I was watching a stream and I was surprised, as it looked much better than Risk of Rain 1, in the moment-to-moment gameplay. I bought it with the intention of trying for one hour and then refunding it… and yeah, I can confirm, this is a much better game than Risk of Rain 1. Day and night.
I still refunded it because it’s EA, and I’m patient, though.
In RoR1 the movement felt slightly awkward, a bit slow and unresponsive, even in comparison with other 2d platform games, never mind a 3d action game. And the action was very limited, of course, and you couldn’t aim or direct fire in any way (despite WASD + free aim with mouse also possible in 2d platform, like other games have shown), the 2d platforms restricted your movement and how the combat could play and it was a pain in the ass to go from platform to platform with vines, etc.
RoR2 plays much better in 3d. Having an extra axis of freedom feels good both for the player, and for the enemies, know they move in more interesting ways than left<>right and their shots are more easily avoided. The controls are more responsive too, the animations of some skills don’t lock you out sometimes like in RoR1, and together a few more changes (they added a new sprint key, the gold coins are auto-collected) the game flows better. I also found that at least the weaker, initial enemies aren’t as bullet sponges as in the first game, a few shots and they are done, this also makes the action feel nicer, less of a slog.
And because with normal wasd+mouse controls it makes easier to translate your skills of other games here, I’m much better. In my first game I got killed after 26 minutes, while in RoR1 I was dead in 12 minutes.
