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Remnant 2 is a co-op shooter on track to deliver this year’s most dependable sequelThis year’s sleeper hit?
This year’s sleeper hit?
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Sometimes all you need from a video game is a bit of bloodshed with your pals. And sometimes, all you need from a sequel is the first one, but a bit bigger and bit better. Having spent a few hours with third-personco-opshooterRemnant 2, I reckon it’s shaping up to be exactly those two things. It remains unconcerned with telling groundbreaking stories or delivering breathtaking cinema in its fights - it doesn’t care. From what I’ve played, it’s more about being the looter shooter for those who care about fine-tuning the consistency of the numbers they’re able to extract from their foes.
Remnant 2 - Introduction to the World of RemnantWatch on YouTube
Remnant 2 - Introduction to the World of Remnant
It was super easy to party up with players and crack on with things. Loot was shared, so we weren’t ever fighting over whatever shiny rocks had dropped out of chests. And fights felt more than challenging enough for all of us, with enemies scaling well to however many of us were in the party at the time (a max of 3). |Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
You could argue I should’ve returned to base and spent my space rocks. And you’d be right! The game, though, didn’t seem to encourage that behaviour. It nudged us forever forwards, where maybe we should’ve taken a moment to return to the hub space and better our loadouts. If you aren’t a Remnant vet, don’t expect to understand how the hub space marries with your dungeon dives from the get-go. Still, my gripes are small in the grand scheme, as I’m pretty confident the game’s layered like a large onion and given more time, my character would’ve started forming into a tank, with all the intro fluff peeling away to reveal different subsections of upgrade trees and archetypes.
Image credit:Gearbox PublishingImage credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
Image credit:Gearbox Publishing
And while I enjoyed probing the waterfalls of murder forests and the occasional death crypt, I’d hoped for a few more random encounters with friendly randos. Only once did I have a meaningful conversation with someone mid-dungeon-run, and that was with a blue nymph lady who hit me with a sequence of moral conundrums and offered me a reward if she liked my responses. Sadly, I didn’t have time to chat with her properly, but I think I answered some of her questions right and I gotsomethingfor my efforts?
Don’t get me wrong. The game’s combat demands brain cell activation in a good way, rewarding you with tense bouts with fucked up lil' guys that require much more from you than pulling the trigger. Except there’s anever endingstream of them and I’d hoped for some respite from their constant barrage. While NPCs like the nymph lady could become mainstays as you progress, the roguelike shootybang felt a bit repetitive when compared to the likes ofHadesorCult Of The Lamb, which slide in semi-regular natters with NPCs who: a) aren’t out to kill you, and b) can transform your sesh entirely with powerful mutators. I think with all the quality roguelikes out there nowadays, I’ve transformed into a bit of a spoiled brat.
I know I’m being a bit critical of Remnant 2 here, with all my little gripes and wants and needs. Truthfully, I really enjoyed myself and I think my criticism is a sign I wanted to really dig into it and see if it dug into me. Its whole premise is enticing, in the way it’s a co-op shooter that plays like a live service but isn’t one, as I know I can dip into it knowing full well it’ll never leave me behind. And I genuinely believe Remnant 2 might be a great shooter when it launches sometime later this year, as it looks to provide exactly the right sort of action to promote a good ratio of inane chatter to overly serious chats about how to optimise one’s pistol.
