Risk of Rain 2 - Very Advertent Calamity Simulator

[Introduction]

Risk of Rain 2 initially sounds like a far cry from its predecessor, at least on paper. "Third-person shooter roguelike" seems to be an unusual direction for a sequel to an "action platformer with roguelike elements."

That said, the paper lies, because this sequel adds more than just another dimension!

[First Impressions]

It actually works.

Some of us were concerned when we discovered that there would be a transition from 2D to 3D. The first game's characters had been built entirely around a two-dimensional plane. There was a great deal of uncertainty regarding how the second game would play, whether it would still give us the same feel as the first, and whether Hopoo even knew what they were doing.

We'll get into that, particularly the last part, but just in case you don't read any further than this, rest assured: it actually works.

[Development]

Right off the bat, let's get to the elephant in the room:

How the hell did two guys manage to create a 3D third person shooter in almost every conceivable way?

To put it plainly, they did not. In fact, the initial project didn't involve a transition to 3D at all; it was intended to be a 2D game, quite similar to the first in terms of gameplay and style, but with the player taking control of the creatures inhabiting the planet. However, this never went past a prototype stage, and unfortunately nothing playable is accessible to us. A shame, really, because the concept alone presents both promising potential for gameplay and a new perspective from which to tell the story.

Regardless of how promising this might have been (and could still be!), development on this prototype was halted. As it would happen, it's actually our own fault. Yes, that's right - we, the fans, are responsible. Some of us were just too damn loyal to the franchise, and largely owing to the plethora of fan art displaying Risk of Rain characters covered in items to varying degrees, Hopoo decided to essentially recreate the first game, but with the added visual details of actually showing us all the stuff we've picked up during our playthroughs. 2D quickly proved less-than-desirable for this purpose, due to limitations on perspectives. There simply wasn't enough room on 2D models to adequately show the vast array of different items that could be picked up and displayed.

2.5D was attempted. It was thought that a middle ground between 2D and 3D could be reached by rendering a fully 3D model in a 2D plane, but this was still insufficient. At this stage, they simply ditched the second dimension altogether and moved straight to the third, and although the transition in and of itself was largely problem-free, they did have two big ones:

In part that they had precisely zero experience with Unity, the engine chosen for the game.

And in part that they had precisely zero experience with 3D animation.

But, with an expansion of the team and some no doubt very intense training, Hopoo Games eventually managed to acquire the talent and the confidence to announce the sequel in May 2017. Fast forward a couple years of development and hype, and Risk of Rain 2 was released into early access on PC in March 2019. Early access was swiftly followed by Hopoo signing with Gearbox to publish the game on Switch, PS4 and Xbox One, and just over a year later, in August 2019, the full game was released.

Naturally, work didn't stop there, and the game is still receiving updates and patches as of this review, in addition to being released for Stadia in September 2020, making it available on 5 platforms. Not bad for an indie company with all of 3 employees! Granted, additional development was a collaborative effort between Hopoo and a number of other studios, but we certainly wouldn't have gotten Risk of Rain 2 without Duncan Drummond, Paul Morse and Jeffrey Hunt.

Elements of the player base were disappointed that certain characters from the first game were left out of the sequel, most notably the Bandit. Not so much notable for his popularity, but rather for the fact that the Bandit actually exists in the game's files as an incomplete but technically playable character, including a model, animations and skills. He's just inaccessible to players without the use of mods.

[Game Mechanics]

Risk of Rain 2 plays surprisingly similarly to Risk of Rain 1: kill enemies to get money. Use money to open chests and get items. Use items to kill more enemies. Rinse and repeat until you feel ready to activate the level's teleporter, which will spawn a boss. Defeat the boss, teleport to the next level, repeat. Keep doing this until you reach the primordial teleporter, which will take you to the moon, where you will face the game's final boss. Alternatively, hop on through the celestial portal and approach THE OBELISK and obliterate yourself from existence.

The character selection, the level exploration, the teleporter boss(es), the final showdown before escaping the planet; it's all there. Aside from a few changes to the character and enemy rosters, you wouldn't be off the mark if you said the only real difference is 3D. A remarkable achievement, really.

Although it probably goes without saying, this does present some challenges, not least of which is the Commando. In RoR1, the Commando was a perfectly adequate introduction character with a useful loadout offering both decent firepower and mobility. He effectively embodied the old figure of speech, "jack of all trades, master of none" by providing a well-rounded base from which to unlock other characters.

Not so in RoR2. Here, the Commando may very well be the worst possible introduction to the game. Double Tap now has damage fall-off after a distance of 25m, culminating in a 50% damage decrease at 60m. Phase Round works the same, but enemies lining up doesn't happen as often as you might want. Tactical Dive no longer negates damage. Suppressive Fire no longer fires in multiple directions.

This is not to say that the Commando is no longer viable, but he did not make the transition to 3D unscathed. What was once a character suited for pretty much any engagement has been reduced to something far more situational in nature and reliant on good item drops than before, to the point that the Huntress or MUL-T might be better suited for new players.

I would also repeat my word of caution from the Risk of Rain 1 review:

The damage system is very strange, especially at first glance. Everything displayed works off a percentage system. Using the same example as before, "shoot twice for 2x60% damage" means that you attack twice for 2x60% of your character's base damage. This base damage increases with your level. As previously stated, I suspect the reasoning is so they can keep skill descriptions simple, but it still strikes me as an odd choice.

