“Risk of Rain” from Hopoo Games is a brutal indie game on Steam that does not care about your feelings.

Imagine if your best crew from “FTL: Faster Than Light” crash landed on a hostile alien planet where every organism has evolved to ruin your day. That is the best way I can describe this action/platformer/RPG/ rouge-like, and one of the best gaming experiences I have had all year.

Everything on this planet has something personal against you. Not sure what you did, but you royally ticked them off. You start off with Commando, the first out of nine playable characters you can unlock once in-game challenges are completed.

Each character has a different array of weapons and skills that compliment a different style of play. Mastering the agile Commando is not going to be the same as conquering the much slower Enforcer and his riot shield of ‘breaking-yo-face’.

You will die, a lot. Sometimes, the game will even suggest your death was “totally your fault” on the death screen. Buckle up solider and hit try again—every death is a learning experience. To keep you on your toes, every time you die, you have to start over on a completely new level layout with randomized monsters, bosses and item crate.

There are over a dozen different monsters that you will catalog in your monster log as you progress, and 100 different items that can be unlocked through challenges. Items can range in effects from increasing your attack speed, to enemies dropping chunks of health bits. Collecting items, and activating drones to join your alien murder squad are essential to your survival. Its beautifully dangerous 8-bit style level offers an overwhelming amount of variation that keeps the game fresh every time you play.

Most of your time will be spent battling a smorgasbord of colorful foes with unique attack patterns you must learn and outwit as you scale the landscape for the teleporter to the next level. Once you activate the teleporter, the boss monster appears and you have to eliminate it and the rest of your foes. Your survival rests on how well you execute attacks and understand the skill set of your character class, as well as understanding your enemies.

You are going to want find the teleporter and progress through levels quickly, because this game hates you. The longer you dawdle, the timer in the top, right hand corner of the screen will tick off, increasing a meter that directly correlates to the game’s difficulty.

One minute you are breezing through enemies on very easy, then six minutes later the game shifts gears to hard mode and a giant lava worm burst out of the ground. Once the game turns up the heat to insane mode, well, you are in deep trouble.

Normal monsters will get a serious upgrade and multiple bosses will hit the playing field. One playthrough, I was running scared from an Imp Overlord who liked to teleport around me, only to cement the idea that he was going to ruin my life. Once he killed me, minions crowding around my dead body (probably gorging on my corpse), Hade’s flaming horned pooch appeared. Even if I survived the Imp Overlord’s fatal blow, a hellhound was not far behind on a line of creatures that wanted my head. These are the kind of stories each new encounter with “Risk of Rain” can create.

It is no secret—I absolutely embraced the pain inflicted by “Risk of Rain”. It is not about “beating” the game, but “surviving” the game. Seeing how much longer you can survive than your last run is its own reward. The game is easy to pick up and play with controls that take time to master. Each time you perish will make you a better player for it. The old school style is simple, yet beautiful. The music is reminiscent of a classic episode of “Star Trek” (George TakeiCQ not included) and establishes the eerie sci-fi atmosphere spot on.

I will carry “Risk of Rain” on my back to the top of the highest mountain and proclaim it as one of the best indie titles of 2013. I have lasted 27 minutes and 22 seconds; how long can you last?

5/5