Gearbox's first Risk of Rain 2 expansion gets hammered on Steam as developer admits the PC version 'is in a really bad place'
Gearbox's acquisition of Risk of Rain in 2022 did not inspire widespread celebration among fans, many of whom worried the studio would find some way to screw it up. And, well, here we are: The Risk of Rain 2 expansion Seekers of the Storm, the first made by Gearbox, is out, and it's a train wreck.
The most immediately obvious issue with Seekers of the Storm was the cost. Regional pricing put the cost of the expansion significantly higher in some countries than others, and way out of line with the previous Survivors of the Void expansion: Steam users said Seekers of the Storm cost twice as much as Survivors of the Void in Brazil, for instance, even though the US price for both is listed at $15.
Gearbox addressed this issue in an update posted yesterday, saying it's changing the price of Seekers of the Storm "in select markets" to bring it more in line with the prior expansion. People who have already paid improperly inflated prices for the expansion are advised to refund it through Steam and then re-purchase it once it's available at a lower price.
The bigger problem, though, isn't so easily fixed. Seekers of the Storm is a mess, and making matters worse, the problems aren't limited to players who bought the expansion: A Risk of Rain 2 update released alongside the expansion has introduced bugs to Risk of Rain 2 for everyone.
Maybe the most significant issue is that, for some reason, the Seekers of the Storm update has tied Risk of Rain 2's physics systems to its frame rate. When asked about it on Discord, Gearbox developer GBX-Preston said FPS-related issues, "and all the ramifications on balance/physics/attack speed/movement/etc. were not intentional. This is in our top handful of issues we're investigating." As a stopgap, he said players experiencing issues should lock the game at 60 fps.
"The team is aware of the problem and is actively working on it," GBX-Preston wrote. "But for now, playing at 60 will deliver the expected behavior for most of the issues that arise from this bug."
He also acknowledged that the PC version of Risk of Rain 2 "is in a really bad place" following the update—quite a thing to admit, really—and encouraged players to report any bugs they discover.
The net result is ugly: The Seekers of the Storm expansion currently holds a "mostly negative" rating on Steam—just 34% of user reviews are positive—and Risk of Rain 2's recent reviews have been dragged down to "mixed." It's also an embarrassment Gearbox could've done without, given that it's probably still smarting from the response to the godawful mess of the Borderlands movie.
On the upside, there are memes.
Me looking at the timeline where literally anyone other than Gearbox acquired RoR2 from r/riskofrain
Apparently damage is tied to frame rate now from r/riskofrain
Attempting to be positive these days is exhausting from r/riskofrain
Finally you pc bastards experience 0.0001% of the average console update from r/riskofrain
Meanwhile, at gearbox from r/riskofrain
"We’ve been carefully monitoring player feedback related to Seekers of the Storm," Gearbox said in a statement provided to PC Gamer. "We are working quickly to address that feedback, starting with yesterday’s roll out of regional pricing adjustments. We will continue to provide updates as we make progress against reported issues."