I played Risk of rain 2 before the original. And the 3D sequel is great fun with friends.

So when I saw the original game for Vita, I got to give it a try. The game is ballistically a 2D version of the brilliant sequel.

The concept of random maps in which you need to find loot while difficulty increase based on time is very clever. But unlike its sequel, here this concept is not so polished.

I gotta say that I did not enjoy platforming in this game. It felt stiff and map was kinda hard to navigate. Huge ladders and many leaps of faith made it very difficult to search for stuff. Of course the increasing number of enemies makes the navigation a whole lot more difficult. I often felt frustrated as I was desperately searching for the teleport that gets you to another stage. Map design is really not the best in this game. I haven't tried playing in coop. Maybe having two players searching and helping each other would make it less frustrating.

Powerups are random, so sometimes you get very good build, while other times you get items that just suck. Combine that with the luck you need to stumble upon another chest and the teleport to get to another stage and you get prety luck based runs. Not optimal!

However there is some motivation to try again and again. There is plenty of differend kinds of power ups that you unlock and collect, so there is quite some content if you want to 100% the game.

Music on the other hand is amazing. Graphics also looks nice.

As the game is roguelike, it works very well on a handheld. I still pick it up from time to time. I definitely recommend to give it a try, but sequel is much better. So if you kinda like the concept but not so much the execution, Risk of Rain 2 is here for you to try.