4.5/5 ★ – DanteHR's review of REMNANT II®.

We were blessed with another souls-like video game this year. "Remnant 2" is the sequel to one of the most unique souls-like games currently available, "Remnant, From The Ashes". Made by "Gunfire Games" and published by "Gearbox Publishing", "Remnant 2" is a souls-like shooter with a wide variety of enemies and a ton of quality content. Of course, for now, it's not the perfect "souls" and probably not the souls game of the year either, but it definitely exceeded all of our expectations. "Remnant 2" starts with a fairly simple character creator, nothing very advanced, but slightly different from the other souls games. Finally, another unique feature that "Remnant 2" has but most of the souls games doesn't, it's the difficulty selection. The game allows you to choose between 4 difficulties, one of which is blocked, unlocking it a little later. After that, a rather short cinematic is presented to us, the beginning of the story, if I could say so, follows the first main mission, where it all started and then, after you finish the tutorial, the game allows you to do what you want, partially.. We have reached the most interesting part of the game, the part where the game shouldn't disappoint at all and it really doesn't. "Remnant 2" manages to make combat much more fun compared to the previous game, although "Remnant, From The Ashes" had a super satisfying combat, "Remnant 2" took it to a completely different level. The variety of weapons both ranged and melee that you have in the game is HUGE, from pistols from the 70s, to pistols based on electricity, to certain weapons from which parts of the human body come out. Even the melee weapons leave nothing to be desired, dozens of swords, axes, hammers, each with their own moveset. I could see that it's a little easier compared to the souls games you focus on only melee weapons, even on the 3rd difficulty (HARD), I was able to slaughter everything that stood in my way, only with some low-level weapons. The variety of enemies is enough by far, each world having a ton of enemies, bosses and mini-bosses. As for the bosses in "Remnant 2", I can say that most of the bosses left much to be desired, their problem it was very easy difficulty and similar design to other inferior creatures. What surprised me a lot in "Remnant 2" was the randomization of worlds, allowing them players to have a unique experience. At the beginning of the game, after the main mission, the players will be teleported to one of the 3 starting worlds: "Losomn", "Yaesha" or "N'Erud". Each having a layout with a different world boss. After completing the first world, you will be teleported to the "Labyrinth", like the second world. After , you can unlock them all as you advance in the story. "Remnant 2" also has an integrated co-op, usable after you finish the first mission in the game, the co-op works as you think, increases the difficulty of the enemies. Another part on which the game focuses a lot, are the classes, whatever, the "Archetypes", a rather extravagant name if you may ask me , "Archetypes" are the starting classes that you select at the beginning of the game, after you finish the first mission, the game allows you to choose one of the four Archetypes or if you have the Pre-order bonuses, the game adds another class, however, these are not all, there are 10 in total, but the others are somewhat secret, you need "research" to get them. Coming back, each "Archetype" any type of person, from healer (Medic), to tank (Challenger) or raw damage (Gunslinger). Each "archetype" offers you unique weapons, armor and perks. The only problem I encountered with the gameplay was getting certain weapons / objects. This randomization of the game works somewhat well, but to play on the other version of the map, with a different layout, you have to start a run in "Adventure Mode". The only problem with this is that after doing this, you have to start the game from the beginning, without any checkpoint or save, you just have to go forward, indeed, the replayability is great, but also very annoying, for some items you have to spend hours just re-rolling. Being the first game running on "Unreal Engine 5", we all expected it to be stunning, to look absolutely gorgeous.. well, I can't say it looks awful, but my expectations were a little bigger. The game does not feel like an "Unreal Engine 5" game, I can give an example , "Atomic Heart", which runs in "Unreal Engine 4", but it looks better than "Remnant 2". Anyway, the visual quality of this caliber doesn't matter so much if the combat is excellent. However, I was able to observe certain things in minute detail for example, the doors in "Ward 13" are detailed at the highest level, I stared at them most of the time I passed through the Ward. Speaking of doors and details, I remembered the design of the enemies, here I can say it's 50/50, some enemies have an absolutely AMAZING design, but some of them, ehh.. it could be more, I can say the same thing with all the NPCs, the people don't deliver a tinge of realism, they are very cartoony, but in a bad way. However, the art style in the game is brilliant, but, the same problem as with the design of the enemies, not all areas are beautiful, most of them look good, really, but there are certain areas from other games that are copy-paste, but made worse. On the sound side, the game really delivers. The sounds of the enemies are absolutely terrifying, the gun sounds are even better. The satisfaction of the sound you get from melee weapons when you hit a robot, alien or a human, it's absolutely brutal, each enemy has a sound package specially made for each melee weapon, to be able to distinguish the slash, the same for ranged weapons, but I preferred to mention melee weapons more because they are more satisfying to use. The music, pfu, what can I say, brilliant, absolutely brilliant, the music from "Remnant 2" is made especially for people without the will to live, I stayed for a whole hour listening to the music from the menu, it was so good, the mood I received was a quiet one, which is very strange, given that the game should be very stressful. Overall, I could say that the music fits the game, every area has perfect music. Although the gameplay and music were so good, the story is quite mediocre. Your main goal is to save a young lady who helped you in the first campaign mission. Things change later, but i give spoilers here. The story also focuses a little on the randomizer, each world boss having a detailed lore, with a unique dialogue. I couldn't be overwhelmed by the story, the game chose to be based more on gameplay and content than on the campaign, being one of low quality and very predictable. "Remnant 2" is a great sequel to the 2019 Souls-like "Remnant, From The Ashes". The game has a ton of content, excellent gameplay, even better music, but it has some flaws, it's to be expected, not even a single game can be perfect, of course (the exception is "Blasphemous"). Returning to the topic, "Remnant 2" is a must-play for all fans of "Souls" games. At only a price of $50, you have hundreds of hours of content at your disposal, a great game from great developers. 9/10 Made by DanteHR