In this Remnant 2 Review we’ll be taking an in-depth look at the anticipated sequel to Remnant from the Ashes, which brings a lot of new mechanics and improvements to the franchise. Developed by Gunfire Games, Remnant II takes the foundation laid by its predecessor and builds upon it. But the question is: Should you play Remnant II? Is it a Soulslike game? How is the character progress in Remnant 2? Read on to find out.

Remnant II Review

Remnant II: Story and Setting

Set on a post-apocalyptic Earth Remnant II is a direct sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes. You play as the Traveler, an individual who can traverse through realms via World Stones and possesses extraordinary will and resolve. The World Stones connect Earth to other Locations and beings. It’s one of the greatest human discoveries and triumphs of mankind, but also their gravest downfall.

The main enemy in Remnant 2 is the Root, a grave threat that has left humanity on the brink of extinction and brought about the collapse of civilization. Humanity strives to recover, setting a base of operations in Ward 13, the last standing bastion of safety, and a recurring location from the previous title.

While the story of Remnant 2 continues along the same lines as From the Ashes. The narrative design may feel clumsy at times. Rather than progressing in a crescendo of intrigue, the game fizzles out when it comes to lore aspects, and fails to capitalize on the most interesting parts of Remnant’s unique setting.

Story Progression

Story Progression is also lacking, and I found myself begrudging my unrelatable companions and insipid supporting characters. The Traveler, seems stuck in an unfortunate cockiness that was off-putting as well, leaving me with little emotional investment in any of the available cast, which is a shame.

Despite the shortcomings in narrative development and writing, the Remnant 2 team did successfully create an interesting world. The World Building is actually quite enticing, and I found myself pondering and inventing my own independent backstory to the circumstances of each world that I visited: how did this place come to be? What led to its current state? Will my actions here change the fate of this realm? Should I try a different approach in my next playthrough? My interactions with the factions and parties that I met in other realms felt like the true story, even though they are considered side content or flavor text.

In short, the story and narrative of Remnant 2 is not as compelling as I would like for my RPGs. But there are highs to be found by looking thoroughly, and fortunately, the game does shine on its core focus: Gameplay.

Remnant II Review – Gameplay

Level design, overall gameplay, and replayability are Remnant 2’s strongest aspects, it is clear this is where Gunfire focused their talents and efforts. Remnant II features a great blend of exploration, combat, and character progression. As a player, you’ll embark on a journey through diverse and dangerous environments, encountering a wide range of enemies and bosses along the way and with the freedom to engage them via a vast array of intricate character Builds.

Remnant II – Exploration

We all know how progression goes for Soulslike titles. However, this is where the Remnant series deviates from the template by relying on RNG when generating the content of your playthrough. For clarity, each playthrough will be different as the game assigns and randomized the events and scenarios that a player encounters in a certain world. This covers dungeons, map layouts, enemies, main objectives, and even NPCs. Expect different encounters and gameplay variations that may involve puzzles reminiscent of Resident Evil series or a little bit of platforming and avoiding deadly traps on certain levels when cycling on each playthrough.

I quite enjoy this mechanic, as starting a new playthrough provides a fresh experience due to the variety of stories involved, and cycling through these worlds makes your character stronger every run. The more you hunt for rare loot, the more your character develops via XP for your Archetypes equipped and through valuable materials to upgrade your weaponry.

This provides an addicting loop that can become quite obsessive, particularly if you’re taking on it with friends. There are drawbacks, of course, as you may find farming time-consuming when trying to hunt a specific boss in a dungeon for certain loot, especially Archetype Engrams, which let you access different Archetypes, since I needed to restart the worlds countless times and check if the dungeon I was looking for was generated each time.

RNG by Design

The whole RNG design is a double-edged sword and players with limited time may not appreciate this aspect, while those that enjoy a bit of a grind or some farming to acquire the gear they need, will likely look at this as a major plus point of the game.

Gunfire has provided some ways to circumvent this in a sense though, as a player can engage in two modes: The Main Campaign Mode, and Adventure Mode. The main campaign is self-explanatory, this determines the progress of the story. It is advisable to start your first playthrough here rather than spamming Adventure Mode so your progression follows certain main story objectives rather than plunging into new worlds without it in mind. Once the player unlocks all worlds, these worlds can be revisited in Ward 13‘s World Stone. Adventure Mode on the other hand serves as “quick matches” and they can be reset limitlessly while retaining the character’s main progress.

Remnant II – Combat

Remnant II’s combat is fast-paced, and intense, requiring precise timing and strategic thinking that follows the familiar tempo of the Soulslike Genre. Some of the original allure of Remnant from the Ashes was its nods to the Fromsoftware titles, and Souls fans will see the similarities and note the varied applications of familiar mechanics.

Intermingling souls and traditional RPG mechanics with third-person shooting and some new and clever ideas, the gameplay is simply a lot of fun. The controls are improved from the previous title, and their fluidity allows for quick movement and dynamic combat maneuvers. Manage your ammo and time your shots carefully while calculating dodge timings and I-framing against hordes of enemies.

Remnant II is a step up from its predecessor in most cases and enemy designs have also improved. Like in a Souls game, every enemy poses a decent threat, regardless of its size, and each world features its own kind of creatures and enemies, with their own strengths and weaknesses for you to discover and exploit.

Enemies

There are many enemy groups and they can become overwhelming, with Elite mobs having the assistance of a group of minions that you have to thin out before you can proceed. These encounters are fun to play, and you will probably appreciate them even more when playing cooperatively.

If you are an enthusiast of the genre, and are accustomed to the traditional Soulslike design where the main focus is melee combat, even if you have modest experience in shooters you should have no issues, thanks to the well-thought-out combat mechanics, transitioning and adapting to Remnant’s gameplay is easy. If you have not played the first title, you should expect to die a lot while learning and adjusting to the new mechanics and tempo, which is typical Soulslike design.

