Arguably one of the most exciting announcements at the 2022 Game Awards had to be the reveal of Remnant 2, the sequel to Remnant: From The Ashes. For anyone unaware, Remnant is most commonly described as a "Souls-like with guns" but that's not a completely accurate definition.
Remnant is also one of the most replayable, most expansive, and honestly most immersive Souls-likes out there, so most fans are nothing short of ecstatic that a sequel is in the works. That said, there's a lot the developers at Gunfire Games could fine-tune, improve upon, or adjust from Remnant: From The Ashes for its sequel, so let's look at some of the best examples.
8 Even More Unique Melee & Ranged Weapons
Remnant: From The Ashes has a lot of weapons in it, about 49 to be precise. And, among those weapons, there are some really unique ones such as the Eye of the Storm, Chain Blade, or Hive Cannon. But, if the neat VFX, pretty colors, and unique look of the guns were taken out, these weapons would just be a rifle, a sword on a chain, and a pistol.
That isn't to say that they're 'creatively designed' weapons, but Remnant 2 could really build upon what worked in the first game and create some truly unique weapons that don't have an easy reference point or 'base' for players to associate them with. The wackier the weapons get, the better, and from the weird clockwork sword and bow seen in the reveal trailer, it seems like they're aware of this.
7 Make 'Melee-Only' Runs More Viable
Another thing that Remnant does differently from most of the other Souls games or Souls-like games is that guns AKA ranged combat are the primary focus. Yes, players can absolutely use a melee weapon and there are a lot of them found throughout the game. But, if players want to entirely focus their build around melee they need to follow some pretty specific builds and will probably have a boss or two that's literally impossible to hit with a melee weapon.
Again, there are ways to do melee in Remnant from the get-go and everyone's mileage may vary, but if they made it a bit easier to go all-in on melee weapons in Remnant 2 and made sure there was always some 'option' for knocking flying bosses down to melee range, that would be fantastic.
6 More Of Their Memorable Armor Designs
Honestly, as far as Armor Sets were concerned, Remnant: From the Ashes did an exceptional job, or at least that's what fans of the game always mentioned. The basic human armor like the Nightstalker Set looked perfect for a post-apocalyptic world, the armor from other realms like the Void Armor looked so completely alien, and even the heavy armor like Leto's Armor managed to capture that Dark Souls-esque style.
So, this isn't exactly something Gunfire Games needs to "improve upon" in Remnant 2, but rather, they can just do it again. They simply need to make sure Remnant 2 is filled with at least an equal amount of fantastic Armor and maybe try to make them even more visually distinct.
5 More Creative Boss Fights & With Even More Alternate Kill Conditions
One of the most interesting parts of Remnant: From the Ashes, especially on subsequent playthroughs, are the boss alternate kills. These are alternative ways to kill the boss that completely change what they drop, some aspects of their battle, and sometimes even the lore around them. Just to give a few spoiler-free examples:
- There's a boss that spawns a "twin" halfway through, if both are killed at about the exact same time, that's a different reward.
- There's a boss that has their legs destroyed if they're targeted enough, if so, beating them without legs gives different rewards.
- There's a boss that must be staggered to their knees first and have a spear pulled out of their back for their alternate kill.
So, Remnant 2 could add even more unique alternate kills, make it easier to figure them out without looking it up, or even give some bosses 2+ different alternate kills.
4 Bring The Moments Of Creative Writing Into The Spotlight
Here's the thing, between Chronos: Before the Ashes and Remnant: From the Ashes, there are a lot of incredibly interesting story elements to get invested in. The whole concept of the 'Root' as an antagonist, the stories of each individual realm and their methods of staving off the Root, and the people on Earth who have adapted to this new world are all fantastic.
But, a lot of the best parts of Remnant's writing come from the unique NPC sidequests, audio logs, or written documents found throughout the world. The actual main story, in comparison, is not nearly as impactful. So, if Gunfire Games focuses on making these weirder (but much more interesting) parts of their world-building center stage, it should go a long way.
3 More Modes Like Hardcore & Survival
The base version of Remnant: From the Ashes had a mode called Hardcore. In it, players created a character and started going through the main campaign as normal but with one caveat, if they die then their character is gone forever. Basically, it was a 'permadeath' mode that added an absurd level of challenge for diehard fans that had done everything else and played every other difficulty.
And, as another alternative, the Swamps of Corsus DLC for the game added another new mode called Survival Mode which turned the game into a pseudo-roguelike. To ask Gunfire Games to make more modes like these in Remnant 2 may be a bit unfair, considering the work that would take, but at the very least fans are hoping both Hardcore and Survival Mode will be returning with some small fixes and adjustments.
2 More Individual Character Build Diversity Outside Of Weapon & Mod Choices
In Remnant: From the Ashes, players had thousands of different combinations for their Armor, Equipment, Weapons, Weapon Mods, and Traits.
Now, in Remnant 2, players can only hope that there are even more combinations. And, a smart addition by the developers would be things like Traits and Weapon Mods in Remnant 2 can separate playstyles even more than they already did.
1 Increase The Max Player Count
This isn't a recent trend but is one that many wish developers didn't keep using, and that's the whole 'max of 3 players' thing. Usually, in co-op games, the max party count is either 2 or 4, depending on how the game is balanced around multiplayer.
And, for the most part, this was perfect. 2 players made it easy to play with only a single friend online and 4 players were enough for a perfect blend of gameplay and conversation. But, 3 players, for some reason, is just so much more exclusionary and awkward, even though it's only a difference of 1 person.
Remnant: From The Ashes was released on August 16, 2019, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.