However, it is much less nebulous now than it was in the first game, because the base damage is now immediately accessible to the player, making the system far easier to understand.

Beyond this, the remaining changes and additions are welcome, or at the very least more interesting than before. Some of these might be overlooked entirely, such as destructible elements in a level's environment that either damage enemies (and players!) or provide some kind of debuff. Nice to have, but really not a game changer. Others are far more substantial, such as hidden levels, secret areas and, perhaps most notably, a total revamp of how the player acquires artifacts. Where once artifact acquisition was largely a matter of locating a hidden path or completing a fairly simple puzzle, Risk of Rain 2 requires you to reach the Sky Meadow, locate the artifact gate, punch in a code associated with a certain artifact (which can be found in hidden areas in other levels), enter the portal and beat the artifact challenge. It should probably be said that it's entirely possible to just look up the various codes, but an attempt has undeniably been made to make artifact acquisition more challenging!

There are other secrets, of course, as well as hidden knowledge to be found that explains more about both your own circumstances and the nature of the planet. More on that latter.

It must also be said that multiplayer is a much larger part of RoR2 than it was in RoR1. Setting up a multiplayer lobby or joining an ongoing one is much easier and requires no third party tools. It's highly customisable (although 16 player lobbies tend to be... wonky) and a lot of fun. There really isn't much else to say. It just works.

As a final note, I will say that there are elements that bother me. Opened chests are harder to distinguish from unopened chests than in the first game, the Bazaar isn't as significant to my runs as I might like, the Huntress' lock-on range is a bit too short and it would be nice if bosses spawned in a little faster when you activate the teleporter.

But honestly? None of this even actually matters, because guess what:

RISK OF RAIN 2 SUPPORTS MODS!

That's right, as I briefly alluded to early in the review, the game supports mods, and boy does the community support the game supporting mods. There's an active modding scene replete with creators adding everything from quality of life features to unofficial bugfixes to straight up adding new characters. Pretty much every issue I have with the game can be made up for with mods.

Want the old characters from RoR1? You got it!

Want to save your progress with every new level you teleport to? You got it!

Want a cheat menu? You got it!

Want all the text in the game to be turned into "random rambling and shitty unfunny memes"? YOU GOT IT!

The sky's the limit. Maybe. Lord knows the modders have no restraint. There's a mod for everything.

And I do mean everything.

[Graphics]

Very nice, but hardly impressive when compared to many other games with higher budgets and fancier engines.

While it really is rather apparent that Hopoo Games have not made any previous 3D titles and sorta just jumped into this, there's no denying they jumped in with both feet. They may not have had prior experience, but I'll be damned if they didn't make it work in the end.

Like its predecessor, Risk of Rain 2 isn't a game that's going to wow you with its graphics. For anything other than an indie company with a staff list you can count on one hand, it might even cross over to being underwhelming.

However, I do think that the Risk of Rain style has been maintained, even cemented, and their original goal of depicting the plethora of items available to players directly on in-game character models was a success.

Bearing in mind that this was the entire purpose of transitioning to 3D, I think it's safe to say that they not only made do, but actually went well above expectations.

[Story]

Once again, it's entirely possible to play through Risk of Rain 500 times and never so much as consider there might be a story. Nothing gets in your way if you wanna just ignore anything not immediately related to gameplay, because, just like the first game, the story is told almost entirely through environment, context and logs.

This time around, you are CREWMEMBER. Your ship, the UES Safe Travels, has arrived at the last known coordinates of the ship from the first game, the UES Contact Light. No one knows what happened, which is where you come in: this is a rescue mission.

Naturally, you end up rescuing precisely nobody, because there's nobody left alive. This is readily apparent almost from the get go due to the total absence of anything resembling friendly NPCs, but is really emphasized when you get to Rallypoint Delta, the UES Contact Light survivor camp. Everything is frozen and, as with every other place you visit, the locals are not particularly pleased with your presence.

So, much like in RoR1, you trek through a variety of odd biomes, pick up the cargo from the Contact Light and decide to put it to good use. Sometimes this means replacing your leg with a goat hoof, sometimes it means drinking an ungodly amount of energy drinks, sometimes it means wrapping razor wire around your limbs, and sometimes it means attaching a sentient meat hook to yourself. What could go wrong? And what choice do you have? You're only doing what's necessary to find out what the hell happened here. You just want to save these people. You just want to make it out alive.

[Spoilers]

The very advertent calamity is you, the player.

Continuing the cycle established in the first game, we blindly barge into the home of the planet's inhabitants, going in guns blazing and wondering why we're not welcome. This is made even worse by the revelation that Providence had apparently gathered them here to provide them with a sort of safe haven from whatever other threats they were facing. Perhaps worst of all is that we don't even have the veil of ignorance this time around. We didn't happen to be on a ship carrying stolen goods. We weren't forced by circumstance to defend ourselves from hostile aliens. Nope, we dropped to the planet armed to the teeth, intent on bringing back the folks from the UES Contact Light.

So not only have we been stealing things from the planet. We've also killed their savior, Providence, and riled up Mithrix, as well as whatever is lurking in the Void.

And we do it all in a blissful state of ignorance, until we start reading the logs.

That's when we realise: We're the bad guys, even if we never meant to be.

