izigame.me

I must address some "problems" with the review , before more confused individuals keep commenting . I like the niche mechanics and irksome aspects of the game, I enjoy the tedious movement and gameplay, but I am not gonna recommend it to the majority of people, for obvious reasons. If you do not know what 'obvious' means, google it.
I am also kicking the vote down to a 6 from 7, because it still has many issues, some of which were patched (I will most likely increase the score in the future when they release more updates), but some of the issues still persist and should've never been released. Also, this way all the people still finding their way around the concept of what a review is can stop complaining that I down-voted a game with a score of 7.
For everyone else commenting 'skill issue' or not understating the paragraphs above, ask ChatGPT to translate it for you.


The Review

The remake of Risk of Rain 1, or the modernised version as it has been advertised, does a lot of things right while also doing a lot of things wrong. I am enjoying the game, but they left in so many issues from the original.

The improvements

You can finally strafe while attacking
No need to kill all enemies for the teleport to unlock.
The graphics and audio design are so much better. I can't notice much difference in the remastered soundtrack, but the in-game audio and visuals are fantastic.
New survivors, items, artifacts, enemies and unlockable alternate abilities added.
Better multiplayer system makes it easier to play with friends.
Manually crafted "mini-games" in the form of Providence Trials.
The game is definitely harder than the original or RoR2, depending on who you are that might be a good thing or not.

Now for the truck load of things they either did not bother to change or made worse

Still no way to quickly change your direction of attack, either by double tapping direction key or using a mouse or any other way to do it. You have to stop, change direction and start attacking. It's not difficult to get used to it, but it is bothersome most of the time. This has been patched
No animation cancelling, meaning you have to wait until an ability finishes casting in order to press another one, otherwise the game will completely ignore your second key input. Commando seems to be the only one not affected by this as much.
Bosses can drop equipment instead of items, which makes no sense especially how often it happens, this invalidates the usage of mountain shrines. Instead of making your life harder for better rewards, you make it harder to receive 2+ equipment drops. There should be a limit on how many equipment drops/equipment chests you can receive per stage.
Out of combat items do not activate while on ropes/vines. You have to either get off the vine or wait until the item activates and then start climbing.
Stages are made to waste your time. Some are way to big to traverse, especially on characters with no mobility. Others do not have a full loop mechanic, meaning if you fall down you have to traverse the rest of the map to go back up, Sunken Tombs being one of them.
In addition to the big maps, there will sometimes be a max of 2 chests and other times you will get 3 useless drones or 5 shrines which drop nothing. Coupled with a map like Damp Caverns, which has so many layers and is bigger than most, you will waste so much time searching for a chest that it's far more worth to just skip it all together.
Still no indicator on what number stage you are. This is not that big of an issue, but it would make it easier for people who want to 100% the game and gather all logs.
Now that enemies can climb ropes, plus enemies that teleport into you and the new enemies that dive-bomb you, makes kiting really important and harder to do. This reaches a point where, you need to articulate your movement in such a way to dodge everything or you get oneshot by certain mobs. Especially on higher difficulties like Monsoon, it feels more like a chore and I know some people like doing this (me included sometimes), but for most it's not a great time and it gets tedious rather quickly.
There are a lot more issues, I will just quickly list a few of them.

Enforcer not blocking AOE, pierce attacks or even enemies standing in you.
Huntress auto-aim is more of a nuisance than being of any help This has been patched
Artificer simply sucks and is not fun to play
Certain multi-hit abilities do not proc items multiple times
Providence trials are fun for the most part, but some are absolutely horrendous to complete
Bosses directly countering certain survivors, to a point in which you can't do anything about it.
Most items are pointless, more so on other survivors
Stages do not feel intuitive to travel
Attacking, even if no enemy is nearby, cancels certain out-of-combat items like Red Whip and Bustling Fungus
The game is capped at 60 fps and sometimes there are lag spikes pushing it down to 20-30, not that great for a 'modern' game.

Final Thoughts

The gameplay of the original RoR is vastly outdated. RoR Returns is basically 80% of the same game, but it does not feel and look like a browser game.
I do like the game and it is surely an improvement with a bit more content, but adding a few characters and items does not make a game better, that's just a DLC. The only important thing they fixed, is the ability to move while attacking.
I know Hopoo Games will release more patches for the game, but some of these problems should have not existed in the first place, especially when you call it a modernized version.
So should you buy it? If you loved the first game then yes. If you do not like platformers, dreadful RNG and learning gimmicky movement, then to do not buy it. If you just want to give it a try, then go for it, the game is rather cheap, but I would wait until more patches are released, before buying the game.
As it stands right now, I give it a 6/10