I Have Joined The Cult Of ‘Remnant 2,’ And You Should Too

My backlog of games right now from this year alone is absurd, as I have yet to finish the final level of Jedi: Survivor, I only beat one temple in Tears of the Kingdom, I have played zero hours of Final Fantasy and I am (poorly) juggling my live service mainstays, Diablo 4 and Destiny 2. And yet I am dropping everything to sink what will probably be 50-100 hours into Remnant 2, when all is said and done.

At a certain point, you can only hear a recommendation from so many people you trust before you feel compelled to give something a shot. I never played Remnant 1. I know essentially nothing about it, other than it was a sort of quasi-precursor to Outriders-style gameplay, something Remnant 2 very much reminds me of, except it goes well above and beyond that game.

What I’ve found even in my first full day of Remnant 2 is an engaging, creative, seemingly infinitely replayable game unlike really anything I’ve seen in the shooter space. The Outriders comparisons only go so far. Even describing the game as “Soulslike” isn’t quite right. It really is its own thing.

The plot is…well, I can’t say I’m really here for the plot. You are a…person, you find a safe harbor town and a girl you just met is sucked into a giant crystal. You pursue them into the giant crystal and discover it’s a gateway to many different worlds, all of which have problems to solve and monsters to kill. Perhaps the story gets more compelling from here, but I can’t say it’s a strong suit at this point.

Everything else? Fantastic. The “Soulslike” comparison here is that you do indeed wander through levels, parking at campfire checkpoints that save your progress, act as fast travel points, heal you, respawn enemies, all of that. You will indeed be warped back to a campfire if you die (they’re not actually called that, they’re more crystals), but unlike Souls you don’t have to retrace your steps to find dropped currency. Though don’t be fooled, the game is still plenty hard.

Combat so far is relatively simplistic but still very fun. You have a pair of ranged weapons, a main gun and a sidearm, each of which can have their own special mod powers. You have your own choice of class abilities, I’m a tanky Challenger who ground stomps enemies into submission. You activate relics for healing or other special powers. But if your character is somewhat straightforward (I’m sure it gets more complex later), where Remnant 2 shines is in enemy design. Even early on, this is some of the most interesting and compelling enemy design I’ve seen in the shooter space in quite some time. Joining with the Souls-like respawn aspect, you have to plan your fights carefully, and the boss encounters, good lord. Even only experiencing a handful of them, I’ve seen such creativity there, and these encounters are going to absolutely stick in my mind.

If enemy design is the best thing about the game, the second-best may be its exploration and secret hunting. Some things are fairly obvious, like going off the beaten path to find a hidden item or dungeon or miniboss. Others? I just beat a demon in a game of chess to unlock a hidden bow. The game hides entire subclasses behind secrets, including one that was only revealed through datamining by design. Truly wild stuff here, and I’m hearing from players 100 hours in that they are still finding new, wild things after all that time.

The looting is a bit odd. While I have found a bunch of rings and relics, I’ve found no armor, and nearly all new weapons (minus my cool bow) have been through crafting. But the guns are all very unique and fun to modify, and I can respect this being a “looter-adjacent” where I don’t need bosses to explode in a colorful burst of different gear rarities. Again, we’re channeling Souls here to a certain extent. Fewer weapons, but impactful ones, and usually a challenge to get.

In my short time with this game, yes, I’m converted. Yes, if you follow my other looter-based work, you should play this, even if you’re not a Souls/Bloodborne/Elden Ring person, as I don’t think it’s quite as punishing as those games, and I believe you’ll have fun.

Now, I have about 90 more hours to put into this thing. Or more.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.