Remnant 2

 

I had played through the first game, Remnant: From The Ashes, in co-op. It had entertaining moments, and was this weird blend of souls-like combat with third person shooting. It had a handful of problems and gripes that I felt were holding the game back, so when I heard there is a sequel I was hopeful that these things would be ironed out and the games formula would be better than ever. I bought it on a discount, almost hyping it up for awhile because I was so hopeful that it was going to be a fun co-op game to look forward to.

The game starts off with a basic character creation, spent some time making a character but in the back of my mind I suspected it would be irrelevant because you'll just get armor/a helmet and wont ever see him again. Turns out that was true not long into the game. The game starts with this odd linear tutorial sequence where you follow this girl around and the game teaches you basic things like how to shoot and interact with the enviornment, its frankly just a boring and unengaing, lame first impression. For the first seems like 20 minutes of the game you aren't doing anything interesting or substantive just following this boring NPC around. Its even more of a strange choice because thats like the only section in the entire game like it, nowhere else in the game really felt like it had any sort of mission structure or scripted events or anything, only this introduction scene had this out of place scripted event.

After that lame intro, you get introduced to the main hub. This place is...well not that memorable or exciting either. Its just a generic little village outpost area with NPC's scattered around, a goofy looking giant crystal in the middle (used for teleporting, basically Souls-like bonfires)  and the first objective of the game is to force you to go around and talk to every single NPC in the village... that was also kinda boring and dull. I don't want to go around talking to a bunch of uninteresting characters, I just want to play the game. So its like 45+ minutes into the game and you havn't done anything yet. Not good.

Finally after being forced to explore the hub village, you get sent out into the world to play.
Up to this point I couldn't do any co-op, you had to get to a certain point. But then suddenly I unlocked co-op and could just go into my Steam friends and click Join and I just popped into his world just like that from then on. Sorta jarring system but alright.

Once we got into the co-op the games problems really started to reveal.
For instance, the co-op partner cannot even interact with the crystal checkpoints (Bonfires) in any meaningful way.
The host gets all these different menus, and is able to look at the world map and pick where to travel, and even look to see where the next Objetive is - all the while the co-op partner is supposed to do nothing but just sit there and wait for him to finish. Why do games implement co-op so poorly and half assed? Why does one player get the shit end of the stick? So now the co-op partner misses out on checkpoints even being interesting or exciting, because they cant interact with them in any meaningful way besides just resetting the zone.

The general structure and pacing of the game is strange too, like nothing really coheres together. The first zone is this like medieval kinda palace place, you go through it killing enemies for seemingly no reason, picking up these Quest items which unlock doors or areas, and then you get to a point where you just have to teleport away to some completely different area where the objective is and none of it really makes any sense or is coherent. It's just all over the place. And often times confused us if we were even doing the right thing or progressing the right way , or just wasting our time resetting zones and killing enemies over and over for no reason.

Eventually we realized that what you have to do is press Start and look at the map, and basically always go towards the Red fog areas to discover new places you havn't been, then keep checking each Crystal checkpoint (Bonfire) to see where the objective is (Only host can do it) to see if youre progressing the right way. Just a sloppy, poorly implemented, annoying way of progressing.

The gameplay remains largely the same from the first game. You get a few classes to choose from at the start, Medic, Close quarters tanky shotgun guy, A class that uses a dog pet, and a sniper type class. We both chose the Shotgun tanky guy because well, he has a big suit of armor so we figured cant go wrong with that. The classes arent that appealing anyway, like who wants to be a Medic? Using a pet to do all the fighting for you? Nah, Sniper? Dont want to play the whole game using a scope..so options didn't feel that extensive really. Once you pick the class it gives you the loadout, you get the suit of armor, and the shotgun.

Now, one of the major gripes I had with the first game, is that its trying to be this randomly generated levels RPG type game, but the game had no loot! Like there was only like 4 guns in the entire game or something, and you couldnt find any armor sets or anything. You just used the starter stuff the whole time, and in a game trying to be this like RNG random world kinda game, it really feels bad to have no loot besides consumables and random upgrade materials. Well guess what? Its pretty much the same thing in Remnant 2 to my utter disappointment. Sure, they added a NPC where you can buy a few more guns from, and another NPC you can buy like 3 different armors (I think they are just the ones from the starter classes) - the selection still feels bad, and you still dont find armor or loot in the actual world. I tried experimenting with like 2 other guns from the shop, but quickly just went back to using the default shotgun for the ENTIRE game. Whats the point of having these randomly generated levels if theres no interesting loot? I just dont understand their design philosophy. It works in games like Diablo because you're constantly finding this interesting pickups that change the gameplay to complement the randomness of the world, without it, it makes everything dull and feel pointless, like I'd rather just have a carefully curated handcrafted maps with enemy placements.

