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Well Gunfire, I would never have guessed that this would be the game to get me to finally write a review, but you've done it.
And you've done did it good.
I purchased the game one Saturday evening and couldn't put it down until Sunday night, neglecting my job, wife, and kid just so that I could explore my world, find new weapons, and new rings, and level up my class. Never did it again of course but damn I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a dark side of me that wanted to.
The game is quite difficult as well. I hate to say this since it's meme'd to oblivion, but Dark Souls with guns is a fairly accurate description of what it is. But I will say that there is MUCH more to it than it being difficult which makes the overused statement pretty accurate.
So what's the big deal?

WHAT'S GOOD?

Exploration. There are a total of 4 worlds that you can be dumped into after the tutorial, each of the four wildly differentiating from each other. I can start on N'rued, an apocalyptic moon with large massive zones, futuristic robots, and space zombies. Or I can start on Losomn, a dark Victorian-inspired city with giant rats and people who have gone crazy. It's Bloodborne inspired and I love the place. All 4 worlds are completely different from one another with different enemies and bosses.
Each world has its side dungeons with rewards for going through them. I have close to 100 hours in this game and I am still managing to find items and puzzles and secrets that I haven't found or solved before. The secrets in this game are incredible, smart, and addicting. And each world has plenty. What do you get for solving puzzles? Finding a secret path? Going through invisible walls? You get whole new weapons, new rings, new traits, modifications, mutators for your weapon, WHOLE ENTIRE CLASSES WITH ABILITIES AND PERKS.
This is what makes this game incredible. The exploration in Remnant II is addicting, and fun, and with friends, it is even better.
You can even start up an Adventure mode that is separate from the Campaign, allowing you to choose one world to go through so you can level your classes and collect weapons/gear that you can use in BOTH modes. Incredible idea.
Build Variety. I mentioned classes. Yes, there are classes in this game that give you different skills and unique perks, changing how you play the game. But you are not limited to a single class. You can equip TWO classes at once, giving you access to both skills and perks. Want to be an Engineer/Medic who can drop turrets and create AOE healing zones for your team? Badass.
There's a total of 5 main classes and 6 secret ones. You can mix and match any of them if you'd like to reap the benefits of their traits/perks/powers. You do get a PRIME perk for your primary class, so it does matter which is the subclass and which is the main.
Variety does not stop here, however. Several different weapons shoot and act differently from one another. Boss weapons with unique abilities, Weapon mods to buy/find to slot on non-boss weapons....giving them unique abilities. Some mutators can be bought/found that can give your weapons perks. An insane selection of different ring accessories that give various bonuses when equipped. I've made a fire bullet build, a long rifle crit damage build, and a fist-punching melee build, and you can swap your classes and weapons at any time. Wild.
There's also a trait system that is similar to the Attribute menu in Dark Souls. You can put points in stamina, health, cooldowns, and much more. Just like everything else for your build, you will find secret unique traits out in the world(s) that you can put your points into. Almost 100 hours in, I still have not collected every trait. But there are incredibly useful ones such as Dodge Distance or AOE size. Wild.
I can go on about some other great things, but I'll get to what I think holds the game back.

WHAT'S BAD?

Story. Quite forgettable. Granted, the story and lore for the four worlds are good! But the main plot of Remnant II just doesn't hold a candle in comparison to the story and intrigue of the other worlds. Not even close. Characters that they want you to be interested in, such as Clementine, I just could not care about. She's supposed to be this all-powerful badass but I. Couldn't. Give. A. Shit. She doesn't do anything that could justify our character's awe and praise. And an old guy that you meet for 5 minutes in just disappearing and never seeing him again. Huh?
And the ending speaks for itself. Gunfire, WTF was that?
Armor. Again like Dark Souls, you can equip different pieces of armor for your character. Heavy armor makes your roll trash while lighter armor makes your roll farther and faster. The problem is that there isn't as much variety in the armor pieces compared to rings, weapons, and amulets. It's just armor rating and roll distance. They're only there for fashion and honesty I wish there was much more to it than that. On higher difficulties, tank builds don't seem to be viable as most things can two-shot you in the heaviest armor possible.
Tutorial. It kinda sucks. It doesn’t teach you anything important whatsoever aside from how to run, climb and shoot. I mean yeah, that’s what you will be doing but It’s a little long and gives a bad first impression in my opinion. Thankfully for new characters, you can select a checkbox to skip it.
Consumables. I understand how purchasing curatives, consumables, and concoctions could benefit your character. There are perks in some classes that even allow you to share some curative effects with your nearby teammates, or double the duration of concoction buffs.
But I did not even bother to use them throughout my entire playtime. The reason is because of the game’s currency, Scrap. You use Scrap for everything. Buying rings, weapons, upgrading weapons, buying/upgrading mutators, mods, unlocking classes…I find myself wanting to use Scrap on everything else rather than consumables, even after completing the campaign. There are always other builds I want to work towards, which require me to upgrade entire new mods, mutators, and weapons…. For me, purchasing consumables was just a waste of scrap.
I have played with people who stack buffs upon buffs on their characters and become a godly killing machine, so I know they are good. But the fact that they are temporary and you’ll end up spending thousands of scrap to stock them instead of upgrading gear, it just doesn’t feel good or fun to buy them. You may feel entirely different about this, but between me and two other friends, we don’t use them other than an XP elixir available for purchase after your first campaign completion.
Gaining Scrap. Speaking of scrap, you will find yourself desperately needing it in the early game. Early game progression is weird in Remnant II. Picking up duplicate weapons, mutators, rings, etc., rewards you with tons of scrap, so it is a very reliable way to get it. But in the early game, you won’t be getting duplicates unless you expand your inventory of gear.


Closing Thoughts

Overall, I extremely enjoyed Remnant II and now I only play to find the few gear I missed, play through the hardest difficulty as well as getting my ass handed in Hardcore mode (Permanent Death). But I am now slowly exhausting what is offered.

9/10

One hell of a game!
Favorite game to drop so far this year. It's been a long time since any game had hooked me in as this one has and I am eagerly waiting for its DLCs to drop so that I can dive back into new worlds, gear, and bosses once again.
Maybe I'll check out that one other Remnant game in the meantime....
...From The Ashes?