Remnant: From the Ashes Reviews

I had a good time playing Remnant: From the Ashes (hereafter just "Remnant") and would recommend it if the gameplay is something that you think that you'd enjoy. I played the entire campaign (and story DLC) with two other friends, and so I can only speak to that cooperative experience, but I think that I would have also enjoyed it if I had just played by myself. Before I had played it my big impression was that it was "Dark Souls with guns" and although intrigued because I like Dark Souls I was mostly dissuaded from playing because I'm not particularly good at aiming and shooting things and thought that I would just be frustrated. After playing it I am not sure where the Dark Souls connection comes from; it doesn't seem t me to have really any of the trademarks a Souls-like that have become so popular lately except for I guess stamina and a dodge? It isn't particularly punishing or overly difficult. There are some bosses that we had trouble with and had to try a few times, but I think that is generally true for most games with combat and bosses and you aren't really punished for dying and can try again right away. All of this is to say that you _do_ have to shoot things in this game, but if the reputation for it being like Dark Souls is what is preventing you from playing then my recommendation is to ignore that and give it a try. You can carry one melee weapon and two ranged weapons, and although ranged attacks are the primary way you will engage in combat it is also not too unusual to also fall back to melee depending on the situation. I played with a controller and ranged combat was pretty fun and not too difficult; different enemies have different weak points that allow you to do more damage (e.g. classic head shots), but generally gameplay didn't require extreme precision and a controller was viable. My two friends used keyboard and mouse and my impression was that it was a pretty typical third person shooter that way as well. When playing cooperatively almost all pickups are shared (in the story campaign, anyway), so that was a nice thing to not worry about. Ammunition is one big exception, but there was usually enough even for all three of us that it wasn't a problem. There is a bit of leveling cooperation that you have to do to make sure that enemies don't get too overpowered or one player too weak, but it was pretty straightforward. All of the actual story takes place in only one of the player's save game and so, for example, my own personal game is still in the same state that it was right after the tutorial. One issue that we did run into cooperatively is that only one person can read any "lore" item at any one time. Initially we all took turns reading everything which was pretty annoying and time-consuming, but eventually we decided to just take turns reading things out loud to each other and then it wasn't so bad. In terms of the actual story I personally didn't think it was particularly engaging, but it was fine. I liked the setting and it was cool to visit different places, but I was never particularly engaged with the story or cared too much about the NPC characters. The initial set up made me think that I would be more involved, but the game ended up being more about going places and shooting things and the base/hub was usually just a place to upgrade stuff between fighting. Sometimes our characters made choices that we as players thought seemed a little dodgy plot-wise, although it made gameplay sense to fight bosses or advance the plot I guess. There are times when you can make choices that affect how the story plays out, which was interesting. The ending of the main game, especially, felt kind of sudden and I wasn't entirely sure what had happened (it was a little hard for me to keep track of my character's goals and motivations, and I guess I had forgotten what she actually was trying to accomplish hehe). Although the narrative itself didn't wow me there is one aspect of Remnant that is kind of related that I _did_ think was pretty cool, which is that what happens in an individual campaign isn't deterministic. This means that you will fight different bosses and see/experience different aspects of some levels or the story than we did. This was an interesting and unusual feature and made it feel to me like this was "our" story, rather than the same canned experience that everyone goes through who plays the game. Maybe this would be a bad thing for 100% achievement completionists, but the game does have some options to try and experience content that you didn't get initially. I personally don't often replay games, but Remnant seems like it would have really high replay value because even though the overarching plot would be the same you would experience different things (including different bosses!) every time. I don't think that I would say that Remnant is a game that I "loved", but it is one that I had a lot of fun with (especially being able to play through it with friends). Steam says that I've played for 40 hours and so I also feel like I definitely got my money's worth. I'm not sure where the comparisons to Dark Souls come from, but I assert that if _I_ could make it through with my limited shooting skills then anyone could if they were enjoying themselves, so don't let its reputation discourage you (although it's probably harder in single player than what I experienced with friends to help me). I think if you would be interested in a third person shooter with some melee that takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting then there's a good chance you would enjoy Remnant. Update: I have been informed that the game is substantially more difficult when not playing cooperatively and so my comments about the difficulty should maybe not be given too much credence unless you are planning to play with friends. If you would be playing solo then I would probably advise reading other reviews of people who had a different experience than I did ;)

