Remnant: From the Ashes

Remnant: From the Ashes isn't the first Soulslike with guns game, but it's arguably the most successful. A few hours in though, and I wasn't enjoying myself. The game begins with a brief, but cliché riddled and incredibly vague cutscene, after which your player character is dumped into a drab, grey, post-apocalyptic environment to fight some drab, black and grey enemies with a sword*. This tutorial section ends with you being overwhelmed and then waking up in the game's hub area. Things don't improve much as you find it's populated by boring, static NPCs. It's not the best of starts, being underwhelming and not really preparing you for the game to come. Dark Soul's Asylum was much better at introducing you to the game's mechanics and it's world, and culminated in a manageable but still impressive looking boss fight. Similarly that game's hub helped flesh out the wider world and its history through conversation with its varied and changing NPCs. In Remnant the hub become little more than a place for quests givers and vendors.
So on arriving in this forgettable hub you have to seek out the commander who gives you your first proper mission; to help deal with the base's power problems. It's here that you're properly introduced to those enemies from the tutorial, as you fight off a wave of them. They're known as the Root, possibly due to them looking a bit tree-ish, but regardless, they appear to be the reason the earth is in such a shit state. The game also introduces Remnant's version of bonfires here, again in the vaguest possibly way. All you really need to know is that the big red floating crystals act as teleport stones and save points.
After this little interlude you set off on your true quest, to find the founder. The reasons why are unclear and not at all interesting but whatever, I guess it's a motivation of sorts. You're finally given a computer code that lets you activate the big teleport crystal in the hub and it transports you to Earth.... Hang on, I thought I was on Earth? The newly arrived at location certainly looks the same as the tutorial section, keeping up that monotonously depressing 50 shades of grey vibe, only now with the occasional flashes of red, like we're playing a Schindler's List Soulslike.
Earth is where I'd say the game truly begins if I was talking about Dark Souls. Or I might say "opens up" instead, but Remnant's levels are procedurally generated so there's none of that wonderful Soulsy level design. Instead you have fairly linear corridor like levels that might have multiple paths, but only one of the paths tends to lead to proper progress. Other routes generally lead to optional boss fights at the end of linear dungeons, although the game won't tell you that the boss you just fought was an optional one and it's certainly not clear. There's no fanfare or build-up to the mandatory bosses and you may well fight them at the end of a samey looking dungeon.
As to the boss fights, they don't make a good first impression either, and while they do improve later on a large majority of them seem to be designed with co-op in mind. Story specific bosses tend to summon additional enemies (adds) and this is where a lot of the difficulty arises when fighting them solo. I was often killed by bosses whilst distracted by the regularly spawning adds. If playing in co-op, to balance out the fact that you've got help the bosses are given more heath, becoming bullet spongey. In some ways it makes them even harder to win, especially if your co-op partners aren't up to much.
I can't begin to describe how unfair this all feels and how frustrating it is to play, and I almost gave up on the game at this point. I am glad I persevered though because once you've ground your way through Earth's blandly crumbling vistas and overcome a big ent boss, the game does in fact start to open up to some degree when you gain access to Stargates™. This is also where the game starts to get more creative visually and even trickles out a bit of story as you find out that the Root have attempted to conquer multiple worlds.
The area with the Stargates is essentially a secondary hub and you'll eventually gain access to a few more gates that lead all lead to different worlds, your ultimate goal still being to find the founder. The first gate takes you to a desert planet with which has a nice mixture of futuristic and primative architecture and enemy types. Not only is this more interesting to look at and fight in, but it also manages to do a bit of visual storytelling that was completely lacking on Earth. It's still not up to Dark Soul's standard as the procedural generation limits tightly designed world building, but it's an improvement. The fact that this world underwent some kind of cataclysm to stop the Root invasion certainly comes across and was more engaging than any snatches of the story so far. There are even a few NPCs scattered about, and an undying king to find!
It's also here that I really started to appreciate the game mechanics. Remnant has a really enjoyable gameplay loop, similar in some ways to a looter shooter, but 3rd person and with a dodge roll. It's also pretty fast and enemies are surprisingly fragile, it feels arcadey at times and you can almost zone out while playing. It's certainly at the positive end of that scale though, don't get me wrong.
There are a wide selection of guns to choose across two categories; handguns and rifles. These can be anything from a sniper rifle and a sub machine gun, to an acid pistol and an energy rifle. I found myself experimenting with a lot of weapons throughout and some were more situational than others. You only start off with the two guns but you'll rapidly unlock more by finding them in dungeons or crafting them from boss resources. You can also level up guns although I found this made me use the levelled ones more often, perhaps hampered experimentation. Weapon mods add more depth the the gunplay. These activated abilities are also crafted from bits of defeated bosses and you can slot one into the particular gun you're using. The abilities they give range from summons, to healing, to bonus damage, and again they're situational.
You find and upgrade armour in the same way as you do guns, and getting a set gives specific bonuses. Each set is generally resistant to different types of damage and so will work better or worse in different worlds. Remnant also has rings and amulets but these are a little lackluster and a lot of them were pretty much useless.
Levelling also works differently in Remnant. Rather than putting points into stats like strength and dexterity, Remnant has traits. While these traits do include ones for stamina and health, you can unlock ones that decrease ranged damage, speed up reloading, increase scrap collection and xp earned, resist elemental damage, increase critical damage rates and many more. You unlock more as you play by, in a variety of ways. It's a nice change to the more traditional stats based levelling, allowing you to build a character based on preferred traits.
You won't unlock all these items, mods and traits in one play-through because the bosses and encounters are unique to each run. This adds some replay-ability and goes towards explaining the procedural generation. You can essentially reset each world and hope to get some new bosses and encounters but I'd save this until you've completed the main story.
Ultimately, I'd still recommend Remnant despite the pretty mediocre and frustrating first few hours. It might not be as deep, engaging or atmospheric as Dark Souls, but it's certainly enjoyable with its moreish gameplay and has a decent amount of replay value. I haven't really thought about it much since finishing though, it just didn't get under my skin like the best Soulslike can.
*Incidentally the games tutorial section deals with melee combat; the last resort combat in a game primarily geared towards being a 3rd person shooter. It's not ideal.

