November is Risk of Rain month, I hereby declare it. After playing the hell out of side-scroller Risk of Rain Returns, the remake of the first game in the series, I’ve been back in the saddle for more Risk of Rain 2. This time I’ve been playing on the old Xbox Series X (on the big TV, what a treat) with the newly released Survivors of the Void expansion. It has been a good month.
I’ve actually been playing Risk of Rain 2 since it was in Early Access, and watching the game evolve in that time has been quite a thing. Sometimes you simply don’t see a success story coming and, even though I’d played the original, I had no idea that the formula would work so well when flipped into the third dimension.
By the time the game was ready to leave Early Access, it was in great shape (for the most part), and it was clear that Hopoo Games was onto something truly special with ROR2’s blend of frenetic gunplay and escalating stakes.
Take your time and grab more items but face fiercer resistance sooner, or rush through and tackle as many obstacles as you can before things get too gnarly? It’s one of life’s true great questions.
Survivors of the Void hits Playstation, Switch, and Xbox
Risk of Rain 2 has been with us in one form or another since 2019, and in that time it has evolved steadily. That evolution hasn’t happened in parallel, however, and for a while console-based players have been lagging behind their PC-owning frenemies. 2022’s expansion, Survivors of the Void, gave the game a much needed injection of content on PC. Yet it was 18 agonising months before that same content landed on console, on November 8. Better late than never.
The two new playable characters are a nice injection to change things up, and they’re the obvious place to start.
I picked the Railgunner first, and was instantly at home with their skillset. They lollop about the place, taking what feels like giant strides as they explore. Auto-fire makes it really easy to deliver constant low-level damage to enemies nearby, and the charged attack takes a while to recover from but it’s got enough power to put down most mid-sized enemies. Throw in a sniper shot and you’ve got a lot of tactical options.
I spent less time with the Void Fiend. They’re a different kettle of fish altogether, and the game here is all about managing your corruption. You can change form to deal tremendous damage, but most of the time you’ll want to stay in your uncorrupted form as it makes you harder to hit. This back and forth creates an interesting new dynamic.
A fresh injection of content
On top of the two new playable Survivors, the DLC adds a bunch of new items. 41 as far as I can tell. I can’t claim to have seen them all and I’m not going to put either of us through the pain of listing them for the sake of SEO. What I will say is that I like the twist that the corruption brings to existing items, and they can change quite dramatically.
Then there are the new locations, which take you to new destinations on each run, including into the Void. Items are positioned around each map procedurally, so you never know where you’re going to be heading on a given play-through. I enjoyed the new forest level the best; looking up at the giant trees was somewhat humbling amidst all the gunfire whizzing around me. As ever, this strange planet is a most enigmatic place to explore.
On your adventures, you’re going to meet some of the new bads. If you’re desperate for something fresh-faced to shoot at, there are a few lower level enemies to fight, and there’s a trio of new bosses. The new XI Construct didn’t blow me away to be fair. The other bosses, however, add much needed new challenge for players to discover, this time inside the titular Void. This new realm can be entered once per run, and if you get the end you’ll face off against the Voidling, the game’s alternative end boss.
What else is new in Survivors of the Void?
I quite enjoyed the new Simulacrum mode, too. It’s essentially a wave mode shot through with Risk of Raininess. You’re fighting off waves of creatures, and as you get further into the game, the creatures get friendlier and the waves get easier until you’re eventually given lots of achievements and win the game! Of course, these are terrible lies, because things actually get really hard after just a few rounds and I certainly never got to the end.
There is a twist as you can make things easier by giving up some of the items you’ve collected as you play, and there are mini bosses every fifth round. You can also scurry around and look for new gear, but leave the confines of the play area and you’ll take heavy damage from the Void Fog, so you can’t step out for long. Every ten rounds you move to a new location, your enemies getting ever stronger.
Risk of Rain 2 is a bloody good game, and with Survivors of the Void switched on, there’s simply more of it to consume. I’ve had a wicked good time playing the game again and even one average boss isn’t enough to dissuade me from my opinion that it’s well worth picking up. Survivors of the Void delivers more wrinkles, more variety, more interesting challenges to engage with, and more of the same gameplay that brought us all to Risk of Rain in the first place.
Survivors of the Void is available on PC, Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox, and I played the game on Xbox Series X.
