➤ Remnant 2, the analysis of one of the most fun video games of the year 🕹

In the Remnant 2 review we discover how Gunfire Games has evolved its formula, a perfect mix between soulslike and third-person shooter.

Take a pinch of the mechanics underlying soulslikes, mix it with a progression system close to classic aRPGs, throw everything into a cauldron based on procedural generation systems, and finally add a rich pinch of third-person shooters. Let it simmer for about four years and you'll get Remnant 2, a direct sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes that improves on every feature of its predecessor, marking an extraordinary milestone in Remnant's maturation path. Gunfire Games.

A study that should not be underestimated at all: the backbone of the company is made up of former Crytek project managers, the beating heart of a team that, after numerous vicissitudes and several flag changes, has finally carved out its own creative dimension. in the weeds of AA productions. By taking elements and inspirations from some of the most successful works of the decade and then carefully marrying them to the classic architecture of the third-person shooter, the house has managed to come dangerously close to the dreamlike atmosphere that surrounds masterpieces of the caliber. of Dark Souls.

It takes a lot of courage: if it were enough to steal a few secrets from the greats to achieve success, the world of video games would be a tireless hotbed of extraordinary experiences, and by now we know well that it doesn't work that way. that at all. From such a particular recipe a horrible Frankenstein monster could have emerged, but instead the house gently transported the public through a vortex of worlds that smell like home, handling with great care and passion many of the elements capable of making people fall in love. people. half.

Gunfire Games' growth path is far from over, the experience is still colored by a long series of failures that touch the very core of the work and, however, it is without any buts one of the most fun and profound in the game. anus. . As? Discover in our Remnant 2 review.

The soul of the remnant

Remnant 2, the analysis of one of the most fun video games of the year — Remnant 2 is simply a soullike where you shoot

At the heart of unknown universes, surrounded by deadly abominations, suspended halfway between forests dotted with ziggurats and ornate palaces straight out of Castlevania: Remnant 2 does so many different things and manages to do them all convincingly. The work plants solid roots in three key inspirations, solid bases to which the entire experience grows anchored like a vine. First of all there is the Third person shooting game, which takes care of all the typical soul mechanics with complete ease: from the classic checkpoint system to the steep difficulty curve, from the presence of a limited number of cures to the stamina bar that regulates dodging, to finally reach the inevitable boss battles. and dozens of teams hidden in the deepest corners of the maps. You have to explore, attack, dodge, fight for your life and always keep your attention threshold high, holding on to the will to overcome each obstacle to reach the next area.

The second pillar is located inrole playing element which supports the progression system, and which after having put five initial classes into play, to which five more are added to unlock during the adventure, opens the doors to a customization component no less than gigantic. You have to carefully choose and upgrade a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and a melee variant, carefully select the stats to increase, thoroughly study the dozens of available items, and then use an amulet, four impressive rings, and a saving relic. This, however, represents only the tip of a very deep iceberg, because by digging through hundreds of items, mods and mutations it is possible to build an inordinate number of highly effective builds, paving the way for potentially unlimited replayability.

Finally there is the history, which is also very close to the formula originally coded by FromSoftware, willing to outline a story entirely based on interaction: the characters of Remnant 2 want to talk and in fact talk a lot. When visiting the various alien worlds one encounters creatures as old as the multiverse itself, who not only do their best to tell the story of millennia of "lore", but even reward with tangible rewards all those who decide to embrace this. particular narrative, giving meaning to the minutes dedicated only to listening to the last words of a dying old man.

In short, playing Remnant 2 means getting lost in the heart of exceptional maps that hide secrets in every corner, risking your life every ten steps due to the lethal creatures that patrol them, gradually increasing the protagonist's capabilities until he becomes a machine. of unstoppable war. As you explore parallel worlds, you'll encounter fascinating ancient entities guarding some of the galaxy's deadliest instruments of death, essential to being prepared for cosmic horrors that will test even the most experienced players.

