An Indie Backlog curated overview. We round up the best indie roguelikes and how professional critics and players received each one — the scores below are theirs, linked to the source.
A third-person roguelike where the longer you survive, the harder it gets — frantic, build-stacking chaos that goes from trickle to avalanche.
At a Glance
| Developer | Hopoo Games |
| Release year | 2020 (1.0) |
| Platforms | PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch |
| Subgenre | Action roguelike |
| Length | ~25 hours (main story) |
| Metacritic | 85 / 100 |
| Steam rating | Very Positive (~94%, 340,000+ reviews) |
| Steam Deck | Playable |
| Languages | 11 |
About the Game
Risk of Rain 2, from Hopoo Games, takes the beloved 2D original into full 3D third-person action. You crash-land on an alien planet and fight to survive across procedurally arranged stages, and the central twist is its relentless difficulty clock: the longer a run lasts, the stronger and more numerous the monsters become.
The joy is in stacking items. Pickups don’t replace each other — they pile up, and identical items multiply their effects, so a successful run snowballs from a fragile survivor into an absurd engine of bouncing missiles, chained lightning, and screen-filling carnage. The tension between leaving a stage and grabbing one more chest never lets up.
Built for solo or up to four-player co-op, it’s as much about the group melt-down of a run gone wild as individual mastery. Years of updates and the Survivors of the Void expansion deepened it further. On any platform it’s a frantic, endlessly replayable favourite.
Screenshots
Screenshots: official Steam media for Risk of Rain 2.
Why It Made the List
Risk of Rain 2 makes the list as one of the best action roguelikes for playing with friends. Its escalating-difficulty clock and item-stacking snowball create runs that swing from desperate to godlike — and it’s even better in co-op.
What the Critics Say
Risk of Rain 2 holds a Metacritic score of 85. Critics praised the leap to 3D, the item-stacking depth, and the co-op chaos; the main caveat is that its difficulty and systems can overwhelm newcomers.
What Players Say
On Steam it’s rated Very Positive across more than 340,000 reviews — about 94% positive. Players highlight the addictive item synergies and the co-op mayhem.
Praise & Criticism
Praise
- Exhilarating item-stacking snowball
- Excellent up-to-4-player co-op
- Tense escalating-difficulty clock
- Huge replayability
Criticism
- Can overwhelm newcomers
- Late runs get visually chaotic
- Some balance swings
Games Like This
- Hades — top-tier action-roguelike feel
- Vampire Survivors — another escalating-power power fantasy
- Enter the Gungeon — twitchy, run-based action
Where to Buy
Plain store links for now — swap in your affiliate-tagged URLs once you’ve joined Amazon Associates and the eBay Partner Network. (Steam has no affiliate program; that link is for convenience.)
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