The Soulsborne series is one of my favorite video game series of the last decade. Each game constantly builds up upon the last and takes us to worlds we have never seen before. They are well known for their scaling difficulty and hard to master combat, but just because the Souls games are hard doesn't mean they are not fun to play. FromSoftware has proven that providing a challenge to the player is what comes first in a video game. Sometimes it’s not a good idea to hold the player by the hand, because that’s what leads to a game becoming stale very quickly. Video games should reward players for mastery while immersing into deep compelling worlds full of history and character. Bloodborne is probably one of the greatest games I have ever played. I’ve recommended it to every person I have met who plays games and honestly it’s a better designed game than the original Dark Souls. I wrote an entire essay explaining why this game is a masterpiece, so check that out if you haven’t already. Dark Souls is also an amazing franchise with each game becoming broader than the last. With a massively successful franchise there are bound to be developers who will try to copy that format.
At first these games seem to be clones, but sometimes new interesting ideas will spark from already existing ones. This leads to a whole new genre being created from one game. Much like Doom spawning the first person shooter genre, Dark Souls and Bloodborne influenced a genre of games known as soulslikes. Games with hardcore combat, maze like level design, take place in dying worlds, and other similar Dark Souls aspects. There have been quite a few soulslikes over the years, some of them being quite interesting. Ska Studios created Salt and Sanctuary, which proved that the formula of Dark Souls could work in a 2D environment. Deck13 created The Surge, which is basically Dark Souls in a sci-fi setting and had a Monster Hunter like design choice where you cut off enemy parts to forge the gear you need. The Game Kitchen created Blasphemous, another 2D Dark Souls but it was edgy as hell and made the combat brutal yet satisfying. Then there is one of my personal favorite soulslikes which is Hollow Knight. A metroidvania with hand drawn graphics, a deep world, fair combat scenarios, and a soundtrack that matches up to the level of an entire orchestra. I have an entire essay explaining why Hollow Knight is a masterpiece as well, so check that out as well. Hollow Knight is one of my favorite games of all time. It was my game of the last decade and it’s one of the few games that can hold to the amount of quality Bloodborne has. Hollow Knight and Bloodborne are both amazing games, and no other soulslike has come close to matching up with these two titles.
However, a recent game that I played through has finally come close to matching up with these two. Gunfire Games, a studio known for working on a few games part of the Darksiders series. The last game they made was Darksiders 3 in 2018 and that turned out to be the series lowest reaching point. Darksiders 3 received quite a bit of backlash, forcing Gunfire Games to come up with a new idea of their own. Luckily they took inspiration from the Souls franchise and asked themselves the personal question, "What if Dark Souls but as a shooter?" After a year-long development and drafting period, Gunfire Games create Remnant: From The Ashes, a third person co-op focused looter shooter that took keynotes from Dark Souls and other famous titles.
I have never been a fan of looter shooters, because every time I try to step into one I get frustrated with their repetitious gameplay loop and how the game attempts to make the player feel better by dumping reward safter reward onto them. Ignoring the fact that the players will gravitate to the gear with better damage output and higher levels. It's called providing quick satisfaction rather than something worth looking back to. I don’t like Destiny 2, haven’t really gotten into Warframe, and while I wouldn’t pour hundreds of hours into it I can respect what Borderlands 2 is. On the other hand, I tried getting into Borderlands 3 and I can perfectly sum it up as a mind numbing experience that I never want to finish. I was stepping into Remnant: From The Ashes with low expectations, and I have to say the game exceeded them. Remnant is the only looter shooter I can actually recommend and I'm glad I stuck with it till the credits. I had a blast playing through this game and it’s easily a diamond lying at the bottom of the barrel. Today we’ll be talking about why I exceedingly love Remnant: From The Ashes, and why it deserves your attention. So load up your arsenal, fill up your estus- I mean Dragon Heart, and prepare to fight the root of all evil.