[Pros]

- It's a roguelike, with all the ups and downs this entails

- Controls are easy to learn

- Solid single player experience

- Multiplayer supporting up to 4 players by default (but seeing lobbies of up to 16 players is not unusual)

- Unexpectedly interesting story element

- Fantastic soundtrack

- Mostly bug-free!

- Very, very active modding scene; I cannot stress enough how fantastic the mod creators are

[Cons]

- It's a roguelike, with all the ups and downs this entails

- Controls may be difficult to master

- Damage system is confusing (albeit less so than RoR1)

- Commando is not as good an introductory character as he was in RoR1

- Some players may find some characters uninteresting or downright unenjoyable

- If you have no interest in unlock completion, replay value may diminish

- Not completely bug free

[Conclusion]

If you're into roguelikes, unlock completion, and... well, I suppose it's intentional genocide this time around, then check out Risk of Rain. Moral compass optional.

 [Score]

9/10

/DUX

Devil May Cry 5 - Stunningly Stylish Spectacle

[Introduction]

For the Character Action or 'Spectacle Fighter' (As coined by Yahtzee of The Escapist) genre there are few games that really define the category as a whole like Capcom's Devil May Cry does; a franchise in which might be considered the father of the genre (With Bayonetta being the step-mother). From its humble Resident Evil inspired origins to its latest and long awaited addition to the series the games have left a permanent mark on the industry and sets the baseline for what a stylish character fighting game should look and behave like.

Today we'll be taking a look at the fifth and most current entry to the demon hack and slash. Though fifth is debatable with the existence of the off-shot DmC: Devil May Cry which would make it the sixth, but then also the main audience's desire to rightfully forget 2 ever happened which would make it the fifth again... Despite that we'll be looking at the PC version of the game which sadly does not include the Special Edition which is exclusive to Xbox Series X and the PS5. The Special Edition includes two modes, Turbo and Legendary Dark Knight (LDK) mode, as well as the playable antagonist Vergil from the two previous games. The PC version gets Vergil, but not Turbo or LDK mode.




[First Impressions]

As you might imagine for a game with arguably one of the most in-depth and complex combo systems in any character action, the first impression can be daunting to a newly introduced to the series player. The beginning of the game doesn't help to inspire confidence either, as you'll start as Nero, the blade and revolver wielding cocky youth that was introduced (to mixed reception) in the fourth installment of the series. The reason your confidence is going to take a hit however is that your moveset is as limited as it will ever be during this intro. Nero only has one arm so he loses his Buster moves from the previous game, and you won't yet have access to his full moveset.

The first few enemies you face are weak and easily dispatched (providing you're playing on Demon Hunter mode) and then you'll come face to face immediately with the boss of the game, Urizen, who from upon high his throne will quite efficiently wipe the floor with you. He's not impossible to beat during this intro (and if you do you'll immediately get an ending) but it's very assured that you'll die here, and that's meant to happen. The game here shows you just how inexperienced you are, and how much you've got to learn.

If you've played other entries in the series you'll realize right off the bat that this is a much more serious opening than the last two games. Stakes are dire, Nero is missing an arm and defeated by Urizen, and even the Legendary Demon Hunter Dante seems to be struggling.

The amount of combat you get to do at the start isn't enough to really give you a taste of what the game has to offer either, but we'll certainly get into that much later during the mechanics segment. For now we'll continue on to the development of the game itself.




[Development]

Directed by long-time director of the series Hideaki Itsuno and developed and published in-house by Capcom; for the longest time people assumed that Devil May Cry 5 was never going to happen as there was a long silence after 4 but some time later we finally had an announcement, but it wasn't what anyone was expecting. Indeed it was the controversial DmC: Devil May Cry developed by Ninja Theory. Ninja Theory were given the licence to make a Devil May Cry game and the trailer they showed painted a very concerning picture for long-time fans, completely going against the grain of Devil May Cry's theme of over-the-top whacky action and cheesy dialogue in favor of something more grounded, gritty, dark and mature. Indeed the new Dante couldn't be anymore different from the beloved demon slayer of the series.

As far as most were concerned Devil May Cry was finished.

But then beloved voice actor and motion capture of Vergil, Dan Southworth, let something leak. During a reunion panel at Rangerstop in 2015 alongside Reuben Langdon (Dante) and Johnny Yong Bosch (Nero), Dan quoted the following "You know I think it's great how it happened, because now they're gonna bring us back. We can say that right?" to which Reuben responded simply with "No". This of course sent the resident audience into an uproar. For as he is want to do, Dan had blessed the community with information he probably shouldn't have. Reuben later went on to try and cover for the slip by saying he had spoken to Dan about rumors within Capcom that there could be a Devil May Cry 5, but couldn't stress how much of an unconfirmed rumor that information is.

It wouldn't be until after a long silence that at E3 2018 a reveal trailer was dropped and shocked the entire audience (multiple times), which I'll bring up as to why again later.

The actual development of the game doesn't have a great deal to talk about in regards to hiccups, if they were there, they were kept away from the eyes of the internet. Perhaps the most controversial thing we have is that Johnny Yong Bosch had to undergo several auditions to reprise his role as Nero, allegedly because it had been so long since Devil May Cry 4 but perhaps also because of the mixed reception on the character Nero himself. Regardless, Johnny was able to take up the mantle of Nero once more and couldn't have done a better job.

