Remnant: From the Ashes and the search for the infinitely replayable shooter
Gunfire Games must love Dark Souls. First David Adams and Co. cited From Software’s series as an influence on last year’s Darksiders III. Now the studio’s next project, Remnant: From the Ashes, invites the same comparisons. Hell, it even has fog doors you walk through to reach its boss battles.
Every “Dark Souls, but” game needs a good hook though, an ending to that sentence that sets it apart from a legion of other imitators, and Remnant has an ambitious one: It’s meant to be infinitely replayable.
The invisible hand
Okay, it’s also a shooter. I went hands-on with Remnant for about an hour last week, playing through one dungeon and a few boss battles. And yes, the Souls influence—tired as the comparison might be—is undeniable. There’s a bonfire equivalent, and resting at one will recover your health and ammo while resurrecting nearby enemies. Healing items are limited, but also refreshed at these faux-bonfires. Character animations are slow and weighty. You’ll dodge-roll, a lot. You’ll memorize attack patterns.