I bought this instead of the sequel because it's cheap. The world is a very interesting take on a post-apocalypse and the mechanics are simple but the constant threat is challenging. It feels great when you're actually being a help to your team, but it feels absurd when you and your other newbie teammate get killed within seconds in a boss fight due to a ridiculous barrage of aerial attacks leaving the experienced player to beat the boss on their own. But still it is a good game.

A wonderful game to play with friends! Unfortunately, the only issue I have with the game is the inability to remap button layout. Having people join my game world is odd. Really good mechanics and dodge rolling.

Only buy this on sale. This game needs to have its saves backed up more regularly than other games. The developers must be f*cking idiots. After beating a boss (Raze) today, I went to exit the arena, and the game crashed my pc, no warning, no idea why this would happen... but this is a known issue. Upon restarting, it stated that the profile was corrupted, the only option being deletion. They have a guide about how to fix this, by replacing the profile file, with the profile backup file, the problem is that when it f*cks up like this, it deletes it own backup file. Now I have to work out which items I have lost, and then go back through the f*cking random areas, again and again, to find them again. Do I recommend this? Yes, but no. Do I still want to purchase Remnant 2? Sure, when it costs $5. Good game, but some of the achievements are trash. Buying skins should not be achievements. I am still on my 1st playthrough, and am enjoying it, the weapons, and mods are interesting, and work well. The game is not difficult, some bosses can be challenging, but with the right build, most of them are easy. Level design is a bit dull, there appears to be a significant lack of secrets (or they are really well hidden), exploration is close to pointless due to this. Beating up barrels, and crates to get materials, is just a waste of time, but needs to be done. Worth buying on sale, but a lot of room for improvement.

Okay enough third person shooter with some souls-esque elements. The game felt incredibly same-y from start to finish thought, both in a gameplay sense and in terms of map/fight design. 6/10, get on discount perhaps.

No map marker indications of what is where. Maps very confusing. Mission quest areas not marked.

A total and complete banger. Outstandingly fun, with great combat, I absolutely love the world of Remnant, with all its different places, monsters, loot and lore. The enemy diversity in this game is actually pretty damn good, with some really unique looking creatures and boss fights. The variation between the different worlds is very good, each one with its own distinct feel, and all full of fascinatingly unique places. The amount of loot is ridiculous, with an absolute ton of different things to find, heaps of unique guns and outfits, and a very high number of rings. In conclusion, this game is a masterpiece, filled with heaps of content and many hours of fun. I can't honestly recommend this game enough, and think it is definitely something everyone should try.

absolutely a great game that doesn't feel too dated despite time since release with an engaging semi-roguelike structure and good difficulty