Its still the same third person shooting and rolling around, thats most of what you'll be doing. Going back to down infrequently just to upgrade your main weapon and not much else. They try so hard to make these weapon attachments (Mods) seem compelling and interesting - but the system completely falls flat. These things suck and are not engaging or fun to interact with. You press RB on controller to swap to the weapon attachment, and they were so ineffective, unappealing, and boring, that I only used like two of them the entire game. At one point it was this "Concussive shot" that seemed to do jack shit, maybe it just stunned an enemy? Who knows. Felt pointless. Then I got this like grenade launcher thing, also barely did any damage and felt like a waste of time to bother using. Then towards the very end of the game I realized you can get an attachment to give yourself or allies infinite heals basically, you shoot this healing explosion at the ground to give yourself back half health. Wow, this thing is crazy good, and I was cursing myself for not using it the whole game. But really the whole weapon attachment/mod system was flatout boring or ineffectie feeling.

Then you have the class skills...this is equally as pointless and lackluster. For like half the game I didnt even know how to use this because the controls are so uninutiive and clunky. You have to hold LB , THEN RB to use your class skill. Yeah, didn't figure that out for many hours. And the skill I had was this Stomp ability where you stomp the ground to do some AOE wave of attack? Any time I tried to use it , it felt worthless and shit so I didnt bother. Then eventually you get another skill that takes 5 seconds to cast and you buff yourself with 15% movement speed and not much else. Wow, also kinda completely pointless? The game tries so hard to pass its self off as an RPG but all the "RPG" mechanics are completely worthless or laughably pointless. It really is just a poorly crafted third person shooter with pathetic excuses for psuedo-rpg mechanics.

The only other real RPG mechanic in the game is this Fragments tab where you interact with this menu of a circle of crystals and fragments and honestly I never figured out what the fuck I was looking at or how it worked. I just pressed the crystal in the middle to get tiny passive buffs like +1% health or whatever. Another pointless laughably stupid mechanic.

The only other RPG element is the "Traits" menu. These are basic perks you can put points into to improve your character. Stuff like more health, faster revival time, and mod damage. But really these traits were also extremely uninteresting, dull, and didn't even seem useful. Of course I first maxed out the health Trait (+10) , from there nothing else was appealing. I just got max revival speed next, because co-op reviving is really important (typical revive system, walk over to friend and hold button). From there the game had nothing left that was interesting. More AOE damage? What AOE? The melee? I'm not using melee, the game has such a huge emphasis on Guns why the hell would I use melee?  More mod damage? The mods suck ass and arent fun to use. Playing through the game you can randomly unlock new traits , but none of them I found were ever appealing. Another failure.

Technically the game does have loot you can find, but its only jewelry. I found a handul of rings and amulets, but again, none of them felt that significant. Just stuff like +15 health, slightly faster health regen, 15% increased damage. Really nothing major. BUT, halfway through the game we found this insane incredible drop - This amulet that gives you INFINITE AMMO. What the fuck? thats so overpowered and busted, surely this is like a super rare item? Well this was totally confusing to us, I had to research it. The item is Zero Divide, and it turns out it was added in some DLC update. Well, we dont have any DLC. So how the hell did we get it? Well it seems like it was added to the game as part of some DLC, but then they added it to the core drop pool of the game anyway, so anyone can get it. And I dont even think its a rare drop, seems like you always get it in that area I found it. What a totally strange, stupid choice for an item to put in the game. Just give yourself permanent infinite ammo and completely bypass one of the main mechanics? This was such a strange choice that we were conflicted if we should use this item, cause it might ruin our impression of the game. Well we only used it when we were at a particularly stupid, obnoxious, boring, or annoying part. Like if we hated an area or were so bored we just wanted it over as fast as possible we would use this amulet. I don't know what these devs are thinking or doing, some of these design choices are just baffling.

So if the RPG mechanics are near non existent, just like the first game, with no improvement,  what about the rest of the game?
The levels are very hit (I say hit lightly) or miss.
The first stage is like I said this palace stage, that was decent enough.
Second area is this Victorian city streets  area that looks something out of Bloodborne.
This stage was fine enough, but also a big maze with multiple exits and routes and this was early in the game where we didnt realize how to figure out where to go so it turned into a slog pretty quick where we just kept resetting the area fighting the same enemies over and over for no reason.

