{"id":4325,"date":"2022-05-05T19:55:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T17:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/rogue-legacy-2-review-an-endlessly-replayable-roguelite\/"},"modified":"2022-05-05T19:55:30","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T17:55:30","slug":"rogue-legacy-2-review-an-endlessly-replayable-roguelite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/rogue-legacy-2-review-an-endlessly-replayable-roguelite\/","title":{"rendered":"Rogue Legacy 2 review: an endlessly replayable roguelite"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rogue Legacy 2 review: an endlessly replayable roguelite<\/div>\n
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About 10 hours into my roguelite adventure in Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>, the game\u2019s random heir generator served me a Ranger character with a massive spoon instead of the usual bow and arrow. Not one to turn down an interesting twist, I grabbed the spoon lad and embarked on another run through Rogue Legacy<\/em> 2<\/em>\u2019s twisting, ever-resetting castle. <\/p>\n

Despite his powerful utensil \u2014 which bounced around the room, dealing critical damage on ricochets \u2014 my hero eventually fell, either to a skeleton, a burst of fire, or some spikes, just as all his ancestors had before him. But his death only fueled my hunger for discovery \u2014 with spoons, spinning hammers, mysterious scythes, and pizza occasionally gracing my runs, I knew I\u2019d never tire of Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>\u2019s endless nonsense.<\/p>\n

Roguelites have grown plentiful in the nine years between the first Rogue Legacy<\/em> and its recently released sequel. Some \u2014 Hades<\/em>, Slay the Spire<\/em>, <\/em>Monster Train<\/em>, <\/em>Vampire Survivors<\/em> <\/em>\u2014 have ascended to the pantheon of exceptional run-based games, overlooking an endless sea of dime-a-dozen imitators that couldn\u2019t hold my attention past a few runs. Thankfully, Rogue Legacy 2 <\/em>has lived up to the high standard set by the original, and cut through the roguelite noise by offering pure chaos.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n\"A<\/source><\/picture><\/span><\/p>\n

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Image: Cellar Door Games<\/cite><\/p>\n

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In Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>, as in all roguelites, the meta goal is to repeat runs over and over, gaining incremental progress and permanent upgrades after each death. But unlike in other roguelites \u2014 even some of my favorites \u2014 I never want to put Rogue Legacy 2<\/em> down after yet another failed boss attempt. I gladly hoist my sword, axe, bow, staff, spear, or spoon high and immediately run it back. <\/p>\n

As in the first game, Rogue Legacy 2<\/em> derives its longevity from the \u201cheir\u201d system, which lets me choose a new descendant at the beginning of each run. They\u2019re really just a collection of randomized spells, weapons, and talents pulled from a dozen character classes \u2014 but it\u2019s easy to get attached to the ones that carry me particularly far into the game. I can also use gold from previous runs to upgrade my family\u2019s estate (which unlocks further classes and stat upgrades), purchase new armor, or apply special runes to enhance my abilities.<\/p>\n

Each of these many features ensure that I\u2019ve always got new tools and effects to play with. Even if I do get an heir with the same combinations as their ancestor, the castle layout, the myriad upgrades I\u2019ve picked up in recent generations, and the omnipresent chance for bizarre items (like the spoon) ensures that my adventure won\u2019t play out the same way. <\/p>\n

However, Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>\u2019s biggest strength is occasionally a weakness. The game obfuscates the specific effects of traits and relics before you acquire them for the first time, which forces experimentation early but can be quite frustrating when it becomes the leading cause of my next failure. I\u2019ve lost numerous promising runs because I\u2019ve picked up a new, mysterious relic only to discover it had a potent negative side effect. In one instance, I gave up and retired my hero when I discovered their secret trait meant I could only deal damage with critical attacks. And even now, with over 30 hours of playtime, there are traits and relics that I will never pick up again because they\u2019re just too obnoxious to deal with.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>\u2019s chaos is to accept how rare those \u201cperfect\u201d runs truly are. I\u2019ve died after acquiring an excellent class, relic, and weapon combination, knowing I\u2019ll likely never get that exact build back again. But it\u2019s to the game\u2019s great credit that \u2014 despite its relatively high difficulty level \u2014 I\u2019ve usually felt as if each of the heroes I select have a fighting chance. So when I lose those once-in-a-lifetime heirs, like spoon lad, I simply shrug it off and make a point to remember them, knowing I\u2019ll never see their ilk again.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n\"A<\/source><\/picture><\/span><\/p>\n

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Image: Cellar Door Games<\/cite><\/p>\n

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The beauty of Rogue Legacy 2<\/em> is how it harnesses randomness and unleashes it in brilliantly balanced bursts. Even if every hero isn\u2019t as memorable to me as spoon lad, I can look back on the portraits of my past ancestors and they\u2019ll tell me a story. I remember the farting Valkyrie that got burnt to a crisp by a fireball, or the gigantic Knight who could hit enemies through the ceiling without ever leaving the ground.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so easy to get bored and frustrated in roguelites after banging your head against the same set of rooms or bosses for hours. Games like Hades <\/em>or Dead Cells<\/em> get around this by giving players dozens of builds to put together each run. However, those games are comparatively streamlined \u2014 despite a lot of randomness, they still give me enough tools to tailor the game to my play style. In those cases, I\u2019m bending the game to my will. Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>, on the other hand, makes that much more difficult. If I don\u2019t bend and meet the game halfway, I\u2019ll likely break.<\/p>\n

Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>\u2019s extremely random nature would crush a lesser game, but Cellar Door Games uses that pressure to create diamonds. Even if it\u2019s occasionally frustrating, Rogue Legacy 2<\/em> refuses to ever let me be bored, and that\u2019s more than enough to set it apart from the heap of roguelites that have followed in the original game\u2019s wake. I\u2019m 30 hours into Rogue Legacy 2<\/em>, and I\u2019m still discovering new toys to play with. But I still haven\u2019t found another spoon. <\/p>\n

Rogue Legacy 2 <\/small>was released out of early access on April 28 on <\/em><\/small>Xbox Series X<\/em><\/small>, <\/em><\/small>Xbox One<\/em><\/small>, and <\/em><\/small>Windows<\/em><\/small> PC<\/em><\/small>. The game was reviewed through <\/em><\/small>Steam<\/em><\/small> using a code provided by Cellar Door Games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find <\/em><\/small>additional information about Polygon\u2019s ethics policy here<\/em><\/small>.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/thumbor\/0GP9kLt8o0pwBbNUlS90cN4PeN4=\/0x38:1920×1043\/fit-in\/1200×630\/cdn.vox-cdn.com\/uploads\/chorus_asset\/file\/23440244\/ss_38e3dcba9ad2a6c8d6defb69ae1b3137f9eb2907.1920×1080.jpg<\/div>\n
https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/reviews\/23058617\/rogue-legacy-2-review-chaos-random<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rogue Legacy 2 review: an endlessly replayable roguelite About 10 hours into my roguelite adventure in Rogue Legacy 2, the game\u2019s random heir generator served me a Ranger character with a massive spoon instead of the usual bow and arrow. Not one to turn down an interesting twist, I grabbed the spoon lad and embarked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pr.gagadget.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}