As a consequence, difficult scenarios are created by mixing ranged and melee attackers, spawning in elites that can come at you from any angle, locking you into restrictive boss arenas, and boss fights with an abundance of summoned minions. A somewhat problematic design choice seeing as Remnant: From the Ashes is a shooter. Starting with difficulty – always an important and divisive topic in both these genres – it doesn’t take long to realise most enemies, elite variants, and several bosses pose little threat if you have half-decent aim and keep your distance. Unexpectedly, Remnant: From the Ashes’ attempt to be a little bit everything satisfied my need for a continuous sense of progression and systematic exploration, though I suspect several design decisions bored both Souls-like and Rogue-like fans. It’s a pattern I struggle to break out of, even when a game lets me or incentives me to do so. I’m a methodical and predictable gamer, always taking the slow and steady approach, exploring every location to the fullest, and tackling every quest before moving forward. To explain why Remnant: From the Ashes clicked with me, I need to provide a little context. Even 3-years ago at launch, it was treading familiar ground but, to its credit, it’s one of the few attempts at a “Dark-Souls-with-guns” that actually works. There’s also an incredibly light narrative thread that – despite the extensive lore, a prequel game, some verbose conversations, and pretentious item descriptions – boils down to a key NPC in each region sending you to kill the big boss of said region. You’re always gaining XP towards upgrading passive trait cards, along with the materials and scrap needed to craft or upgrade gear (and nothing is dropped on death). Each time you enter a new region, the world is seeded, providing a unique layout, a selection of optional dungeons and encounters, boss variations, and gear to find. Enemies hit hard, bosses harder still, you’ve got limited healing options (at first), and death sets you back to the last checkpoint with basic enemies respawned. In brief, Remnant: From the Ashes is a single-player or cooperative third-person shooter, combining ‘Souls-like progression and a Rogue-lite world structure. Another year on and 25 hours later – with one solo campaign completed and one character for the multiplayer adventure mode – I’ve been unexpectedly entertained on a mechanical level, despite the limited scope, uneven single-player balance, and mixed production values. After an equally low-key “next-gen upgrade” last year – and primarily to give Gunfire Games more money towards what I hope is Darksiders IV – I picked up the Remnant: From the Ashes – Complete Edition cheaply and committed myself to find the time to take it slow and get a better feel for the mechanics. With only two muted DLC drops, it feels like the game dropped entirely out of the news cycle within a year of launch. When Remnant: From the Ashes arrived on Game Pass, I had no excuse not to give it a go, but gave up after several frustrating solo runs with the different starting classes. I’m someone who enjoyed Darksiders III despite the change in combat style, but I find it a better game since they reintroduced a “classic” mode – shifting it closer in style to its predecessors. As the current custodians of Darksiders – one of my favourite IPs – I considered supporting Gunfire Games’ Remnant: From the Ashes at launch, but I have an on-off relationship with ‘Souls-like games and avoided it.
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