Remnant 2
Remnant 2 Intro to the World of Remnant Video:
Remnant 2 is the sequel to the 2019 third person action-survival RPG
Remnant: From the Ashes. With the Root having been defeated things are slightly better on Earth. Set several decades after the original game, a new threat has emerged to do what sequels do. Raise stakes and expand scale and scope!
The game is available on Xbox Series X/S, Playstation 5 and PC. Presently in the early "VIP" access period for preorders, but the game will be available for all on 7/25/2023. It is playable both as a single player and in coop game (party of three). They strongly recommend co-op, but it is playable solo. AFAIK, there is no crossplay (there was generational crossplay in the first game).
Gameplay
If one were to paint this game in the broadest strokes possible, it still has elements of rogue-likes (random maps), with some "soulslike" features...
but is a shooter. There is dodging and stamina. There is some melee, but the game is a shooter first. I cannot stress that enough. The world and campaign are entirely procedurally generated so the locations of items, sidequests,
order of bosses encountered, and other things will change. Bosses can also have modifiers that are randomized. In one iteration, a boss may regenerate its health over time... in another, the same boss's arena may have hazards, etc. Certain bosses drop different items if killed in specific ways. If you've killed a boss in your world, you can join another player's world to kill them again but they stay dead until you reset your campaign. There aren't a million bosses in the game either but regular enemies, if you're not careful, can and will kill you.
While it is possible to melee for the majority of the time there are points where you are simply required to shoot things. It has a heavy focus on exploration, which checkpoints for heals/resetting mobs as you go from point A to point B. The enemies in the game are
intentionally scaled to always be at least one level stronger than you are when you first enter an area, which I'll get into a little later on. Unlike "soulslike" games, if you die in this one, you don't have to walk back to your corpse to collect any kind of currency or whatever.
The role of archetypes has been expanded in the sequel, and it is now at the core of your character's progression. At launch there are 4 (5 if preorder) Archetypes in the game to start with. Each archetype has a max level of 10. The Archetypes each have their own sets of traits, perks and skills that you equip to work out your build. You unlock one for free when you start the game and the others you have to get through gameplay. You can eventually equip two Archetypes at once. Each archetype has a set of perks that improve that you level, and a trait associated with them that also increments through levelling the Archetype. Core traits are traits available for all Archetypes, and you can advance them with points from bosses and tomes of knowledge.
The starter Archetypes are as follows:
Medic - Can heal allies, etc.
Hunter - Excels in ranged damage.
Challenger - Your tank type.
Handler - Pet class with the dog people demanded.
Gunslinger -
Preorder early access Slings lead.
The game revolves around your Power Level, which is a weighted average of your Archetype level and Weapon level. This is used to determine the world level.
Weapon Level: A weighted average of the highest level weapon for each slot (long arm, sidearm, melee). The level of a stronger (boss) weapons count more.
Archetype Level: The sum of your two highest Archetype levels.
Total Archetype Level: combined som of all your Archetype levels, used for quality of relic fragment drops.
There also rings and other things that can give buffs. These don't count against your level. There are minimal levels for areas to push progression, but the key thing to note is that you cannot out-level new areas in the game. You can certainly go back and be very strong against old challenges. The game allows you to reset a world, but this scaling will always be a factor.
You can attach mods to your weapons (some are bought, some are boss drops, others crafted). As you deal damage, a meter builds up, once it's full you can unleash your mod's ability. Certain mods have multiple charges. You can only actively equip two mods at a time (one on each weapon), and almost all mods can be used between weapons. The mods on Boss Weapons (basically exotics) can't be removed.
Co-op play is available too, and enemies will scale to the power level of the
highest player in the group. World(s)
The game takes place on several worlds (including) Earth, all of which have their own specific features and mobs.
Earth (Ward 13) - You always start on Earth. It has slightly improved since the defeat of The Root there. Ward 13 is larger. Uh... that's about it.
The Labyrinth - The place between worlds. It is a maze.
Yaesha - It's a jungle world filled with goatmen.
N'Erud - Event Horizon the Spaec Ship
Losomn - The home of the Fae and Dran.
Dran - Dran is a world of pure chaos and fire.
Hints and otherRemnant 2 wiki - Fextra live continues to be the home of the wiki for this (unless there's another one out there).
Don't have any spoiler hints atm can add if recommended.
Posts
I fought a fire breathing dragon with a sniper rifle.
Twitch/Mudzgut
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
The bleak and "empty" areas lend well to the post-apocalyptic setting. Assets from Darksiders 3 are heavily reused but I don't mind - I really like that game as well.
XBL: InvaderJims
Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
Edit - The critic reviews that I have seen are all, it's good, but it's kind of buggy and has performance issues. 7/10.
