Remnant: From the Ashes was one of the most successful attempts to create “their own Dark Souls.” Instead of creating another fantasy world with big swords and destructive magic, the team at Gunfire Games created a third-person cooperative shooter that followed the same rules as FromSoftware games. Players run, gun, and blow things up to bring down high-difficulty, dangerous opponents and big bosses. If unsuccessful, resurrections happen near the local analog of bonfires. The project turned out less than ideal, but still very high quality and exciting, and it sold millions of copies. And to build on the success, the developers have released Remnant 2, a sequel that improves on many elements of the first part but leaves some of them unchanged. This is our Remnant II PC review.
Remnant 2 looked like a “dark horse” before the release. The continuation of a good, but not the most famous, shooter with Souls-elements, whose authors rely on a variety of things, sounds, of course, curious, but nothing more. The release put everything in its place: despite several serious performance problems, the game from Gunfire Games turned out to be extremely catchy and exciting. And, oddly enough, their bet on diversity works: it’s simply impossible to see all the content in Remnant 2 in one pass.
First – about the biggest part, optimization
Let’s get right to the main problem of the game: its optimization. Everything is pretty sad here because even the RTX 4070 does not allow you to play in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second without using DLSS, and that was enough. And even if we talk about 1080p, there were also performance problems when the number of frames fell below 60. After the game’s release, the authors admitted that they made it with the expectation of upscalers, but it doesn’t get any better. The players, of course, for the most part, were satisfied with the project, but almost all of them noted problems with optimization in one way or another.
And at some points, it turns out that the picture becomes “torn,” and the frame rate falls into the abyss: during the battle with the final boss, the image constantly turns into “porridge”, and drops to 45 FPS were very frequent. Of course, there is little pleasure in such an experience.
Now the developers are hard at work on patches, which should, among other things, fix bugs and improve optimization. And the first patch came out only on August 4, just 10 days after the release. Whether they succeeded or not is a good question. The main thing is that if you take optimization and some bugs and balance problems out of the equation, you will get a very solid game.
The trouble is not gone
The plot is just as bad. It seems that the authors took the story of the first Remnant, hired a copywriter, and asked him to change the text slightly, which was already written several years ago (“just don’t write off one to one”). Therefore, humanity is again threatened by tree monsters – which we kind of banished in the DLC – the location “Block 13” again becomes our base, and in its center, a world stone appears again, transferring the main character to other regions and worlds. Some characters returned in the sequel, some you see for the first time, but you don’t want to spend much time with either one or the other. Dialogues are rather boring, and cutscenes are laughable due to the ridiculous direction and smack of unpolished.
As before, narrative elements can be safely ignored, and most importantly, the exploration of procedurally generated locations. At the same time, the regions themselves are the same for everyone: there is a ghost town, dense forests, claustrophobic caves, and a luxurious palace with demons disguised as gargoyles.
Locations in the first Remnant were varied, but it is especially striking here. You always want to explore everything far and wide: find chests in tombs overgrown with cobwebs; look for hidden passages in an area built entirely of stone; Explore every corner of the jungle, avoiding jumping monsters. On a very handy 3D mini-map, places where you have not yet been are colored red, which makes it easier to find hidden objects. These can be both simple resources and new sets of armor.
Since this is a soulslike, the main character cannot live in peace – if you gape for a second, you will immediately die. If the enemy is too close, hitting him with a sword or ax is still not always correct – most often, it is advisable to roll to the side. You need to do it in time – if you dodge a second early or late, you won’t be able to avoid the damage.
Enemies in different locations are unique, and they all make you approach battles differently: someone shoots, someone explodes, someone teleports and creepy cuttlefish cling to the main character. Flying creatures dive down and return to the sky. There are so many personalities here that you never know who you will meet in a new region. There are also strong mini-bosses, behind which keys or valuable equipment are usually hidden. In the event of the hero’s death, the enemies not only resurrect but can also change – where there is only one monster, there will be a dozen of them, and vice versa. Thus, even if you die ingloriously over and over again, repeatedly clearing a location does not turn into fatigue. Usually, the character is not very talkative, but at the beginning and end of each battle, he has to say a catchphrase. Tired instantly, but there’s nothing to be done.
Well, the main “stars” are, of course, the bosses. I don’t want to spoil it – some of the fights turned out to be very inventive. This is not just shooting at “sponges” with vulnerabilities – there are a lot of unusual mechanics here. You often need to remember what tricks and in what order the enemies use, and so on. And to find them all, you must also try.
Chest with ten secret compartments
Remnant 2 can be played like a normal linear third-person shooter. Thus, you will visit several unique locations, fight a number of bosses, complete several tasks – and in general, have a good time playing the game. One such passage from zero to the final will take about 12-15 hours. Which, in general, is considered very good for current releases.
