Franco Abrina
I’ve been a huge fan of Risk of Rain 2 ever since it was first released in early access. Heck, I own the first game on two different platforms and even bought Risk of Rain Returns. With the recent release of the Seekers of the Storm DLC marks the first new major content drop released by Gearbox after they acquired the IP from Hopoo Games. Should you buy it, though? Let’s talk about it first.
Should You Buy the Seekers of the Storm DLC?
Before we even talk about the DLC, let me actually warn Xbox players right now. If you plan on getting the DLC for that console in particular, hold off for now.
Players are all reporting that the Xbox version (even without the DLC) is just straight up unplayable at the time of writing. Like, you literally cannot start a run as you can’t press anything at the main menu. Wait for a fix to come out before even considering it. Please comment if this has been fixed!
NOTE: Some people say that there is a temporary fix that involves using an alt account or just deleting your save file. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound desirable at all…
Seemingly Rushed Development
Full disclaimer, but I do have the DLC and have played a fair bit already. I think it’s alright, but I’m just one of the lucky ones who do not experience a lot of the issues that seem to be plaguing many other.
I didn’t say I don’t experience any, however. As I’m writing this, I have the game running in the background and occasionally tab in and out as I gauge my thoughts. Just 2 teleporters in and I already got hit by a game-breaking bug with the new Seeker survivor.
I’m basically immortal now after using the Seeker’s mobility skill, but I also can’t use any of my abilities nor pick up any items. My cooldown is just locked at 9 seconds too. Don’t believe me? Look at this absurd screenshot below:
There’s apparently a lot of bugs all across the board now ranging from very silly to just straight up disruptive like the one in my example. Right now, I’ll put it at a solid “buy at your own risk”.
Hopoo has recently put out a statement on Twitter (no, I won’t call it “X”), and they seem to have faith in the developers. So, despite the seemingly rushed release of this DLC, they might start rolling out fixes over the next few weeks.
If you are on the fence and aren’t willing to pay for the DLC right now, just avoid it for now and stick with Survivors of the Void until more patches come out.
On that note, regional pricing for the Seekers of the Storm DLC on Steam has been fixed recently. If you were turned off by the high price on launch, you might find that it has gone down by around half now depending on where you live.
Also, as I am writing this, the developers just posted a Post-Launch Dev Diary over on Steam. It summarizes some of the bugs that they plan on fixing for PC. This includes glaring issues such as framerate affecting gameplay in various ways.
It might not be enough for some players, but it’s a step in the right direction. A very small one, but still a step nonetheless. We will just have to wait and see if the new developers can actually fix everything that they broke with this launch.
New Item and Survivor Additions
Moving away from the technical issues, the new additions aren’t too bad for the most part. I mean, the new survivors are pretty nice. I’m really enjoying the Seeker in particular, even though it just broke for me mid run.
The items that they added, though, those aren’t doing too hot right now. This could just be because people are only just figuring out how to best utilize them, but some items like the Antler Shield look like primo scrapper food.
Don’t even get me started on the Noxious Thorn. If the term “massive disappointment” had a physical form, it would take the shape of that item in particular. Maybe it doesn’t fit my playstyle, but I just don’t like it at all.
Personally, I do see a lot of use for some new items like the Sale Star or Chance Doll. Those two are pretty good, and you’ll probably be printing a bunch of high tier items early with them.
The new environments are pretty nice too. I don’t really have any strong feelings towards them, they’re just a nice change of scenery if you ask me.
To Sum It Up…
Again, buy at your own risk. In its current state, there will be a lot of jankiness that will be beyond your control. If you were already playing the game before, you’re probably affected by some of these problems even without the DLC.
Things being tied to framerate is a major issue that, while I haven’t necessarily felt the effects of while locked to 144 FPS, is something that must be addressed as soon as possible.
If you think about it, most of the problems actually come with the update that they rolled out alongside the DLC’s release. The DLC itself is actually not that bad at all, especially if you consider that the previous one had its own share of stinkers too.
For now, if you haven’t decided on buying it yet, I highly recommend checking out this guide on how to downpatch Risk of Rain 2 if you want to avoid all the mess that came with the update. Trust me, you’ll be saving yourself from a lot of headaches this way.
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