Games Xtreme walks the worlds once more, as we dive into the World Stone to take a look at Remnant 2. The sequel to the underrated gem Remnant: From the Ashes.
Remnant from the Ashes was an underrated gem, a game that came out of nowhere, crafted with a gamer’s touch by the people at Gunfire Games. It blended the concept of a *Souls-like game with firearms and rather than going for hand-crafted content 100% it built the worlds you explored from a set of tiles, or modules that could fit together in a variety of ways and provide a near-endless source of gameplay.
There was a story, and it was fairly obscure at times, but it was there. A few cut-scenes sprinkled in for good measure and loot. Only it wasn’t RNG Diablo-loot, it was bespoke loot which had a %chance to spawn into any given biome/map/world.
It was an incredible game, and I sunk lots of hours into it. Even more once the DLCs came out, and the journey was finally complete. That was it, or so I thought. I sunk even more hours in the game’s 3 player co-op with various friends, across numerous generated maps and especially in Adventure Mode (little mini chunks of random campaign world gameplay).
Enter the sequel, not Remnant from the Ashes: Ashes, but just Remnant 2.
What’s different I hear you ask?
Much, I answer.
So much.
So, strap on a backpack, grab some armour, and gear up to walk the worlds of Remnant once more as I dive into the sequel and explain why I think this is one of the best games I’ve had the pleasure to play this year.
Remnant 2: A single player, up to 3 player co-op, action RPG adventure with an emphasis on hand-crafted loot, and endless replayability.
CHARACTER GENERATION
Don’t expect Mass Effect, or Baldur’s Gate 3 style character generation here. It’s basic, good enough for what it does, and you can get into the action right away. You can pick a variety of voices, and this time around that’s important – since your protagonist actually has a voice and appears in cut-scenes with a speaking role. This helps build the sense of belonging into the story and the world, and as a storyteller I really appreciate this particular change right out of the gate.
TUTORIAL AND MORE
A longer, and more interesting tutorial has been crafted for Remnant 2, one which brings you into the story and sets the stakes. It functions as a way to get you to the new Ward 13 hub location, shows you the skills you need to survive and lets you loose in the game without too many heavy stakes and risk of violent death at the hands of the Root. As far as tutorials go, it’s one of the better one, and right from the start you can sense how the gunplay and melee has been tuned and improved from the first game.
We’re off to a great start. Plus, there’s now a jump button which can be used to navigate the various spaces and arenas. It changes up boss fights, and how you engage with the various worlds (realms) on offer in the game.
More on that later though.
Once you get to a certain point in the tutorial, you’re taught about weapon upgrades, and mod creation. These things should be familiar to fans of the first, and veterans of RFTA should feel right at home. What’s new though, is that armour no longer requires upgrading, and changes the base stats offering different weights and so on.
Gone is the need to create sets of armour, for bonuses, that’s been removed completely.
Then we come to the biggest change of all…
ARCHETYPES
Remnant 2 has classes, and these archetypes as they’re called, give you a basic set of traits, perks, abilities, and more. They all come with a Prime Perk, which makes that particular archetype shine. Before you ask too, there’s a way you can multi-archetype (class) for that classic AD&D style multi-class option like so many classic RPGs.
Not only does it have these archetypes, but the Gunfire Games devs have put in several unlockable ones through the game, unlocked with a variety of criteria and some are harder to get than others. So much so, they put a whole one behind a layer of code that only data-miners could get access to.
Look up: the Archon.
Out of the box (so to speak) you have access to:
The Hunter: Range damage, lots of marking enemies.
The Challenger: The game’s tank, this archetype takes damage, and dishes it out. It can self-revive and is a badass at melee.
The Medic: A true support and co-op class, medic can very quickly get you back on your feet and heal obscene amounts of damage.
The Handler: You get to shoot guns, and have a doggo. What more could you want, how about a dog that revives you and allies, as well as can attack, heal, and defend. That’s the Handler.
If you pre-ordered the game, you got the early access to the Gunslinger at the start too, whilst everyone else had to unlock it.
PERKS OF THE TRADE
Every archetype gets a Prime Perk, one Perk to Rule them All. This Perk gives you a huge bonus for playing that particular archetype. Such as the Handler and their Bonded Perk, which means that the doggo will auto-revive you if you have a Relic charge (Dragon Heart) – you can also command the doggo to revive allies too.
Oh, and yes, you can pet the dog.
Atop this, the archetype has 4 Perks. Which unlock as you level up, and also upgrade as you head toward the max level of 10. You get 3 skills, again, each one unlocks at 5, then 10 for a total of 3. Plus, a Trait which is associated with that archetype – Traits are the way you can get better in Remnant 2 by spending Trait Points (Max 60) to level up the card associated with that Trait.
Note: Archetype Traits level with you, no need to put points in. They unlock at rank 10, and can be mixed with other archetypes as you play. There’s no restriction on the archetype, and you can swap out unlocked ones at any time.
PACKAGE DEAL
In essence, an archetype is a package of weapons, armour, traits, and so on which gives you a template to build off.
The rest of the equipment can be bought from various vendors, and so forth.
