Rate top gamesDisclaimer: I received Remnant for free through Epic Games, but I would've paid full price for it.
Remnant is a "third-person shooter rogue-lite souls-like". I initially dismissed that amalgamation of buzzwords as just that: buzz words riding the latest trend to get more buyers interested. I was very wrong.
Remnant has the gunplay of Gears of War. Every shot from every gun sounds and feels impactful, unique, and GOOD. I was initially hesitant of adding guns into the gameplay of Dark Souls, but I don't think it could've been done better. Melee weapons are pretty basic, with a fairly small moveset on each weapon. The gameplay, however, is much faster and more hectic than Dark Souls and Gears of War, thanks to stamina being used only for running and dodging.
There's a good amount of build variety. You can go for melee, run-and-gun, sniper, mid-range, battle medic, tanky, or any combination of these. I never felt like my playstyle wasn't supported. I didn't find very much in the way of armor on my first playthrough, but after doing a couple additional dungeons, I found several sets I missed the first time around.
Difficulty is at just the right place. I started on Hard, which provided an appropriate challenge all the way through to the end. Co-op was scaled appropriately to make every encounter exciting.
The story itself is told through notes, environments, and some sparse cutscenes and dialogue. The world, however, is beautiful and interesting, and I can't get enough of it. Everything from creature design to environments to costumes is eye candy. The game is "short" by some people's standards (it technically can be beaten in about 5-6 hours), but my thorough playthrough took about 20 hours.
Since the game is somewhat randomly generated, you won't see everything it has to offer on the first playthrough, even if you're thoroughly exploring every map and dungeon. In a single playthrough, you might never see some bosses and dungeons, never encounter some NPC's, or never see some weapons and armor. And that's okay, because the game offers a system for you to generate new random dungeons (seperate from the campaign) and find new items and encounters.
Remnant has its fair share of bugs and performance issues. Load screens can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, seemingly randomly. I easily spent an hour or more of my 20 hour playthrough JUST in loading screens. When things get really busy on screen, the audio sometimes cuts out. One time a boss got stuck on a wall (making for an easy kill). Another, the boss got stuck behind a wall (prompting a restart).
Finally, there's just a few Quality of Life things I would like to see. The main base (Ward 13) is too spread out, with long walks between each merchant and the teleporter. If you find the game too easy or hard, you can't change it without restarting the entire game. The UI and controls were obviously designed for console. They're passable, but buggy.
Overall, this is a great buy for anyone wanting a mixup to the souls-like genre, or fans of third-person shooters. It's actually a bit difficult to assign Remnant to any one genre, so if you're fans of any of these, give it a shot.
Remnant is a "third-person shooter rogue-lite souls-like". I initially dismissed that amalgamation of buzzwords as just that: buzz words riding the latest trend to get more buyers interested. I was very wrong.
Remnant has the gunplay of Gears of War. Every shot from every gun sounds and feels impactful, unique, and GOOD. I was initially hesitant of adding guns into the gameplay of Dark Souls, but I don't think it could've been done better. Melee weapons are pretty basic, with a fairly small moveset on each weapon. The gameplay, however, is much faster and more hectic than Dark Souls and Gears of War, thanks to stamina being used only for running and dodging.
There's a good amount of build variety. You can go for melee, run-and-gun, sniper, mid-range, battle medic, tanky, or any combination of these. I never felt like my playstyle wasn't supported. I didn't find very much in the way of armor on my first playthrough, but after doing a couple additional dungeons, I found several sets I missed the first time around.
Difficulty is at just the right place. I started on Hard, which provided an appropriate challenge all the way through to the end. Co-op was scaled appropriately to make every encounter exciting.
The story itself is told through notes, environments, and some sparse cutscenes and dialogue. The world, however, is beautiful and interesting, and I can't get enough of it. Everything from creature design to environments to costumes is eye candy. The game is "short" by some people's standards (it technically can be beaten in about 5-6 hours), but my thorough playthrough took about 20 hours.
