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