Remember if you unlock a new archetype, you might have to get the armour and weapons elsewhere. Oh, and once you get 10 Trait Points, you can unlock your second slot for a second archetype – multi-classing here we come. Remember though, XP will be split between both. Unless that first is already at 10. I also believe that if you hit 10 with an archetype and don’t have 10 Trait Points you get the unlock for slot 2 as well.
WARD 13
Ward 13 has had a makeover, and it’s packed with NPCs to chat to, and vendors to get stuff from. It’s where you upgrade your weapons, and buy new gear. Upgrading weapons is how to stand up to the various challenges in the game. It’s also where you’ll unlock new archetypes for play on that character, and the main menu in character gen.
You can skip the tutorial once you’ve seen it.
You can also have (at the moment) 5 slots for characters.
There’s also a handy firing range, which lets you play with the weapons you’ve unlocked and test out their DPS (damage per second), as well as their raw damage with or without the mods (additional special powers added to a weapon, such as fire, acid, lighting, space crab launcher).
There are also secrets here I won’t spoil.
LOADOUT
You can have armour, head, chest, hands, and legs. You have a main long gun (rifle), a melee weapon (scrap hatchet), and a handgun (pistol, smg, so on). You have an amulet slot (these change up a build a lot), and up to 4 rings this time. You also have a slot for your relic, the Dragon Heart, and these in turn can have relic shards.
A Dragon Heart can be used by allies, or yourself to revive a downed character. Your doggo as Handler can use one to get you back into the fight too, or use one of an ally’s store to get them back up. It can have various powers attached to it, and also relic shards, these minor buffs can be upgraded over time with more shards to offer more power. Mod casting speed, ranged damage, and shield effectiveness are some of the types I’ve seen. There’s a lot more.
Weapons can have a mod (a special power), and a mutator (think like a gem which gives the weapon another boost. Perhaps it causes bleed damage, or has a %chance to put ammo back into the gun when it shoots).
Mods and mutators can be freely swapped at any time.
Phew, that’s a lot to take in, so lets’ step through the World Stone and talk about the game!
WORLDS APART
So, let’s talk the gameplay of the game, since I’ve spent time on the aforementioned archetypes. You want to know if the game plays well, and gives you bang for your buck, so to speak?
Short answer: yes.
Remnant 2’s campaign won’t hold your hand; it’ll give you freedom to leap between Ward 13 and the world you’re currently on via the World Stones. A World Stone is a teleporter between your current location, any unlocked stone, and Ward 13 – your hub.
Remnant 2 is a third person shooter, with some traversal (remember the jump button), and if you die, you lose your progress only to the last checkpoint – you do not lose anything at all. You collect scrap (currency) and various crafting materials for upgrades.
Every campaign (and you can re-roll at the Ward 13 stone) is different, and the random generation on display is truly impressive. You can start in Yaesha (a forest biome), Ne’Rud (an alien world), and Losomn (fae realm) with the main story.
Later you can unlock mini-trips aka: Adventure Mode and have 1 campaign, and 1 adventure running at the same time. No campaign progress is lost in Adventure Mode.
PATCHWORK LANDS
Remnant 2’s random generation is impressive, no two worlds are alike, and even if you see the same story start as a friend, enemy placement, the way things are linked together, side dungeons, and more are all expertly woven together to make a patchwork quilt of gameplay which gives you the freedom to approach each challenge as you see fit.
Hit a brick wall, come back later when you have enough levels and equipment upgrades to take on the tougher area. You might need to grind a little in other unlocked areas, but there’s always a way to get through. Open shortcuts, and explore every bit of the map. There are TONS of secrets hidden in this game’s levels, and not all of them are there at first glance.
There are timed things, such as a 90-minute wait as an area fills with water, allowing you across to a new part. Go play the other content, come back after 90 minutes and be shocked a new zone is there with loot for you to nab.
I kid you not, want even more than this, try a longer wait to get the Archon class. Go look it up on YouTube, because it’s an absolutely mind-blowing series of steps and items required to unlock.
This all dovetails in the way Remnant 2 does things though, letting you chew through, or nibble at the content as you please. You’ll get stronger, and as you unlock more features of your archetype, you’ll push past those road blocks and into new zones.
With more rings, amulet, weapons, and secrets to find.
Each place is also packed with content, side stories, dungeons, and other events to encounter which you might never see in another person’s game, or another playthrough. Even if you do find the same event, there will be things that are different about it.
It’s excellent stuff, and it’s kept me coming back to the same locations time and time again as I re-roll Adventure Mode to get more resources, XP, loot, and see the way things change.
MAP
Remnant 2 differs from 1 in that there’s not only a superb map, but a mini-map as well which gives you a solid overview of the area and allows you to navigate a lot better. You need it too, because some of these locations are giant compared to the previous game.
SHOOT AND LOOT
Remnant 2 isn’t a looter-shooter, and it shows. It gives you rewards for exploration, for beating bosses, which often drop high-end crafting components for new mods and boss weapons. Boss weapons are hand-crafted too, and have incredible game-changing elements which can drastically alter your build and playstyle. A combination of weapons, rings, amulet, and other elements can make a truly interesting build – add to this the choice of Traits (these can also be unlocked from side dungeons, bosses, mini-bosses, exploration and more) and you can go to town on build crafting, and diversity.
