If there’s one thing the soulslike genre is unfortunately known for, it’s a heap of releases that have interesting quirks yet fail to capture the magic of their much stronger contemporaries. That’s not to say Dark Souls itself is a series with no flaws, but it’s revered these days for a good reason. Remnant: From the Ashes was one of the few diamonds among a sea of rough releases. Sure, there were a few flaws in areas like polish, but its satisfying gameplay loop proved well worth the asking price. Even the DLCs, while slightly more spotty, still offered solid additions to the experience. Remnant 2 takes that great foundation and freshens it up with additional depth that works…most of the time.
The Famed Soulslike Plot Curse…Sort of
To say that Remnant 2’s plot takes a strange approach would be quite an understatement. Where most games present you with a single plot that could diverge based on player choice, Remnant 2 makes the very experimental choice of locking at least part of its story behind the branching paths that can only be accessed on follow-up playthroughs. That, to some extent, is something to be praised, as it helps to keep repeat runs fresh outside of purely giving you new gameplay scenarios.
However, I find myself against this sort of plot design for a few reasons. For one, playing through a game multiple times should never be the baseline to be able to understand exactly what’s happening, and especially not for a game that’s as lengthy as Remnant 2. On the other hand, even playing through it a second time leaves a lot of holes that seemingly are meant for DLC to fill in. I shouldn’t have to go into why DLCs making a main story make sense is a poor decision, yet I suppose it’s one good way to sell the expansions.
While I do have to praise the want to try something new, I don’t think Remnant 2 quite stuck the landing in this respect. The gameplay refreshes on repeat playthroughs are another story entirely as I’ll talk about momentarily, but I should be able to experience the full plot of a game on the first run-through. Not with pieces torn out of it in the name of varied playthroughs or DLC selling points.
Developing the Underdeveloped
Where Remnant 2 finds itself misstepping in the story department once again, it flies considerably higher from a gameplay perspective. Remnant: From the Ashes offered a very compelling gameplay loop of kill, loot, upgrade, and much of that core philosophy remains ever-strong in the second entry, but the original was faulted in how it went about build crafting. Much of it came across as an afterthought, with areas like class choice being a leaping-off point that had no tangible effect in the long term. While not always successful, and I’ll get to that shortly, the strides made are massive and add plenty of replayability.
“Your positioning can have a tangible effect on gameplay, as enemies can attack from multiple angles if you’re not careful.“
I can’t go any further without talking in full about the refreshed Archetype system. Classes no longer offer a starting point, and instead have an immense effect through all stages of the game. There’s at least double the count of Archetypes now, and each one has its own set of passives and skills to choose from. As one great example, my Gunslinger ran many ammo conservation passives in conjunction with Overwatch 2’s Fan the Hammer ability from Cassidy, only with lock-on and considerably more damage. Each skill is satisfying in its own way, and provides far more interesting content to delve into on a replay. You can even run a second Archetype alongside your main one, making for well over a dozen possible combinations.
Other aspects of build-crafting have made great strides as well. Weapons, rings, and amulets all come together to create cohesive builds based on your playstyle. Whether your goal is to be a super beefy tank, a glass cannon, or even a potent support, the heftier gear options allow for much more variety. Through my first runthrough, I found no fewer than 60 rings that each would complement a different playstyle, or even a myriad of them. It comes together to make discovering new pieces of gear a treat, as any could easily complement your build or even one down the line.
All have seen great strides, save for one aspect that’s seen itself take a step back: Armor. Keep in mind, the Armor system in Remnant: From the Ashes wasn’t great. You had set bonuses for running a certain amount of a type of gear, however you’d need that full set and couldn’t use something else if you thought it looked cooler. With Remnant 2, Armor now has two stats that have an effect on gameplay: Armor Rating and Weight. These affect your ability to dodge efficiently and take reduced damage, with more Armor Rating naturally meaning more Weight. This isn’t a bad system in theory, but where it falls apart is in the lack of armor options. You can purchase any armor that the other main Archetypes use, though the chance of finding any other armor is slim to none. It took me until a second playthrough in fact to find any armor sets at all. Stood against how much more developed everything else is, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Thankfully, exploration is far from suffering the same fate. Thanks to the introduction of a 3D map instead of 2D, verticality of the playspaces was greatly improved. Your positioning can have a tangible effect on gameplay, as enemies can attack from multiple angles if you’re not careful. It forces you to pay close attention to your surroundings and choose your approach carefully, especially on higher difficulties. There’s even a ton of exploration that can be discovered when running repeat playthroughs, and you could start in completely different regions when rerolling your campaign. It’s a beefy game, and if you’re willing to take the time to explore, there’s a deep rabbit hole to dive into.
Finally we have the major encounter design, which has taken a risky yet mostly successful step away from the previous entry and others in the genre. Not all major encounters are bosses (but there are plenty of those, trust me), instead having a significant portion of challenges that test your ability to think under pressure. There’s even a few that offer new rewards if you complete certain actions during them like saving a person’s life. This might seem as though it limits the spectacle of major encounters, but these offered just as much challenge as standard boss encounters. If you find The Chimney encounter during your playthrough, you’re in for quite the treat.
“The crisp, bass-heavy shots from the weapon showcase the power of rifles alongside the considerable enemy health drop.”
Sadly like build-crafting before it, there’s one issue worth mentioning. That being how the difficulty curve is set up, which can be some people’s cup of tea though certainly not mine. The challenge behind each encounter is quite sporadic, with some being done on the first try and others taking upwards of a few hours straight of attempts. I’m fine with the odd difficulty spike here and there, but the excessive randomness made the pacing of Remnant 2 feel a little all over the place. Again, maybe that’s something you’re a fan of, yet I’m certainly not.
World Design in a League of its Own
If you had told me back when Remnant: From the Ashes released that this is what sort of visual jump we’d see, I would’ve been quite shocked to say the least. The texture work hasn’t seen any colossal improvements, but the visual style and sense of scale are a night and day difference. One of the major regions for example, which is a remake of From the Ashes’ Yaesha, brings a similar deep blue, mystical forest on one end, but with the added bonus of gigantic trees invoking rich reds through their leaves. This sense of scale carries across to the other regions, including the second to last which can only be described as a love letter to 2022’s Scorn.
Sound design feels all the better with Remnant 2 as well. Besides the soundtrack offering some badass tracks that really get your heart pumping, the brilliant audio quality came into full focus when getting one of the snipers. The crisp, bass-heavy shots from the weapon showcase the power of rifles alongside the considerable enemy health drop.
Related: All Remnant 2 Pre-Order Bonuses Listed
With all the above being said, I do want to draw attention to the fact that performance can be rough, especially on PC. The odd texture glitch and AI woe aside, framerates varied wildly. I’m running a system with an i5-11400 and RTX 3060 Ti, which is decently above the recommended specs, and at Medium my framerate would drop below 60 frequently. One gun you can craft later on will even drop your framerate to 25-30 for a short time. There was also the odd crash, including one that forced me to hard shutdown my PC since Task Manager refused to close it. Hell, the fact you can’t pause the game even when playing solo is just the icing on the cake. Many of these issues may be fixed with the Day One patch, but it’s worth noting regardless.
Summary
While not always sticking the bloody landing, Remnant 2 is a formidable upgrade to the foundation set out by Remnant: From the Ashes. Many core aspects of the game have received welcome refreshes, with a further focus on the replayability the series is known for. The atmosphere even saw some subtle changes that have had a massive effect, providing pleasure to the senses. While some troublesome areas have been left alone, and some even worsened, Remnant 2 is a welcome sequel that roots you in (excuse the pun) and has you wanting to delve deeper into its complex world.