Since the game is somewhat randomly generated, you won't see everything it has to offer on the first playthrough, even if you're thoroughly exploring every map and dungeon. In a single playthrough, you might never see some bosses and dungeons, never encounter some NPC's, or never see some weapons and armor. And that's okay, because the game offers a system for you to generate new random dungeons (seperate from the campaign) and find new items and encounters.
Remnant has its fair share of bugs and performance issues. Load screens can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, seemingly randomly. I easily spent an hour or more of my 20 hour playthrough JUST in loading screens. When things get really busy on screen, the audio sometimes cuts out. One time a boss got stuck on a wall (making for an easy kill). Another, the boss got stuck behind a wall (prompting a restart).
Finally, there's just a few Quality of Life things I would like to see. The main base (Ward 13) is too spread out, with long walks between each merchant and the teleporter. If you find the game too easy or hard, you can't change it without restarting the entire game. The UI and controls were obviously designed for console. They're passable, but buggy.
Overall, this is a great buy for anyone wanting a mixup to the souls-like genre, or fans of third-person shooters. It's actually a bit difficult to assign Remnant to any one genre, so if you're fans of any of these, give it a shot.
Other reviews12
I love this game for its sheer variety. Each world will give you multiple enemy types and designs to go up against. The weapon variety is cool as well. The roguelike elements also keep things interesting and encourage replay. It is also a lot easier and more accessible than souls games but there are 3 higher difficulties if you want a challenge. That is the proper way to do it instead of making the game extremely difficult with no other options.
I have no idea how could anyone enjoy this game. Played it with a friend from start to finish and we were both glad that we finished and also relieved that we've received it for free. The game is nothing but a grind with a paper thin story to justify the grind, ugly environment, one dimensional characters and an artificially stretched gameplay design that has been made specifically to extend the gameplay time for those who whine about games being too short. It just seems that the devs had the secret formula for creating a bad game that pleases todays audience of immature players.
«Waste of time»
«Boooring»
I'm not a fan of shooters or procedural generation so I put this one off for a long while. While the game was really fun to play, and put forth a nice challenge, it's hampered by a few weak points. Thankfully multiplayer wasn't one of them as I enjoyed it solo. There were two big problems for me. Gear and weapons are extremely limited. I ended up playing through with the default weapons and armor because what (rarely) came along was pretty boring IMO. The bigger problem is the procedural generation. It does nothing but severely limit good level design. There wasn't a single time here where I was wowed by what I was exploring. Quite the opposite, I frequently found myself realizing I've already seen these exact dungeon sections. But what about replayability? Lack of procedurally generated levels certainly hasn't diminished Dark Souls' replayability.
Date Completed: 2020-08-25
Playtime: ~ 13.5h
Enjoyment: 8/10
Recommendation: If you like a Souls-like-type challenge then it's worth a play!
This game was a very big surprise hit for me. I only gave it a shot because it was on gamepass and it’s described as dark souls with guns. I played for an hour and thought it was horrible, because it was. The first hour or so is really bad. But I decided to give it another shot and it started to get better. The next 4ish hours are not amazing but you can see where the game is going and it’s more enjoyable. Then after that, each new area you travel to is better with more interesting enemies and more interesting loot. From hour 5ish till I beat the game (~25 hours maybe) was an absolute blast. The gunplay in this game is actually very well done. The dark souls lite style to the game works very well. It does a good job with constant progression. The story is dumb and I never payed attention to it and the graphics are not AAA quality because it is not a AAA game. But after you make it out of the first area the interesting environments, enemies, and weapons; along with the fantastic gameplay makes this game worth the initial investment. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Remnant and I’m so happy I gave it a chance. I will give this developer another chance on whatever their next game is.
Final Score: A-
Final Score: A-
Awesome mechanics. gun play is fantastic. bosses are fun and challenging but not too hard to make you frustrated.
«Blew my mind»
«Can’t stop playing»