Harvey Randall:
Remnant 2 came at a difficult time, landing in the middle of some absolutely smashing games – though it’s still one of my favourites from this year. It crushes its predecessor Remnant: From the Ashes in every conceivable way, while still being the most inventive of 2023’s Souls-like offerings.
One moment you’re blasting your way through a plaguestricken techno hellscape, the next you’re battling a fairy king in a shining storybook castle. Its levels are procedurally arranged, but they still manage to feel textured, with handcrafted encounters and secrets to discover. One unlockable archetype even spawned a whole ARG-style hunt and a Discord server of dataminers hellbent on uncovering it. The RPG side to this multiversal shoot-’em-up is stellar, too. You can combine two of its classes (called Archetypes) at a time, you have a bunch of rings and amulets all with powerful effects, and there’s a broad spread of boss weapons, mods, and mutators to attach to your guns. The only downside is that it takes a little elbow grease to really unlock everything, but there’s an entire Archetype which revolves around having a dog so I’m willing to give the game a pass on that. With a bunch of quality-of-life improvements already patched, and three DLCs on the way to flesh out the world, I’ll bet my fair share of scrap that Remnant 2 will only get better with time – and it’s dang good already. Gunfire Games scored a bullseye.