I had a peek at Remnant 2's newly-announced second DLC: The Forgotten Kingdom, which fleshes out the forests of Yaesha with gorgeous vistas and machine gun pottery
Remnant 2 still has a special place in my heart—which is why I went to bat for it when we were deciding on last year's best games. It's a title that suffered in part because it arrived in a year that was absolutely rammed with high-profile releases, but I still think it's a must-play for soulslike fans.
It's also been getting DLC that's fleshed out the world considerably. The Awakened King, the game's first expansion, was a great time—but it also made the base game better, too. See, Remnant 2 operates on a procedurally arranged system of dungeons and storylines. While the majority of its worlds are hand-crafted, the order in which you experience them is random.
The Awakened King had a set story you could play through (called a «one shot»), but buying it also added most of its boss fights, dungeons, and zones as potential destinations in Losomn. Essentially, you're getting both a short singleplayer campaign (The Awakened King took me about eight hours to beat) and a content expansion for $10. Not too shabby.
The Forgotten Kingdom carries on this sound strategy by fleshing out the world of Yaesha, a verdant jungle infested by the big bad Root and filled with Satyrs. I was kindly given a hands-off sneak peek with developers Ben Cureton (principal designer) and Cindy To (principal level designer).
«Just like in the Awakened King, this area tells you more about Yaesha,» Cureton informs me as he rocks up to shoot some Root with the Explorer archetype. The forests here have a new coat of paint, masonry and pottery is coming to life—but as Cureton starts to climb, the most striking thing to me is how vertical the overworld is.
Like the game's first DLC, the team at Gunfire Games is using the new one-shot structure as an excuse to create far more connected areas. While a base-game Remnant 2 playthrough can feel a little Diablo, funnelling you through a series of spider-webbing procgen corridors linking major setpieces, The Awakened King—and, consequently, The Forgotten
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