Risk Of Rain 2: The Indie Gem Of Our Generation

By GARRETT BABB

Staff Writer

Every generation has games that are incredibly unique and come out of the woodworks to shock everyone with its greatness. These games that are developed by smaller development companies and are completely unique in nature are known as “Indie” games, with the Indie gaming community always on the rise and players always searching for the next big thing or the coolest new game from smaller, more lowkey developers. Indie games now make up a large portion of gaming as a whole as it covers a wide array of genres and is applicable to any game from smaller developers, but the reason it is less popular despite its size is that the quality of the games on average will be lower than most AAA games (games produced by larger game development companies) because of the obvious disparity in time, merit, and resources in general. But it’s because of this inherent disparity in advantages that Indie games often have to make up for it by making games that nobody has seen before, games that will draw people in without the glamour and clout that comes with being part of a larger development team. Although rare, this environment has forged countless incredible indie games that have gone on to rise in the ranks and become longtime favorites in the community with the longevity to maintain an independent fanbase. Games like Stardew Valley, Minecraft, and Hollow Knight are prime examples of Indie games that stand the test of time and have even risen above their AAA competition in sales and quality. 

Risk Of Rain is one of those series that came up from nothing. Starting from the bottom of the totem pole and being developed by two college students, with funding coming from Kickstarter and only a marginal amount of support during development this game didn’t seem like it would be incredibly popular by the time it was released. Despite that, the first game in the series gained enough success and popularity for a new one to be made as a sequel, this time with a bigger budget and a whole lot more inspiration. This led to the production of what I feel is one of the best roguelike indie games ever made. The concept of the game was simple at first glance but gets increasingly more complicated as you learn to play, you’re a survivor of a spaceship crash and your goal is to survive the onslaught of enemies that the game throws at you. In order to progress one goes from stage to stage, one has to locate the teleporter and defeat the respective boss of every area in order to move on. Collecting items that boost your offensive and defensive stats along with other various support items that do a plethora of different things is the way you become more powerful as the game progresses. But as the game’s clock continues to tick the difficulty will slowly be raised and it will get progressively harder, with the difficulty increasing every five minutes of being alive. So balancing your time in each stage and the amount of items you spend time collecting is a key component to going for a good run, which is an interesting game mechanic that is not seen in any other game I’ve played before. The game has multiple “endings” with many secrets laid out for the players as they are traveling from area to area, one of which is considered the “true ending” with an epic final boss fight on the moon where the player is stripped of all their treasured items and forced to fight empty-handed. Despite this being the end of the game, as any good roguelike Risk Of Rain 2 has immense replay value. With multiple characters with unique abilities to play, extra challenging game modes, riveting secret areas, and bonus levels, and the possibility for endless item combinations and build types, this leaves Risk Of Rain with some of the best replayability I have ever seen from a game of this caliber. But to top it all off the game has an absolutely AMAZING soundtrack and a unique and charming art style to boot, which only further adds to the unique and original premise of the game.

Overall this game is truly one to behold and despite its lack of mainstream popularity and its humble beginnings, it has clearly blossomed into one of the most engaging and unique gaming experiences I and many others have been offered to play. I hope this article inspires you not only to give Risk Of Rain 2 a try if you have the means but also to give smaller games a try and don’t count them out just because you may not have heard of them.