Risk of Rain review: rising tide

That cargo plays an important role in setting Risk of Rain apart. It's presented in the form of chests that you can pay in-game money to unlock as you find them. Most chests contain an item, and most items modify your abilities and make you more powerful. There's obvious stuff like the bitter root, which increases your overall health by a certain percent. Then there's more interesting loot like the "happiest mask," which causes a friendly ghost to spawn every time you kill an enemy. Each item is unique and though there are nearly 100, almost all of them are useful, so I rarely felt like I had wasted money opening a chest.

It helps, also, that you can carry almost as many items as you want. You're only allowed a single usable item, but those are rare and generally not as important. Most items are passive and can be stacked for greater bonuses. The game keeps a running tally of which items you've found on the bottom of the screen, and in my best runs there would be three rows of these items and enough chaos on screen to cause the framerate to take a hit — in a way that was more satisfying than detrimental to gameplay. A huge collection of items always made me feel like a complete badass, which balanced perfectly with how much of a weakling I was at the start of every run.

Other classes come with quirks that make them more difficult to master but often more fun. For example, the enforcer is an extremely slow class, but his close-range shotgun deals a lot more damage per blast, and his shield allows him to block all incoming damage if used wisely. The sniper can attack from extreme ranges and one-shot even the most powerful foes, but they're incredibly weak up close. Some later class unlocks are even melee-focused, which I can barely wrap my head around. New classes aren't just slight modifications to Risk of Rain; they completely change how you approach the game in ways that make replaying even more delightful.

Those new classes are unlocked with the same method that you use to unlock new items: by accomplishing specific tasks. The sniper was my gift for completing the game the first time. Surviving for 40 minutes in a run unlocked "the ol' lopper," an axe that allowed me to do bonus damage to enemies who were low on health. In addition to providing goals beyond simply beating the game, these unlocks gave me a constant feeling of progression, a welcome aspect to a game where dying wiped out most of my progress.