Remnant 2 will be released on July 25 for PC (Steam, Epic), PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus was allowed to play the entire game in advance and is thrilled. Unplanned, he spent hours solving puzzles and suddenly an entire day was gone.
What do Diablo, Call of Duty and Dark Souls have in common? Nothing, but Remnant somehow connects all three games anyway. Well, at least something like that. The action RPG is at its core a Soulslike. Tough bosses, builds, and loot, pretty much everything as in Dark Souls.
In addition, there’s an interesting grind with crafting and classes for new possibilities as well as firearms. You heard right: Remnant gives the dusty genre an interesting twist by making rifles, crossbows, and pistols the standard repertoire.
I played the first part, Remnant: From the Ashes, for so long that I almost overslept work. Now the creators Gunfire Games have made a successor, which I was able to play in advance in the review build.
With the expectations of a pleasant action game for in-between, I went in. Excited about the story, the weapons, and the characters, I come out of the test after nearly 30 hours now. Of those, 15 hours alone on my free day to finish the story. The game hits exactly the right nerve.
As a sharpshooter against nasty bosses
What most of you probably want to know now is: How exactly does it work, a Dark Souls with guns? The short answer is: extremely well. In third-person, meaning “over the shoulder”, you control most of the time.
If you have a rifle with a scope, you can also switch to first-person perspective. But that doesn’t mean you can comfortably stay back to shoot the enemies from a safe distance. Fights usually go like this:
- Spot the enemies and plan: 3 targeted shots to take out the group
- First shot connects, enemies notice, rush towards me
- Someone sneaks up from behind and hits me
- Quickly switch weapons and fend off with the pistol as the angry mob arrives
- Panic, roll around, reload, stab blindly with the melee weapon, and try to survive
- Heal and back to step 1
Aside from boss fights, this sums up the first hours in Remnant 2 surprisingly well. Because the bosses are actually quite a tough number. As you would expect from a Soulslike, you normally need many attempts before you win.
This is mainly because you first have to learn the “attack patterns”, so: how does the boss announce which attack and how do I dodge it? Once that’s figured out, you have a chance. Difference from Dark Souls: not every hit is a oneshot. At least not on the second of four difficulty levels.
Co-op is a blessing, except for the story
Remnant 2 can be played entirely in co-op with friends. My friend here was colleague Maik Schneider, who lost interest after the first chapter of the story. That’s a shame on one hand, but on the other hand good, because:
- Together, the game was really fun, causing laughter and shared despair
- However, the story suffered a bit because Maik couldn’t see or benefit from my decisions
Overall, we talked more at times than listening to the really well-designed NPCs, which I only really appreciated when playing solo. There are some pretty wacky and interesting characters with whom you can talk and for whom you can complete tasks.
In total, there are 6 worlds in Remnant 2, Earth included, and each has different enemies, bosses, dungeons, and NPCs. Depending on how you decide and react, there are even different rewards and endings. For instance, I accidentally wiped out an entire species and destroyed their home world. Oops …
My dog “Hund” is the best partner
What surprised me the most were the new classes, or “archetypes.” Even in Remnant: From the Ashes there were different archetypes, but they had little impact. Essentially, it was like in Dark Souls: your starter build, which you could always adjust in the end.
In Remnant 2, the classes have their own abilities, passive skills, and even attributes that they automatically level. From a certain level, archetypes can be combined to create unique combinations.
The class thus has a much greater impact than I initially thought. I chose the “Helper” class, which is referred to as a support and has a dog as a companion. The entire playstyle revolves around this idea:
- I buff my dog, myself, and friends with damage or speed, can even heal
- My dog attacks enemies or protects me
- Through special abilities, I can “train” my dog to taunt enemies, heal friends, or amplify damage
Unfortunately, I found no way to give my companion a name, so he simply remained “Hund” until the end. But: you can pet the dog!
Other classes, like Hunter or Gunslinger, are more focused on “face-to-face” damage. Especially in co-op with different classes, this is a great addition to the playstyle that games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne lack.
Story hui! Endgame … is also here
The biggest strength of Remnant 2 so far is the story. I don’t want to spoil anything, but fundamentally it’s about finding out how to stop the ‘Seed’. It’s a kind of space parasite that infects and destroys all sorts of worlds. A bit like Tyranids from Warhammer.
To prevent that, I travel through worlds, help the inhabitants there, and search for a way to finally destroy the Seed. How it turns out is… surprising. Play it yourself, I only took about 20 hours.
However, that’s also the biggest weakness, in my opinion. After these 20 hours and a few more for the pretty cool puzzles, there’s actually not much more to do.
The endgame involves playing the ‘Adventure Mode’. These are randomly generated worlds with new tasks, bosses, and rewards. The campaign is also randomly generated each time. It’s cool, but whether it lasts for more than 2 playthroughs, I can’t say.
At least messing around with different classes or builds for the highest difficulty, trying out new weapons, and solving all the puzzles still keeps me going. What I should do next in Remnant 2, I’m not so sure.
There were also some technical issues, which the colleagues talked more about than I would have noticed, especially FPS drops and stutters.
Nevertheless, I like the game very much. Especially to have some action with friends for just 2-3 hours in the evening, the game is ideal. As soon as you are too tired or frustrated for the current boss, you just continue tomorrow.
Remnant 2 will be released on July 25 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, but without crossplay, as I was informed. Those who pre-order the more expensive Ultimate Edition will even have early access from July 21. The next weeks will be quite tight when it comes to good, new games:
4 cool games are coming in the next 2 months – Do you have them all on your radar?
