Risk of Rain (2013)

harder than ror2

Risk of Rain (2013) is one of those games that looks simple at first, then slowly reveals how deep and tense it can get. The basic idea is easy to understand: land on a hostile planet, find the teleporter, survive the waves, and move on. The catch is that time is always working against you, and the longer you stay, the more the game turns into controlled chaos. The time-based difficulty is the feature that defines everything. You’re constantly deciding whether to keep exploring for items or rush the teleporter before enemies become ridiculous. That pressure creates a really satisfying loop where every run feels like a chain of risk/reward choices instead of a relaxed scavenger hunt. Item building is where the fun really starts. Pickups stack and interact in ways that can turn you from “barely surviving” into an unstoppable screen-clearing machine. At the same time, the game is happy to humble you instantly if your build is weak or your positioning slips for even a second. Each survivor plays differently enough to keep runs fresh. Some characters reward careful spacing, others want you to dive in and delete targets fast, and learning their strengths changes how you approach the same maps. It’s not just cosmetic variety—you genuinely have to adapt your movement and priorities. The pixel art has a gritty charm, and the effects are surprisingly readable once you get used to the visual noise. Music is a big highlight too: it sells the lonely sci-fi atmosphere while still keeping the pace intense when things escalate. The whole presentation feels cohesive and memorable even by modern standards. It can be rough around the edges compared to newer roguelites. Some deaths feel sudden, some enemies scale into absurdity, and certain runs can be decided by luck more than you’d like. But that unpredictability is also part of the identity: the game isn’t trying to be perfectly “fair,” it’s trying to keep you nervous. Overall, Risk of Rain is highly recommended if you enjoy roguelikes where momentum matters and every minute makes the world more dangerous. It’s challenging, fast, and addictive, with that special feeling of runs spiraling from “I’m fine” to “everything is exploding” in seconds. If you can handle occasional unfair moments and like learning through repeated attempts, it’s still absolutely worth playing.

Risk of Rain is a fun roguelike with great ideas and plenty of challenge, but the multiplayer is notoriously unreliable. LAN barely works, and setting up online co-op is such a hassle that playing with friends is unlikely. Solo runs can still be enjoyable, but if your main goal is co-op, Risk of Rain 2 is the better option — it takes the same concept and makes it far more accessible for group play.

Hard to progress, but once you understand you and the enemies work it's lots of fun. I can't stop playing this.

I won't say this game is bad, just that you should totally check out Risk of Rain Returns instead. It has better visuals (which is actually really nice as it's much easier to see many smaller details), new content like items, characters, new character abilities, better balancing, and even a new gamemode. Overall, it's much better than this version of the game, and it isn't missing anything this game has. Do yourself a favor and get that instead.

Pretty fun, I hate spiders, and jelly fishes >:(

Surprisingly it's not the 2013th game in the series