Procedural excellence

Walking among the ruins of tree kingdoms, in the shadow of Victorian buildings and in the claustrophobic corridors of forgotten crypts, you quickly realize that the scenarios do not want to be presented as beautiful panoramas, but as constructions of pure gameplay to take a deep breath. One of the key features of Remnant 2 lies in the impact of procedural generation, a particular technique that until now has left a bittersweet mark on video game racing. Already found in the confines of Chalice Dungeons of Bloodborne, in Returnal of Housemarque and, obviously, in most roguelites, this mechanic has taken on a decidedly more complex and impactful form in the work of Gunfire Games, which has proven capable of exploit it nothing less than brilliant.

The adventure begins in Ward 13, the most classic of the game's centers that offers a good number of merchants and a timid narrative knowledge, closely linked to the events that occurred in the previous chapter. The story itself, while far from memorable, assembles a compelling narrative pretext to justify the work's architecture: by jumping across a particular artifact known as the World Stone, the protagonist can access different universes, a bit like I had passed through Roland Emmerich's old Stargate. And only after the first interdimensional trip does Remnant 2 begin to give a sense of how deep the white rabbit hole goes.

In total there are five whole worlds to visit, enormous destinations that escape the most classic and empty definition of "biome", and the order in which they are approached -except for a couple of fixed points- is completely random. This means that some players may find themselves taking their first steps into the mechanized citadel of N'Erud, landing in the clutches of dangerous war automatons, while others may set foot on the grassy surface of Yaesha, an ancient forest dotted with ruins and now populated. by nightmares of Lovecraftian memory. Others, more fortunate, were able to experience the rude awakening on the streets of Losomn, a XNUMXth century metropolis based on mirrored architecture that looks like the fruit of the marriage between the Yahrnam of Bloodborne, with crazed citizens armed with pitchforks, and an opulent castle. near the Belmont family travels, filled with deadly angelic creatures that look like they came straight from the Sanctuary.

Procedural generation is not limited to tinkering with the sequence in which the worlds are faced, but also ends up modifying the structure itself, reversing the order of the bosses, but also and above all that of the dungeons and NPCs with which they are encountered. finds. It is possible to interact. Yes, because each of these vast macro areas develops in turn. a long series of smaller areas, each equipped with bosses, environmental puzzles, strange merchants, and unique rewards, to the point that the procedural nature ends up impacting even the progression system. For example, it could happen that after a few steps you get a very powerful weapon hidden at the bottom of a crypt, a place that other players will visit only towards the end of their personal experience. Therefore, each jump through Worldstone brings a violent breath of freshness to the adventure, profoundly changing not only the landscapes and events that animate them, but above all the approach possibilities and the offer on the construction front.

everything that works

The secret ingredient of Remnant 2 lies in its dry simplicity. It's an honest, simple, and straightforward video game: arrive in a new world, destroy everything that moves, take down a gigantic boss, and take home tons of loot. If this simple gameplay loop is enough on its own to sustain the entire experience - and it is absolutely possible to experience it as if it were a arcade role playing games Based on brutal shooting, Gunfire Games has refined the essence of its predecessor to go deeper into several layers.

L'exploration of the worlds is not at all a banal peculiarity: while navigating the maps you constantly encounter mysterious NPCs who cannot wait to enrich the fabric of the narrative, almost always linked to small unreported missions that lift the curtain on multitudes of equipment unique, perhaps even a new hidden class that will completely revolutionize the approach to combat. An inspiration, this one, found in the confines of the numerous optional dungeons, sometimes ancient tombs filled with enemies that reveal one secret after another, while other times small theaters in which the environmental puzzles, stimulating and never unfairly frustrating, always linked to obtaining particularly rare weapons or accessories.

In fact, much of the satisfaction comes from doing it right. progression system, which becomes the hidden engine behind each action performed: the growth of the character is palpable, and if in the first moments of the journey it is very exhausting to reach the next checkpoint, once the constructions begin to take shape the fear It quickly gives way to bloodlust and, above all, team hunger. The hundreds of customization options, ranging between classes, mods, rings, amulets, etc., open up an immense range of possibilities, allowing you to embroider your favorite gaming outfit on your character, from summoner to heavy magic abilities. robotic turrets, evergreen lever-action rifles, or perhaps devastating two-handed greatswords that drain enemy health.

