Risk of Rain 2’s Hallowed Concepts DLC is another hit for one of the best roguelikes around. Years after a shaky start, Gearbox seems to be doing a much better job with the genre icon.
The Borderlands maker bought Risk of Rain 2 back in 2022, as the original developers soon went to work at Valve. The beloved roguelike then found itself in troubled waters. Gearbox’s first major update to the game post-buyout, Seekers of the Storm, was hugely divisive with series fans, but the publisher has since turned things around with last year’s Alloyed Collective and this week’s Hallowed Concepts.
Risk of Rain 2’s newest expansion is already a hit on Steam, with 84% of user reviews giving it the thumbs up on the platform.
“Hallowed Concepts blows every other DLC out of the water,” one positive review reads. “The DLC is so fresh and does so much to reinvigorate the lategame that it feels like the devs read my mind… There’s so much intentional and clever design in how these new systems are implemented and overlay themselves on top of the core game. So much of the new content is geared towards making the lategame matter again… It’s lovely. Truly.”
“Easily the best DLC from the new team. Seekers was fine after it got patched from launch, Alloyed Collective was also fine, but this blows the others out of the water. I’d say it’s on-par with Void. Not to mention the free update it came with was huge, adding 4 new skills and challenges for them (even if Acrid’s is cruel). Good job,” another says.
Hallowed Concept isn’t totally flawless, however. The negative reviews that do exist draw attention to the expansion’s bugs, and not the creepy crawly kind. “Great expansion, fun items and bosses, but in one day, two runs died to bosses spawning outside of the map and becoming impossible to attack, until that’s fixed I cannot recommend this expansion, but otherwise amazing,” a negative review says.
Regardless, it’s a good step forward for the roguelike icon.