Lort devs reluctantly tweak the fantasy roguelike's difficulty after players complain the Risk of Rain 2 successor is too hard: 'You are meant to die and learn how to overcome the challenge'

Fantasy roguelike Lort is an unabashed spiritual successor to Risk of Rain 2 that launched earlier this week. In fact, developer Big Distraction says it made the game because it got fed up of waiting for Gearbox to make another Risk of Rain.

If you've played Risk of Rain 2, you'll know that it can be pretty tough, especially if you're heading into its alien wildernesses on your own. Such is the case with Lort. However, it seems some players are unhappy with the game's balancing, and their complaints are primarily why 28% of reviews are negative on Steam.

On Friday, Big Distraction released an update to Lort making some adjustments to its challenge. But they also don't seem entirely happy about it. In a Steam post accompanying the update, Big Distraction addressed the issue of Lort's challenge. While it doesn't quite amount to "git gud", Big Distraction said that players shouldn't come to Lort expecting an easy ride.

"Lort is a roguelike and isn't meant to be a super easy game," the post reads. "You are meant to die and learn how to overcome the challenge of each new level, enemy and boss. We also base our balance around solo play first and foremost, with the understanding that the game will likely be easier in multiplayer."

That said, Big Distraction conceded that it doesn't "want it to be too aggravating to jump into [Lort] quickly and have fun." As such, it has tweaked a couple of things to make the experience, not easier exactly, but more accessible.

The update makes Goblin Lobbers—an enemy players encounter early in the game—slightly less lethal and their attacks simpler to predict. Alongside this, Big Distraction has added a new tutorial prompt that emphasises each playable character's primary attributes. This is to encourage players to focus on that attribute when levelling up, rather than spreading their XP across different skills.

Difficulty arguments aside, Lort's release seems to have gone down well on both the player and developer sides. Big Distraction describes Lort's launch as being "surreal" for the 10-person team who put it together over two years, while players' other main complaint surrounds the challenge of connecting with other players, which the developer is working on a solution for right now. "[We] should have more to share soon," they write. "We think you'll like it."