Remnant: From the Ashes is a visually decent game (considering it comes from an indie dev), that under closer scrutiny becomes mediocre at best and horribly frustrating at worst. Most of the criticism is that despite this game advertisting itself as solo OR co-op, it is so heavily skewed towards co-op to have actual fun that solo just becomes a frustrating slog, at least to me. Firstly, the game does not have a proper way to make the game playable outside of co-op. One of the most frustrating things is that the enemies are EVERYWHERE and playing solo this will have you turn 180s every other second. 70% of the game is being assaulted from all directions. It's like those annoying bow snipers in Souls games. Just that there they are either an addition to a navigating challenge to beat them or it's just a few and you can reliably dodge them until you get near them for the kill. Here enemies will be constantly in front, in the back, to the sides and they are ranged, so there is a constant stream of projectiles from all sides hitting you while you just try to kill them one by one. Even better if you went for a melee build, because some enemies and bosses just invalidate that. Which brings me to my next point. Builds, again, are centered around co-op. As a solo player you are basically limited to 2 guns with 1 ability each. Amazing. Such build diversity. And guess what? Because you are a solo player, you are gonna have to have at least one of those abilities geared towards survival because of the aforementioned tedium of enemy bombardments. So for build diversity you get...one ability slot. One. Such great synergy potential here. Amazing for a game whos whole combat is already basic and then all that can sweeten it is one ability you can actually freely choose. Bosses range from being just ok, as in mediocre, to again being a chore without co-op. You have bosses that are literally split in 2, one on each side and designed so you can't see both of them at once. The problem? Both cast high damage abilities regularly. With a QUICK animation speed. So as a solo player, you have to constantly 180 like a madman. This is clearly intended for fun co-op teamwork on discord to go like "bro, there is a beam/swing coming other side" "kk, thanks". With solo, you will just take almost inevitable damage unless you really start spinning around and still keep track of things. Additionally, bosses are just ads. Ads without end, ads that will spawn behind and in front of you. Ads that will interrupt you, stagger you, stunlock you, if you dare focus on the boss without spinning around to check how far they are away first or killing all of them to get a 7 second window before the next batch comes. SPOILERS FOR THE FINAL BOSS: [spoiler] The final boss has 1 attack. One. A single one. And it's basically a oneshot if you get hit. The rest is just killing ads, ads, ads. Amazing and very fitting end to this game. Also, unmentioned mechanics. Also, forcing you into one specific build to beat it efficiently and not take 20 minutes. Also, it can just instacast said oneshot attack while you are still being transported to and from the ad realm, almost guaranteeing a oneshot if you don't instinctually start sprint the moment you spawn. [/spoiler] The only actual thing that was good about this game was that there were a lot of enemy MODELS. As in, visual models and their animations. Meanwhile they basically all do the same. Lastly, the lore: God, it's disjointed and so generic. And rather incompetently written, at least in my opinion. The beauty of soulslike games is to tell their story in snippets and engage you in what's going on. For example, in Elden Ring you will have item descriptions of key items like "Over time the Erdtree became more of a religious symbol than a physical object of worship" (paraphrased). Things like these are well written because they convey important information concisely and every word NOT said is also important. Meanwhile in Remnant: From the Ashes you get things like "Captain soandso from the vanguard of the soso fought the root in the x dimension on y time while z was going on on earth, showing a connection from the Root to the Guardian concerning the Universe of the Dreamer at the occurence of the whocaresanymore." Like jesus. Way too much. Way too many invented words. Way too much clutter and overexposition. A situation leading to you not knowing even the basis of what the description is trying to say. You having to read another 100 descriptions of the same overcluttered type to try to understand it. It's not fun to immerse yourself in lore that is so poorly written and just infodumps on every occasion. The fun is tying concise descriptions together, not just having 50 that blast your face in with invented words, most of which are nowhere seen in dialogue. Also, please just don't make my character talk. At least not like this. It made me really wonder who this game is made for because my character just keeps saying shit they would say in a marvel movie. Like "oof, that was a close one, huh" or bantering the enemies. As a mid 20s guy, it felt like I am playing fortnite, honestly. It's like my character in the midst of a dark souls fight going "heh, you haven't seen my true power level yet" or "wow, Lordran sure is weird haha". My god, why? Overall, the game basically begs you to play co-op and not give a single shit about lore or story or immersion or any of that. Just "LMAOOOO BROOOO xDDdddDDDD" moments between what I guess is a teen audience. And if you play solo (either of choice or because you just don't have friends that play with you), you get to just trod in almost complete silence (except your character just xDDDdddding on his own of course) through corridors filled with the same enemies, spamming the same abilities. The whole game just relies on other players making the game fun, rather than the game being fun on it's own, no matter with how many people you play. 3/10 overall.

. A must play for gamers who enjoy souls like games as well as 3rd person shooters. . Death doesn't penalize you. You even go back to full ammo at the checkpoint. Don't let this fool you into thinking the game is easy though. . You can't share enemy ammo drops while playing multiplayer . Only one person can pick those drops . Overall 9/10!