Story
Earth has been taken over by creatures from another dimension known as The Root, bark-like monsters with demonic powers that spread and multiply rapidly. More than half of the earth’s population has been wiped out and those who are left are struggling to survive. Tucked away from the surface. We play as a lone adventurer who sets out to sea to find the source of the Root and put an end to it. Once they make it to the source they are knocked out by a massive tidal wave and wake up on the shore of a city infested by the Root. They begin fighting their way through the Root hoard, but they are soon outnumbered and rescued by a pack of human survivors.
They recover in an underground bunker named Ward 13, where they meet the leader of the group Ellen Ford. Ellen tells them that they are now farther away from the source of the Root, but her father may be able to help them get back to it. Her father ventured out of Ward 13 quite some time ago to do some research on the Root, but he was never seen ever again. After being given a few supplies by the residents of Ward 13 and activating a giant red crystal that allows them to warp to places, the adventurer sets out onto the streets of a Root filled city. They’ll have to gun their way through hordes of the Root, learn about the world around them, and grow stronger overtime if they even want to stand a chance against the Root. But they’ll soon realize there is a much bigger story, as they’ll travel across multiple dimensions and fight foreign species to trace down where Ford is and learn how the Root gained access to their world.
Gameplay
Now let’s talk about my favorite part of Remnant, the gameplay. It’s a mish mash of ideas from several other games, but they combine to make an experience that’s fun to play and engaging. You explore the world around you collecting items, fighting enemies, and leveling up traits overtime. This game has their form of bonfires which are floating red crystals and when you die you respawn at them. Enemies often come in hoards, and there is no better way to fight them off than by using your guns. You can only have two guns equipped at a time, a handgun and rifle. You start off with some pretty basic weapons like a pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle, but later down the line you start unlocking some pretty cool weaponry using materials dropped from bosses. You can upgrade your guns and armor by using iron you find throughout the world, and stronger weapons will require stronger iron. You can fit your guns with mods, but unlike most shooters where weapons mods change how your weapons perform, the mods in Remnant grant you special abilities. Activate them and you can power yourself up for a limited amount of time. Some enemy types will attack you from a far distance, but a majority of them will try to hit you up close range and personal.
If it’s anything Bloodborne has taught me it’s that dodging and following up with an attack is more effective than hiding or running away, and here in Remnant dodging is important. Remnant offers the player a high amount of I-frames, otherwise invincibility frames. Time the dodge at the right time towards the right direction and they’ll be immune to all the damage. You can roll through enemies' attacks and get the edge on them by shooting them afterwards. If you do so happen to take too much damage you can heal using this game's version of the Estus Flask known as the Dragon Heart. The Dragon Heart has a limited amount of uses, but replenishes when you rest at a checkpoint. You can even upgrade it’s capacity using a material found in each world.
Killing enemies will give you experience points and gaining enough will grant you a skill point. Skill points can be put into traits like your health and stamina, but you unlock new traits as you defeat new bosses. Stuff like range damage reduction, speedier stamina recharge, a faster reload speed, and more. I never liked having skill trees in video games because most of the stuff on them is useless, but the traits in Remnant are actually useful! Also when you die you don’t lose any valuable materials. This is kind of odd for a soulslike, because usually you lose something upon death. Souls, blood echoes, amrita, geo, here in Remnant you lose nothing.
This removes the factor of forcing the player to learn upon death and if not their punished, but in Remnant it’s forgiving. The player can be oftentimes overwhelmed and to balance fast respawn times the checkpoints are spread out far from each other. The world is procedurally generated, meaning each playthrough of the game is different. Areas will appear in different patterns, some quests may be activated, and some bosses may or may not be encountered on each playthrough. This is pretty great, because this adds a lot of replay value to the game. Unlock different legendary weaponry and perks to test out during future runs. Creating new playstyles.