The game had developers from Itsuno's team which had worked on the previous Devil May Cry games along with action RPG Dragon's Dogma (Of which Itsuno had the choice of making the second game of instead of DMC5) and also Resident Evil 7, the engine of which the game used. Itsuno himself also worked on the widely acclaimed and popular Monster Hunter World.

Devil May Cry 5 would be aimed to appease to a wider audience than its otherwise rather niche crowd of combo-monkeys and fans of all things cheesy and 'cuhrayzee', and so even mechanics and features from the controversial DmC: Devil May Cry were included in the game such as an auto mode for easier combos and the announcer for the style rankings being voiced.

For development Devil May Cry 5 might've had an unsure and slow start, but seemed to have been a smooth ride.




[Game Mechanics]

Where to even begin?

Devil May Cry, being a character action game, is incredibly deep with its combat system which we'll first talk about as it is up front and center for being why people enjoy the series so much.

The game revolves around three characters with wildly different movesets. Nero could be considered at first glance to have the most simple moveset. He brings with him from the fourth game his two iconic weapons, the large single-edged revving blade Red Queen, and the double-barreled silver revolver Blue Rose. Red Queen's moveset is simple and clean, coming with up to four standing combos, three gapclosers, a launcher, two air combos and a back and forth ground input. Red Queen is perhaps the most fleshed out singular weapon in the game, especially when considering that all the attacks can be enhanced and sometimes even changed because of the Exceed system. The Exceed system is a timed-ability with your attacks. When used correctly during a swing you can build a charge of Exceed on Red Queen, up to three. Each charge makes the next attack more powerful, or in regards to moves like Streak or Shuffle, changes them. The timing on Exceed is near frame-perfect if you want to build all three charges in a single strike, and so Nero is easy to learn but difficult to master. He gets another frame-timed ability later on.

His revolver Blue Rose is mainly used to either juggle enemies are launch them into the air with the charged version, but Nero also gets a third mechanic in the form of Devil Breakers that replace his arm from the previous game. The Devil Breakers are consumables that each of their own unique gimmick. Overture for example can be used to release an electrical attack that knocks enemies back and will even stagger a charging boss like Goliath, but the charged version of Overture can be used to set a timed bomb on enemies that explodes later, launching them. There are several Devil Breakers in the game, and they're all unique.

The enigmatic V is the newcomer to the series and with him he brings an entirely new style of gameplay. V doesn't fight directly but instead uses demons to fight for him. On the battlefield you can control up to three separate demons at the same time while moving V around and dodging and taunting. Griffin is an aerial demon that acts like a gun and has wide area attacks, he also assists in your evasive maneuvers. Shadow is a melee demon that hits fast and hard, and then Nightmare is your 'Devil Trigger' equivalent, summoning a huge destructive demon that'll make short work of your enemies until your meter runs out.

While V's gameplay at first is confusing, even for long-term fans of the series, he quickly becomes rather simple and easy to use, and might even be considered the easiest of all the characters to really get good at. The skill ceiling for V isn't that high, and so you'll quickly rack up style meter and chew through content. This does however lead to him being the most shallow of the three playable characters with having the least moves and depth, and sometimes it's easy to just lose track of where your demons are or what they're doing and directional inputs become strange to use when in relation to your own position and that of your demons.

And then we have the guy who started it all, Dante. As in the previous two games Dante's style switching mechanic returns. He gets Trickster, an evasive and mobile style used for avoiding attacks and quickly closing in. Swordmaster, which grants you access to several new moves with all his melee weapons. Gunslinger which works in the same way as Swordmaster but for ranged weapons. And finally Royal Guard, which is a defensive style used to block incoming attacks with good timing, and then build up a meter, and then deliver a huge payload of damage in a singular devastating counter attack.

All of these styles can be switched between freely, constantly changing up the moveset Dante has at his disposal and you're encouraged to make the most of all of them. But it gets even more complex. Dante has several weapons and ranged weapons available to him that each do different things depending on if Swordmaster or Gunslinger is in play, and even without them. They are all wildly different from one another and you start the game off with three; his usual Rebellion, a basic sword, Ebony and Ivory, his iconic guns, and Balrog which gives Dante a brawler type of style. He gets more weapons and guns as the game goes on and so Dante's complexity in how he plays only gets... Well, more complex.

And that's not even the end of it. Without including spoilers Dante gains access to yet another layer of complexity after he has his full moveset already available to him. As of this game Dante is the most complete and in-depth he has ever been, and frankly, it's daunting. Even when playing him myself I struggle to keep up active weapon switching, though I feel my style switching is above average. I can chain some pretty great combos together but there is still so much more I could learn and improve upon.




There is one other character not mentioned here though, and that'd be Vergil. As is tradition he's included with the Special Edition of the game regardless of his place in the story, wherever he's active (DMC3) or completely absent (DMC4). Vergil brings his three standard weapons. His signature katana Yamato has much of its DMC4 moveset included, with a few small additions in the form of a helm-splitter type move and a wide slash that slows enemies down. Yamato is precise and powerful, and you always feel like a badass using it. Vergil also keeps Beowulf, his gauntlet and boot weapon from the previous two games. With Beowulf Vergil can perform fast sweeping kicks and flowing strikes, Lunar Phase is never not satisfying to use. The third weapon available to Vergil his Yamato and Mirage Edge (Formerly Force Edge). With this dual-wielding style you'll get the most rapid strikes available to the character. The individual hits don't deal much damage but they're so fast that they quickly catch up to Yamato and Beowulf in that regard.

