Risk of Rain 2 Developers Respond To Backlash

Risk of Rain 2 is a third-person roguelike video game initially developed by Hopoo Games. In November 2022, the title was purchased by the game development and publishing studio Gearbox. This company owns the rights to many popular franchise games such as Borderlands, Half-Life, Brothers in Arms, and much more. On Tuesday, August 27, Gearbox published their first Risk of Rain 2 DLC (downloadable content) titled ‘Seekers of the Storm’. This is the first DLC Gearbox developed independently from Hopoo Games. This expansion served as a test for the studio’s first official release, and Gearbox failed. Horribly.

‘Seekers Of The Storm’ Broke The Game…

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…And not in a good way. This DLC was released with several game-breaking bugs that bordered on unplayable. Many bugs released in this update are tied to the game’s frame rate. Some examples include enemy spawns increasing the higher your frame rate is, Loader’s swing mechanics, and Warped Echo dealing damage slower when at lower FPS. Xbox also ran into multiple issues with some of the worst- yet humorous- bugs. For the first three days, Xbox players encountered a frozen main menu screen that prevented people from playing the game entirely. After this was patched, a new bug surfaced where your save file would instantly be deleted upon plugging in a second controller.

The Warped Echo and Chronic Expansion are two new common items acquired in Risk of Rain 2’s ‘Seekers of the Storm’ DLC. The Warped Echo causes the player to take 50% of the damage taken outright, and then the other 50% would be applied after three seconds. Chronic Expansion increases the player’s damage by 10% for every five enemies killed. Currently, they are completely incompatible with each other due to faulty coding. When Mithrix, one of the final bosses in the game, steals a Warped Echo and Chronic Expansion from the player, he becomes completely immune to damage. This is also the case for Heretic in special circumstances.

Developer Response Leaves Much To Be Desired

On Friday, August 30, Risk of Rain 2 developers Gearbox released a statement regarding the issues with the ‘Seekers of the Storm’ DLC. After thanking the community for the continued support, they stated upfront that they have been working to reproduce the bugs and examine what is causing them. Gearbox listed numerous bugs they confirmed to be working on and fixing soon (including many not listed above). Their word choice- saying “We plan” and “planned fix”- leaves more to be desired. There is no telling when these fixes will get implemented. At the end of the developer post, they also stated that some of Risk of Rain 2's regional prices have changed.

What Needs To Change Going Forward

‘Seekers of the Storm’ currently sits at a staggeringly negative 21% approval rating on Steam. Compared to the previous DLC ‘Survivors of the Void’ with 87% of reviews being positive, the new DLC has stained Gearbox’s legacy- especially within the Risk of Rain 2 community. 93% of reviews on Steam for the base game Risk of Rain 2 are positive, but since the release of ‘Seekers of the Storm’, positive reviews have dropped to 42%. There is still hope for the game. However, Gearbox must be willing to completely iron out its faults and fix the bugs it created. This cannot happen again in the future or it will be the death of the franchise.

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The article was originally written by Sydney Hartzell