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[Remnant 2] Remnant the re-remnanting

tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
edited July 2023 in Games and Technology
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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 other

Remnant 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.

“I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
tastydonuts on
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Posts

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    It's a good game!

    I fought a fire breathing dragon with a sniper rifle.

  • surrealitychecksurrealitycheck lonely, but not unloved dreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered User regular
    why would somebody give a dragon a sniper rifle thats just irresponsible

    3fpohw4n01yj.png
  • MudzgutMudzgut OhioRegistered User regular
    Playing this with two friends the last few days has caused me a general lack of sleep and we haven't even progressed that far into the game yet. I still need to go back through solo a bit so I can read over the various journals and boards and notes that I've seen laying around. Great game so far, looking forward to more of it!

    steam_sig.png

    Twitch/Mudzgut
    Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
  • Undead MonkeyUndead Monkey Anchorage, AKRegistered User regular
    This game is pretty great. I was hesitant at first because when watching gameplay on streams the world looked a bit sparse, but the combat is a blast and the grind for leveling up guns and armor is surprisingly fun.

    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.

    SteamID: Pudgestomp
    XBL: InvaderJims
    Bnet: Pudgestomp#11153
  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    I have been enjoying the game a bunch! The assault Rifle does work.

  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I bought this yesterday, but it took an hour to download and install so I didn't have a chance to play. Might stream some later today!

    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.

    KoopahTroopah on
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    edited August 2019
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Aye, a lot of the performance issues—a major one on Xbox being that the SMG would kill your FPS and crash the game over time (likely memory leak)—should have been addressed with retail release patch?

    Early Access/VIP period is the new beta! :P

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • chamberlainchamberlain Registered User regular
    How well does it work single player?

    Also, I hate stamina meters. Will I hate this?

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I've been playing SP pretty much all the time, and it's a challenging experience* (easier to be flanked and rushed alone, lower damage output vs multiple people, etc). Boss fights definitely get clutchy playing alone, as bosses tend to have adds that you need to address or evade. They're there for procs, mod power and ammo. Some special enemies are harder to fight alone vs being with a partner or two as well, but their spawns are somewhat limited.

    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.

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    So other than a bug that despawned 2 bosses and gave me the rewards (which patched as of today) I have enjoyed this very much.

    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

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    Not a fan of this Undying fellow.

  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    I’m his best mate. :)

    Little bit of info...some Bosses when killed in certain ways drop different loot.

  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Only had one crash, but so far am pretty early. I am enjoying this junk

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I wonder if they removed scrap drops from the enemy adds during boss battles? I've only seen ammo drops.
    k
    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.

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Played through the tutorial and first level last night. Super fun so far! I'm just solo though.

    It definitely has some AA jank like the facial animations. Voice acting is good.

    Spawnbroker on
    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I also started my playthrough last night. Playing a Hunter and enjoying the gunplay quite a bit, up to the second(?) boss? It's like a protection from waves type of thing which might be really hard for a solo Hunter.

    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.

    KoopahTroopah on
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    I think a lot of the systems in the game, like the different ways you can build your character and the way the game is constructed (i.e. 'resetting' the game to get different procedural bosses/items/choices) works much better if playing in co-op. I've also heard the game doesn't give a very strong first impression, but as you progress it gets better and better. One review I watched said he had a special item drop early on that completely changed how he constructed his character for the entire playthrough.

    Cohh and JP were talking about that on their podcast a bit.

    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    I think saying there's 3 classes is a stretch, because technically, the only difference between the starting archetypes is a single trait, weapons and what armor set you get. Digging into the traits is where you'll really define your class. :P

    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?

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    There is some simplicity in the systems for this game, but it doesn’t harm it.

    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.

  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    I don't think i'll ever try coop due to the nightmare stories i've heard about the level scaling.

  • Moridin889Moridin889 Registered User regular
    Aistan wrote: »
    I don't think i'll ever try coop due to the nightmare stories i've heard about the level scaling.

    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.

  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    I haven’t tried co op yet. Here’s a post on level scaling that’s quite good.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/remnantgame/comments/crs0i3/level_scaling_information/

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Aistan wrote: »
    I don't think i'll ever try coop due to the nightmare stories i've heard about the level scaling.

    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

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    My bad, sorry about that.

    One thing I would like to see is a bestiary of all the wonderful creatures in this.

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    Yeah, that would have been nice. Fextralife has an "Official" wiki but it's pretty bare bones at this point. I'll put a link to it up later?

    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    Sounds like a plan. I promise I will not repost any more links :D

  • Pixelated PixiePixelated Pixie They/Them Registered User regular
    The last section of today's patch notes:

    5akpyho874oy.png

    :lol: Perfect.

    ~~ Pixie on Steam ~~
    ironzerg wrote: »
    Chipmunks are like nature's nipple clamps, I guess?
  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    I have a friend that wants to co-op this. Should I start a new character and play with him when he's ready, or will it be okay to co-op with him on my main character?

    I'm leaning towards the former, I have heard scaling gets weird if someone is higher level than everyone else.

    Spawnbroker on
    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    I would say create a new character and go through it. Always flick to your other character when your friend is equivalent if you want?

  • tastydonutstastydonuts Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Yeah, the game *always* scales to level+1 of the highest player. So your friend would get smashed.

    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.

    tastydonuts on
    “I used to draw, hard to admit that I used to draw...”
  • darkmayodarkmayo Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    just started playing this and so far I am enjoying it, did run into my first named boss like guy. I haven’t played any souls like games so being two shotted by a boss was new. He isn’t so difficult as his patterns aren’t hard to figure out but having the gas bag enemies show up and the tighter quarters make it far more of a pain in the ass.

    darkmayo on
    Switch SW-6182-1526-0041
  • GoodKingJayIIIGoodKingJayIII They wanna get my gold on the ceilingRegistered User regular
    So is this out out? Brad Shoemaker of giant bomb was talking about it recently but I wasn’t sure if he was playing prerelease for review.

    This game seems really cool.

    Battletag: Threeve#1501; PSN: Threeve703; Steam: 3eeve
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    Yeah it came out on Tuesday. It's pretty goood

  • SpawnbrokerSpawnbroker Registered User regular
    Had a cool moment early on in the game, slight early spoilers related to a certain crazy person:
    If you find something that you think lets you talk to trees, yes it does

    Steam: Spawnbroker
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Another good impression for what it’s worth.

    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.

    Genji-Gloves on
  • drunkenpandarendrunkenpandaren Slapping all the goblin ham In the top laneRegistered User regular
    This game is 11/10.

    You can play as a glorious Vangod from Mass Effect.

    Origin: HaxtonWasHere
    Steam: pandas_gota_gun
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    Man if you make one mistake during that tree cthulu fight, you just die. Kinda the dumbest fight so far for me.

  • drunkenpandarendrunkenpandaren Slapping all the goblin ham In the top laneRegistered User regular
    The only fights I had to look out for with my buddy was the moths and side challenge fight where zambinos and explosive teleporting jerks live.

    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.

    Origin: HaxtonWasHere
    Steam: pandas_gota_gun
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