Completionist 2014: Risk of Rain

Awww yis! Another game in the books. Risk of Rain was a very fun title. I picked it up when it came out and I never really got into it. It is an awesome coop game with some very interesting level progression. For every game session, the longer you take, the more difficult the game becomes. But at the same time, you can't just power through the levels, because you need to look around for items to help you power up so you can handle tougher and more plentiful enemies.

Every map has a portal you need to find and activate. Enemies randomly spawn around you and at increasing intervals. The general strategy is to fight through them, but don't waste your time trying to kill every last one of them before you find the portal. They'll keep spawning infinitely till you do. When you find the portal, it usually spawns a boss type monster. You will then have to survive for 90 seconds. During this time, the boss will most likely try to kill you and more enemies will be spawning all around you. After you survive the ordeal, you then have to kill all remaining enemies on the map to progress to the next level. Usually during this time, it would be best to purchase any power-ups that you can find on the map.

The portal prior to the final level provides you with an awesome decision. You can either progress to the final level, with what you have. Or you can teleport back to the beginning and grind up more levels and gear to better prepare you for the final level. This allows you to grind up levels and gear to better prepare you for the final boss. During this time, the games difficulty level will still be increasing. Ideally, you'd like to have so much gear and so many items that even at the game's peak difficulty, you're able to slog your way through any obstacle. Or you can try to blitz your way past with what you got while the difficulty is not nearly as hard.

I was lucky enough to have the company of Fij's friend Stookie(Stukey? Steucie?) to guide me along. I had not unlocked anything in the game prior to playing a round with him. But with the default character and some good spawns, we were both able to make it to the end of the game. Risk of Rain was a part of the Humble Coop bundle, and it really does shine with others. I loved it and would definitely recommend playing with someone, either local or online. And a controller does make the experience much more enjoyable.

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>SCORE = -23