Remnant 2 review: A Soulslike without a soul

I survived the post-apocalypse.

I’m tired of cheeky survivors scavenging for supplies in abandoned parking lots and office buildings. As if they don’t know what coffee is, urban explorers born in the aftermath of the disaster are joking and fed up with the aging billboards in the Before Times. I am beyond sepia, dusty streets, overgrown vines, corrugated shelters, and tales of civilization-ending greed passed down from generation to generation.

Remnant 2the sequel to the 2019 sleeper hit Remnant: From the Ashesit was the irradiated straw that broke the back of the two-headed camel.

The game’s post-apocalyptic adventure takes you to not-so-depressing places: ornate palaces, lush forests, brutal labyrinths, and fiery shantytowns. Remnant 2 It contains an example of the collapse of society due to human arrogance. In each of these areas, the third-person joins his shooters combined with evasive tactics that From Software has popularized in games such as: dark soul, Bloodborneand elden ring. Run, shoot, dodge, roll infinitely, and sometimes even interrupt the action with special powers depending on the archetype you choose.

Remnant 2 It tells the story of several man-made catastrophes (some sudden, some slow like ours) related to a multidimensional evil known as ‘The Root’. The spread of this plant-like entity apparently slowed down during the events of the first game, but its vine continues to crawl through the Remnant multiverse, ravaging countless realms in an inexplicable crusade to exterminate all life except itself. Over the course of the sequel, players will travel from planet to planet, each crumbling and crumbling, searching for tools to overthrow Loot, and ultimately challenging its roots despite constant assurances that the phenomenon is unstoppable.

as someone who ignores Remnant: From the Ashes I wasn’t there 3 years ago Remnant 2 I hope you understand everything from the jump. Heck, I thought I would be lucky if I could understand even half of the proper nouns that are treated with respect in lore that’s so unfamiliar to me. But i tried. I really, really tried. But what I encountered was a McGuffin-centric story that was too complicated and didn’t try to explain anything. To make matters worse, the film has a habit of resorting to that same complexity as an excuse to avoid wrapping its intricately tangled plot threads together on a large canvas.

I’m okay with dense stories with cryptic and unreliable narrators.it is one of several things Remnant 2 An attempt to pluck from the Souls series (with varying degrees of shamelessness and success). It’s my favorite group of games, and I still hold that hope. Bloodborne Sequel. But even the concept of the original lore is treated as so complex by the ostensibly know-it-all characters that I often abandon understanding it mid-conversation, making me even more impatient with its run-of-the-mill apocalyptic trappings.

Image: Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing

Leaving aside the complicated story, Remnant 2‘s basic gameplay elements still feel like the result of someone getting high and wondering. Wouldn’t Dark Souls be cool if he had an AK-47 instead of a sword? And although not as flagrant as the welcome to Remnant: From the Ashes I believed the borrowed traits were obvious. Mundane enemies will ambush you and swarm in dangerous masses. The world resets at checkpoints like bonfires. Movement is linked to the stamina gauge. Bosses attack with telegraph-like moves, but you’ll need to study them to recognize them and dodge them with invincible dodge rolls.

In a mechanical, kinetic sense, the genre portmanteau works well.but progressing Remnant 2 You will never get the same feeling of accomplishment you get when you finally get over a difficult area. Sekiroor figure out the best strategy to beat the boss elden ring. A lot of that can be attributed to the game’s formulaic combat. Almost all encounters unfold in the same way. If you encounter a group of Little Guys in your current area, a horn will sound to let you know. another A lot of little guys are coming this way. Sometimes a high-pitched sound effect marks the approach of a more challenging big man with increased physical strength and special powers.

Image: Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing

Remnant 2 So rote, jumping from fight to fight reminded me of rewatching a movie I could already recite from beginning to end (although not as fun as quoting) Ben Stiller monologue heavyweight). Mowing down the game’s odd mix of plant monsters, living stone statues, futuristic robots, and British peasants feels great thanks to better-than-average gunfights, but no matter how much you love your custom loadouts, you can only walk backwards for too long and shoot your weak spots. A dozen or so hours later, I found myself rushing from region to region in search of a catalyst that would finally move the narrative forward, rather than encountering the same predictable combat over and over again.

Even the bosses, who in Soullike would expect you to do the right thing, are unimaginative. They primarily act as bullet sponges to make sure your gear is properly upgraded, with two notable exceptions. One, a giant group of cubes whose primary attack method tries to crush you while you scramble through a claustrophobic maze, and the final boss, which turned out to be the only real challenge I faced throughout my entire time in this game. Remnant 2. It wasn’t until we got to this ultimate battle that dodge rolling became an absolute necessity to survive whatever was thrown in front of us. It felt strange for a game so closely tied to the series that popularized this mechanic.

Remnant 2‘s greatest sin is the lack of identity. Don’t get me wrong, it has a strong foundation at its core. But mechanically and aesthetically, not only the Soul series god of war, Controland return This is simply a reminder that you can play a more capable game instead.and meanwhile Remnant 2 Obviously, we want you to keep playing with your friends long after the campaign is over, and the flattening of character builds due to simplistic combat and the resulting lack of a loot system puts a clear limit to how much post-game satisfaction you can get, and how high it depends on being able to get past the utterly mediocre gameplay.

Image: Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing

real world moments Remnant 2 There are no benefits to launching. It took him 16 hours to complete the game’s campaign, planning early and late night sessions to match the California heatwave caused by climate change, and not to make the daily temperatures worse than his 3-degrees already turning his home into a sweat hut. Folks, don’t be afraid of the mythical apocalypse that awaits us on the horizon. We are now living through that crisis. It’s too slow and boring, so our stupid amphibian brains are instead creating entertainment out of the water heating up around us so that it doesn’t take seconds to boil.

I’ve gotten past the post-apocalyptic world, but it’s going to take a ridiculous game to keep people interested in dark settings like this in the near future. Remnant 2 Not that game.

Remnant 2 This game was reviewed on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Gearbox Publishing. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not affect editorial content, but Vox Media may earn a commission on products purchased via affiliate links.discoverable Additional information on Polygon’s Ethics Policy can be found here.