Ever since the Gunfire Games’ Darksiders franchise was established, fans have been clamoring for an online co-op adventure featuring all four horsemen in the same game, and three entries later we’re all still waiting. Fortunately, Remnant: From the Ashes, a new action-adventure romp from the same developers, has a lot of what fans were looking for in its online co-op setting, including a unique take on the post-apocalypse.
From what developers have told me thus far, Remnant is not connected to Darksiders in any way but you could have fooled me. The setting here is several decades after the fall of traditional civilization and you take on the role of a survivor that knows no life other than one of suffering and scraping by to stay alive. Much like its contemporaries such as The Division 2, Destiny 2, and even Diablo 3, Remnant has a heavy focus on action-packed replayable content that’s primarily built around co-op play while dishing out steady streams of new loot and gear. (Check out our new 19-minute gameplay video below!)
But in the case of Remnant, a huge chunk of what you replay will actually be different thanks to its robust procedural generation and randomization engines. Once you start up a mission the map is set in stone, but if you die or leave and come back enemy spawn points will be totally different. The developers describe to me a sort of “AI Conductor” that works behind the scenes to decide which enemies spawn where, what they do, how hard they are to kill, and which pieces of loot they drop. Not only that, but it’s dynamic. That means if the enemy holds you up at a nasty choke point or identifies your team struggling, they can crank up the heat to put even more pressure on you. If that sounds similar to the ill-fated Hellgate: London, it’s not a coincidence. One of the lead developers told me that was very specifically an inspiration.
My Remnant demo was split into two parts: offline single-player and online co-op. Even though the game is clearly being designed around the promise of playing online with other people it’s entirely playable solo as well. You don’t even need to be connected to the server at all to enjoy it as a single-player game, in fact. What struck me immediately about Remnant, which will be released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One on August 20 for $40, is just how deliberate and heavy the controls felt. Pressing attack without aiming triggers a melee attack, such as the tanky character’s hefty hammer, which is great for wiping up small, weak enemies without wasting ammo. As a contrast to fast-paced twitch-based gameplay that feels like a new standard across several genres, Remnant feels like it was designed to make you feel the cumbersome weight of each movement and attack. Dodge rolls take time and precision to use well, with noticeable recovery times after each movement. Even firing shots from weapons has serious punch that makes
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