izigame.me

It's much nicer looking but every bit as annoying as the first game. I've already 100% the first game, this time around I was really hoping for some sort of balance update, but they really meant it when they said this would be a faithful remaster, to the chagrin of my sanity.
Addendum:
I didn't make it clear in my original review, but I don't hate this game. I loved the first game, and by extension that means I love the same things in this game. But ten years ago the action roguelite genre was still pretty young. A lot of the game mechanics present were antithetical to its design though I was willing to overlook them in light of the game's combat loop and the novelty of time = difficulty VS infinite item stacking. but ever since RoR2 came out I haven't really had a reason to look back... until I saw the tagline "Risk of Rain 1 but updated" and I misinterpreted it as "improved" or "modernized" when it actually meant "remastered," which is why I'm disappointed, though I suppose that's my own fault for not examining it more closely before buying. If I could, I would give this game a neutral review.
The word "deliberate" gets thrown around a lot, even during the first game's time. It's deliberate that you have to adopt rigorous, repetitive movement techniques in order to avoid fast enemies or those with homing/predictive aim. It's deliberate that you have to section off tanks and flying enemies to fight properly. It's deliberate that this game plays more like a moba than a platformer.
The crux of the issue is, no matter how efficiently you are playing (and the maps will try their best to prevent you from playing efficiently), you will more than likely run into something you can't reasonably deal with, and this happens much more often than you would like. Maybe it doesn't end your run immediately, but chances are it gets the ball rolling if you suddenly have to eke through an overbearing horde or boss over several minutes. It takes looping completely out of the question if you don't chance upon core items. I would prefer to lose a run due to an accumulation of bad choices or misinputs, not immediately due to a bad matchup. And that's where I think the term "deliberate" becomes a cope. It's a codeword for "s### happens," which is befitting of the title but doesn't make for a compelling gameplay loop.
(Back to the original review...)
For every step in the right direction it feels like they have also misstepped.
Survivors are able to kite more effectively (sort of) but now more enemies can climb ledges and even ropes, meaning you will be kiting even more. The chest system has been overhauled to be more like RoR2 so you don't accidentally get equipment from a small chest or multishop but equipment chests and the more expensive category chests now account for half the chests on the map, which was never that many to begin with. While a few of the new alternate skills do feel like legitimate sidegrades, a lot of them do not feel well thought out at all, and the Artificer feels like an afterthought due to how dysfunctional her entire kit is. Many of the new "Providence Trials" minigames are quite innovative and fun but unfortunately they are separate from the main game and only serve to unlock those hit-and-miss alternate abilities, cosmetics and a few items-- I would have preferred if they were somehow incorporated as Hidden Realms between runs for bonus loot but as they are implemented feel like squandered development time.
The new monsters include 2 enemies that try to ambush you, a flying divebomber, and a zoning monster that can stretch vertically to meet you with slow projectiles, but the list of new engaging enemies ends there as every other new monster feels tanky or overtuned, none more than the new boss, which is like if a Scavenger could appear at any point in a run and I groan whenever I see it spawn in.
The new items are fine. I especially like Prophet's Cape. The problem isn't and has never been item bloat as a whole, but rather that the rarity spread of items feels commensurate at the best of times. Especially with how unimpactful many of the game's original white items are, having access to varied common items more often would go a long way, I believe.
Here is my laundry list of problems that have existed in Risk of Rain 1 that this game kept by tradition:
Every single map barring Sky Meadow and Risk of Rain is still a nightmare to traverse. The worst contenders are the ones which can only be traversed by doing a full rotation of the map if your mobility is inadequate. This game has semisolid platforms and it chooses to not utilize them anywhere that they would make sense. Large enemy corpses can completely obscure small ledges, and some of the solid terrain blends into the background by design.
Many bosses completely counter certain survivors. Bosses can still drop equipment instead of an item. Bosses capable of receiving knockback can fall far below the teleporter, forcing you to meet them before climbing back up to the teleporter. Bosses immune to knockback but unable to follow the player around the map can spawn in a very disadvantageous spot where you cannot fight them quickly or safely causing you to lose the run. Volatile elites are still not fun to fight. The credit cost for elite bosses still feels extremely low. Small elite enemies that are dangerous to get near can stealthily spawn into dense crowds of enemies. Dense crowds of enemies have no synchronization meaning they can spam-fire longer than you can stay airborne or give you no opportunity to trade damage.
"Mobility" and "Special" ability placement is inconsistent across survivors, rendering ability-augmenting items for some survivors useless. Until an ability finishes casting the game will still completely ignore the input of any other ability, including your primary. Many survivors require items that help them cover angles or perform crowd control that they normally don't have access to, which of course is not guaranteed. Drones are extremely fragile in proper engagements and only effective when out of enemy reach (which is now a lot less common). Bungus doesn't heal while you are attacking, despite what we've learned.
The feedback from attacking enemies as well as the sound design and music is still phenomenal, and I know recreating all of the game assets in HD must have been time consuming but game's fundamental mechanics involve archaic and aggravating features, which means they're not going away soon.
I just hope the developers continue to tweak the game to keep the game's high moments present while ripping the cord on your run less often.