They turned Risk of Rain into a gacha game...and it almost works
SHOULD I PLAY RISK OF RAIN: HOSTILE WORLDS?
The answer to this is going to depend a lot on what you’re looking for when you approach the game. Do you want a fun, fast, low-stakes action game on mobile with gacha and grinding for if you decide to get invested for the long haul? Then Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds will give you everything you’re looking for. But if you’re a fan of Risk of Rain, its sequel, or the just-launched remake, then Hostile Worlds may leave you a little cold. I wouldn’t go so far as saying that it feels like a cheap cash-in, but it definitely loses some of what made the Risk of Rain games so special in exchange for blatant mobile monetization schemes.
TIME PLAYED
I’ve played six hours of Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds in its current closed beta test form. That has included playing around a dozen missions deep into the campaign mode, unlocking seven of the fourteen available characters via the gacha system, and replaying a lot of levels to grind for resources and loot.
WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT RISK OF RAIN: HOSTILE WORLDS?
• An addictive, solidly designed core gameplay loop. The Risk of Rain IP is no stranger to changing up its look and feel. While the first game drew players in with pixel art and 2D sidescrolling, Risk of Rain 2 was a fully 3D third-person shooter with its own unique visual style. For Hostile Worlds, the series has shifted into a top-down view that works perfectly for mobile play, with the playable characters auto-firing at enemies while the player is able to control special abilities on a cooldown timer.
Whatever criticisms I might have for Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds on the whole, I cannot deny that developer Frima Studio has nailed the basics. Divorced from any context, the franchise name, or any microtransactions you might be tempted to make between levels, it just feels fun to jump into these missions, explore, collect power-ups, and jump out.
• Excellent visuals. Speaking of changing up its look, Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds does a great job of capturing the general vibe of previous games in the series in a more traditional mobile game art style. While I personally prefer the hyper-stylized pixel art of the original Risk of Rain, I definitely think Hostile Worlds both stays true to the spirit of the series and presents a vision that’s less generic and more memorable than a lot of mobile titles. The enemy models, in particular, felt very strong to me.
• Tons of upgrades to keep players busy. If you want to focus on playing Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds and only Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds, it already feels like the type of game you could stick with for a long time. Between collecting and leveling up each individual hero type, upgrading your ship, finding gear for each character, upgrading that gear, and more, there are multiple layers of overlapping progress. If you’re really looking to max out everything, expect to play for at least the dozens of hours it takes to unlock everything in the original Risk of Rain, and probably a lot longer.
WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN RISK OF RAIN: HOSTILE WORLDS?
• Too few items. A big part of the addictive joy of Risk of Rain is mixing and matching the game’s huge variety of random items that can be found on each run. Both Risk of Rain and its sequel featured over one hundred items that could be unlocked and earned, which meant it took a long time before I felt like I’d seen everything.
By comparison, Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds has less than fifty items in the game right now, and the majority of them are generic, boring stat boosts. I loved picking up some of the more unique items—like the Sawmerang, which causes the character’s weapon to also occasionally shoot out saw blades that bounce between enemies before returning—but I already feel like I’ve seen most of the game’s item combos and my runs are mostly just repeats now. Hopefully they’ll add a lot more items before the game launches properly.
• Short levels with no danger. One aspect of previous Risk of Rain games that’s completely missing in Hostile Worlds is the idea of it being a roguelite. Instead of long runs, the game is split into shorter, multipart levels that increase in difficulty as the campaign progresses. Those shorter levels make more sense for mobile play, but I missed the sense of danger and overcoming an overwhelming challenge.
• Boss fights are too rare. Speaking of something I missed—while almost every level of Risk of Rain ends in a survival challenge boss encounter, Hostile Worlds sprinkles boss fights much more sparingly as the cap to sets of levels. Maybe there will be other modes in the full version with more frequent boss battles.
• Yeah, it’s a gacha. This is going to be an immediate “no thanks” for some players, and I understand why. For what it’s worth, Risk of Rain: Hostile Worlds doesn’t seem too stingy with giving currency needed for free gacha pulls. But of course, you don’t just need to pull characters once; you’ll need to keep pulling them to earn character shards to make them more powerful, so the non-paid grind is potentially endless.
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