At first, the game felt a bit generic, still interesting, just a little samey; but after scratching the surface a little more I realized that the depth and creativity of this title is astounding. I've only put in 9 hours and I feel like its going to take an eternity to complete it. An eternity I am looking forward to. Even the lore is engaging, I've gone from the guy that was skipping journals and computer logs to the guy that reads them through and through. Anyway, its a great game.

Excellent Souls-like game with procedural world design, tons of different enemies and bosses and very addictive gunplay. There are a few flaws, like bosses spamming endless waves of smaller enemies and most of the game can be cheesed by using summons, but there's so much more left to enjoy. Very recommended, well done Gunfire Games!

It’s Dark Souls but in America
Bought this game because I'm bitter about my lawnmower breaking and I need to destroy some plants.
This game feels like edging. It's enjoyable but it’s really hard to reach the peak where you can feel satisfied.
I think time will show this game to be a pioneer of an entirely new thing, and I certainly hope so. It didn't just add another dimension to the third person/looter shooter genre, it opened a whole new can of worms for ARPGs too. It’s basically a Roguelike, and is fairly dynamically generated. This game gets reduced to 'Dark Souls with guns', and while that is fair because it features elements like bonfires, estus flasks, dodge rolls, sidestep, encumbrance etc, the gameplay really doesn't play anything like Dark Souls and it really is its own game. The aesthetic and overall world reminded me a lot of Stephen King's Dark Tower series in terms of vibes: the mishmash of different cultures and technological levels is absolutely spot on for me. The shooting is tight as hell as well.
The lore is definitely my favorite thing about this game. Finding bits and pieces and putting them together or reading diary entries about some badass monster before finally encountering it was great. I honestly wasn't expecting much from this game and it delivered so much in that aspect. This was one of my biggest surprise games ever. I had practically no idea what I was getting into. And honestly, it does a terrible job of pulling you in at the start with the sort of mundane looking Earth level. It kinda makes it all the more intriguing when you go from generic ruined city level to the crazy and imaginative levels that follow.
You're given a minimap as well as vague objectives so you at least have an idea of what you should probably do. The bosses, while challenging, aren't insanely so. You may get super frustrated with a few of them but they won't hold you up for hours upon hours. The most I failed at a boss before beating it was maybe 10 times max, and I even beat some on my first try. You also don't lose your experience points upon death, which is good. It's also got tons of replay value, as each area is procedurally generated. You can "re-roll" the campaign at any time, essentially starting it from scratch, and it even features an adventure mode where you can tackle certain worlds to hopefully grab some good loot you may have not been able to get as of yet. There's also a survival mode if you really want to challenge yourself, where you basically go until you die.
The world is also really cool, with several different realms you can visit, and all of them look totally unique. You have a destroyed post-apocalyptic city on Earth, a desert wasteland world that's a mixture of high and low tech, a swamp world, and a jungle world reminiscent of Mesoamerica. Each boss is really unique and there are tons of weapons and gear you can find. It feels really good to beat a boss and get some amazing piece of gear from it that boosts your power. I found this great mod for my weapon that summons minions to help me fight, which dramatically increased my survivability, but instead of it making the game feel too easy or the challenges too cheap, I felt like I earned it because of the battle I fought to acquire it.
