implement ideas that they had back for the original but lacked the technology (or time) to do so. As such, they will be building Risk of Rain Returns on a completely new and updated codebase that can support whatever features their minds may come up with.
The entirety of Risk of Rain 1 will be ported over into the remake. This time, it will come in full HD pixel art, enhanced audio effects, and more music tracks. There will also be at least two new Survivors that players can choose from. In fact, existing Survivors will also get to unlock alternate versions of their existing abilities to further increase the roguelike’s replayability.
Of course, fans will get even more items, enemies, artifacts, and areas in Risk of Rain Returns.
The Magic of Risking Rain
One of the biggest charms of Risk of Rain (and Risk of Rain 2) was the wild and varied upgrade combinations you could come up with. Items recovered from discarded cargo serve as the main powerups of Risk of Rain. You will initially have access to the most basic of stuff, think of things that increase movement speed, damage, or whatnot.
Each item can be infinitely stacked as long as you keep on getting repeat drops. As you do so, the buff related to that power keeps growing exponentially. Eventually, players would get access to extremely powerful items that change the game entirely.
You could pick up a powerful Ukulele that changes your attacks to become chain lightning hits. Or you might get a Toxic Worm that makes your character literally infect everything you come in contact with, encouraging you to get up close and personal with the foes. Fireman’s Boots leaves a path of fire in your wake, burning anything that dares follow.
It is the extremely wild and wacky amount of combinations and how each upgrade interacts with each other that keeps Risk of Rain chugging along. The sequel, while still holding on to the original’s formula, migrated to a fully 3D worldspace. It was still a great game in its own right, but the shift was dramatic enough to put some people off the sequel.
Looking for Risk of Rain Returns
Risk of Rain Returns will release sometime in 2023 - almost 10 years since the original, depending on how close it would go live near November. Hopoo will be the primary driver of Risk of Rain Returns, but Gearbox looks like it will be taking over the reins moving forward.
The remake will be available on both PC and the Nintendo Switch.
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