And it’s a pretty good option. Just go through the story, enjoy a good game and go play something else, and for those who are interested in seeing as much as possible, Gunfire Games has prepared not even a double bottom – there are much more secrets in this game than a few playthroughs.
Let’s start with the banal. Players have access to three constantly changing worlds, as well as two static ones. Changing worlds can be “generated” in one of two ways: each such generation contains its own unique story missions, bosses, NPCs, and so on. Moreover, there are forks even in side quests, as well as when killing act bosses. Has the world gone a certain way? You will receive one weapon. Did you go the other way? Another. There are so many branches in each of the worlds that getting absolutely all the content hidden in the game is another challenge.
Here’s a simple example for you. Losom, one of the worlds in Remnant 2, is a gothic kingdom inhabited by vampire-like creatures. You can start your adventure in a castle and then find yourself in a storyline of an impostor king to deal with – or in a nearby gloomy city that looks suspiciously like Yharnam from Bloodborne. In the latter version, a completely different enemy will act as the final boss, and you will only get into the castle in side quests.
So. If you find yourself in a castle at the start, then one of the side dungeons is most likely for you – but not necessarily! – they will give you the Council Hall, where you can get a quest: find out which of the members of the Council was on the side of the traitor and helped destroy the True King. The quest can be completed normally, finding evidence and exposing the traitor… or you can deliberately “fill up” the task, deal with the Council – and get a good melee weapon as a reward. It can be used to land a killing blow when facing a specific boss to receive a modified reward. Or deal with him in the usual way. Or you can not conflict with this boss and resolve the issue peacefully: yes, even such options are sometimes available here.
The above example is just one example taken from one world. And there are three of them in the game, and there are a lot of forks in total. So in a way, the developers were really able to make the adventures of each player at least a little different.
Finding all the secrets will take some work – to get some items in world option A, you may need an item from option B. Fortunately, the game does not require you to start the campaign again, you need to create a “parallel” adventure mode in the desired world – and hopefully that you will get exactly the desired configuration of the world.
A lot of little secrets with nice bonuses are scattered around the world. Who knows what will happen if you find five “coffins” on Neruda, turn them on, and then go through a certain dungeon? Or, for example, what can be found in one of Yaeshi’s additional locations when the Blood Moon illuminates the world? And if you jump from a giant root onto a truck suspiciously hanging over a huge funnel – is there anything interesting there? There are a lot of such small moments in Remnant 2, and almost all of them, in one way or another, reward players for curiosity, perseverance, and resourcefulness: with weapons, accessories or something else.
Summoner, Turret Commander, Tank, and Healer
The curious thing that surprised the developers of Remnant 2 is that they added a well-functioning building assembly to the third-person shooter. And it was done not carelessly but competently.
There are as many as eleven classes in the game, which can be conditionally divided into archetypes such as “attacking” or “supporting”, plus a huge amount of different equipment with which the chosen development path can be brought to perfection.
And what I liked is that most of the classes are closed by default – they need to be searched all over the world. For example, “Researcher” can be obtained for completing the storyline. “Alchemist” – found somewhere in Losom under certain circumstances. To open the Invader, you need to fulfill a whole chain of conditions: go through a certain world in the desired configuration, reach almost the end of the game, find one specific room there, pick up an item … in general, a whole line of quests!
To get the “Archon” in general, you need to dance a dance – this class could only be found using data mining, and the conditions for obtaining it, of course, are bewildering. On the other hand, it’s great that the game does not present everything to you, but you need to look somewhere or look.
Each class is unique in its own way, and this is no joke. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Even base classes, despite their availability, can be incredibly useful and powerful if you understand what to do with them and what to build your assembly on. This is not to mention the fact that each class has several of its skills, which only enhances the variability.
But the most fun begins when you are given the opportunity to collect multi-class assemblies. Yes, Remnant 2 not only supports instant class change on the fly but also allows you to select an additional class.
You get all the bonuses from the additional archetype except for the main class. Everything else – traits, skills, passive skills – works like clockwork and gives you additional benefits. At some point, you’ll sit down and stare at the screen, trying to create the perfect build for yourself. An engineer who places turrets and can upgrade them with summoner skills. A Medic coupled with an Alchemist who can heal, resurrect, and generally keep the team on their feet even in the most difficult situations. You know, there are many combinations.
And most importantly, all these combinations really work. I completed the game in co-op (yes, there is co-op for 3 people), playing as a support tank, and my teammates were responsible for the damage. And in general, we covered each other’s weaknesses with our strengths quite well, making it possible to go through the story almost painlessly. “Relatively” because in some places we are still stuck, but seriously, for me, this is only a positive moment, but not everyone will agree.
