Meanwhile I’m jonesing enough to start a new character in Remnant 1. Others too - I set my game to public and had some randoms link up immediately and play with me for a few hours. Even showed me a guaranteed unique weapon location I had forgotten about (Sniper Rifle)
But playing again - man I’m glad they made stamina not drain outside of combat - it’s so tedious running around those overlarge maps, though they still looked surprisingly good visually.
My friend and I are gearing up to complete Remnant 1 ourselves as an amuse-bouche. We co-oped almost the whole thing. It was probably my favorite co-op experience in gaming (not that I have much of a track record).
Very excited for this.
Remnant From the Ashes is probably my favorite game ever. Would love to play hardcore and survival sometime but found they were not fun solo and everyone I played eith quit before they released. I am in day one on 2
Has anyone found a decent deal for the sequel so far? For some reason, Remnant 2 doesn’t show up on the usual key seller sites (the reputable ones, that is), and on Humble and Green Man Gaming it’s only offered for the full retail price.
Cdkeys have it for $42 so about $8 less than retail
Thanks, that cut the costs from ~70€ for the Ultimate Edition down to ~54€. Appreciate the heads-up.
One of the developers (Tragic, aka Ben Cureton) posted a nifty little breakdown of the build mechanics. Since it’s on “that other social media platform” that tends to spontaneously combust from time to time, I thought I’d post it here for posterity.
In #Remnant2, the progression and gear systems were designed to give players a greater level of control over their builds. Here’s a recap of each major element:
The biggest addition to Remnant 2 is Archetypes. They give players an initial foundation to build upon while still remaining flexible enough to facilitate many different playstyles. Each Archetype comes with 3 unique cooldown-based Skills and a unique set of Perks which are meant to represent a baseline “build” (without taking up precious Trinket slots). They also come with a Prime Perk which is a game-changing feature that is only available when the Archetype is the Primary (first slot).
When Dual Archetyping, players will need to determine which Prime Perk they want to utilize, and which to forgo.
Archetypes come with the added benefit of being an easy-to-understand visual identifier for co-op. See someone playing Medic? You’ll know they’ll probably be more team oriented in their playstyle. See a Hunter? You’ll should probably expect a more damage-focused playstyle.
Trinkets (Amulets and Rings) provide many interesting benefits. From damage to defense, health regeneration to movement speed, and everything in-between, Trinkets give you great control for fine-tuning your character. In the original game, we noticed that players gravitated towards the damage options (who wouldn’t?!), so for R2, we pushed more of the playstyle-defining options to Amulets. We then created a large variety of “enhancing” behaviors for Rings. We realized that with all of these interesting effects, 2 Ring Slots just wasn’t enough … so we added 2 more!
With the added freedom of extra Ring Slots, players can more comfortably take one or two “quality of life” options instead of always loading up on just damage. Four Ring Slots lets players supplement their build at the cost of only 1/4 of their Ring capacity instead of 1/2. Of course, nothing is stopping you from loading up on damage, but you may surprise yourself with what you are willing to trade for a little bit of comfort!
Relics are a new addition which focus on Healing. The Dragon Heart from the original game is considered a Relic, but now instead of just the one healing option, players have many to choose from. Different Relics can change the way you approach an encounter. Maybe one grants less instant healing but offers steady stream of health regeneration over a long period of time. Perhaps one steals health from nearby enemies. One might even forgo healing entirely and grant a temporary shield instead. There are many Relics to discover! Finding the one perfect for your build and playstyle is key!
Weapon Mods from the original game are back! Weapon Mods are powerful abilities that are slotted into your Standard Primary and Secondary firearms (Boss & Special firearms have their own one-off Weapon Mods that cannot be swapped). By dealing damage, you eventually build up enough power to unleash the Mod effect. Weapon Mods can be anything from Hotshot - a Remnant classic that infuses your bullets with fire - to crowd control options that give you and your team more freedom and control on the battlefield. Activating Weapon Mods at the right time can make or break an encounter or a boss fight. Figure out the best combinations and go to work!
Boss and Special Weapons come with their own pre-set Weapon Mods. These are typically more exotic and themed to that specific weapon. Because of this, Boss and Special weapons usually have more pronounced strengths and weaknesses, and their unique Weapon Mod provides behavior unavailable anywhere else in the game. Collect as many of these weapons as you can, because you never know when their special Weapon Mod may come in handy!
