Today we're gonna dive into the nitty-gritty of Remnant From the Ashes, the action-packed video game that will leave you both ecstatic and questioning your sanity.
Picture this: a small community space filled with rusty metal and moldy skids, where inhabitants trade scrap for items and services to the adventurers. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, where cold hard iron is the currency of choice, used to enhance weapons of destruction and armor of salvation. And in the midst of it all, three fearless adventurers embark on a journey that will test their mettle.
After several minutes of preparation, our heroes gather around a giant red crystal in the central hub, placing their hands on it and instantly being transported back to a decaying world they had earlier left behind. The stage is set, and the action begins.
As they make their way towards their destination, a giant root dragon swoops down and lands, roaring and spewing flame and acrid smoke everywhere. The survivors scatter for cover, but not our hero. He approaches the beast from its flank, blasting away with his shotgun, while the group's hunter dives through the window of a broken-down building and a former cultist who had recently joined the squad begins hammering the beast's glowing chest with coach gun blasts.
A true symphony of destruction fills the arena - gunshots, crumbling rock and debris, monstrous roars, fire crackling - it's all happening at once. But the battle is far from over. Our hero gets knocked down, and the cultist tries to revive him, but the boss’s minions keep spawning in and interrupting the long process, causing him to flee only to be caught in another fire blast knocking him down as well.
The final survivor thins the minions and rolls back and forth trying to revive the fallen comrades, but keeps getting staggered or attacked until finally, they are defeated. This process repeats itself twenty times, each time our heroes become more outmatched than the last. But they don't give up.
Eventually, the cultist leaves, and it's just our hero and the hunter. They use consumables, they keep their distance, they close the gap, and focus on the boss and minions. Nothing seems to work, but they don't give up. And then it happens - they soak enough damage, kill just the right amount of minions, move just right, avoid just the right attacks, and finally, the dragon is slain.
It's an epic victory, and our heroes are exhausted but greatly satisfied. This is what kept our hero playing Remnant, even when it was crushing him into dust - the pursuit of these victories against foes he was not meant to be a match for. But after 40 hours of this, he was left with a mixed bag of feelings about the game - was it genius or short bus?
Remnant is a ‘souls-like’ game that basically answers the what-if “Dark Souls but with guns”. Let me tell you, it definitely delivers on that front. The controls and combat system are flawless, taking cues from Dark Souls and adding a satisfying emphasis on ranged combat.
However, the game seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It tries to be like Diablo or Borderlands with its randomized loot and rogue-like maps, but the implementation of these features feels half-baked and out of place. The game's key equipment upgrades are mainly tied to killing bosses, finishing quests and dungeons, or killing bosses again. This design choice feels like a missed opportunity to fully explore the potential of the game's randomized loot and map system.
It's a classic case of jack of all trades, master of none. The game excels at the core gameplay mechanics, but other features feel tacked on or poorly executed. Despite these shortcomings, I found myself drawn to the game's epic battles against powerful bosses and the sense of satisfaction that comes from overcoming overwhelming odds.
Overall, Remnant from the Ashes is a solid game that excels at what it sets out to do: provide a Dark Souls-like experience with a focus on ranged combat. However, the additional features feel half-baked and don't fully explore the game's potential.
Remnant From the Ashes offers a fantastic gameplay loop that takes players through a post-apocalyptic world filled with tribal desert dwellings and cityscapes. Fans of games like Borderlands and Fallout will definitely enjoy the setting and atmosphere. In fact, the game is reminiscent of Hellgate: London with its randomized level design, aesthetically pleasing environment, and monster designs.
However, the game's boss encounters are where the gameplay falls apart. Each boss encounter is either poorly executed, a minor inconvenience, or an unfair mess. One early boss encounter involves fighting against a boss that splits into multiple copies of itself. Every quarter of its health, it splits into another instance of itself. While they all share the same health bar, the bosses aggressively attack with melee, ranged, or AOE spam-able attacks that stagger and prevent healing. Additionally, any instance of the boss not attacking is hiding behind the horde and healing the boss, making it impossible to keep up with them all.
The design choices of the boss encounter to make them feel like they are intentionally stacked with unfair elements to give the illusion of difficulty. Even after hours of trying to beat a boss, the only way to win was to focus on dealing damage as fast as possible and finishing with one health point left. 80% of the boss encounters in the game are like this, making it difficult to find a boss that is both fun and challenging. Ultimately, the boss encounters can make or break a player's opinion of the game. The question remains, are you and your friends up for the challenge of fighting against bosses that cheat?
When it comes to performance, Remnant from the Ashes on the Nintendo Switch is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I didn't experience any game-breaking bugs or crashes during my playthrough. Kudos to the devs for delivering a relatively stable experience. However, it's clear that some compromises had to be made to get this game running on the Switch.
The frame rate is stable, but it's evident that some animations were sacrificed in the transition from 60 to 30 FPS. The textures are low resolution both in handheld and TV mode, which can be a bit of a downer if you're used to playing on other platforms. But the real kick in the pants is the screen tearing. Holy mother of god, it's like watching an earthquake in action every time you pan the camera horizontally.
Despite all this, I have to say that Remnant from the Ashes is still one of the better Switch ports out there. Sure, there are some noticeable drawbacks, but they don't detract from the overall experience too much. And let's be honest, if you're playing on a Switch, you know what you're getting into. All things considered, the sacrifices made to get this game running on the platform are acceptable and don't detract from the overall experience.
In conclusion, Remnant from the Ashes is a game that hits all the right notes when it comes to gameplay but lacks an identity of its own. While I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game, the boss fights were a massive roadblock that left me feeling like I was banging my head against a wall of bullshit. The story was forgettable at best, and the game's design felt like a hodgepodge of elements from other popular games. However, if you're looking for a good third-person shooter or a soul-like experience, this game is worth the price of admission. Despite its flaws, Remnant From the Ashes receives the Anus Seal of Approval, or in simpler terms, a rating of Hot Shit.
