An indie roguelite classic proudly rides again in Risk of Rain Returns. Now under the umbrella of Gearbox Entertainment, Hopoo Games’ original came out a full decade ago, back during the burgeoning roguelite renaissance and two years after The Binding of Isaac hit PCs. Like Isaac, it proved a crucial hit in the indie space over time, and even perpetuated certain standards and tropes which would find their way into later roguelites, including the studio’s own massively successful sequel. Risk of Rain 2 served as an expanded 3D take on its predecessor, but Risk of Rain Returns is a formal remake, functionally reinvigorating a ten-year-old essential roguelite while carefully retaining its crucial essence.

For anyone who hasn’t played either of the main entries in the series, Risk of Rain is an action-roguelite platformer with an emphasis on item acquisition and synergy, exploration, and relentless combat against steadily increasing enemy hordes. It’s a game which has never felt quite like any other roguelite, partly due to its unusual setting and tone, its merciless time-based challenge mechanic, and its depth of content. The infectiously eerie soundtrack by Chris Christodoulou is also to blame – lightly retooled and refreshed for this remake – or how the diminutive proportions of the player character amplifies the somber sense of solitude, this tiny soldier left at the mercy of the vast and menacing alien landscape.

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While it's easy to skip over the narrative beneath the surface of Risk of Rain Returns, it comes alive via hidden journal logs and item descriptions that are always worth the time to pore over. As before, paying attention to these texts will reveal an inventively odd drama with a distinct voice, a mix of purple prose and pulpy sci-fi lore.

From the Dried Lake to The UES-Contact Light

Starting A Run

At the start of each run, players choose a crash-landed survivor and plow through a course of procedurally generated levels. On arrival, alien monsters begin to spawn, usually just one or two at first, easy enough to dispatch quickly with the available weapons and abilities. Enemies drop cash, which can then be used to open treasure chests or activate fallen drone companions on the map. These are always random, and the healthy assortment of synergizing items evolve with each challenge completed and step of progress made, adding more variables and mixups to the item pool to appear in subsequent runs.

Each Risk of Rain Returns level features a randomly placed teleporter exit leading on to the next and triggers a boss event from the pool, but a returning aspect from the sequel means that all remaining enemies do not need to be eliminated to proceed. It's a small but welcome touch, and joins a number of other sequel-sourced refinements, like rare colored chests and alternate character ability loadouts, among other updates.

In both the original game and the remake, death comes swiftly and never apologizes. Survival requires quick movement and threat assessment while managing intimidating mobs of creatures, globs of animated pixels which can devolve into a pixelated mess as time goes on and the threat level in the top-right corner increases. The trick is to prioritize items while never dilly-dallying for too long, and Risk of Rain Returns keeps this intensity fully intact, and maybe even ups the ante in certain scenarios.

A Visual Overhaul and Other Gamechanging Upgrades

Aesthetic Shifts & Game Features

It's worth noting that it took us firing up the original game to appreciate Risk of Rain Returns’ visual overhaul even more. The old somewhat simplistic backgrounds now reveal giant scrolling panoramas, and the tiny player is much better realized with the higher definition of the remake, while remaining but a blip amid the chaos. Risk of Rain Returns' new look feels much more current but consistent with the old, and a helpful zoom-out screen setting makes the environments doubly impressive on a large contemporary HD monitor.

Additional settings provide new gameplay modifiers available from the jump, like sliders that alter damage dealt or received. It's an opportunity to broaden accessibility for the game, and hopefully the developers add even more of these options in the future, like settings to affect item pool adjustments or character movement speed. What’s already available can nudge the game’s challenge to accommodate any player’s particular mood or skill level, and they even individualize these qualities during multiplayer without affecting the rest of the team's experience.

Risk of Rain Return’s buffed roster of 15 survivors boast entirely different playstyles, adding to the replayability potential. Players can unlock alternate abilities for their four main slots, as in Risk of Rain 2, and they feed into each other in ways that make alternate loadouts feel like gamechanging new kits. Learning how to combo the skills together over time and practice is key, and unique approaches – like the item-spawning tricks of the Scavenger or the Loader's close-up brawling – keep things fresh and lively, exponentially increasing the available combat depth and variety.