Vergil keeps his 'trick' moveset which is much like Dante's Trickster style, and he also gets a ranged weapon in the form of his usual Summoned Swords, though they've been renamed now. Vergil keeps his 'concentration' gauge, otherwise dubbed as the 'motivation' gauge by fans. This system makes it so that you're rewarded for behaving like Vergil, and punished for playing him more like his brother Dante. This meaning that you need to be calm, collected, and precise. Whiffed strikes will lower the meter, as will jumping and running around like a fool. As Vergil you need to ensure every slash hits, every evasion is swift and at the last possible moment, and you need to dispatch your enemies efficiently and even let him finish animations like sheathing Yamato. In addition Vergil gets some new powerful 'finisher' type moves that require his concentration gauge to use. He's as complete as he's ever been, but still nowhere on the level of Dante.




Now that the characters are out of the way, I'll quickly go over other mechanics. The game is structured into missions that let you used predetermined characters. First few missions will have you play as Nero, until later you'll get V, and finally Dante. Some missions will have two characters available to pick from and during these you'll become aware of the 'cameo' system. The cameo system is where for example; you'd pick Nero for a mission where you could have picked V. When playing this you'll get a slightly different route to follow, but as you do so you'll see a replay of whoever chose to play V, and as you progress through your side you'll see them on theirs, killing demons and racking up a style meter too. One mission in particular has active online play, where you'll actually be able to co-op alongside random strangers playing as the other two characters you didn't pick.

The game is also focused around a style meter. Killing your enemies as fast as you can with optimal damage isn't the way to go in DMC unless you're aiming for a speedrun. You'll get a much more favorable end-result after the mission for taking down your enemies in creative and beautiful combos, which racks up the style meter from D - Dismal, all the way to SSS - Smokin' Sexy Style. As a bonus the higher you take that style meter up the more upbeat and loud the music will get. Each music track in the game is dynamic, and so you'll get a slow instrumental from lower styles and full blown choruses and vocals from the highest ones, giving you an audible notification for when you're kicking ass, and it feels great.

Progressing through the game you'll earn Red Orbs (Otherwise known as Rorbs by fans). These orbs serve as your main currency for acquiring upgrades to both your moveset and your health/DT (Devil Trigger) meter. Nero also uses Orbs to purchase more Devil Breakers. This is an essential part of the game as purchasing new moves for each character will allow you to perform more fluidly and stylishly in combat, giving you easier access to that coveted SSS rank.

Level-design is pretty straightforward with each mission being a linear route to the end where you'll face off with a boss. Along this route there are secrets to be found in the form of Blue and Purple orbs (Blorbs and Porbs) that will upgrade health and DT gauge respectively. There are also secret missions that can be accessed that have very specific conditions for completing, and when done will reward you with more of these orbs.

In addition to this there are several modes, including different difficulties ranging from Human (Easy) to Son of Sparda (Hard) and then further. Modes like Dante Must Die, which is extremely difficult, Heaven or Hell where everyone including you dies in one hit, Hell or Hell where only you die in one hit, and Legendary Dark Knight mode available only to Special Edition players which causes a LOT more enemies to spawn during encounters.

An entirely separate mode is available in the form of the Bloody Palace; a type of gauntlet to truly test your skill. Each floor from 1 to 101 is filled with enemies and bosses. Your objective? Fight your way through all of them with limited healing in the form of green orbs (Can you guess? It's Grorbs. (Gorbs is taken by Gold Orbs)). Completing Bloody Palace grants you huge bragging rights, an achievement, and a unique taunt for the character you finished it on.

All of that being said, make no mistake. Devil May Cry 5 is a difficult game if you're even at Normal, never mind the later difficulties. It's difficult in the way that a lot of older games are. It's a linear stage sure, and with a tough boss at the end. But the enemies? They're no face-roll for the uninitiated, and sometimes certain enemies and combo of enemies can give difficulty to even more veteran players. And none of that is without taking into account the difficulty of learning the characters themselves if you want to pull things off stylishly.

If you've been pining for a difficulty like the games of eld we knew and loved, this one might just scratch that itch. Finished it on Demon Hunter? Move to Son of Sparda mode and fight your way through it, and then onto the next difficulty, and then Bloody Palace. It'll keep you busy and challenged for some time. For less competitively inclined players Human mode is about as easy as it'll get, and you'll have a decent chance of breezing through the game. With any luck you'll be inspired to learn your favorite character more and then venture into the harder difficulties.




[Graphics]

As expected it's about as visually stunning as Devil May Cry has ever been. A decent palette of differing environments at the start what with the city streets, neon lights, and crumbling buildings. Later you'll move into some old crypts or ruins, and several times you'll visit the Qliphoth tree, which is the game's weakest environment. It's one of my few gripes with the game, in that the Qliphoth gets used so often as a stage and it has little variation when you're in there. It leads to a lot of the later levels blurring together in my opinion, and they're only broken up by the bosses that you face at the end. The beginning of the game by far has the most visually pleasing areas.

The visual representation of enemies is distinct and easily identifiable amidst a group of foes, letting you know quite instantly which ones are the larger threat and need to be taken out first. With that in mind combat is very easily understandable thanks to the flashy moves and distinct animations that accompany them. You'll never confuse one move for another.