And all of the player reviews have been it's reaalllly goood. 9/10.
So I'm excited to find out first hand if I like it.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Early Access/VIP period is the new beta! :P
Also, I hate stamina meters. Will I hate this?
As it's a shooter primarily, stamina matters for dodging and sprinting, but it's not too much of a hassle to manage. You can still shoot even if you're out of stamina.
edit: *there is a definite point in the game as you level up and get more points, wherein you'll have enough trait power to minimize being solo. Accessories will also help you out in this regard too.
Increasing your general power level may help you for the area you're in, but won't help you in the next area due to how the scaling works... for example, if you level your gear so you're weighted out to be a 6 in an area where the enemies are level 3, you'll get a huge benefit in net damage taken/given. However, when you get to the next area, those enemies will start at level 7.
I am on the final boss and trait lvl 121. With no hype preceding my purchase it’s been a great surprise for me.
If you like souls-like games it’s worth your time for £30.00
Little bit of info...some Bosses when killed in certain ways drop different loot.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43kvgn/remnant-from-the-ashes-is-multiplayer-dark-souls-i-didnt-know-i-needed.
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edit: also, while it's mostly flavor, if you return to the base and talk to people they sometimes react to bosses you've killed.
It definitely has some AA jank like the facial animations. Voice acting is good.
This game is very strange, in that everything is feels bare-bones. The classes (there's only 3), the NPCs (Again only really 3-4 important vendors and quest givers so far), the loot (I've played for two hours+ and only have two additional guns that aren't other starter guns), the enemies (The same 2-3 enemies with varying special spawns)... Like just about everything in the game screams needs more content, but somehow it still works. The core loop feels really solid so far, but I don't know how long this could keep up. Interested to see how the world expands. Graphics are good, but as mentioned the facial animations of NPCs are pretty lackluster. Music seems non-existent, but the sound queues & design is good. I also got stuck on the world a couple times last night, but thankfully they were in exploration areas and not during fights.
So far my initial 'first 2 hour' impression is that the critic reviews are pretty spot on, 7/10. Pretty good, but early game is lacking varying content and the gameplay definitely has some jank. I think players giving this a 9/10 are either seeing something I'm not yet, or are simply playing a different game.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Cohh and JP were talking about that on their podcast a bit.
There really aren't that many guns in the game in general, as each one fills in a specific niche. Some weapons are also dropped from boss kills.
Should also note that the game doesn't always generate every possible location/event for a campaign either, it's not so much that there's not a lot of content, it's just not all there at once?
Crafting for example you upgrade any weapon with just money and some iron and maybe some crystal. You don’t need four goat horns and 2 rusted bolts while a hammer requires 3 shafts and 3 obsidian lumps.
It’s all the same, straightforward.
The UI is simple but clear and not hundreds of stats breaking down your DPS. The traits are all explained and some organically unlock which is real cool, no huge skill tree required.
Don’t get me wrong I love all the above but it’s a nice change of pace and the game is good for it.
I agree that maybe the facial design/animation not the best but the voice acting and the sound cues are good.
The enemies are varied and also very well design not to mention the bosses.
It’s not triple AAA but it’s a really nicely constructed game that’s simple and deep in the right places.
Coop has been the best and worst times so far. 1st time beating bosses easily or just constant wipes on bosses. The increased amount of enemies are pretty good times. I'm melee focused though, so friendly fire can be an issue.
https://www.reddit.com/r/remnantgame/comments/crs0i3/level_scaling_information/
Co-OP in this game works on the Netflix principle of really making it hard to watch with someone that's binged the show.
I would love it if traits were shared across your toons so you could like, roll a low character to play with someone on an alt w/o feeling rubber-banded in strength.
edit: I actually quote and linked that post in the OP, Genji. :P
One thing I would like to see is a bestiary of all the wonderful creatures in this.
Perfect.
I'm leaning towards the former, I have heard scaling gets weird if someone is higher level than everyone else.
I don't know if that's persistent though, like if you bump levels up in someone's game, does it scale back down? If your scaling is borked, I imagine you just reroll to get back down to the proper level?
edit: actually, an edit in the post from the dev we both linked said there may be changes coming to how CoOp play works. nothing is finalized, so he doesn't provide specifics.
This game seems really cool.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
https://kotaku.com/remnant-from-the-ashes-is-quickly-becoming-one-of-my-f-1837481275
Edit: Yeah there is a fair few cool things that are hidden in this game.
You can play as a glorious Vangod from Mass Effect.
Steam: pandas_gota_gun
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
No joke, fuck that last one. We did it tho, but we spent hours on it because it's just so much cluttering the halls. Constant explosions, and specifically getting prop stuck on a root that leads up to a stair case. Because I can't biotic charge over it for whatever reason.
Steam: pandas_gota_gun