Multiplayer Lobbies Are Better Than Ever

A Smoother Online Process

Speaking of multiplayer, Risk of Rain Returns revamps the older game’s netcode and co-op process, and our tests proved that these components are running smoother than ever. Lobbies can be properly password-protected and refreshed, players can specify difficulty level for the party, and public servers can be joined in a flash. That being said, we didn’t encounter many open lobbies at any given time, but the nature of the game leans towards friend groups, anyway; fighting over every chest and item drop with randos can be discouraging, so it’s beter to join a group of buddies with headsets, and now they’ll all be able to connect cleanly and reliably.

Still, multiplayer Risk of Rain feels meaningfully different and less refined than that of the sequel, and the singleplayer mode inescapably feels like the main event. It’s where the powerful themes of isolation and danger shine, and one of the game’s best new additions lacks any multiplayer component at all: the Providence Trials.

Providence Trials: A Whole New Way to Play

New Mode Explained

Imagine if Risk of Rain’s biggest and brightest modders came in and used the tools at hand to refashion the game into single-serving missions with wildly varying mechanics and goals. That’s what the Providence Trials are, a set of 40 different single-stage encounters that restrict character selection while setting up individual scoring systems, tasks, and core abilities, with gold trophy opportunities for committed achievement hunters to master. What’s especially brilliant about the Trials is how they serve two different functions: completing one unlocks alternate skills for survivors, and also thoroughly teaches how these skills work most effectively, weaving a tutorial aspect into the mode that greatly improves player understanding within the main game.

On top of that, they’re simply fun to play, and provide an ideal option for anyone itching for a quick Risk of Rain fix without the significant time sink inherent to a committed run. The Providence Trials’ thoughtful and creative level design can include constrained horde modes, a stage entirely inspired by Castlevania, or tricky platforming with alternate routes for higher scores. If anyone owns the base game and has reservations about repurchasing this beloved classic, the Providence Trials are arguably reason enough to commit.

A Few Tweaks That Take Some Getting Used To

Not Every Change Is Smooth

Everything isn’t golden, though, and Risk of Rain Returns has some slight shifts in feeling that may take some getting used to. Movement might be a little slower – unless it just feels that way with the massive zoomed-out view – and the turn-rate and button input for survivors has been unmistakably changed for the worse. Shifting between main-fire and abilities has some perceptible lag attached, ropes and ladders feel less sticky and are easier to miss (which can be devastating on certain maps when factoring in sudden fall damage) and level layouts feel more spacious. The latter is an issue when it comes to tracking down hard-to-find teleporters, and chest density has not seemingly increased to account for it.

None of these aspects break the game significantly, and should feel most noticeable to those who have fed countless hours into Risk of Rain’s first incarnation. For those coming in fresh from the sequel without that background, they’ll still find it to be a tetchier and stricter experience, which says more about the general fluidity of Risk of Rain 2 and how it compares to comparably stilted movement in Risk of Rain Returns, the high pull of gravity after a jump, the sudden deaths which can feel like surprise one-shots to the unprepared.

Final Thoughts & Review Score

For those Risk of Rain 2 fans, devotees of the series as a whole, or anyone who’s never tasted the Risk of Rain universe, this remake now stands as the best choice. Despite the many contemporary platformers with more forgiving jump physics and better refined movement, Risk of Rain Returns retains its singular personality and depth, its addictive power creep and unique sensibility which earns it placement in the roguelite hall of fame. The Providence Trials are inspired enough to be expanded into a game all of its own, and the new abilities make repeat runs with individual survivors feel like character reinventions.

Additional achievements, challenges, unlocks, and secrets bring enduring value to Risk of Rain Returns, and the new graphics do just enough to contemporize the look of the game without sacrificing its creepy pixelated presentation. This all manifests into a project that feels like a true gift for fans and a premium prospect for roguelite veterans who may have missed its original launch. Risk of Rain Returns takes an all-timer which might have been overshadowed by its sequel and gives it much, much more than a fresh coat of paint.

Source: Gearbox/YouTube

Risk of Rain Returns is out now on PC and Nintendo Switch. A digital PC code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this review.