The overall difficulty is debatable as “skill-based”, but it may pose a challenge for beginners while fans of the previous game will feel right at home, particularly with the approach to Boss encounters, and each boss encounter has mechanics of its own.

It is plain to see that the bosses in Remnant II are not as good as those you’d find in a FromSoftware title, however, each of the bosses in Remnant II has mechanics that you must discern and counter, from finding weak spots to identifying arena safe spaces. These can also come to feel gimmicky, but overall the combination of level design, enemy and boss farming is a good gameplay loop with entertaining combat, mainly because of the build variety. So let’s look into that a bit more.

The Traveler’s Archetypes

Defeating hordes of enemies and relatively good bosses is fun on its own, but how much more if correlated with an intricate class system and a competitive array of weapon types? Remnant II provides a hefty amount of customization with a good variety of builds to suit different playstyles.

Archetypes are Remnant 2’s classes and you gain class experience as you kill enemies. Similar to D&D classes, as the Archetype level goes up, the more “features” in the form of perks and skills that the player unlocks. Players can start with distinct Classes right from the start by selecting one of: The Hunter, The Challenger, The Handler, and The Medic. Each type has unique gameplay and they all interact in a multiplayer party. For example The Hunter is the basic DPS that specializes in critical hits, while The Medic provides support to the team with helpful buffs such as damage mitigations and heals.

The most interesting part about the classes is not only that you unlock more classes by playing further into the game, but that you can also slot a second class, and gain levels in that class. Multiclassing is massive in the sense that each build can have a primary Archetype and equip a second one, enjoying all the passive buffs, perks, and unique traits. This makes builds and combinations really fun to explore and discover, which is only then enhanced further by equipment. 

The Traveler’s Equipment

Archetypes are already a treat but how about Weapons and Armor sets? There’s a significant repertoire of both traditional or otherworldly guns and melee weapons available in the game. Weapons that have unique stats and effects are categorized into three main types, Long Guns, Melee Weapons, and Hand Guns. Further customization can be made by adding Mods.

Armor passive bonuses from the first game have been removed, so you now don’t have to focus on a specific set and can instead equip each slot of your inventory based on the benefits each piece provides, which was one of the main changes requested by the fans of the original title.

Remnant 2 Review – Design, Audio, and Visual

Remnant II’s level design was a surprisingly bright point for me. I could see the efforts the developers did to make each level or world unique as possible for the player to explore, and this was definitely appreciated. I found myself frequently halting just to take in the landscapes in front of me. The lush forest of Yaesha and its floating islands, the unearthly and massive barren fields of N’Erud and dead spaceships with aliens’ nests, Losomn’s dark fantasy-themed castles, and maze-like city streets, to the mysterious and bizarre Labyrinth that connects all worlds. Each of these worlds provided compelling encounters due to the well-thought-out environmental storytelling.

The world design is also supported by a strong soundtrack that matches the setting and delivers the right atmosphere for nearly every situation. The voice acting is also competent and well-suited to the game, making everything work well together to help you lose yourself in the creative vision of the team.

Graphics

While the graphics are not the top of the industry, they are improved from the previous title and serviceable for modern gaming. You will probably notice this most on the character models and on the cosmetics for armor and weapons as you play.

Performance

Performance-wise, the game ran smoothly for me at 2k resolution with 80 frames per second. Your preferences and mileage may vary depending on your rig. We did however encounter several bugs and rendering issues, however we had a very early access copy of the game that is missing crucial patches that should be done by launch, so overall I don’t think there will be anything game-breaking. That said, and as always, we cannot verify how the game will look after the day 1 patch, so if you have performance-related concerns you can wait until then and check out our streams to see how it’s looking on launch day.

Remnant II: Replayability & Pricepoint

Replayability & Multiplayer Aspects

Replayability is one of Remnant 2’s greatest strengths, but if you don’t like the “loot farm”, it can also be its greatest flaw. If you are the type of player who loves exploring an ever-changing world and loves to tinker with builds via RNG, this is for you. Endgame activities include trying harder difficulties while improving your builds, revamping your equipment, or exploring the different options for the many random scenarios you encounter as side stories.

But why dive into a sea of RNG alone when you can play with friends? Much like its predecessor, Remnant II offers a rewarding multiplayer experience. Team up with friends or random players online to tackle challenging missions together and explore intricately map layouts.

I really enjoyed my time with the game and the cooperative gameplay adds another layer of excitement and strategy, as players can combine their skills and abilities to overcome formidable enemies and bosses. The seamless integration of multiplayer features makes Remnant II a truly social and collaborative experience.

Price Point

My first playthrough in Remnant II took 25 to 30 hours, but bear in mind that the game progression is highly dependent on the player’s skill level so this may greatly vary. Your first playthrough is almost the introduction to the game as the whole point is to delve deeper into the difficulties and get more loot. Considering the Steam Standard Edition is being sold at 49.99, the sheer amount of content that the game offers makes it worth every penny for players who enjoy this kind of gameplay loop, particularly if they want to play with others.

Final Thoughts

Remnant II is a step up compared to its predecessor in every way, and it’s clear that Gunfire put effort into listening to fan feedback. Striking world design, immersive character progression and combat, cooperative multiplayer features, an engaging gameplay loop, and good replayability propel Remnant 2 forward where many games have taken steps backwards.

If you are a new player and still on the fence, I highly suggest hopping into the game despite its perceived difficulty, as you can easily find help online to get over the initial hurdles.

Jumping into Remnant II? Check out our Beginner Guide to get all the necessary tips & tricks. Head to our wiki for all the info on classes, builds, weapons and more.