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Yearly Archives: 2019
Remnant: From the Ashes Review
By Terris Harned (NWOrpheus)
In case you’ve missed me saying it the last half dozen or so times, Soulsborne games really aren’t for me. I will fully admit it’s because I’m just generally bad at them, and it’s just not my style of fun to throw myself bodily against enemies until I “git gud”. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the games for what they are, and the right of other people to like them. As I’ve also said in plenty of places before, “Not everything is about me”.
Point being, when I picked up Remnant: From the Ashes, I was under the impression it was more of an MMO style game, or at least something like Hellgate: London. In fact, the two have a lot in common. Both have three classes, and those classes are quite similar in nature: each game has a melee/tank type, a midrange support, and a long range hunter/damage dealer. Both involve dealing with a supernatural force that has invaded Earth, and each can be played as third person, though I believe Hellgate: London also has the option to go first person mode.
From here, the games diverge quite a bit in their styles. Hellgate: London plays more like a 3D Diablo game, while Remnant: From the Ashes (Remnant for short) follows much more closely the Soulsborne style gameplay. The combat is visceral and punishing, and a scant few missteps can lead to being killed.
There’s a decent audio telegraph for the raining arrows thing, but you have to learn to listen for it over everything else going on.
Thankfully death in Remnant is relatively forgiving. You’re sent to the last checkpoint that you visited, and the smaller weakest creatures are respawned; however the larger and tougher foes, such as the Root’s Brute or dual sword wielding Hunter, only have a chance to respawn. If they do, a chime will play to forewarn you. You keep all items and experienced gained since your last checkpoint visit, but also lose any consumables you used. It’s also worth noting that in multiplayer you can use your Dragon Heart, used as a self heal in single player, to bring an ally back to their feet. If all players are downed (up to three players per session), then you will all begin back at the last checkpoint.
Any time your entire team returns to a checkpoint, all health, Dragon Heart uses, and ammunition are replenished as are the enemies of the level, similarly to when you die. This can be useful if you’re under powered for an area, and wish to collect scrap and iron, or experience to level up. Other items, such as consumables that are randomly placed around the map, won’t replenish unless you reroll your campaign however.
There are two essential ways of advancement in Remnant. The first is by increasing traits. Earning experience will gain you trait levels, and each level offers you a single trait point. Trait points may also be gained by discovering Tomes of Knowledge hidden in levels. Traits themselves offer a variety of benefits, from increasing your stamina or health, to increasing your damage. Some traits you start the game with, but others must be unlocked by completing various tasks, such as defeating a world boss or other more secretive methods that I won’t spoil for you.
Both world and dungeon bosses will drop items which can be used for crafting. Crafting and upgrading is the secondary method by which you increase the power of your character. Upgrading typically requires iron, or one of its advanced variants like hardened or forged iron, and scrap. Scrap is the general currency of Remnant and is obtained from killing enemies, opening chests in levels, and even by breaking wooden objects such as crates, chairs, and bookshelves, both in levels and in the game’s main hub, Ward 13.
Weapons, armor, and weapon modifications must all be crafted in Remnant, aside from the three sets that you may select shortly after starting the game, and some lower level gear that can be found. The sets come along with the three primary archetypes: Scrapper, Ex-Cultist, and Hunter. It is worth noting that all of the gear – weapons, armor, and weapon modifications – that comes with these archetypes can also be readily purchased early in the game, so your initial choice doesn’t really matter in the long term. You’re not locked into anything.
I really like that the characters mostly look older and grizzled, not baby faced and pretty.
A few last things to add about gameplay that I think are worth noting. First is that the levels of Remnant are dynamically created. While an area may look similar, the placement of enemies, items, and even the actual layout of the area can vary from playthrough to playthrough. This gives the game a fair bit of replayability.
