Remnant: From the Ashes
Remnant: From the Ashes is a third-person survival action shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monstrous creatures. As one of the last remnants of humanity, you’ll set out alone or alongside up to two other players to face down hordes of deadly enemies and epic bosses, and try to carve a foothold, rebuild, and then retake what was lost. The world has been thrown into chaos by an ancient evil from another dimension. Humanity is struggling to survive, but they possess the technology to open portals to other realms and alternate realities. They must travel through these portals to uncover the mystery of where the evil came from, scavenge resources to stay alive, and fight back to carve out a foothold for mankind to rebuild… Explore dynamically-generated worlds that change each time you play through them, creating new maps, enemy encounters, quest opportunities, and in-world events. Each of the game’s four unique worlds is filled with monstrous denizens and environments that will provide fresh challenges with each playthrough. Adapt and explore… or die trying.
Steam User 115
A One-of-a-Kind Gem in Need of a Little More Polish
If nothing else, Remnant: From the Ashes is undoubtedly something you've never seen before: no one would correct you if you named it a souls-like, a third-person shooter, or even a roguelite or RPG to some extent, as elements of all are present to differing capacity. Naturally, there can be issues in treading new ground: these borrowed aspects don't always work, and I think, for me, most of them didn't, at least not to the potential they could have, but supporting the entire experience is a combat model that is so exceptional in every respect, that it's hard to envision a world where Remnant could even come close to failing.
Procedural Generation and Exploration
Remnant's use of procedural generation is a novel idea: each player's campaign will follow the same structure, but the precise layout of the world can see some considerable variation, along with the scenarios and bosses that inhabit it. Level design and exploration, however, are miserable as a result: in the name of making the experience malleable, to feel 'different' every time, the building blocks that make up the playable space are tragically basic and lifeless: there's almost nothing of interest to see or find, no hidden, enticing side routes, no intention behind enemy placement and, although they're built this way to aid in creating unique campaigns, they're so simple that they have the opposite effect; the procedural generation degrades Remnant to a corridor simulator with a semi-random boss at the end of each one.
Furthermore, as almost everything is up to RNG, there's very little in the way of guaranteed loot and your build, for the most part, comes down to simply using what you find, regardless of whether or not you want to; there's every chance that you'll never find a weapon that suits you, or create a build that fits your desired playstyle. With Adventure Mode, separate from your campaign progress, you can freely make new instances of worlds already conquered to see new scenarios and the loot they offer; however, there's no guarantee you'll roll anything different from the first time you explored that world, there's often an unpleasant grind involved should you be looking for a particular item, and, the real issue, as I've already discussed, the procedural generation simply isn't robust enough to allow these replays to feel unique, interesting, or worth the time invested.
Finally, many optional questlines aren't entirely present. For example, early on, there's a chance you can meet with Mud Tooth, an elderly fellow living in a downed helicopter who'll offer you a pocket watch after listening to his stories, all the while informing you that he had intended to pass it along to his son Brabus one day. A less obvious quest there never was; however, it's all too common for a world seed to, despite including Mud Tooth, never house the boss encounter against Brabus, in which you can give him the watch to de-escalate the situation, skipping the fight while earning unique rewards. Worse yet, your seed could include Brabus but have the battle occur before meeting his father, resulting in obtaining the watch after having already fought and killed the intended recipient. Adventure mode allows you to eventually roll the remainder of your incomplete quests should you wish, although this approach suffers all the same pitfalls outlined earlier.
Combat
Very damning so far, I know, but in truth, Remnant's phenomenal combat mitigates many of these issues, at least enough for them to be tolerable: they're still there and very much noticeable; however, it's easy to forget how bland and lifeless the playable space is when you're so eager to get to the next fight, and failing to find the particular weapon you're looking for stings considerably less when every gun shoots like a dream.
