Coming from developer Gunfire Games, Remnant II released in July 2023. The game is a direct sequel to the studio’s Remnant: From the Ashes (2019), which is itself a sort-of sequel to Chronos: Before the Ashes (2016). The game follows your custom character as they loot, shoot and scoot through a handful of strange worlds looking for their lost friend. Like Remnant in 2019, it blends basic shooter and melee combat with a mix of Dark Souls-like sensibilities such as fearfully dodge-rolling around enemies, campfire-like checkpoints that reset enemies, and even more dodge-rolling.

At time of writing, I have 124.7 hours in Remnant II. I’ve beat the game on difficulty 2 of 4, and all the DLC campaigns on difficulty 3 of 4. Despite this, I’ll drop this curious bomb: I only kind of like this game.

When chatting with a friend during some rare co-op play, said friend raised the point that he’d not really stuck to playing solo because while it’s fun, it just feels like it’s missing something. I realised I knew exactly what he meant – it’s fun in a “game and a podcast” kind of way, fun enough to play for something to do when I feel like gaming but nothing else is calling out to be played. Over four to five months, this “it’ll do” downtime game has managed to grab a lot of my time, so why don’t I rate it higher? After some deliberation, I think I’ve nailed down the thing that stops me from really, really loving it: The random elements of the game. Any fan of the game reading this will laugh because it’s one of the main selling points, but for those who haven’t a clue what I mean, I’ll explain.

Remnant II utilises randomly generated elements to decide loot drops, mini-bosses and most importantly, what order you’ll play its levels in. In practise, it works something like this: You start your game, complete the fixed tutorial and opening level, and then are tasked with slaying three bosses across the game’s three main levels or “worlds” before fighting your way through a final, fixed level to complete the game. Each of these three unfixed worlds not only appear in a random order for each player (which is cool – no objections) but contain random elements each time.

In my case, my first random world was the desolate, alien planet of N’Erud. The world is generated with one of two possible storylines, each with two set “world zones”, but it also picks from a pool of side dungeons and loot to give the player. Paired with the game’s Adventure Mode, which allows you to generate a simultaneous version of one world at a time, this allows for a huge degree of replayability: Due to the combination of storylines, side-bosses, special enemies and loot, you’ll rarely experience the game the same as a friend would.

In theory, this is great for giving players something new to discover every time they roll a new Adventure world, Campaign or character. In practise, it’s fucking exhausting. It makes Remnant II what I like to call a “Wiki game” in a somewhat derogative sense. With its approach to hidden secrets ranging from minor loot to entire classes that are locked behind one-chance events or complex puzzles, Remnant II’s approach to RNG feels more like FOMO generation rather than a driving force to keep going. While I know you don’t always “need” some of the best-in-slot gear to beat a Soul-like, it feels a bit shit to be repeatedly locked out of content you’d like to experience.

I’ve never been a big MMO player so I’m not accustomed to grinding for the sake of grinding, and I’ve played similar games like Borderlands 2 through twice at most to experience the games as a new class. I think my frustration lies specifically with the inherently time-consuming grind of the looter-shooter aspects combined with the obscured elements that rob a player of any agency. In a more narrative driven role-playing game, a choice like “Do I kill or save X character?” feels impactful because you knew about it and had a chance to make it. Remnant II robs players of that agency because many choices in the game are either completely obscured, or gated behind sheer bad luck at world generation. A silly, metagaming-required secret or two can be really fun, but Remnant II tucks an unsavoury amount of content away, going beyond “exploration reward” and right into “how the hell was I supposed to know this was in the game at all?”.  

Despite all this, environments and enemies look and sound great, and the gameplay is just about engaging enough. However, trying out new builds and getting good is marred by constantly having to check bloody Wiki articles to see if I should be fighting the boss with a shotgun, in my green pants and on a Tuesday.

Part of this may also be an age thing. As an adult – even one with admittedly minimal responsibilities – the idea of having to keep re-running a level to figure out how to get X ring or Y amulet is unrealistic as well as unpleasant. Further still, it may be a lack of regular co-op partners – perhaps it’s a totally different experience, or at least more pleasant with a friend or two in tow.

One aspect that I want the series to improve upon is the narrative and story. Remnant: From the Ashes had what seemed like a very threadbare narrative, but had plenty of scattered lore scraps to pick up on. Arriving into Remnant II, it’s immediately obvious that nothing has changed in that department, with Gunfire relying on you becoming totally addicted to the gameplay loop. To add insult to injury, the opening gives a bit of pizzaz to the appearance of one character who, upon checking the Wiki, was a Very Important Character who was introduced in some Downloadable Content for the first game. Downloadable content, that thing that is usually very much optional for the narrative of many games, gave key context for the main plot of the second game. Is that not just a little wild?!

And so we reach the end of a rather rambling feature – all written with love and small pinch of salt. My last post was intended to be a return to the usual schedule of every other month, but then I was very busy getting engaged and getting taken on directly by my workplace (double Ws) and it all unravelled a bit. Still, I’ve been playing some Crimson Desert lately, so I may pop some thoughts online about that rather odd beast. As usual, I can be found on Twitter and Ko-Fi, and am finally getting round to padding out those Letterboxd numbers too with some movie magic. Until next time, dear readers – take care!