Remnant II is a third-person action role-playing shooter developed by Gunfire Games, and published by Gearbox Publishing. It’s the highly anticipated sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, and lovers of the series will not be disappointed with the content packed into this one.

Remnant II is absolutely pumped full of content, from killing hordes of enemies to solving puzzles, and this makes the game that much more fun. Sometimes the dungeons you are smashing through don’t have a nasty boss waiting at the end, instead, the puzzles are all hard enough that you need to think about them, and most of the time, there is a hint about how to complete it, but you also need to think about what you are reading, because it’s always worded in the simplest way. Most of the puzzles can be completed on the first sweep of the area and playthrough, but for some of the more secret puzzles, you’ll need to come back and look at them again during certain points in the game.

The puzzles are more based around logical knowledge, so it could be something like “The SUN and the MOON line up on the point, but LIFE and DEATH are close by.” So as you can, see there are four keywords, but then you need to work out where they all need to sit, and most puzzles have more than one thing you need to unlock, so it keeps your mind active while keeping you on your toes, but the positive side of it is that you’re not having to run around trying to destroy another boss.

After you have spent a few minutes building yourself in the character creation screen, you are graced with the difficulty screen which feels just as menacing as the settings themselves. “Survivor” is designed more around adventurer-based players who want to clear each map section completely, but don’t mistake Survivor for an easy mode. You will be disappointed.

The “Veteran” setting is for the gamers that are used to this style of game and want a more challenging experience whilst playing through the story, and then there is “Nightmare,” which the developers don’t recommend on your first playthrough.

This game mode is extremely punishing and unforgiving. The bosses have significantly more health and deal huge damage. This is for the most experienced players, but for those who think that is not enough, you have the fourth mode. Apocalypse. The final difficulty you can select, and the description is two words; Good Luck. I can guarantee I’ll never be touching this difficulty.

There are five Archetypes you can select when starting the game which we will break down shortly, but these have been added to allow players to start the game with a foundation to help create the ultimate build. Once you have discovered ten trait points, you can dual Archetype, putting your character into another level of badass. The five Archetypes you have access to at the beginning of the game are Hunter, Challenger, Medic, Handler, and if you pre-ordered the game, the Gunslinger.

If you didn’t pre-order, you can unlock this Archetype by playing through the game. The Hunter is the long-ranged Archetype; a master of precision that also has the ability of not having to get too close to the combat, and there were some moments I wished I had picked this Archetype to start my character. I opted to go with the Challenger, the tank build that gets you in nice and close to the combat, which sometimes was not great, and it might have made me put down the controller a couple of times.

The third Archetype is the Medic, which when playing in cooperative games, Redgrave was running around as the Medic, and having someone healing during boss fights was a godsend. I’m not going to lie, I would’ve been stuffed more than once if he was not there healing and dealing mass damage to the enemies.

MrVibe was also with us in cooperative, and he was utilizing the Handler, which the developers have described as the Jack of all Trades. This Archetype adventures with a companion – a dog who can help you with attacking enemies and also reviving you if you are down. The last Archetype you can access is the “Gunslinger” who is the master of firearm handling, reloading, and ammo conservation, and I’ll be doing another playthrough with this one as soon and seeing how different it feels to my current tank build.

Traits play a huge part in the game, letting you unlock perks for your characters, and these are earned by kicking ass or picking up a “Tome of Knowledge.” The latter gives you a trait point each time you collect one, allowing you to read the trait cards to see what you want to level up first to help your build. You have options like regeneration of health or even how much health you have, and there are even levels to the Archetype you select.

Each trait has 10 levels you need to either unlock or find the tomes, and as I mentioned before, you need to make sure you are reading all the text on each trait so you are utilizing your build to your best ability, not just upgrading the wrong thing, as something like more health can help out massively later in the game when you are versing a boss and all of their minions, and all you can do is dodge, duck, dice and run.

There are plenty of weapons you have access to in the game, you just need to find them all. As the Challenger build, I started with a sword, a shotgun, and a revolver, which had their good sides of high damage, but it’s bad side as it was a lot slower than the light machine gun that Redgrave was running around with. You are not locked into using those certain weapons, and you can swap and change on the fly, but once you are using something like the shotgun with high damage points you tend to keep using it, even if I said I was sick of it more than a couple of times, but you can upgrade the weapons to deal more damage back at the home base, Ward 13, the hub of all your adventures and a safe place to call home.

The cooperative section of this game made the game more fun. Being able to run around with two of your buddies and kick some ass was awesome, adding a new experience to the game. One of the things I loved the most was that if you have played through the game but go back to help a friend, your experience is different from how you played it on your playthrough. You are getting different bosses in each location, so you are also kept on your toes while exploring and finding new things, so you don’t mind jumping back into a game with a friend as it’s not the same old stuff you have already completed.

The only bad thing I have to mention about this game is that sometimes when you are about to jump into a dungeon whilst in co-op, for some reason, the game loved to crash. It was becoming annoying towards the end as all we wanted to do was kick some ass, but it seemed like it was only happening to the host of the session. Anything you pick up whilst in co-op, apart from ammo, is given to everyone, so no one misses out. I loved this, as there were items that I would grab that the other two who were further into the game than me hadn’t seen yet, so again, it was adding more excitement to the game for them.

For players coming back to the Remnant series, you will notice that armor upgrading has been removed. The developers wanted the player to focus on things that mattered more than armor, like your damage and the build. There is a new system added called the Mutator system, which gives you the freedom to wear whatever you want, but, if you wear something like full heavy armor, you lose access to diving and rolling. Instead, you just belly flop, which makes for some laughs. You can also slot three special effects into your weapons to make them that little bit more powerful, and as I mentioned before, I was using the shotgun, so one of its special perks was flaming shots which dealt one shot of high damage before adding damage over time whilst they were burning.

Sounds always freak me out in these games, and when you hear the music start, you know something serious is about to go down. The sounds were another thing that had been done really well, from the voice acting to the comments your character would make once you have demolished the horde of enemies coming rolling towards you. I was surprised at how good the guns sounded as well. Being something you are shooting 95% of the time whilst playing the game, it was not something I was constantly listening to, especially when you’re focused on what you’re doing, but the guns sounded fantastic.

For this game surprisingly, the controls are nice and basic, and there is not a whole heap involved with them. This is great as it’s one less thing you need to worry about. Everything seemed to work fantastic, but I found the Right Trigger attack while using a sword felt like it was a little too sensitive. I was barely touching it but was constantly throwing my sword around. The movement, which plays a huge part in these games, felt really fine-tuned and worked really well.

The graphics in this title are really using the power of the current generation of consoles, and the design team didn’t miss much. From the wet-look stone steps you climb up to the forest that almost looked like Pandora from the Avatar movie to the rocky cliffs you get to traverse. Everything looked absolutely stunning with the realism it added to that high level of immersion into the game. You will also notice that Remnant II is now using a full 3D Map, allowing more detail for the players so you can see the different levels on each map. This looks absolutely fantastic, and I would love to see more games using these features.

Remnant II is a great game that will captivate you for hours, especially if you want something that challenges you in more ways than one. I never played the first game, but I absolutely loved this title.

Written by: Hayden Nelson