Then you go to this weird parallel dimension realm with platforms floating in the sky and these portals you have to run into at the right time to teleport to certain places... this area felt like something that belonged in an alpha test or something, like there wasnt much to it. Just platforms floating in the sky, and these goofy cutesy rock creatures that attack you.
Then another area is this terribly dull, boring, flat deserty plains area but it looks grey and cold, where you just run around in the open fighting random waves of enemies in the most boring fashion, then you get to these underground buker areas and suddenly the game turns full generic sci-fi slop where youre inside these big metal container rooms and flashy glowing machines and neon lights and stuff. Like what the fuck is going on in this game? They cant figure out what they hell they're trying to be. It's a mess.

Later on in the game you go to these red corruption zones where you go through these crypts and buildings taken over by this monster corruption which was OK , atleast better than some of the previous zones, but still nothing to write home about.

Sure, it does have a lot of monster variety, but at least half of them are stupid or goofy nonsense. I cant even tell what I'm fighting half of the time.
The game also has this annoying ammo problem, like for the first half of the game we would keep running out of ammo and having to use our shitty pistol. The only way to get ammo is to pick it up off enemies, and you and your co-op partner have to fight for it. It sorta gets resolved when you upgrade your gun enough times, but the whole ammo system felt a bit undercooked and awkward.

The bosses are also mixed. Most of the time it feels like typical gimmicks.
You have one boss thats these stupid cubes from like Mario 64 where you have to stand inside the cube or get crushed, while shooting these floating orbs.
Another boss thats basically Bed of Chaos from Dark Souls where you have to stand on the right platforms or you fall off and die
Another boss where if you stand out in the open your "Madness" meter fills up and it fucks with your hud..
Another one where its a series of platforms and these floating balls flying towards you where you have to keep jumping around platforms but the controls suck ass so you keep accidentally falling down, spending half the fight climbing ladders and shooting these dumb balls.

Yeah, most of the boss fights are lame gimmicks that make the fights annoying or forgettable rather than engaging skillful fights.
There are a few exciting, no-frills boss fights, but theyre kinda few and far between, and none of them particularly have any mind blowing designs or interesting movesets, its either full on gimmicky bullshit, or just a generic monster with a lot of health where you have to shoot the right weak spot at the right time. Nothing really unique or memorable. The game does have a lot of boss fights, so there is that to look forward to, but at the very least if the game has shit RPG mechanics, and theres not much fun to be had, I would hope at least the bosses are good, but they're pretty mediocre. Even the few bosses that would be good, usually have terrible annoying flaws that ruin it. Like this one boss towards the end of the game you fight in some outdoors park area, he has this one move where he slams the ground at a random time or something and its almost impossible to dodge it so we just ended up having to tank the hit every single time. Some of the choreographs and tells are non-existent which makes an otherwise decent fight turn into trash.

This isnt even to mention the last boss, this is the thing that tipped my disdain towards the game over the edge.
He has three phases, phase one could of been OK, we learned it and could get through it. Its this like floating generic dragon that does ranged attacks.
But after phase one the fight is just horribly designed and one of the worst boss fights I can think of...period.
Its this like tron sci-fi simulation bullshit where the graphics turn into a grid and the arena is so visually cluttered and full of random trash you cant tell what the hell is going on.
He does these moves where he swipes the entire area and you cant even see it because youre too busy aiming down the sights.
Not only this but you also randomly get teleported all over the fucking place, orbs flying at you, projectiles, minions spawning - The whole fight is an absolute disaster and is horribly designed.
We kept trying and failing because its just such a bullshit encounter that eventually I just went online and asked some random devoted player to come join our game and kill the last boss with us, which thankfully worked. Besides that I dont know if we could of ever gotten past it. Just awful.

Thats really all I can say about Remnant 2. It didnt improve really a single flaw I had with the original game, and infact I think in some ways this game is probably worse. Felt like it had more gimmicky lame bosses, the areas were more bad than good,  the enemies and general flow and design of the game is all over the place in a bad way. And oh yeah, the story - The story is inane gibberish. This ridiculous plot about a girl called Clementine where you teleport throughout dimensions helping these alien creatures to do....I don't know. It stopped being interesting very quickly. Just total drivel. Luckily the game doesnt focus too much on story or plot, but when it does it could barely keep my attention with how lame it was. Really was not enjoying the sci-fi contrived nonsense of the plot. Sure, the general controls and gameplay follow the Souls formula, and it can have some moments of satisfaction, shooting the enemies, seeing all the designs, seeing the damage numbers pop out, hitting that satisfying crit damage on a weak spot, some of the bosses do have that intense dodge rolling action, but much of this falls flat once you realize the scope of what the game is and all of its flaws.
I don't have any faith in this developer anymore, I don't think they have what it takes to make fun games.
If Remnant 3 is ever announced, I will only play it if its like 90% discount, even as a co-op game its not worth it.

5/10