Long time ror1 and modded ror2 player. When I first saw this game, I thought it was a cash grab (since most remasters are), but I heard from a friend it was okay so I hesitantly decided to get it.

I finish the game for the first time and decide to watch the credits. Roughly speaking:
risk of rain: 5 developers
risk of rain returns: 20 developers, 100 people on the marketing team, 150 people on the finance and administration team
"...and you, for playing our game. I still can't believe where we are." Yeah, neither can I... how disappointing... the bureaucracy only desires to grow, and corporatise all good things.
Now that risk of rain has been acquired by Gearbox Software (known for Borderlands), and they are promoting an outright gacha game for the risk of rain 'franchise', it dawns on me that in a way, risk of rain is essentially a gacha game. Besides some modest differences in abilities, the main gameplay loop (without artifact of command) revolves around mostly getting random items and hoping for a synergy. When I see it like that, risk of rain seems much more hollow to me. The community pushback to the minigames of the providence trials, especially requiring 15 perfect trials for an artifact, the poorly customisable the UI and zoom, using the same bad netcode as ror1, not allowing multiplayer rejoins, and a number of other areas lacking polish pointed out by other negative reviews, also reflects this.

I see this receiving comparable funding and bureaucracy bloat to a AAA game, and it really shows. Remasters just set a very low bar for innovation, and plenty of reviewers seem to be okay with this low bar when the potential for genuinely interesting mechanics (rather than just grindy unlocks) in a remake did exist.

Long time ror1 and modded ror2 player. When I first saw this game, I thought it was a cash grab (since most remasters are), but I heard from a friend it was okay so I hesitantly decided to get it. I finish the game for the first time and decide to watch the credits. Roughly speaking: risk of rain: 5 developers risk of rain returns: 20 developers, 100 people on the marketing team, 150 people on the finance and administration team "...and you, for playing our game. I still can't believe where we are." Yeah, neither can I... how disappointing... the bureaucracy only desires to grow, and corporatise all good things. Now that risk of rain has been acquired by Gearbox Software (known for Borderlands), and they are promoting an outright gacha game for the risk of rain 'franchise', it dawns on me that in a way, risk of rain is essentially a gacha game. Besides some modest differences in abilities, the main gameplay loop (without artifact of command) revolves around mostly getting random items and hoping for a synergy. When I see it like that, risk of rain seems much more hollow to me. The community pushback to the minigames of the providence trials, especially requiring 15 perfect trials for an artifact, the poorly customisable the UI and zoom, using the same bad netcode as ror1, not allowing multiplayer rejoins, and a number of other areas lacking polish pointed out by other negative reviews, also reflects this. I see this receiving comparable funding and bureaucracy bloat to a AAA game, and it really shows. Remasters just set a very low bar for innovation, and plenty of reviewers seem to be okay with this low bar when the potential for genuinely interesting mechanics (rather than just grindy unlocks) in a remake did exist.