Risk of Rain 2 is the exciting follow-up to the original Risk of Rain. The first game was a massive hit that impressed players with its truly unique style. And Risk of Rain 2 improves on that design in almost every possible way.
One to four players are presented with a series of levels to progress through in order to survive on an alien planet.
The game is especially notable for melding roguelike elements with a third-person shooter style.
The levels are all hand-crafted and designed rather than using the procedurally generated approach typically favored by roguelikes.
But individual elements within those levels are randomized to ensure that no two game sessions will be the same.
Is Risk of Rain 2 Cross Platform?
Unfortunately, “Risk of Rain 2” is not Cross Platform.
The initial news of Risk of Rain 2’s development instantly caught people’s attention.
The first game was well-received, but it was limited by the underlying game engine and budget.
A sequel merging the first’s groundbreaking concepts with a 3D engine seemed like a perfect evolution of the idea.
And the fact that it was released for both PC and multiple consoles made people imagine gaming sessions shared among a wide group of people.
However, this raises an important question. Is Risk of Rain 2 actually cross-platform?
Can you sit down for a session on one platform and play alongside a friend using another?
The simple answer is that it’s not cross-platform.
Risk of Rain 2 is available for a number of different platforms. But for the most part, players are only able to play with other people using the same gaming device.
Is Risk of Rain 2 cross-platform between PC and Xbox?
PC and Xbox often have the highest chance for cross-platform, or crossplay, compatibility.
This is thanks to the fact that Microsoft controls both the Xbox and the operating system that the vast majority of PC games run on.
Unfortunately, that predisposition to crossplay doesn’t hold true for this particular game.
Risk of Rain 2 players on PC can’t connect with players on the Xbox.
And the same holds true in the other direction. Xbox Risk of Rain 2 players can’t connect with PC players.
The main problem is that Risk of Rain 2 is primarily seen as a PC game with console ports. The end result is that the PC build of Risk of Rain 2 is almost always ahead of the console versions.
Even if a console version is updated in a timely manner it’s still going to have significant compatibility breaking differences show up on a regular basis.
There’s not much point in allowing cross-platform play if it’ll only be available for short windows of time.
On top of that, even those windows would lack significant playtesting to ensure no unforeseen compatibility issues showed up.
Cross-platform support for any system can obviously work. And in particular between PC and Xbox. But in this particular case, there’s little hope of ever seeing PC and Xbox cross-platform play.
Is Risk of Rain 2 cross platform between PC and PS4?
There’s no cross-platform crossplay between PC and PS4 for the same reason that it’s not found between PC and Xbox.
The release cycle is just two differences between the platforms to allow for proper crossplay.
Therefore, PC players can’t connect with players on the PlayStation 4. And PS4 Risk of Rain 2 players can’t connect with friends playing on PC.
On Which platforms can you play Risk of Rain 2?
The options to play Risk of Rain 2 with people on different platforms are certainly limited.
But the amount of platforms people can choose from isn’t. Risk of Rain 2 is available on a wide variety of different systems.
This includes the previously mentioned PC, PS4, and Xbox One releases. But Risk of Rain 2 is also available on the Switch and Stadia.
Will Risk of Rain 2 come to PlayStation 5 or new Xbox Series X/S?
Of course, there are two big consoles that haven’t been mentioned yet. What about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S? At the moment there hasn’t been any news of a true port to those two systems.
That might seem like bad news at first. But both of these platforms boast some impressive backward compatibility.
So you can play the PlayStation 4 version of Risk of Rain 2 on the PlayStation 5. And you can play the Xbox One version of Risk of Rain 2 on the Xbox Series X/S.
What are Roguelike games?
Risk of Rain 2 has been many people’s first introduction to roguelikes. The exact definition of roguelikes is somewhat contentious.
But they’re generally defined as games that heavily borrow elements from the 1980 PC game Rogue.
One of the most important points is that a roguelike needs heavy randomization. Most roguelikes randomize some of their level designs.
This includes a level’s architecture, monsters, and treasure. Risk of Rain 2 only makes light use of this feature when compared to most other roguelikes. But it’s still used enough to ensure that no two sessions of Risk of Rain 2 will be exactly the same.
A roguelike also provides players with a vast amount of items to use. Each of these can dramatically alter gameplay and its relationship to the larger environment.
Risk of Rain 2’s 137 items and its 35 equipable items are quite respectable in that regard.
Finally, a roguelike is essentially an answer to the question of replayability. Many of the early roguelike developers stated that they ultimately wanted to create a game that they themselves could be surprised by.
The ideal of a roguelike is to have so many pieces in motion that it can create an infinite variety of gaming experiences.
Games that only use some of these elements, like Risk of Rain 2, are typically fit into a subcategory of roguelikes called roguelites.
These are games where some rogue elements are either missing or not as strict as within a traditional roguelike. In short, the rogue elements are lite when directly compared to standard roguelike games.
This subgenre came about in large part as a concession to the requirements of modern 3D graphics. The fact that artists need to design 3D elements means that the randomization found in standard roguelikes needs to be trimmed back.