Risk Of Rain Returns' new alt abilities let you cook, shove and snipe
Beyond a remaster
Risk Of Rain Returns is a remaster of the 2013, side-scrolling roguelike, but it's adding plenty that's new. The latest 'dev thoughts' video from developers Hopoo Games demonstrates some of the new alternate attack abilities available for every character, from sniper shots to turning your enemies into food.
"Roguelike" always feels like an inadequate phrase when describing Risk Of Rain, and "platformer" doesn't really communicate the flavour of the experience either. You're better to think of it, in 2022, as Vampire Survivors as viewed from a side-on perspective. You're going to pick a character, make that character enormously powerful with active and passive skills over the course of a run, and battle against ever-growing swarms of enemies.
In Returns, each character will have three alternate abilities, although the video above only shows one for each. I like a bunch of them, but in particular: the Sniper, whose alternate fire lets them choose exactly where their shot lands, so they can prioritise enemies; the Enforcer, who has a shield they can use to ram enemies of all sizes backwards; and the Chef, who can cook enemies into meals that confer their own status effects upon players who consume them. You can read more about the alt abilities in this post on Steam.
Risk Of Rain Returns is due for release sometime later this year via Steam. It'll be the first Risk Of Rain game since Hopoo sold the series to Gearbox, its long-time publisher. It also sounds as if Returns might also be Hopoo's last game in the series, as they're ready to move onto making different things.