Remnant 2 | Review

Initial Release Date: July 25, 2023

Developer: Gunfire Games

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Genres: Shooter, Role-playing, Fighting, Adventure

Mode: Multiplayer and Solo

Publishers: Gearbox Publishing, Gearbox Software

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!

Introduction

Let me preface this Remnant 2 review by letting you know I haven’t actually beaten the game. I reached stage 2 of Annihilation’s (final boss) boss fight before saying fuck it. I had to start getting ready for Baldur’s Gate 3 (downloading as I’m typing this). Gameplay videos at Remnant 2 Video Playlist.

Also, I played maybe one hour of Remnant: From The Ashes so Remnant 2 is pretty much all I have to go on which is fine since it’s the review. Now with the formalities out of the way let’s get into why Remnant 2 could easily be my sleeper hit of 2023 which Dead Island 2 held the crown.

Presentation

Remnant 2’s presentation in it’s beginning left me wanting to hate it. Gameplay seemed janky and I hated the starting Biome I was placed In. The boss fights seem to suck since I was playing solo Trainer on veteran.

So I lowered the difficulty down, continued playing solo and as the hours waned on I started to fall in love with this third person shooter souls-like video game. Remnant 2 is heavily souls-like meaning it takes a lot from Dark Souls and Elden Ring. One of Remnant 2’s main difference from Souls-like is that it’s level design uses auto generated maps for it’s biomes.

Remnant 2’s dark fantasy worlds are filled with NPCs offering heavy loads of dialogue (upwards of thirty minutes straight on occasion). The maps are littered with explorable secrets and side quests. Gunfire Games did a fantastic job at interconnecting the random generated maps via world stone checkpoints.

As for technical issues I hated the performance mode on my Xbox Series X which is the system I played Remnant 2 on. Performance mode was choppy and had way too many inconsistencies. On the other hand Balance mode worked consistently and I’d recommend that mode to use on your playthrough.

I did experience a few glitches where I fell off a path and got stuck in shrubs and had to start back to main menu. I tried playing coop where I joined a few games but the player was just standing at the World Stone in Ward 13 doing nothing.

Anyways, I can’t really rate the online coop. I can say opening your campaign to friends or the public was seamless. As for game breaking bugs or glitches nothing stopped my story progression other than getting lost at times lol.

Overall Remnant has a AAA presentation from it’s gameplay feel, visuals, music, voiced dialogue and cutscenes. Remnant 2 maybe a AA video game in price but it’s every bit AAA in quality. Oh and content-wise? Plenty here.

Remnant 2 could’ve been a GAAS game the way the loot and leveling of multiple classes is set up. But is it? Nope. No microtransactions with a price of $49.99 for the standard edition. It’s a steal these days.

Story

Remnant 2’s story isn’t it’s strong point by any means other than to keep the player focused on the campaign. It’s not bad per say either. You play as the Traveler, a mysterious man or woman who must put a stop to the world realm devouring cataclysm known as The Root.

The story isn’t linear in design as I missed a few story elements along the way mostly due to me not exploring the auto generated worlds enough. The story tasks you with finding and collecting various objects and items across three worlds featuring distinct realms.

Across the biomes of N’Erud, Yausha and Losomn you must collect two Segments, Two Biome Portal Keys, Three Seeker Keys and Two Mural Pieces. After collecting these items you are positioned to return to Root Earth and face the final boss Annihilation.

The best part of Remnant 2’s story is it’s world building NPCs which feature rich dialogue sequences. For example Mudtooth at Ward 13 (main hub) had dialogue sequences upwards of twenty minutes.

Likh, Foremost of The Laemir “Priest of The Dead” dialogue sequence lasted just over thirty minutes for me. In some ways the NPCs were the stars of Remnant 2’s story in my opinion. Just make sure you exhaust all NPC dialogue options for loot.

Gameplay

Remnant 2’s gameplay is Dark Fantasy third person shooting featuring various archetypes, mods for guns and melee weapons, Relics, amulets and various rings. The loot is generated along with the biome maps which means copious locations for loot.

The feel and uniqueness of Remnant 2’s guns and melee weapons was impressive. You have weight limits, various traits tied to archtypes. You have your old school skills like vigor and endurance you can upgrade via Tomes of Knowledge.