Mutators are a brand-new feature that really takes your builds to the next level. Each weapon - Primary, Secondary, and Melee - has a Mutator Slot. Mutators grant effects similar to Armor Set bonuses from the original game. Mutators can be leveled up by spending precious materials gained from defeating powerful enemies. At max level, they gain a second effect that ties the whole package together. Mutators typically affect the weapon they are slotted into, but since you have 3 weapons, you can have 3 mutators at a time!
Last but not least, Traits! Like in the first game, Traits are stat bonuses that increase each time they gain a point. Each character starts with the core 4 Traits - Vigor (Health), Endurance (Stamina), Spirit (Mod Generation), and Expertise (Skill Cooldown) - as well as their Archetype Trait. While standard Traits are increased by spec’ing into them with Trait Points, Archetype Traits are automatically increased by simply leveling up your Archetype. Trait Points by defeating Bosses and finding Tomes of Knowledge in the world.
As an incentive to play multiple Archetypes, leveling each to max (10) will unlock their Archetype Trait to be used with any build! Even if the build doesn’t include the original Archetype! However, if you use an Archetype Trait on other builds, you’ll have to spend Trait Points to increase their strength. Keep the original Archetype to gain a full 10-point Trait for free (once the Archetype is maxed) or mix and match with another build… but spend some points to regain that power. It’s up to you!
In Remnant 2, the power to create awesome builds is in your hands. There are hundreds of unique tools ready for the taking… but you’ll have to earn them. Explore everywhere… check every nook and cranny across every world and every story… and then check again!
We are looking excited to seeing what you create!
Sounds pretty amazing, so far. Depending on the replay value, this might be my personal GOTY for '23.
And while we’re at it, here’s the rest of the class reveals so far. (Gunslinger was already posted above). Rumors point to about 8 available archetypes for the base game, 4 starters and 4 advanced ones.
Most of the character progression stuff seems nice but I haven’t seen much about what they’re doing with the ‘semi-procedural’ campaign thing. The first game made it sound impressive but it was basically “each region has 2 zone choices and some of the side dungeon paths can roll from a couple of options” and that was really it. Didn’t feel particularly unique or interesting and barely held up for a second playthrough, IMO.
They expanded on that, according to some articles.
In a nutshell, levels and biomes are randomized, there’s several biomes per world, multiple top-level narratives per realm exist (as opposed to the single narrative available in the first part) and are picked randomly, dungeons are procedurally generated with chances to contain additional events (the first one had that for the room that contained Leto’s Amulet, which was a rare spawn in one of the earth dungeons).
Of course there’s patterns and repetitions here, and I’m absolutely certain the community will map out all possible branches and iterations rather quickly, but it should be good for a second playthrough at least.
the survival and post campaign modes were quite varied in my experience fwiw
I don’t mind playing through it again, I think especially having two ways to kill the bosses for two different rewards is really fun, but I’m not a big fan of how they hid the rest of the weapons.
For the longest time I had no clue that they were hidden in the level generator, and I don’t see that I would’ve had much chance of figuring that out on my own, especially since finding them relies on RNG.
In order to eventually get some of those weapons and armors, I had to use the savegame reader, which helped to show me just how unlikely it was that I would’ve gotten the correct generation for a certain item.
That’s not very helpful for immersion, to say the least :)
Any time a game makes me rely on a wiki, and in this case a savegame reader, I feel like they could’ve maybe designed that a little better. Just give me a hint, or a map, or a quest or something - I’ll investigate it!
Here’s the last of the starting archetypes, the Hunter.
I’m very very excited for this. Looking good.
Up for co-op, too.
Huh, this looks good. I liked the first one, though never actually “finished” it. I hit some pretty heavy roadblocks playing solo.
RPS loved it
So excited for this one.
It appears this is now a must buy. Too bad it’s so close to Baldur’s Gate 3, and Jagged Alliance 3 is eating up a lot of my free time. Plus I’m deep into a replay of the first Baldur’s Gate. Hmmm. The FOMO is strong with this one.
Framerate with rtx 4090 and with dlss falling to 40fps? Not good.
So my antique system (which ran the first one just fine) would choke, wheeze, and then explode I gather. Well, that at least makes it easier to wait awhile, since I’ll need new hardware first.
Has there been a good article anywhere on why PC ports have been so atrocious that past couple years?