Artifacts Completely Change Risk Of Rain 2

Bring an umbrella 

Risk of Rain 2 is good, I believe I’ve already established that. However, having put eighty hours into the game so far, I feel I’m uniquely positioned to comment on the rather excellent Artifacts update that released on March 31st. While all of the previous updates to this Early Access game have added something, whether it be a new character, a new level, or new items. It’s all good stuff, and all of them have been great reasons to revisit/keep playing this wonderful roguelike.

However, the Artifact update has introduced literal game-changers into the mix. Each one of them alters some aspect of the gameplay, whether that be making every enemy a harder version of itself, or spawning you in as a random character at the beginning of your run. Those are great, of course, but they’ve added a few which make Risk of Rain 2 feel like a genuinely different game. You see, normally you kill enemies and spend your money on chests that have items in.

With a few of the new Artifacts, you can instead make enemies drop items instead, you can then also use an Artifact to choose which items they drop, and you can then double the number of enemies. Combining those three leads to a manic swarm of enemies that constantly close in on you, but also allows you to choose a proper build. It turns it into an RPG, where you can invest in whichever stats you want. It’s absolutely sublime.

There’s also a brand-new level which is stunning, and some new music too. The track on the new level has some excellent Dragonforce-esque shredding in it too, and the whole package is, as ever, an extraordinarily good experience. If you’ve not played Risk of Rain 2, then that’s fair enough, but also you should really start playing it. Oh, and the full release is coming next, and you can currently vote for the next character who joins the game. I want either Chef or a brand-new character, but I’ll be happy with whatever.