Remnant 2 is an action RPG. It’s very much Dark Souls with guns and I mean that as a true compliment. Weapons feature earth weapons like LMGs, pistols and shotguns. You have giant swords and claws for melee weapons. You have two guns long and sidearm.

You can attain better weapons after beating bosses like the Cube Gun and Aphelion. You craft these special weapons by obtaining special materials either through story secrets or boss fights. Weapons also have mutator slots which adds perks such as faster reloading or extra ammo.

Ward 13 is the main hub in Remnant 2 and feature merchants for upgrading and changing archtype loadouts. You can listen to NPCs who often give you special loot and secrets. Ward 13 is a decent hub with a few secrets of it’s own.

I can’t express how many builds you can make in Remnant 2. I mixed and matched a Trainer (dog guy) with a Medic which in turn gave me the abilities healing and revival while in combat. You can create almost any type of Traveler in Remnant 2. So fun. I thought I hated auto generated maps like the one’s you find in rogue-like games. Not in this game. Nope!

Boy was I wrong because Remnant 2’s auto generated interconnected maps reminds of the best stuff FromSoftware put out over it’s years. The various biomes/realms you play on are diverse in design. You have Ironborough which looks like a Gothic City from Bloodborne with crazed cultist villagers.

You also have beautiful Castles, Fae worlds featuring vibrant colors and plant life. All maps and worlds were designed with good interconnected maze-like navigation. Since I played through the campaign solo my biggest gameplay gripes had to do with a few bosses. Some were terrible and some were great like the Labyrinth Sentinel.

Annihilation the final boss I fought but haven’t beaten is garbage for a solo player. I went in thinking boss fights were designed around coop which they seem to be. Regular enemies were designed really well with nice designs for the most part. Enemies you meet vary heavily by Biomes you visit.

Scrap is Remnant 2’s main currency (which I hated) because i never have enough of it. Why can’t I sell my weapons for scrap? I did find an amulet that let me acquire more scrap while traveling. In Exploration Mode you can go back and replay Biomes for scrap collecting which is what I assume the Devs want you to do.

World Stones let you fast travel between realms/worlds and allows you to reroll the campaign and choose a different difficulty which was nice. Gameplay in Remnant 2 has depth and functionality just like most action RPGs these days.

You can sink dozens and dozens of hours on one story campaign playthrough. Replayability is also there with the various mix and match classes you can level up. So yeah, a strength for REMNANT 2 was it’s gameplay in my opinion.

Visuals/Graphics

Remnant 2 is one of the first Unreal Engine 5 nanite technology video games on the market. But how does it look and perform on the Xbox Series X? It looked good. What I noticed was the lighting and reflections inside a marbled palace which STOOD OUT.

Other effects that stood out most noticeably were fog, wind and fire effects. There were times when fog can literally blind you yet it blew around naturally. Texture work from the ground to NPCs looked decent.

The game did run like hammered shit in performance mode but great in balanced mode. Remnant 2 is a good-looking game. Nothing groundbreaking visually but a really good-looking though.

Sound/Music

Sound design, music and voice acting were all solid. I really enjoyed the in-game music in each biome as it lend greatly to battles and exploring the lands. Dialogue at times with certain NPCs (Mudtooth) was cheesy not withstanding.

However, for the majority I enjoyed the voice acting of the NPCs such as Clementine, The Keeper, Bo, Wallace and Ford. But yeah, the star of the show was the various tunes in-game. Remnant 2 has good music.

Tips and Tricks

I would just enjoy the game and understand the start of the story campaign is randomly generated so just reroll it if you are playing solo and un-fun early on. Change your difficulty at the World Stone.

Scrap is scarce unless you’re willing to put the time and effort into grinding scrap. Using the Scavenger’s Bauble amulet can help in that regard. So don’t go wasting scrap on just any weapon to upgrade. Make sure you focus on one weapon for each category.

Final Verdict

I was weirdly hating on Remnant 2 during my first few hours into it’s campaign. Dozens of hours later after discovering secret NPCs, quests and obtaining special gear items it got me. Remnant 2 is Souls-like with guns and I honestly couldn’t give it better praise as it’s a great game in it’s own right.

After putting in dozens of hours Remnant 2 continued attaining it’s quality gameplay loop. I’m impressed with Remnant 2 as it truly took me by surprise and now leads my sleeper video game hit for 2023 overtaking Dead Island 2.