Risk of Rain 2

Lay all the columns side by side and Risk of Rain 2 turns out to be a game with a crystalline sense of self. It knows exactly who it's for and what it owes them, and it delivers on that promise almost to the letter.

The scores agree, and the agreement is the story

Start with the cold figures: 85 on Metacritic, 86 on OpenCritic with a recommendation rate north of 93% and a Mighty rating, and a 93% positive score on Steam across roughly 236,000 reviews. IGN handed it a 9; ScreenRant and 3DM both settled on an 8. East or West, critic or player, the verdict lines up — it may not top every individual category, but as a whole it is nearly impossible to fault for completeness or staying power.

That consensus isn't luck. The game nails one thing to the wall: it makes getting stronger feel both exhilarating and strategic. You can feel your arc from weakling to wrecking-ball in every single run, and you keep making meaningful choices under the clock's thumb. And the high marks have aged well — plenty of games sprint to a launch-window score on hype, but this one held its standing high from Early Access through 1.0 and on through multiple expansions. That kind of long-term stability is its own proof of quality, and it's the rarer kind: a verdict that strengthened with time rather than curdling once the launch glow faded.

Who should buy it, who shouldn't, and which version to grab

This isn't a game for everyone, so sort yourself out before you commit. It suits one player above all: someone who likes co-op looting with up to three friends, who relishes stacking items until they're a meat grinder, and who doesn't mind that every run starts from zero and last run's god-build dies with you. If that's you, this becomes a game you keep coming back to.

Flip it around. If you want a permanent progression save, recoil from randomness, can't stand a clock forever nipping at your heels, or only play linear, story-driven adventures, this will most likely chafe. Its joy is built on accepting the random and embracing the restart; demanding a linear ride from it only ends badly for both of you. Knowing your own taste matters more than any score — this is not a game that bends to win you over, but for the people it's built for, it is close to irreplaceable. On versions, the advice is simple: the base game plus the first expansion, Survivors of the Void, is the most complete way in — its additions to characters, enemies and items are the meatiest and its reputation the steadiest. Leave Seekers of the Storm for after you've settled into the core. Step back far enough and the standing is plain: this is a landmark of the 3D action-roguelike, nominated for Indie Game of the Year and Excellence in Multiplayer at the 2021 SXSW Gaming Awards, and still uncopied in the way it locks time, items and difficulty into one loop. Against the narrative path of Hades, the two hold separate hills and neither replaces the other — Hades wins on the warmth of its people, this on the difficulty clock you come to love and dread. That, in the end, is why nothing has taken its place.