Say you find a Soul Link ring, and that tells you that you can heal %life from summon damage. Well, the Summoner is out there, and so’s the Engineer. Yes, the Engineer’s turret counts as a summon for the purposes of life steal re: Soul Link.
Now, there’s a build I use.
MOVING AND GROOVING
Traversal plays a big role in the game now, both in regular engagements, and other fights. You can keep on the move, dodge, roll, and leap around the new environments. The jump button which lets you leap from ledges can be combined with some badass shooting and parkour in the Losomn area’s tight-knit streets and vertical gameplay spaces (rooves).
It feels great, and the gunplay is spot on, melee is also a blast and very viable. In fact, there’s a few rings which boost melee so you can face-tank bosses.
BOSS OF BOSSES
Boss battles are huge and varied, they take place in bespoke arenas, and some are puzzle-related requiring not only shooting skill – but lateral thinking, navigation, and careful management of resources. Sometimes you have to take a few hits to deal a huge amount of damage. They spawn backup more fairly than Remnant, and have been tuned to provide challenge, whilst also giving you a chance to get more resources (ammo) and heal from life-steal if you have such a build.
Re: Summoner.
I won’t say much more, apart from I really enjoyed some of these combats more than others, due to the varied nature of the battles each time.
You can also beat them solo; I did.
CO-OP
Remnant 2 is fun, and it’s even better with two other players. Here you can take advantage of build synergy, cooperative elements, and archetypes. One of your could be the Challenger, tanking the big hits, whilst the Hunter buffs the team’s damage and highlights enemies, and the Medic puts you all back together. Or perhaps the Handler has the Support Dog, which can constantly heal close allies and do a healing howl when things get rough.
The combinations are as varied and as fun as the game itself.
I’ve played this a lot co-op with my buddy Curt, and we’ve had an absolute blast on the content across his campaign, and my own. Numerous runs on Adventure Mode, and building out our archetypes. Gunslinger/Medic for him, and Handler/Medic for me.
We’ve had more fun with this, than many other games this year.
That speaks for itself. Every boss fight, and big encounter we survive gives us a huge dopamine hit as we beat the odds.
That’s gameplay right there.
Also, we really appreciate seeing the other player in the cut-scenes, including boss intros.
SAVE SAVE SAVE
Remnant 2 is always saving, every single moment you play, it tracks every single aspect of the character and if you want to quit for a while just get to the next stone and you’ll be able to continue from where you left off. If you need to quit in a hurry though, it’ll bring you back to the last checkpoint stone you unlocked.
MODES
Quality, Performance, and Balanced are on offer. You can see at a glance what each one offers, and I don’t need to go into detail on this bit. Just know that the developers are working on improving the performance of the game (one patch has been released already) and I personally had only one crash when I played this co-op on my Series X.
It ran smoothly for the most part, but there are a few hitches here and there still on a couple of the areas. Losomn being one of them, in certain streets.
AESTHETICS
Remnant 2 runs on Unreal, and it looks good. The game delivers a much better graphical quality than the first, and some of the locations are downright breathtaking. I am particularly fond of the fae realm, and the interiors there provide a superb view of the level design quality on display. I am really impressed with how visually different the biomes are, and just how much care has been taken in the design here.
The lighting is also absolutely glorious, and there are some really great atmospheric moments with light/shadow as you wander certain places.
Your character’s light is a welcome addition too, and can make some spooky locations even spookier thanks to the design here and its interaction with the environment.
SOUND OF THE WORLDS
Every biome has its own unique sound set, and indoor locations differ from outdoors. The sound design is top notch, and really delivers an absolutely excellent atmosphere. Especially the city-streets of the fae realm, with the creaks, screams, and whispers of the wind.
VOICE IN THE DARK
Voice acting is good, there are some better performances than others, but for the most part it all works and I have enjoyed listening to the dialogue. There’s a lot of stories here, and a lot of lore if you take time to listen to the various NPCs. It’s nice to have an in-character voice and see your chosen character interact with people.
MUSIC OF THE REALMS
I really love the main theme of this game, Rob Westwood is back, and he’s at the top of his game with the music here. Every single biome, and location has a theme, and Rob is a master at pulling all of these together to weave a clever and coherent whole.
FINAL WALK
I’m not tired of stepping through that World Stone. I have beaten the game after 60+ hours on just one character, with a bunch of other characters to test out the new unlocked archetypes. I think I’m just about 6d+ total playtime on the Series X and I’ve no issues whatsoever with re-rolling my campaign now I’m done with it.
In fact, I did, and I’m already part way through again.
I have a lot to do and see still, and I will unlock that damn Archon.
It’s a brilliant game, a true master-class in how you do a sequel. How you improve on the first in every way, and how you offer a proper out-of-the-gate experience which isn’t marred by real-world money cash shops, cosmetic stores, or any of that BS.
You get a game, and that game rewards you for playing.
It hits your dopamine centres, and it delivers unlockable content for playing.
Like in the old days!
More please!