Summary
- David Adams, President of Gunfire Games, answers our questions about the launch of Remnant II and what players can expect in this third-person survival action shooter.
- Equip yourself with specialized abilities, items, and weapons (ranged and melee), and experience frenetic combat as you face swarms of enemies and epic large-scale boss battles.
- Play the campaign solo or team up with up to two other players on your journey, with a new expanded archetype system that can be unlocked during play, leveled up, and equipped together for a variety of play styles.
Just when you think the post-apocalyptic world being overrun by hordes of deadly enemies couldn’t get any worse, along comes Remnant II with a whole new terrifying world of deadly creatures and god-like bosses. Remnant II is the continuation of the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes, and we connected with David Adams, President of Gunfire Games, to talk about what you can expect from this intense Remnant combat experience.
Since this is a sequel, the first and most obvious question is, how does Remnant II align with everything we experienced in Remnant: From the Ashes, and what do those players who never played the first game need to know? “Story wise it picks up from the end of the first game’s final DLC. The main threat has been seemingly defeated, and mankind is starting to fight back and take back the Earth,” shares Adams. “However, something is obviously not perfect, or we wouldn’t have a sequel. We try to keep the stories in our games simple, so players should have no trouble picking it up.”
New Worlds to Explore
I’ve only scratched the surface of Remnant II but can confirm the transition was seamless and the experience is quite reminiscent of the former game, but with some notable improvements. I asked about the similarities and differences between the original and Remnant II, and Adams had this to say. “There are two things we wanted to lean into heavily in the sequel. One was the randomness of the world, and the uniqueness of the events found in the world.
The fact that two people can play the sequel and start on completely different worlds, with completely different storylines is a cool aspect of the game.
The fact that two people can play the sequel and start on completely different worlds, with completely different storylines is a cool aspect of the game. On top of that, the number of random events and secrets in the game provide for both a compelling first time playthrough of the game, but also an incentive to play the game multiple times to see all the content you missed the first time.” Adams continues, “The second thing we wanted to work on was player variety of abilities, items, and weapons. We added an Archetype system so that players could further specialize their characters and would have a large amount of build variety to try different archetype/weapon/trait combos.”
Archetype System
While Remnant: From the Ashes did use an Archetype system (essentially player classes), they were overhauled in Remnant II, with the addition of new types, each with their own unique features. Given the importance of this feature, I asked Adams if he could further explain Remnant II’s Archetype system. “We had archetypes in the first game, but they were no more than a set of armor and weapons. In Remnant II they are much more extensive with passive abilities, unique traits, and skills unique to the Archetype,” explains Adams. “On top of that, at a point in your character’s progression you can equip two separate archetypes to create unique combinations of abilities. We brought back every archetype from the first game and added a bunch of new ones to discover.” When asked about his personal favorite, Adams mentions the Challenger, because it has a passive ability that allows you to get back up after dying, an ability many of us will need, especially on the harder difficulty setting.
Endless Replayability
Remnant II incorporates branching quest lines and dynamically generated dungeons, which means not only is each of your playthroughs unique, but everyone else playing the game has a unique experience too, including potentially starting on an entirely different world. “At the top level we randomly generate the order of the biomes that you encounter. Then inside each biome we generate one of two unique storylines. Then you have all the mini bosses, side quests, events, etc. that get randomized inside of that framework”, explains Adams. “This means that two players will likely have completely different storylines, different bosses, mini bosses, found items, etc. You won’t even necessarily start on the same world. The main story doesn’t have alternate endings, but the biome stories – which is really the meat of the game – often have alternate rewards and outcomes.”
Multiplayer
A popular feature from Remnant: From the Ashes was the ability to play through the game with up to two other players, and this feature returns in Remnant II. “We took the Multiplayer aspects from the original game and polished them for Remnant II,” says Adams. “But overall, the ability to seamless jump in and jump out of games with friends – or to matchmake into public games – has remained similar to Remnant: From the Ashes. One of the coolest aspects of multiplayer is jumping into someone’s game just to see what quests, bosses, items they have in their world.”
The Soulslike Comparison
Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant II are often described as being “Soulslike”, the subgenre of action role-playing games known for, among other things, as having a high difficulty level and big boss fights. When asked about this comparison, Adams responded, “Well, I personally love Souls games so if people want to call it Soulslike that’s fine. I think the difficulty, and the fact that we have checkpoints that reset the world are probably what drive people to make that comparison. But beyond that there is a lot about Remnant II that is different than a Souls game. We have guns, archetypes (with passive abilities and skills), randomly generated worlds, seamless drop/in – drop/out coop, truckloads of secrets, traits, etc. There is a lot to discover in the game that you would never see in a Souls game.”
There is a lot about Remnant II that is different than a Souls game. We have guns, archetypes (with passive abilities and skills), randomly generated worlds, seamless drop/in – drop/out coop, truckloads of secrets, traits, etc.
Unimaginable Worlds
One of the most interesting features of the Remnant games is a principle often associated with the Chaos Theory, and that’s to expect the unexpected. Everything in the world, from the weapons to the creatures, has a degree of randomness to it. “One of the best things about Remnant is that we can make up whatever worlds and lore we want. The basic premise of the game – the multiverse hopping aspect – gives us unlimited freedom. One world can be dark Victorian, and another science fiction,” explains Adams. “One thing we try to do when crafting each world’s quests, bosses and events is to try and inject as many ‘aha’ water cooler moments as we can. We want memorable moments for players to share with friends or other gamers, and this is further enhanced by the random nature of the game because you may encounter some cool moment that literally doesn’t even exist in your friends’ game.”
Completion Time
Completion time for Remnant: From the Ashes ranges anywhere from 15-20 hours for the main objective to 50-60 hours to complete everything, so it’s a reasonable assumption Remnant II would offer a similar experience. Adams confirms this and says, “Remnant II is a bit longer than the first game, you are looking at 20+ hours for the main story, then probably another 60-100 hours to complete everything, maybe even longer. There is more of everything: quests, story quests, events, gear, etc.”
Conclusion
Remnant II is a worthy successor to Remnant: From the Ashes. It’s dark and gritty gameplay coupled with interesting characters and mysterious storyline lured me in and kept me wanting more. Some may compare it to a Soulslike game due to the difficulty and big boss battles, but personally I feel it is more unique than that and almost in a genre all on its own.
Even though I already knew, I couldn’t let Adams go without asking what has become a popular question in video game culture, especially for any game that features a dog or other similar pet-like creature. You see, I started my journey in Remnant II choosing one of the new archetypes – the Handler – solely because it includes a dog companion. Therefore, the obvious (and for some, perhaps the most important) question is – can you pet the dog? Adams replied, “You can definitely pet the dog!”