It is an architecture that manages to express itself perfectly both when faced alone, according to a structure very close to the classic psychic experience, and when experienced in a cooperative together with two traveling companions, a situation in which the synergies between the classes come to light to the maximum. In this sense, the level of difficulty is surprising for its balance: always taking into account the procedural generation system, it offers four different predefined levels of challenge, to which is added a classic hardcore mode not suitable for the faint of heart, in which A la The protagonist's death is followed by the cancellation of the respective rescue.

Many small stains

Remnant 2's main weakness, exactly as it was with its predecessor, lies in the technical backbone. The movement system is still imprecise and sometimes woody, very far from the fluidity of the more historical TPS based on coverage, as well as anchored in mechanics that risk turning battles that should simply be chaotic. It often happens that you miss a jump and fall down a ravine, that you get stuck in the props of the scenery and suffer the inevitable consequences, that you end up falling prey to enemy slashes due to the glaring imperfections of the animation system.

In short, it happens all too often that the game is revealed harder than it should be due to the technical stumbles, unfortunately inherent in such an ambitious AA context. There are boss attacks whose animations are indecipherable to say the least, automatic enemy aiming that is sometimes excessively punishing, as well as a large number of hitboxes from larger creatures that would be impossible to predict even with a crystal ball. Creatures that, for their part, rely too often on simple hordes of minions to put players in difficulties, following the same paradigm found in the first chapter.

Furthermore, the experience is greatly affected by so-called "button bloat". By trusting auser interface It's certainly not very clear, Remnant 2 allows simultaneous access to five consumable items, the character's abilities, special weapon attacks, the firearms themselves and the melee variant, which inevitably makes it difficult to juggle the numerous commands, especially if you choose to play with a controller. A complexity, this one, that is presented as is in the staging and navigation of the numerous menus that manage character and equipment, and that certainly deserve to be dried out and made more accessible.

Finally, fully respecting the tradition of the series, we must mention the not always positive impact of technical sector. While the level of detail, overall quality and performance are significantly improved compared to its predecessor, Remnant 2 once again shows the side of all the classic limitations of the AA size. Of course, the game does its duty, it satisfactorily handles most situations, but the performance still fluctuates on most settings, while the look is only felt on rare occasions. The last note refers to the Spanish localization, which is present in both the voices and the texts, but which is nevertheless really full of errors and especially untranslated segments.

One of the most fun games of the year.

That said, Remnant 2 marks an extraordinary leap forward compared to From the Ashes, strengthening every element of the amalgam, intervening where necessary, and decisively doubling down where its predecessor had hit the mark. The number of small technical and mechanical failures - although they also touch the very core of the work - does not at all affect the enjoyment of the experience, which was presented in our test bench as one of the most attractive and entertaining in history. . year: Once you reach the first parallel world and learn the mechanics, it is very difficult to tear yourself away from the adventure.

Le ten hours necessary to complete the first journey, at the same time, they only constitute the prelude to the great labyrinth that is the Gunfire Games title: thanks to extraordinary replayability, as well as a cooperative variant created with the latest technology, it does not limit itself to promising hundreds of hours of content, but backs it up with hypnotic art direction and a customization system that knows few comparisons. In short, the parallel dimensions of Remnant 2, despite the horrors that populate them, are a perfect destination for a long and pleasant vacation.

Conclusions

Tested version Xbox Series X digital delivery Steam, playstation store, Xbox Store Price 49.99 € Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (36) 7.7 your vote

Remnant 2 marks a big step for Gunfire Games. By improving every underlying element of the original work, the studio has come very close to the ideal final form of its imagined newborn. The combination of soul-like mechanics and the soul of a third-person shooter now works perfectly and has finally been combined with deep environments and a colorful progression system. Another refinement of the basic mechanics, one more push to the content accelerator, and there is very little left for the Remnant saga to be able to observe its greatest inspirations on an equal footing: it is by no means a perfect video game, but it certainly is. One of the funniest and most profound of the year.