Risk of Rain 2 was originally published by Gearbox Software, the long-running studio behind Borderlands, the Half-Life expansions, and the erstwhile Brothers In Arms series. In November 2022, however, Gearbox purchased the rights to the roguelike game outright; three days ago, on Tuesday August 27, Gearbox released its first Risk of Rain 2 DLC, Seekers of the Storm. It hasn’t been going well. Only 30% of user reviews on Steam are favorable, and the DLC has a damning ‘mostly negative’ rating. Now, developers from the original Risk of Rain 2 base game have shared comments about the state of the new DLC, alongside Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.
Seekers of the Storm is the first Risk of Rain 2 DLC developed by Gearbox entirely – the base version of the roguelike game and the 2022 DLC Survivors of the Void were built by series creator Hopoo. Criticisms of the new expansion vary, but generally players say that the new items added to RoR 2 are either weak or superficial, that the additional playable characters are similarly underpowered, and that, in some cases, the DLC has introduced fresh bugs and technical problems. Two developers from Hopoo, the original team behind Risk of Rain and its sequel, share comments regarding Gearbox’s first effort.
Jeffrey Hunt, also known as ‘Ghor,’ served as the main programmer, co-designer, and also as a concept artist on Risk of Rain 2. Writing on game’s modding Discord, he comments in response to Seekers of the Storm and its reception, simply writing “my poor baby.” Speaking exclusively to PCGamesN, Hunt describes his feelings about the DLC in more detail, explaining that some of the changes made to his original coding work are “difficult” to see.
“I wrote a majority of the game’s code, among other things, and it’s a codebase I’m really proud of, especially with so many people doing cool things modding the game,” Hunt says. “In the indie space, small team sizes mean there can be a lot of sense of individual ownership in what you do.
“In late 2021 Hopoo Games and I ended up parting ways very suddenly from my perspective, so it felt a bit like losing my game project of five years. Seeing some of the rushed changes crippling that work is difficult.”
In terms of Gearbox’s work on the DLC more generally, Hunt says he thinks the team assigned to Seekers of the Storm did what it could.
“I think that the team working on the DLC did the best they could with what time and resources they were given, which isn’t a stretch to guess wasn’t enough,” he says. “I remember the team at Gearbox we worked with on the Survivors of the Void DLC was doing really well, particularly on the new stages.
“I do know there are passionate and talented people there who want to do cool things with the series and I want whoever works on it to succeed and have the same kind of fun working on it that I did.”
Duncan Naoki Drummond, the co-founder of original Risk of Rain and RoR 2 studio Hopoo shares a single – but perhaps telling – emoji. Posting on Friday August 30, the developer writes a simple “ : / .” According to Emojipedia, a repository of emoji history and definitions, this symbol is used to denote “skepticism, confusion, or frustration.”
Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox Software, has replied to various Risk of Rain 2 players regarding the DLC. One player asks Pitchford about specifically his role in creating Seekers of the Storm. Pitchford outlines his responsibilities as an “executive producer” and says that if players have any problems with the DLC, they can blame him.
“I am super, super proud of what we [Gearbox] accomplished,” Pitchford writes. “It is a very awesome team making very awesome entertainment. All glory goes to the dev team. If you have any problems, please blame me. I am always happy to be the pin cushion and am ultimately responsible and accountable anyways. Whatever the case, don’t be a hater.”
Another player writes directly to Pitchford to say that they are “doubting” the game-maker’s “judgment and shot-calling ability to do anything good anymore.” Pitchford says that he is going to continue working on new projects.
“I’m going to keep making stuff,” the Gearbox CEO says. “I wish everything could be a hit, but that is not how it works. The greatest musical act of all time, The Beatles, had a 25% hit rate. I’m sure every song they recorded was done with love and commitment to the art and belief in the quality of their work.
“My favorite artists, performers, and entertainers have all made things I didn’t like so much. It’s cool. When artists have a miss, that’s when they need fans the most to root them on so they are motivated to keep creating. I don’t know if I will ever make anything again that you like, but wouldn’t it be better for you to have that chance to decide than for artists to never create again after a marketplace miss?”
Since the launch of the DLC, more players than ever have logged into Steam to player Risk of Rain 2 concurrently – on Wednesday August 28, 75,406 people played RoR 2 simultaneously, representing a new record high.
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