Gearbox has released its first Risk of Rain 2 DLC since acquiring the IP almost two years ago, and it's safe to say that the release has not gone well for the studio at all.
Former owner Hopoo Games sold the Risk of Rain IP to Gearbox in November 2022, and the game's first DLC since that transfer, Seekers of the Storm, is out now. Unfortunately, it's also attracted a Mostly Negative rating on Steam in the three days since its release.
As noted by a PC Gamer report, Gearbox's woes began when players pointed out that the price of Seekers of the Storm was disproportionately expensive when compared to previous expansion Survivors of the Void. To Gearbox's credit, it did post an update on Steam yesterday addressing this issue.
Unfortunately, that's not where Gearbox's woes end with regards to Seekers of the Storm. As noted by PC Gamer, an update released with the expansion has effectively broken the base Risk of Rain 2 game, whether you've bought the DLC or not.
According to PC Gamer's report, said update has "tied Risk of Rain 2's physics systems to its frame rate", essentially breaking a number of elements in the game.
These elements include an entire character seemingly failing to function, an issue which Gearbox head Randy Pitchford subsequently referred to as "jank we've just sort of tolerated", pledging to "have another look". How magnanimous of you, Randy.
Per PC Gamer, a Gearbox developer told those in the Risk of Rain 2 Discord server that "all the ramifications on balance/physics/attack speed/movement/etc. were not intentional", advising that players lock the game to 60fps to prevent further issues.
This is an issue Gearbox will likely want to fix as soon as it can. Per SteamDB's charts, Risk of Rain 2 hit an all-time player high of 75,406 when Seekers of the Storm launched, so it's clear this DLC has attracted lots of new and returning players to the game.
For what it's worth, Pitchford himself says he's "super, super proud" of what Gearbox accomplished with Seekers of the Storm, inviting players to "blame [him]" for any problems they experience. Then again, he does also sign off with "whatever the case, don't be a hater", so make of that what you will.
We'll have to see what happens next with regards to Risk of Rain 2, but if you do want to check the game out (and don't mind that it appears to be broken), you can do so on PC via Steam, as well as on consoles.