When off-screen enemies will refuse to attack, so there'll be no getting hit from something you had no chance to see coming, but that can also be abused.

In regards to playing Vergil especially, the man has a habit for most of his attacks putting the camera between you and the enemy, hiding him from view. This can get in the way and be bothersome, and often time requires you to readjust Vergil to somewhere more visible.

The Special Edition include ray-tracing which works wonders on the reflection of puddles of water on the ground as well as the glass in the city streets. All in all it's a pretty game that holds up to the current year, and likely will further down the line.




[Story]

The stories in the Devil May Cry games have never been ones to write home about, and more serve as simple guides to allow cool scenes to take place. Taking the story seriously for a DMC game isn't something that should be done, and if you're going in expecting to get engrossed in it then you're going to be disappointed.

The story centers mainly around Nero, the primary protagonist from the fourth installment. Nero has a new haircut now, which certainly gave people a shock during the reveal trailer for people believed it was the DmC: Devil May Cry protagonist. But Nero is extremely unique, and as soon as people saw him rev his sword Red Queen they realized who it was, and the cheering resumed.

Nero mainly rolls around in a mobile version of Dante's demon slaying company Devil May Cry, bringing the demon slaying straight to the client. He's accompanied by Nico Goldstein, daughter of one particularly mad scientist from the previous game and grandaughter of the legendary gunsmith virtuoso, Nell Goldstein, who created Ebony and Ivory for Dante.

Some time has passed since the fourth game and it shows on Nero who is no longer the angsty hot-headed teen he used to be. He's more mature now, takes things less seriously, and might even be reminiscent of a young Dante with a heart of gold (The boy runs an orphanage and feeds homeless people, he also hates smoking).

The story kicks off with Nero having lost his arm to a mysterious cloaked figure before a large demonic tree known as the Qliphoth appears from beneath the city of Redgrave. Demons begin to attack and Nero rolls out with Nico to stop it. The intro will throw you into the Qliphoth for your first mission where you confront Urizen, a mysterious big bad demon, and then promptly get your ass beat.

As far as intros go this is pretty much it. Your objective is to stop Urizen and the Qliphoth, on all three characters. I'll speak about my thoughts on the story as a whole below.




[SPOILERS]

It's DMC. It's what I expected. Big bad guy summons a big structure and you have to stop both him and it. Very reminiscent of DMC3 isn't it? In fact, it couldn't be more so. Vergil (Urizen) raises the Temi-Ni-Gru (Qliphoth) to obtain power. There's your premise.

It does get a little deeper, what with V being the human half of Vergil and Urizen the demon half. As much was hinted very early on, and especially in the scene where V offers the mission to Dante, stating that the demon is 'your reason' (Literally Urizen) for fighting. That reason being Vergil.

The story progress up to the point where Dante defeats Urizen at the bottom of the Qliphoth tree and V fuses with him to re-introduce Vergil to the series. Vergil then goes to the top of the tree, takes part in a fight with Dante and then Nero (Who finally unlocks his Devil Trigger) and then the two fly away to take out the roots of the tree in hell, leaving Nero on the surface.




This was very much a 'passing of the torch' story between Dante and Nero. The old legendary demon hunter making room for the new younger one. I can't write home about the story, it's not the best, it's just what it is. Though I do appreciate Vergil being back, the circumstances for such happening were strange at best, but the end result is a good one at least.

As for the next game, if there is one, it'll be difficult to understand what will happen. I find it hard to believe they wouldn't put Dante back into the game, since he's been the face since the first one. That and they can't quite simply remove his entire completed and in-depth moveset from the game, it just wouldn't be the same.

Can't call it a good story, but I can call it a DMC story. Make of that what you will.




[Pros]

- Among the most in-depth combat you'll ever take part in.

- Varying characters for varying gameplay styles.

- Replayability in difficulties that change enemy spawns and fun unique modes.

- Challenging for those that really want something to sink time into.

- Visually impressive combat.

- Some really fantastic dynamic soundtracks.




[Cons]

- V is a weak character in terms of variety.

- Samey level-design in later stages.

- You fight the same boss Urizen on about four different occasions and he's one of my least favorite bosses.

- Complexity of a character like Dante is extremely daunting.

- Some enemies like Fury is frustrating to deal with and breaks the flow of combat.

- V's first boss enemy is extremely poorly designed when it comes to fighting him as Vergil.

- The story is subpar.




[Conclusion]

DMC is a series close to my heart. I adore the characters and the setting, as bad as the stories are. I play them for the cheese, the silly and zany aspects. The wacky woohoo pizza man Dante himself and his shenanigans.

That being said I've always felt there was more room to personally improve whenever it came to combat, making the replayability viable just to learn to get better at playing a particular character.

I think the industry still has a place for linear action games like Devil May Cry and I only wish the genre had more to offer than it currently does. The only companies really trying to make anything for it are Capcom and Platinum Games, and the latter has been radio silent on Bayonetta 3 for almost four years.

The scene isn't looking good for Character Action games and that's a sad reality, but at least with gems like DMC there'll always be hope that another will be around the corner, despite it's shortcomings as a story-driven game and some strange choices in innovation like V as a character. But hey. At least they're trying to innovate right?