So why is this combat model as brilliant as it is? I could go on and on about the superb sound design, the hefty, powerful weapons or the precise and dextrous controls, though as good as they are, it's the finer details that really shine: it's the thoughtfully designed enemy variants that compliment each other impeccably, keeping every encounter intense, it's the perfectly tuned stagger in each bullet that allows even the precision weapons to feel viable controlling the crowds at close range, it's the elegant consumable economy that offers the satisfaction of thoughtful preparation, yet keeps itself slim, not overwhelming with dozens of highly specific and hardly usable concoctions; every facet of battle feels meticulously scrutinised and subsequently optimised.
All except one, however. Remnant's boss battles are not at all consistent: on the one hand, you have original, multi-phase fights that deliver a fair and rewarding challenge; on the other, you have essentially reskinned elite enemies with two attacks that rely on sending a continuous, overwhelming stream of adds to mask the inadequacy of the boss itself, all the while making the encounter a nightmare for a solo player. Once again, we have another victim of the procedural generation; there are far more bosses than you'll ever see in one playthrough, and, unfortunately, there's an obvious case of quantity over quality here.
Character Progression
I love what Gunfire Games went for here: there's a trait system offering quality-of-life improvements and increases to core stats after allocating points earned as you kill enemies and complete quests. Fairly standard so far, but not all of these traits are available to a new character: some will unlock after specific boss encounters, but more interesting are the ones that unlock based on the way you play or how your character has progressed; the 'climber' trait, for example, becomes available after vaulting obstacles fifty times and, as you might expect, increases your vault speed with each point allocated into it.
It's a great system on paper, moulding your character based on their experiences and one of the better aspects of the procedural generation; however, trait points feel slow to accumulate, and each one allocated provides little to no value. Take that 'climber' trait from earlier: you get a point roughly every ten minutes, and what can you do with it? +1% vaulting speed. Other examples (per point) include: +2.5 health, +0.75% ranged damage, +1% weak spot damage, +0.5% elemental damage resistance; you get my point. Sure, these upgrades add up, but they're so useless on their own and feel like a waste of time to allocate; this is something I should be looking forward to doing, but I so often found myself letting points build up to spend in bulk in the hope that I could feel any sense of improvement within my character outside of the relatively standard gear upgrades.
Final Thoughts
Despite my criticism, I've generally started each section on a positive note, and with good reason: Remnant's innovation is a breath of fresh air within the souls-like genre that, at this point, is infamous for its formulaic and static mechanics found in every title trying to emulate Fromsoft's masterpieces. However, outside of the brilliant combat, I'm not yet convinced whether these new ideas are the next big thing for the genre or whether they should have never seen the light of day; the potential is certainly there, however, and, as a game I already recommend, I'm very keen to see how Remnant improves in the sequel later this month.
Steam User 107
Bring on Remnant 2 !! Pew Pew Pew!!
(( Disregard the hours played on here, being I got it free on Epic and played the heck out of it Solo and with Friends and finished the base game! ))
This is one of them gem of a game and is very highly underrated and very addictive. I normally suck at these souls-like games but being a long time FPS player I found this game to be a bit easier for me to play and master. This game plays in 3rd person (Like Warframe or Destiny 2 melee wise or Division games) and is a good mix of Souls-like, FPS and RPG action. The boss battles are amazing and at times can be frustrating, but once you learn the fights they become not so bad and feels very rewarding once you down them. Yes you will die a lot but it only takes you back to the checkpoint, so getting back into the thick of it doesn't take long.
There is 3 classes or Archetypes to play, Scrapper, Ex-Cultist and Hunter. Each with their own specializations and preferred weapons.
The games story and graphics are real nice and the controls are real good once you map them out to your play style. I also love all the weapons and gear you can acquire on your adventures and has the standard color code of goodies as in White, Green ,Blue, Purple and Yellow as in most RPG's. I also love how you get traits by doing things in the game , some come simple while others come after beating bosses and then you can upgrade these traits as you progress to make them and you stronger. Also all of your gear can be upgraded and also modded. The mods give you an extra skill to use when in battle, some heal others do damage or give bonuses to all players around, like a buff.
The game can be fun in SOLO play as well as taking a team of 3 in Co-op and opening up some whoop-ass on some crazy creatures. The game has pretty good difficulty settings so if you master one you can set it high or if you find it too easy.
