(This is a remake of the original Risk of Rain, out now)
So… why did this need a remake, exactly? Thought we had the original and the sequel on modern systems.
Gearbox bought the franchise from its original devs about a year ago, and this is one of their attempts to capitalize on that purchase.
Hopoo, the original devs, were already making this and got to finish working on it after the purchase. It adds new content and refines the gameplay of the original (movement feels better and the game just generally plays better) - it was also designed with modding in mind.
This was a project by the original developers, not by gearbox. The original game, while incredible, had stability, optimization, and probably most importantly, multiplayer issues.
The community had asked for a way to play together online without third party solutions, but the code base needed to be rebuilt to facilitate that.