Risk of Rain 2 Review

The addition that this expansion made that has the most impact on a player’s run has to be the void items. These items can only come from void cradles or catalysts, which cost health to open. A player may be hesitant to take this deal, but the risk is well worth the reward. Void items corrupt all stacks of its base item and will continue to corrupt new stacks of this item, only making it more powerful. These items can be a deciding factor in a run, as some of the most powerful void items build off of already powerful items. There is a weakness to these items however, the majority of these void items only activate on a single enemy or require a specific scenario to activate. An example of this would be the polylute and voidsent flame. The polylute corrupts all stacks of Ukuleles in the player’s inventory, which usually create arcs of electricity that assist in crowd control, however the polylute trades crowd control for high single target damage as it creates electricity that shocks a single enemy multiple times. Voidsent flames corrupt will o'wisps which create explosive bursts of flames on enemy deaths suddenly are made that they only activate when damaging a full health enemy for high damage. Void items are a decisive factor in the success or failure of a run.

This expansion added two new survivors for the player to choose to play as. The easier of the two to unlock is the Railgunner. The Railgunner is a long range sniper character with high single target damage. They can aim at targets to see weak points, and if their shot connects with a weak point, it will cause a critical hit. Railgunner is extremely powerful, but unfortunately does not have any real movement abilities unlike the other survivors. The second character added was Void Fiend. Fiend has an interesting mechanic unique to this survivor only, Corruption. Corruption is measured as a meter that ticks up slowly over time, but increases proportionately to how much damage the player takes. The meter also goes down when the player heals. When fully corrupted, Fiend will transform into a more powerful state in which his attacks change. His main attack goes from a long range slow laser to a short range, but fast and powerful laser. These survivors are powerful, but still balanced in comparison to the already existing survivors.

The last addition is the new alternate boss. Like my last review, I will not spoil the final boss, but I do want to talk about the ways to access it. There are three separate ways to gain access to this boss. The first, and most easily accessible, would be to loop a run until a void portal spawns. This portal transports the player into the void where they are tasked with charging four cells that make the air in the the stage poisonous except for a radius around the cell. Once a player charges these cells, a new portal appears that takes the player to the boss. The second way is to complete the void fields. To access the void fields, the player has to make their way to the bazaar between time and find the null portal. Once the player enters the fields, they will find the air poisonous and will have to charge nine separate cells to clear the air. Once they complete the field, two portals will appear. Another null portal which will take a player to the next stage and the void portal. The third and final way to access this boss is to complete the original final boss fight on the moon. After the fight and during the destruction of the moon, the player will have to rush past the escape ship and instead make their way to the teleporter they arrived at. There will be a glass frog which will give the prompt, “Pet the frog.” It costs lunar coins to pet the frog, but after enough pets, the deep void portal will appear, taking the player straight to the alternate final boss.

Overall, I really enjoy this expansion and I am quite excited to see what Hopoo does next. I highly recommend that both new and old players get this DLC and if you don’t already have the game, purchase it along with the DLC.