You will encounter bosses after each one or two areas, and they test the player’s skills. Unlike Dark Souls bosses which require planning, the bosses in Remnant never feel frustrated. It’s just you, the bad guy, and his minions, no cheap strategies or anything else. Most of the time if the bosses’ minions do pop up try to kill them first and then focus again on the boss. Once you kill the boss they drop an item that allows you to craft a boss weapon, and what I like about the boss weapons in Remnant is that they don’t have any stat requirements. In Dark Souls if you wanted to use a greatsword you might need to level up your strength, but here in Remnant you can use your weapon once you unlock it. I know that’s how From Software prevents the player from becoming overpowered early in the game, but why give us a weapon and tell us you can’t use it until you're halfway through the game? Remnant wants the player to experiment, choose what stats fit their playstyle, and forge their own unique builds that will likely help them survive. It’s weird to see builds and play styles in a shooter, but it makes progression more satisfying. Anyways you're growing stronger everyday and with this power you sure will be able to fight off the Root and reclaim the world for mankind.
Thoughts
Remnant: From The Ashes is a fun game and that’s all you need to know! The combat is delightful, guns have the right kick, and mowing down hordes of enemies feels badass. It may take awhile to get use to the game constantly hounding down on the player, but it's great when you finally do. It's a game that pushes your buttons, but not so much that you get annoyed by the wave of enemies heading towards you. The environments are stunning. At first you start off walking through a poorly lit ruined city, but over time you march your way through deserts with sprawling towers and swamps inhabited by humanoid bug creatures. It provides a fantasy feeling that wouldn't be expected from an apocalyptic shooter. The sense of wonder knowing you are far from home.
The story is pretty consistent. There’s a lot of lore in this game, but it’s pretty hard to comprehend or pay attention to it when you're busy shooting everything, and compared to Dark Souls it's not as deep or asks moral questions. At least Gunfire Games tried, and they made a really interesting world to progress through. This is a perfect game you can play with friends, but unlike Borderlands 3 the game isn’t entirely designed to play with multiplayer in mind. A majority of the game I played by myself, but it felt pretty well balanced. Even during some of the harder bosses I never got frustrated. As I mentioned earlier, it turns out the strategy is for most bosses is when they spawn in their minions you focus on the minions, because it’s hard to miss the boss when they're huge and move slowly around. It’s being overwhelmed that gets you killed.
Speaking of which, this is one of the more accessible soulslike I’ve played besides Hollow Knight. I haven’t played the game for more than fifthteen hours, but it hooks you in within the first few hours and after a little bit of playtime you should be able to pick up the combat. It’s much easier than Dark Souls, but maybe it’s because you have a gun, enemies are spawned from a distance, and the game is incredibly linear.
This game is amazing, but I do have a few gripes with it. This framerate drops down a lot, but maybe it’s because there are enemies constantly hounding you from all sides in huge highly detailed areas. The developers will most likely patch this in future updates. When the game gives me a new weapon it takes some time to upgrade it so that it’s actually useful as my starting gear, because much like Dark Souls the game has a problem where the weapon you’ve been upgrading the most is usually the first few weapons you find. The ones you’ve probably been you've gotten used to and centered your playstyle around. You can beat the game using your two starting guns which eliminates the purpose of testing other weapons out. They do balance this out by making iron really easy to find and if you're a player complaining you can’t find any then look harder. It’s laying in plain sight and all you have to do is explore your surroundings.
The game is awfully short. It took me less than fifteen hours to beat, but at least the game is procedurally generated as I mentioned earlier which adds a butt ton of replay value. Plus it doesn't overstay its welcome like certain other shooters. I mean I guess the reason why there are only four dimensions to go to is because this game was made in less than two years, but that’s expected because this is Gunfire’s first successful original property. Overall, Remnant: From The Ashes is a very good video game and after being I can safely say this is my favorite soulslike experience that came out in 2019. I recommend it to any soulslike or shooter fan, and if you're struggling to get into the looter shooter like me then play this one. It has actual rewards worth working towards. In the end I give Remnant: From The Ashes a 9/10 for being excellent at best.
Σχόλια