Risk of Rain 2 is receiving even more additional content in 2021, including a massive free anniversary update and a paid expansion toward the end of the year. The game left Early Access and launched in full back in August after a brief delay. Since then, most of the updates have been bug fixes and other minor changes. The biggest addition came back in November with the launch of the Sundered Grove stage.
Risk of Rain 2 is a third-person shooter action roguelike and a follow-up to the massively successful Risk of Rain, which instead took the form of a 2D platformer. Many were originally skeptical of the change in perspective, but Risk of Rain 2 not only managed to improve upon the foundation laid by the first game, but established itself as one of the best roguelikes to come out in years. On Steam, the game currently maintains a review average of “overwhelmingly positive.”
In an update posted to that same Steam page, developer Hopoo Games offered insight on what was going on at the studio and what future content players have to look forward to. The studio began by detailing additions to its team, which doubled in size from three to six employees. The developer continued by providing a 2021 roadmap. The roadmap contains a free “Anniversary Update” scheduled for launch in March 2021 and a paid expansion launching in the last quarter of the year. The Anniversary Update will contain a new survivor, new boss, new items, and other additions with the goal of “upgrading and rounding out the game as a whole.”
The first expansion for Risk of Rain 2 is expected to be around two to three content updates in size, much bigger than the already massive content update it received on launch. It will contain new survivors, bosses, enemies, stages, items, events, and even an entirely new game mode. There will also be new music and an alternate final stage and matching boss. No price has been provided yet, but the team describes it as the “biggest infusion of new content” that the game has ever received. The title “Expansion #1” also implies that more are planned.
The studio has not been posting too much lately, so having a roadmap to set expectations is fantastic news for fans. Many consider Risk of Rain 2 to be one of the best roguelikes released this year, up there with titles like Hades, so having that base expanded on with even more content might be enough to keep that momentum going into the new year. It has been a solid year for fans of such roguelikes and it will be interesting to see what 2021 has to offer.
Risk of Rain 2 is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: Hopoo Games