[Score]

8/10

/DEAD

Risk of Rain - Inadvertent Calamity Simulator

[Introduction]

Risk of Rain describes itself an as action platformer with roguelike elements. I would add to this and also call it a wild ride, because once it gets going, it doesn't stop until you reach the end. At a certain point, depending on your character and loadout, standing still may well be a death sentence.

In any event, and in any playthrough, from start to finish, you will begin with nothing and eventually become what amounts to an extinction-level event... and that's what I love about this game.

[First Impressions]

A learning experience from the very moment you step out of your escape pod. You won't know what to expect from the locals, you won't know what each item does or which of them synergise with your character. Everything is nebulous, and this makes the game curiously immersive; you know no more than the character you're playing as. Frantically trying to make sense of everything is an integral part of your first few playthroughs, because even if you don't survive a run, your experience does.

[Development]

But before I get into the game itself, I feel it warrants mentioning that it was not only made by pretty much two guys, Duncan Drummond and Paul Morse, but was essentially a student project (in fact, it received the Best Student Game award at the 2014 Independent Games Festival). With some help from Matthew Griffin (who contributed with multiplayer code) and Chris Christodoulou (who supplied a stellar soundtrack), they managed to create something that not only works but excels. And, setting the groundwork for Hopoo Games' famous willingness to positively interact with their players and fans, Risk of Rain was partially player funded. Yes, the core game was funded and created by Duncan and Paul, but every addition on top was made possible through the generous donations of prospective players.

Supposedly, it began as a tower defense game, but eventually evolved into so much more. Of course, this is not the only thing that changed during development; in fact, there's a plethora of content that never made it into the game for one reason or another. While some of this is easily explained, such as model redesigns and redundancy in relation to other elements that perform the same function, the majority really seems like it might have made for worthwhile additions to the game - if nothing else, perhaps as post-release content patches. There were going to be "Security Chests" (which is just a mimic under a different name), something called an "Abscinder" (which was a centipede-like boss creature that could reach between platforms) and a character called "Pyro" (who, naturally, was equipped with a flamethrower) to name just a few. The full list of cut content isn't hard to find, and is worth checking out; part because it's a fascinating part of game design in general, part to mourn what could have been.

Even so, although development has stopped without the cut content being added later, the game continues to be supported to a degree, even receiving an Xbox One port as late as August 30, 2019, almost 6 years after its original release.

[Game Mechanics]

Risk of Rain is pretty straightford insofar as the player's goal:

Kill enemies to get money. Use money to open chests and get items. Use items to kill more enemies. Rinse and repeat until you feel ready to activate the level's teleporter, which will spawn a boss. Defeat the boss, teleport to the next level, repeat. Keep doing this until you reach the ancient teleporter, which will take you back to your ship, where you will face the game's final boss.

Why does the ancient teleporter take you back to your ship? More on that later.

In the meantime, the game is simultaneously fairly simple and surprisingly complex.

Simple, because it involved only 12 keys on a keyboard, 5 of which are for moving and jumping, and can be described in the most basic terms as running, shooting and looting.

Complex, because your 12 characters have 4 abilities each (many of which are situational), each of the game's staggering 110 items are of wildly varying usefulness to each character, there are no less than 10 game-modifying artifacts, and there are variations to each area, so you often have to formulate strategies on the fly.

"On the fly" could even be taken literally, as one of the items available for pickup is a feather that allows you to double jump, granting an extra jump for each additional feather acquired. Other examples include a ukulele that shoots lightning; a giant snowflake that shreds enemies; a scarf that gives a flat evasion chance, apparently extending to god damn SOLAR FLARES; a mining drill that shoots lasers; a portable marble gate that can recall you to its location; a happy mask... you get the idea. There are a lot of items, and most of them have interesting or at least useful effects. Each of them come with an associated "shipping log," giving some neat flavor details in addition to describing the item's effects.

This might lead you to believe it's a good idea to linger in an area and get as much money as possible so you can open all the chests and get all the fancy gear, but this isn't always the case. Admittedly, it's a lot more interesting, and usually a lot more fun, but the game has a pretty substantial incentive for you to not do that: every second you spend planetside, the planet tries harder to kill you. The higher the difficulty, the less time you have before the game gets harder. On Drizzle, the easiest, it scales in increments of 9 minutes. On Rainstorm, you're cut down to 4 minutes 30 seconds. On Monsoon, you're at the minimum of 3 minutes. Don't think that just because the difficulty bar up in the corner has filled, it means it won't get any harder. It absolutely does, and the game will literally be laughing at you as it keeps ramping up.

The difficulty scaling is more than just an increase in numbers, too. It operates off a similar concept to the Left 4 Dead AI Narrator, in the sense that the Risk of Rain "Narrator" or Narrator equivalent is allotted a number of "points," effectively serving as a sort of currency. Each enemy type costs points, with more dangerous enemies costing more, particularly the elite variants that come with elemental bonuses, such as freezing explosions on death, leaving trails of fire, that sort of thing. The more the difficulty scales up, the more points the Narrator gets, and the more powerful enemies you have to face, eventually reaching a point where bosses will spawn without activating the level's teleporter.