I highly recommend this game to any fan of Souls-like, 3rd Person FPS and RPG's fans. Just a hint: Always remember to upgrade and destroy anything that looks breakable due to it has scrap and iron inside which you can take back to camp and upgrade your gear. I give this one 9 out of 10 stars! I can't wait for Remnant II !!
(( P.S Just a little shout-out to Humble Bundle Choice for adding the full game to its June's Bundle! Thanks Gunfire Games / Gearbox Publishing and HBC !!! ))
Steam User 109
The worst thing about the game is the generic name and store thumbnail, which made me sleep on it for years.
This game fucking rules.
Steam User 46
Review made after 6 hours of play.
Setting: Post-apocalyptic multiple-worlds souls-like game.
Story: Lore-heavy story is there if you read the notes and books found in game.
Gameplay: Very fun to play with others. My husband and I are having a blast, teasing the other when they die and cheering when we finally beat the area boss. Can't wait for us both to be home from work so we can play. 10/10.
Steam User 43
FOIL the plans of a benevolent plant-based lifeform that came to Earth to solve the CO2 crisis;
LEARN the answer to the ages-old question: "What if Cthulhu but tree?"
BEFRIEND a quirky but lovable family whose members would rather talk to you than to each other;
GENOCIDE entire alien villages and fashion crude weaponry from their priceless artifacts in a morbid mockery of their cultures;
DEVELOP an irrational hatred of bells;
PET A DOG;
SHOOT your IRL friend in the back because a two-bit gangster in a video game told you to;
GET a restraining order filed against you by the only person in the post-apocalyptic world who understands engineering;
FAIL and fail and fail again while trying to help a nice old lady get home from church;
TORMENT an underpaid and underclothed fast food worker by repeatedly shooting his naked buttocks;
TRY out an exciting assortment of weapons and armor only to revert to your starting setup every time shit gets real;
ACHIEVE Zen after accidentally rolling your 200h hardcore character off a cliff.
(it's a good game, really)
Steam User 36
I've jokingly called this game "Gears of Souls", being that in the most simplest of terms its a third person shooter action RPG with some Souls-like elements. Which, to be honest, didn't really grab me back in 2019 when this first came out. I saw it, went "ah, another one of these" and carried on with my life.
But this game is criminally slept on to be honest. It may be a rough gem, but its a gem nonetheless.
Difference that Remnant has on other Souls-likes is that the "worlds" (levels) are generated randomly from predetermined set pieces so each playthrough is slightly different; You might get different bosses, a rare item might appear in the world, events and merchants may or may not appear. It keeps things interesting, especially when playing with friends.
And boy, the co-op in this game is really good, and that's one of the things that makes Remnant shine for me.
For starters, shared loot. Your friend picks up scrap? you got that scrap too. Your friend found equipment or a weapon? You get it as well. You helped your friend kill a boss? You both get the boss item. And it doesn't stop there: Your friend healed using a Dragon Heart? You get a percentage of that heal, too. Remnant is really kind to the Co-Op experience, and that really gives it two big thumbs up for me.
Combat and enemy variety is good too, plenty of bad guys to shoot and smash, but nothing really stands out to me as exceptional and worthy of note. Boss fights are the better part of that, being that they are interesting quarries. But combat sets out what it supposed to do and succeeds, which is good enough from me.
Long story short, Remnant from the Ashes is a great game. About 20ish hours long, more with the DLC. Pet the dog near the Merchant on Rhom to get a very good weapon mod. Goes on sale for cheap, too. Play it with a friends for the best experience.
I rate it Nice!/10.
Steam User 77
Good solid souls like with guns, you could say that ,but it offers it's own take on the genre.
Little confusing at first, but press on to find an interesting world filled with unique enemies and loot.
Co op or multiplayer is easy and people still play why because the co op/ multiplayer aspect is super fun.
Upgrade weapons and armor, master the combat and a rewarding experience awaiting.
With the base game and all the dlcs in one package for under $22 is a steal.