The other thing that I really liked most about this game is that the enemy types really feel unique from place to place. In other shooters like Destiny all the adds always felt the same. But in this game I always felt like new areas had to be dealt with differently, to best get through them. In the first world I felt like being out in the open wasn't such a bad thing and would let me see and adjust to each enemy. But in the second area I had to use cover a lot more and be more aware of my surroundings. Nothing changed but the enemies attacking differently and that forced me to play differently to accommodate the new enemy mechanics.
Gameplay feels amazing. Movement and gun play is very smooth. Done perfectly. Plenty of great, unique bosses. Some even the souls franchise would be proud of. However, there are some that use a lot of mobs as filler and plenty of people don't like that as it seems a cheap shot. But I think as a shooter game it works. Collecting items, armours, weapons etc. Is genuinely an enjoyable experience, finding another piece to a set really gets you excited. On top of that, there are so many set ups you can use. Pretty much anything is viable if you think about the set up properly and apply it in the right way and environments.
How “loot” is handled in this game, though l'd struggle to even call it loot, is great too. Most loot based RPGs just dump dozens of trash gear on you and that very quickly makes looting feel tedious and waters down moments of finding something you actually want to equip. In this game when you find gear it feels like you made a significant discovery. Not to mention it makes upgrading your weapons and armor more meaningful since you're not always thinking 'I'm gonna upgrade this and then sell it after finding something better in an hour aren't I?'
Remnant from the ashes felt like a love letter to gamers. It truly felt like the devs made the game for fun rather than money. It was one of the few games where I bought the DLC to support the devs rather than serve my own gamer needs. The lore and story were interesting enough to keep me invested in all the readables and dialogues, and that certainly isn't always the case, or even something I expect from a combat heavy game. It may not have the scope and glamour of a blockbuster GOTY contender but it's among the best games I've played in the past few years. It's more original, exciting, and has more character than a lot of AAA titles of late. If you like a challenge and want to try something legitimately fresh and different, Remnant From The Ashes is a pretty solid bet for a great time.
9/10

Remnant is a great game, despite how hard some of the bosses might be. You get a great challenge and an awesome time. There are pretty much zero bugs in it. When playing it you unlock and upgrade amazing weapons, get cool mods for your weapons, defeat bosses and special enemy's, unlock new zones, and you can even play it with friends. I really think that everyone should try this game.

Remnant is a fun Souls-like title that is emphasizes third person shooting and coop more than others in the genre. Outside of the always on Co-op and shooting mechanics, the gimmick of this tile is the randomly generated dungeons and the ability to "re-roll" your campaign to try and fight different bosses and acquire different loot. It can be interesting to play around with but was not enough to make me want to do a second playthrough once I had completed the game.
The story and lore was not very memorable or engaging to me but that is par the course for the genre. If you want to have a night with the boys and play a game that is semi challenging than this might be the one for you when it is on sale.

Great game even still. Picked this up because it was on sale and i had already played the second one. Still somewhat active players. When browsing open games to join youll usually see anywhere between 10 and 20 games to join with people. Still great and holds up today!