Another part of the difficulty, although something of a meta-part of it, is the confusion I mentioned earlier in the review. In this regard, the game transcends the fourth wall, because in addition to the built-in elements, you also have to relearn a few things that might be taken for granted in other games. The biggest issue for many is the damage system, which could probably be described as unconventional at best. You see, where a lot of games will tell you in fairly simple terms how much damage you're doing, Risk of Rain uses a percentage system. What does "shoot twice for 2x60% damage" mean? It's not made any less confusing by the fact that damage to enemies is displayed. The explanation is deceptively simple: each character has a set base damage (say, 12 damage for the Commando), and the percentage is drawn from this number. I suspect they chose to display a percentage on character abilities instead of raw numbers because damage increases with character level, but this is a small comfort, because the base damage is not immediately accessible to the player.

Now, you could just play through the game once, kill the final boss and leave it at that. If that's what you want, good for you, but you're sincerely missing out on what the Danes call "det gode lort," namely unlocking all of the aforementioned 110 items, the 12 characters, the item logs and the monster logs. After all, what's the point of a roguelike if you aren't going to play it more than once?

And, of course, dying is part of a roguelike as well. Risk of Rain kinda takes that to the next level by not only recording how many times you've died, but also assigning you a nemesis: the monster type responsible for most of your deaths. Mine is the humble Lemurian, if you care to know. In addition, a bunch of other stats get tracked as well - total cash earned, total kills, total distance ran, highest item stack, those sorts of things. Completely unnecessary and largely inconsequential, but a neat feature nonetheless.

As a final note on the gameplay, a word of warning:

While I praise the character variety, be aware that this also means your mileage may vary. Because earnest effort has been made to keep the characters as different as possible (in my experience, none of them play similarly enough that I felt any of them were redundant), it is almost entirely unavoidable that players will find that certain characters just aren't fun to play. In my case, as the most immediate example available to me, the Sniper is at the bottom rung, because the focus on precision and lack of mobility makes me feel like a glass cannon bolted to the floor. Others have issues with the Miner for his extraordinarily short range, the Enforcer for his sluggishness or Acrid for his unique reliance on damage over time.

Granted, each character has its strength, but sometimes it feels less like a strength and more like a niche to me, and not always a niche I enjoy.

[Graphics]

There's not much to say in terms of appearance, other than that they went for a sort of retro pixel style. It does bear mentioning, however, that the spritework is excellent, because enemies have recognisable silhouettes that help quickly convey what you're up against at a glance, at least when you've gained enough experience to know what to expect from different enemy types.

It's nothing fancy, but what's there is solid and gets the job done without causing confusion to the player through visual clutter, except perhaps when shit really hits the fan - but at that point, you probably have enough killing implements strapped to your body that you won't have to worry about any particular enemies smaller than a 2 story house, and the rest should still be easy enough to distinguish from the horde of creatures out for your blood.

While it probably goes without saying, I will briefly touch on the elephant in the room: if you don't like pixels and sprites and the like, then the game will probably be an eyesore to you, and consequently not worth your time.

 [Story]

It's entirely possible to play through Risk of Rain 500 times and never so much as consider there might be a story. If you're more interested in the crunch than the fluff, then nothing stops you from ignoring it, because it's almost entirely told through environment, context and logs.

To make a short story even shorter, you are SURVIVOR. Your ship, the UES Contact Light, crashes on a planet. During the crash, its cargo of strange and sometimes downright irresponsibly dangerous items get scattered across the planet surface. The locals are universally hostile towards you for no discernible reason, so you're forced to fight back. As you trek through a variety of odd biomes, you pick up the cargo from the Contact Light and decide to put it to good use. Sometimes this means strapping a gun to your gun, sometimes it means bringing along a teddy bear, sometimes it means injecting yourself with super stim packs, and sometimes it means strapping a live tesla coil to your body and hoping for the best. What could go wrong? And what choice do you have? You're only doing what's necessary to survive. You just want to get off the planet. You just want to go home.

[SPOILERS]

The inadvertent calamity is you, the player.

Remember earlier, when I said we'd come back to why the ancient teleporter takes you back to your ship? Well, if you pay attention during the intro, Providence, the final boss, doesn't just teleport onto your ship via some magical means; he uses a teleporter identical to the ones from the planet.

We've been stealing things from the planet.

That's why we have field logs studying the locals.

That's why Providence calls us monsters when we kill him.

We're the bad guys. The locals have only experienced hostility from us, so of course they reciprocate it. The player characters effectively represent an invasive and hostile force of raiders and thieves, come to pillage their homes.

[Pros]

- It's a roguelike, with all the ups and downs this entails

- Controls are easy to learn

- At 70.11MB, it takes seconds to download and install

- Substantial variety of characters, items and enemies, particularly considering the budget and team size

- Unlocking aforementioned characters, items and enemy logs provide replay value

- Solid single player experience

- Multiplayer supporting up to 4 players by default (but the game files are modifiable, so if you know what you're doing, there is, theoretically, no limit)

- Cheap, frequently on sale, has a discounted 4-pack bundle

- Unexpectedly interesting story element

- Fantastic soundtrack

- Mostly bug-free!

[Cons]

- It's a roguelike, with all the ups and downs this entails

- Controls may be difficult to master

- Damage system is confusing

- Graphics may be off-putting

- Some players may find some characters uninteresting or downright unenjoyable

- If you have no interest in unlock completion, replay value may diminish

- No item sharing in multiplayer

- Not completely bug free

[Conclusion]

If you're into roguelikes, unlock completion, pixel art and... accidental genocide, I guess, then check out Risk of Rain. Moral compass optional.

 [Score]

8/10

/DUX