Rogue Legacy 2 review: Dopamine in video game form

Enlarge (credit: Cellar Door Games)

There was something insidious about Rogue Legacy, the 2013 platformer "roguelite" developed by Cellar Door Games.

I remember sitting down to play the game for the first time on a Friday, and the next thing I knew, it was Sunday night. I emerged from that gaming bender bleary-eyed and disoriented, entirely unable to account for where my weekend went.

Rogue Legacy 2, which began life as an Early Access title in 2020, was fully released late last week, and it seems that Cellar Door has done it again. I'll sit down to play just one run" before I get my day started, and all of a sudden, it's dark outside and I realize I've skipped two meals. For a certain kind of player, this game is a black hole.

Like its predecessor, Rogue Legacy 2 puts you in the role of an adventurer who strikes out on a quest to kill monsters and take their stuff. You hop around 2D levels and assault baddies with swords, bows, magic wands, and various other implements of death. Starting out as a puny weakling, you gradually upgrade your character to become strong enough to take on the game's six bosses, who rule over the game's six biomes.

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