If you want to play the game once, then you don’t have to bother with builds, finding the most effective builds, and adjusting all your stats for this. But if it comes to your mind to try yourself on Apocalypse or Nightmare difficulty, I would not advise it… This difficulty will require you to collect as many as possible, and then you have to brainstorm and figure out what is best for your passage. So arguing with the fact that Remnant 2 offers huge scope for experimentation will not work with all your will.
What else to do?
Since we’re talking about builds, it’s worth discussing what the authors offer to fight in Remnant. Fortunately, the local arsenal is a very pleasant surprise: there is enough space for the most ordinary firearms and completely crazy fantasy and science fiction guns.
The character’s inventory is generally structured as follows: four slots for armor elements, four for rings, one for an amulet, and three for weapons. One slot is reserved for melee weapons, the second for “heavy” weapons like submachine guns or rifles, and the third for secondary weapons. That is, relatively speaking, you can arm yourself with a rifle, a pistol, and a sword. The nuance is that there are quite a lot of weapons in the game, and half of the existing copies are endowed with some special properties, or you can find and create them yourself.
For example, one of the favorites that we gave to our DPS and told them not to shoot: Enigma is a secondary weapon that allows you to shoot chain lightning at the enemy. It does not hit far, but it immediately clears crowds of enemies – even with incredible efficiency in cartridges. And the alternative shooting mode allows you to place booby traps. And the varieties of weapons, as I said decently, some fall out of the bosses, some can be found, and for some, you will need to complete special tasks, come to a special place, do this or that action in a certain order, after defeating the boss, you will receive a weapon.
Moreover, each trunk is somewhat different from the others. Gunfire Games did not follow the path of the usual Borderlands, where “trillions of guns” are the same thing, only with different characteristics. Every barrel in Remnant 2 has been handcrafted and is different. Even weapons that seem to be of the same class feel differently, mainly due to different modifications. Let’s say there are two different unique bows in the game, and their mods suggest a completely different style of play. There is also a third where the mod is not installed by default, and players can install any of their collections there, adding another unique touch to their build.
One way or another, I think everyone can find a gun to their liking. The assortment here is huge – from banal machine guns and rifles to railguns and ray guns. One weapon can create a portal, shoot projectiles at enemies, the other launches a black hole into them. The third one starts to work many times more efficiently as soon as you activate its modification, while the fourth one completely changes the behavior and meaning of the work. About half of the weapons in the game have “built-in” mods, so here you are sure to find something to take with you on the road.
What’s at the end?
All in all, Remnant 2 is surprisingly versatile. If you want – go through as a normal linear action, or if you want – explore every corner and “twist” your worlds ten times to get this or that thing. If you want, put on the first thing that comes to hand or carefully study the characteristics of everything you find to assemble the most effective build. Neither lovers of “just running in the evening in some kind of shooter” nor lovers of sticking their noses into all the cracks and getting everything that the game allows will not remain at a loss here.
Perhaps, in addition to optimization, the game’s weak point can be considered the plot: this is another story about the Random Chosen One saving the worlds from a monstrous catastrophe. Of course, the plot here is better than in the first part, but nothing more. However, at least tons of unnecessary drama and pathos are not hung on you – I must say thank you for this!
Playing through the story in Remnant 2 is only the beginning of a long journey, as you won’t see everything within twenty hours of the campaign. Procedural generation, a variety of entertainment, and many hidden trophies encourage you to return to the game again and again. In addition to the campaign, you can spend time in the Adventure mode – where you select one of the cleared regions and can visit its alternate version, where you will face other locations and challenges. Notably, you can play “Adventure” in parallel with the “plot” – progress is not erased here or there, and the character is automatically transferred from one mode to another.
In short, if you’re looking for a game that can challenge you and where you can spend many hours of fun exploding animated driftwood, alien zombies, and elves with muskets while collecting tons of loot – then welcome to Remnant 2.
The second part of the series at Gunfire Games turned out many times better than the first, which, in addition to the good reviews of the players, is also confirmed by the sales figures: more than a million copies in a week after the release, which has already exceeded all the expectations of the publisher.
Not so much was required from the Remnant sequel, namely, to preserve and increase the merits of its predecessor. There are more locations, and they are more diverse, a lot of new equipment, and looking for it and solving numerous riddles is very exciting. The firefights with opponents are well done and the bosses are just great. Random number generation is still not quite perfect, and the plot is again not worth attention, but there must be some drawbacks that could be corrected in the third part.
Our review of Remnant 2 was accomplished thanks to a PC key provided by PR.
