Remnant: From the Ashes

Since the birth of the harsh but fair gaming craze brought about by Dark Souls just under a decade ago, there has been a number of developers outside of From Software who have been aiming to replicate this challenging and rewarding type of game. We have seen some success with games such as Nioh or the upcoming Mortal Shell aiming to achieve this feat and doing a decent job of replicating this. Though, have you ever wondered if you could still feel vulnerable when wielding a massive gun? Well, that’s a question that Remnant: From the Ashes aims to answer.

This game plays much like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Nioh, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or Demon's Souls, using a relentlessly hard difficulty curve to keep players vulnerable, progressing slowly and playing with caution to succeed. However, this game presents itself as a third-person shooter as well and handles similarly to games like the Uncharted and Gears of War series in this respect.

Misses the point

Although you’ll often hear solely about the difficult gameplay when you talk to a Dark Souls fan, what is also true is that they love the worlds and environments heaped in lore. The stories are woven into the world you traverse. There are few cut scenes, little dialogue, sparsely populated areas and you’ll encounter more boss battles than you will friendly NPC’s. This all works for the Dark Souls games, however, when the same approach was taken to this title, it just comes across as lazy or not cohesive. The procedurally generated environments don’t lend themselves to the environmental cues present in souls games and the cut scenes, lore and other plot-driving aspects seem to be lacking in this title as well. So instead of an ominous, mysterious land dripping in intrigue, you have a randomly generated set of areas with little tying them to each other.

The plot is also pretty weak as a premise too. The crux of this story boils down to fight off the evil forces called ‘The Root’ which again, works for the Souls series due to its very deliberate design but within this game seems like a missed opportunity to provide a more gripping narrative.

The Randomness has its benefits

While this game plays out like a much stronger version of Bloodborne’s chalice dungeons, it seems that only the story suffers through the randomness. The procedural generation of the environments, the random layout of enemies and the randomised order in which you will encounter bosses all culminate to give this game a unique emergent feel that makes this game very replayable.

It also lends itself to something that isn’t seen in Souls games and that is the randomised loot drops. This allows you to reap the rewards of beating hulking bosses with premium drops. Though, as the game giveth it also taketh away your loot if you happen to fall in battle, making this one a unique resource management process.

Classy Combat

These games live and die on their fighting mechanics and to this games credit, it absolutely nails combat. Every gun has the ideal weight for its class, the way you can combine melee and gunplay on the fly is spectacular and it’s all very reminiscent of Bloodborne’s mechanics that encourages the player to engage with the enemy and throw caution to the wind. You can duck, weave and roll as is custom with these games but blocking is not included, so keep moving and pick your moments carefully.

It’s Dark Souls With Guns

Not too long ago modders incorporated guns within Dark Souls as a viral meme. If only they would have known that this title was on the horizon. This game takes this premise and makes a fantastic title that is harsh but fair in equal measure, is brilliant to play with friends and has emergent gameplay that makes everyone’s adventure unique.

Pros

• Diverse emergent gameplay
• Combat feels amazing
• Environments and enemies look great
• Fantastic for Co-op

Cons

• Random aspects prevent solid storytelling
• Bosses are near impossible to beat without a partner