Remnant II

Review

Welcome to a post-apocalyptic world where a small bunch of survivors face an upbeat battle as the Earth has been affected by a deadly root disease that keeps spreading, threatening to wipe out what’s left of humanity with a horde of demonic creatures. But it is not only the Earth that suffers from the root disease; other worlds have been corrupted, too, and it is you that the fate of all worlds depends on. With large shoulders and full of courage, it is your time to enter the fight to save humanity, in Remnant II!

Remnant II is an action post-apocalypse souls-like third-person shooter game developed by Gunfire Games and published by Gearbox Publishing on the 26^th of July 2023 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Epic Games Store.

After customising and selecting your characters and level of difficulty (of which three out of four will be available), the game will start with you and a partner, who is suffering significantly from the root disease, walking in a deserted post-apocalyptic city. The street walk will be short as you and your partner will first enter a building leading them underground, where they will experience their first battle against monsters. The fight will not be in your favour, as you will be struck rather badly and rescued by Bo and Clementine from Ward 13, a hub that many survivors have heard about, but very few of whom know its location. These first 30 minutes are a tutorial to give you a taste of what is coming next.

Ward 13 has several NPCs where you can upgrade, buy or sell weapons and acquire items you might need in battle. You must choose your path there, selecting one of the five available classes: Medic, Hunter, Challenger, Handler or Gunslinger, before starting your campaign. Each class has skills, perks and specialisations called Archetypes. At the start, you have one skill and a perk, but as you level up, you'll unlock a few more which you can select or swap at any given time. You also have a relic which you can improve by finding relic fragments within the worlds. Traits are presented as cards that you can upgrade up to ten times. You'll acquire more cards when you kill bosses but need tomes to upgrade your traits. Tomes are found next to fallen characters and by killing bosses. In terms of inventory, it is large, and you can equip your character with a pendant and up to four rings. New rings and pendants are laid around levels, and each has specific bonuses; you can swap them at any given time. You'll go back and forth between the Ward and the worlds  throughout the game to upgrade, buy or sell items.

I’m enjoying the game. Even though I haven't managed to beat the last boss, I am close, but no cigar. The different worlds you go through are just brilliant, with each having several stages to complete. Plenty of surprisingly smart enemies to fight, some attacking from above, but most of them coming at you on land. I was fascinated with the different types of enemies, some of whom are really tough to kill. I really like that some will try to avoid your shots, which is cool. I found the melee weapons too powerful after a few upgrades. As soon as you figure out the timing to avoid their attack, and then hit them with your melee weapon straight after, you are pretty much certain to kill them with one hit. That said, it might be slightly different on the other difficulty levels. As my playthrough is with a Medic on the Veteran level difficulty, that is my assessment so far. What the game does very well is the boss fights, and boy, I struggled with every single one of them and felt the satisfaction and rewards when I beat one.

Remnant II level designing is excellent; you’ll encounter a fight every few corners, and it will not stop until you reach the last boss. As you kill enemies, they will drop items such as scraps which you need for purchasing items at Ward 13, but they can also drop ammunition, which is great because you will be in short supply throughout your playthrough. Also other goodies like Iron and Crystal which you need to upgrade relics and Mods. Check out every corner of each stage, as most have chests and vases which you can destroy, and some have goodies too, mostly scraps, but you never know your luck in a big, infested world.

You can only save your progress when you reach what looks like a long red piece of burning coal. There are several per world, and they are actually the portals between the worlds and Ward 13. If you die before reaching one, you’ll respawn on your previous save and will have to go through the level again. My playthrough wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked it to be. Occasional dropped frame rates and a few crashes to the desktop are never ideal for a AAA title. The good news is that the developers are working hard, and there have been a few patches released since the launch. Good stuff, guys.

If you wish, you can play online with two other players. I did have a go online; if you play with friends and work as a team, you might have fun. Playing with people you don’t know is truly not fun as it is a classic cliché where people rush through levels and fight to pick up ammunition that the enemy occasionally drops, leaving you with nothing! 

The graphics are stunning, and the voiceover is good too. The combat is just amazing in this game – it’s challenging and the controls have great input. I recommend playing the game on the survivor level of difficulty first and then moving on to the next difficulty level on your second playthrough - you’ll thank me for it. The bosses are hard to defeat, which is what you want but it can be frustrating too.

Review written by THE CPT FROGGY for Zeepond.com 

Remnant II Steam Store Page