Whirlin
01-19-2014, 03:00 PM
Lets see... where to start.
http://cdn.gameura.com/videos/games/1/21/20544/risk-of-rain-gameplay-1.mp4.jpg
The sales pitch
On the surface, the game looks like a typical kickback combaty platformer. And honestly, that's basically what it is. But how is Risk of Rain Different? I hate to say it... but realistically, it's not. It's fundamentally the same as the kickback platform genre. There are 10 classes to choose from, all with 4 unique abilities each, 1 auto-attack, 3 cooldowns. They all play fairly differently as well.
The game progression, on the surface is simple, Find Teleporter, Activate Teleporter, fight off a wave of critters + Boss, Use Teleport, Rinse, Repeat. However, what Risk of Rain does is increase the difficulty at specific time intervals. So, on Easy mode, the difficulty increases every 7-10 minutes, on normal, it's every 5 minutes, and on insane, it's every 3 minutes. The difficulty tiers up everywhere from "Very Easy" to "AHAHAHAHAHA". So, how do you combat the increase in difficulty?
Leveling and Items. Every kill grants XP, gain levels. Levels increase max HP, damage, typical leveling-in-any-game type stuff.
Every Kill also gives money. Money is subsequently used to purchase items through chests, 3-different-item-shops, a chance to drop from shrines, and off of bosses. Each item has it's own power, own effect, ranging from leaving fire when you walk, to firing missiles, to boosting max HP per kill. There's something like, 100 items or so. Additionally, you have 1 USE item slot, which I think there are about 20 of. This has a cooldown associated with it, of course.
You unlock new items in the random pool as you play more, get achievements, etc, etc. Some being ridiculously awesome.
The review
This game has a normalized difficulty curve associated with it. It starts off easy, gets difficult, and then gets easy again. You eventually hit a point where you have so many items that you're nigh invulnerable.... Even if you actually survive long enough to hit god mode... it's still fun. The Multi-player option (while a bit wonky to get through firewalls/windows defender/etc), really is icing on the cake... if you can get it working properly.
http://www.jacehallshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/jesus-1024x576.png
It's insanely addictive, with entire playthroughs taking from 30 minutes to an hour... depending if you want to farm achievements, godmode, etc.
The classes aren't INCREDIBLY balanced... The Engineer is way overpowered, and the robot is laughably bag. But, the variations in abilities and subsequent playstyle still give a great replayability.
Hardware
I began playing this game with just the keyboard (unlike Terraria and Starbound, there's no need for the mouse except beginning menus). However, upon receiving a XBox360 controller for Christmas (Thanks Riros), I hooked that up to give that a try. All in all, I've become a much bigger fan of playing this particular game with a controller rather than keyboard. This is the first game I've actually used the 360 controller on, and it definitely supports it very well.
Conclusion
The game only costs $10 on steam.
I've clocked 49 hours into the game already, and am ready and willing to clock in more time. Hell, some entrepreneurial fellow can buy a 4-pack, and sell them off for 1m each.
Given it's price, it's definitely worth picking up if you're relatively a fan of platformers.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
Pros:
Replayability, quantity of items, unique classes, controller support
Cons:
Class Balance, Multiplayer port setup, one god awful bug (don't farm for more than 2 hours)
PC SPECIAL:
If you pick up this title, shoot me an PM, and we can be BFFs on Steam.
http://cdn.gameura.com/videos/games/1/21/20544/risk-of-rain-gameplay-1.mp4.jpg
The sales pitch
On the surface, the game looks like a typical kickback combaty platformer. And honestly, that's basically what it is. But how is Risk of Rain Different? I hate to say it... but realistically, it's not. It's fundamentally the same as the kickback platform genre. There are 10 classes to choose from, all with 4 unique abilities each, 1 auto-attack, 3 cooldowns. They all play fairly differently as well.
The game progression, on the surface is simple, Find Teleporter, Activate Teleporter, fight off a wave of critters + Boss, Use Teleport, Rinse, Repeat. However, what Risk of Rain does is increase the difficulty at specific time intervals. So, on Easy mode, the difficulty increases every 7-10 minutes, on normal, it's every 5 minutes, and on insane, it's every 3 minutes. The difficulty tiers up everywhere from "Very Easy" to "AHAHAHAHAHA". So, how do you combat the increase in difficulty?
Leveling and Items. Every kill grants XP, gain levels. Levels increase max HP, damage, typical leveling-in-any-game type stuff.
Every Kill also gives money. Money is subsequently used to purchase items through chests, 3-different-item-shops, a chance to drop from shrines, and off of bosses. Each item has it's own power, own effect, ranging from leaving fire when you walk, to firing missiles, to boosting max HP per kill. There's something like, 100 items or so. Additionally, you have 1 USE item slot, which I think there are about 20 of. This has a cooldown associated with it, of course.
You unlock new items in the random pool as you play more, get achievements, etc, etc. Some being ridiculously awesome.
The review
This game has a normalized difficulty curve associated with it. It starts off easy, gets difficult, and then gets easy again. You eventually hit a point where you have so many items that you're nigh invulnerable.... Even if you actually survive long enough to hit god mode... it's still fun. The Multi-player option (while a bit wonky to get through firewalls/windows defender/etc), really is icing on the cake... if you can get it working properly.
http://www.jacehallshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/jesus-1024x576.png
It's insanely addictive, with entire playthroughs taking from 30 minutes to an hour... depending if you want to farm achievements, godmode, etc.
The classes aren't INCREDIBLY balanced... The Engineer is way overpowered, and the robot is laughably bag. But, the variations in abilities and subsequent playstyle still give a great replayability.
Hardware
I began playing this game with just the keyboard (unlike Terraria and Starbound, there's no need for the mouse except beginning menus). However, upon receiving a XBox360 controller for Christmas (Thanks Riros), I hooked that up to give that a try. All in all, I've become a much bigger fan of playing this particular game with a controller rather than keyboard. This is the first game I've actually used the 360 controller on, and it definitely supports it very well.
Conclusion
The game only costs $10 on steam.
I've clocked 49 hours into the game already, and am ready and willing to clock in more time. Hell, some entrepreneurial fellow can buy a 4-pack, and sell them off for 1m each.
Given it's price, it's definitely worth picking up if you're relatively a fan of platformers.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
Pros:
Replayability, quantity of items, unique classes, controller support
Cons:
Class Balance, Multiplayer port setup, one god awful bug (don't farm for more than 2 hours)
PC SPECIAL:
If you pick up this title, shoot me an PM, and we can be BFFs on Steam.