Risk of Rain 2 is a third-person roguelike video game developed by Hopoo Games. It is a sequel to Risk of Rain, and is supported by Gearbox Publishing. The game was released in early access on Microsoft Windows in March 2019, with Hopoo Games anticipating about a year of work before they push a final release. Early access versions for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were released in August 2019.
Gameplay
Risk of Rain 2 follows a similar approach as the first title, in which one to four players must progress several different levels while killing enemies. On each level the goal is to locate a teleporter, randomly located on the level; once activated, the players must defend themselves from an onslaught of aliens, including boss characters until the teleporter is fully active. Killing aliens gains experience and currency; the currency can be used to purchase various upgrades from automated stations on the level. Upgrades offer a wide range of boosts to the players carrying them, and provide both synergistic effects and the potential to stack to if multiple copies of the same upgrades are acquired. However, the strength, difficulty, and numbers of aliens increase every five minutes, thus making the game harder the longer the players stay on any level. In the metagame, players unlock access to new playable characters, upgrades, and game modifiers by completing certain in-game achievements; once unlocked, new characters or modifiers are available to select from at the start of the game, or the new upgrades can start appearing randomly in-game.
Risk of Rain 2 features several of the same creatures and items from the first game, but transitions the game from 2D to a 3D environment.
Development
In May 2017, Hopoo Games announced that they had been working on a sequel Risk of Rain 2 over the previous 6 months. The sequel was to maintain the same core loop as the first game. While the game was still at the early stage of development and other features might change, Hopoo affirmed that they were transitioning the game from 2D to 3D, as the 3D option provided "much deeper design spaces and more possibilities for cool gameplay" as well as more ways to artistically express themselves. When they started development on the sequel, Hopoo started with a 2D-based prototype with the player in control of one of the monsters in the first game, as to mix up the formula for the sequel. Part of the addition for this was inspired by Risk of Rain fan art that showed the various objects the player collected shown on the character, and Hopoo wanted to use this approach for the sequel, but the 2D graphic approach did not give them enough visual space to work with. They transitioned the prototype from 2D to 2.5D, representing the character in 3D graphics but otherwise playing as a 2D platformer, but when they completed that, they felt it was better to move the game fully to 3D, with the transition being relatively quick to complete. The sequel will use the Unity engine, which Hopoo had to learn for this, as well as the time in developing the 3D worlds.
The sequel will bring back most of the same classes of characters and monsters from the first game, but with modified or new abilities reflecting differences between 2D and 3D. Hopoo explained that some monsters that were difficult to avoid in the original game due to their size could easily be kited around with the added space of 3D, so they added additional attacks for these monsters to make them more difficult. The 3D maps are anticipated to be large-enough worlds with random placement of the end-goal teleporter and items such that they do not expect to have to add in level permutations as the first game had used, since the large maps will provide enough variety that players will not likely experience the complete level in one playthrough. Hopoo plans to improve the multiplayer options, including using Steam peer-to-peer connectivity, matchmaking including private matches, and split-screen play. Hopoo anticipated releasing the game into early access in early 2019 for building the game's community, gaining feedback, and avoiding a content drought by providing frequent updates. The early access release was launched on March 27, 2019. The early access period is anticipated to last a year, during which Hopoo Games has set out concrete goals to be considered complete: 10 playable characters, 10 stages, 12 bosses, and over 100 collectable items.
Gearbox Publishing will be helping to publish the title for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, which were released in their early access state on August 30, 2019.
Reception
On its launch into Early Access, Hopoo Games offered Risk of Rain 2 with a "buy one, get one free" promotion for the first few days. A week from release, Hopoo announced that over 650,000 players had played the game, with about 150,000 of those having taken advantage of the special promotion. Within a month of early access release, the game had surpassed 1 million units sold.
