Gaming

The game comes out today, but if you were a sucker like me and paid for the deluxe version, it's been playable for a few days now. I have to say, I really love this game!

The elevator pitch is "dark souls with guns" but after playing it for a few days, I feel like that undersells the game a bit.

Now my experience with souls games has been generally that I really don't like them, up until Elden Ring. That game was great and made me realize that my biggest problem with souls games isn't the challenge, but rather the punishing death penalty. Remnant 2 has no death penalty (other than the enemies all respawning) so it's best-case scenario for me.

Beyond that, Remnant 2 is a perfect mix of procedural and hand-crafted content. You can freely "reroll" levels because they're procedurally generated but they somehow still manage to pack those levels with puzzles to solve and secrets to discover. There are even secret classes you can unlock! You can watch Youtube videos about where to find some great weapon or whatever and realize you never got that zone in your playthrough. The story in each zone can be different in different playthroughs! Even character upgrades ("traits") are locked behind this RNG.

This aspect of it is fun to me because it limits my ability to hit up wikis and min/max my play. It makes it so I can organically just play through and see what I get and make the most of it. Yes, I do check out videos so I know to recognize key ares when I see them, but otherwise, I feel free to just experience the game more organically. I know this is a me thing and not everyone feels the need to compulsively min/max but I'm sure others will appreciate this aspect design.

There's more I'm sure I'm forgetting, but yeah I really like this game a lot. It's a AA title with no jank and almost no bugs in my play on the XSX. For only $50, it's an easy recommendation.

Anyone else playing? Thoughts on the game?