Not all dungeon bosses will even load on every generation, meaning if you truly want to collect all the gear available, you’ll need to either reroll your campaign, or play through the game’s recently added Adventure Mode. You may have one Campaign and one Adventure mode “save file” for each character, and either may be reset at any time. Adventure mode even allows you to travel to one of the game’s alternate worlds before you have reached those areas in the campaign. Be careful, though, as these advanced areas may prove especially challenging.
The second issue I had was the fact that there was no text chat in multiplayer mode. There is a push to talk option for an integral VOIP in the settings, but there is no default setting for it. This made my brief experiences into public multiplayer (when you log into a given play session, you may choose private, friends only, or public multiplayer settings) feel impersonal, and, well, this:
I am not Finn the Human in this sequence. Adventure Time copyright Cartoon Network.
My last beef is a relatively minor one, but perhaps I got spoiled while playing Ashen for my review of that title. There is no way to lock onto enemies in Remnant. With Ashen being more heavily focused on melee, and Remnant having a combat system more focused on ranged weapon skillshots, I can understand why this is the case. Yet I still felt the lack at times, especially when trying to play as the scrapper.
The lore in Remnant is an area where the game shines. There is a well thought out and comprehensive story that is unveiled as you play. Some of the lore comes from interacting with various NPCs that you encounter, while other comes from tomes, journals, and scrawled notes scattered about. I felt this type of exposition was overall enjoyable, even if the dialogue options felt more or less irrelevant, as they don’t actually change the outcome. Still, there’s some funny stuff buried in there.
I also overall really liked the controls and movement. I felt like the dodges weren’t insanely long, and I really like the way you vault obstacles. Given that there’s also no way to block attacks, and you must instead either dodge or interrupt them (where possible), you’ll be using the evade maneuvers a lot, so it’s good that they have an appropriate feel to them. I also really liked the fact that you can switch the shoulder you’re aiming over, which makes corner checks feel really good.
Simply tapping the shift button lets you switch which shoulder you’re looking over. A feature I feel more games could benefit from.
While I might not have set out to play a Soulsborne game, and I still probably won’t go looking for such types of games to play in the future, Remnant: From the Ashes is absolutely a strong showing in the genre. It has an elaborate lore, good controls, and rewarding advancement pacing and methodology. I can very much understand, after playing Remnant, what other people see in the genre. I absolutely would recommend Remnant to other people, and give it a firm 4 out of 5 table flips. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.
Solar Ash
Solar Ash is an upcoming title set in a surreal stylized world under threat from the void.
Business Model: Buy-to-Play
Microtransactions: No
Key Features:
Light Drifter: Zip around stages meeting interesting characters, encountering massive enemies, and investigating peculier mysteries.
Solar Ash Kingdom Reveal Trailer
Solar Ash Kingdom is an upcoming title by Heart Machine, the same development team behind Hyper Light Drifter!
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint: Skell Technology Trailers
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint has a pair of videos today. The first invites you to join Aurora, courtesy of Skell Technology. The second video offers the truth about Skell Technology, with their Drone Threat teaser.
Twitch Receives a New Look
Twitch, the leading service, and community in online multiplayer entertainment released a brand refresh today. Twitch has a color palette, logo, font, and overall community experience of the product. Below, we have a list of some of the new features that viewers and streamers can look forward to experiencing on their website.
This redesign began just over a year ago, with Twitch wanting to have a brand that matched the energy of their community, but it will, of course, keep the Purple. There is no Twitch without purple, after all. Viewers won’t have to worry though: Emotes are unchanged.
Twitch Rebrand Highlights:
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Color Palette: A new brighter purple to match the vibrant energy of the community plus more than two dozen new colors named after iconic games/pop culture (Black Ops, Ice, DK, Pika Pika, etc.). The new palette will be seen across all of Twitch and the updated Dark Mode theme will allow Twitch to easily build additional accessibility features.
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Twitch Logo and Font: Twitch is going bigger and friendlier (and less text-heavy). The new logo features a bold, block letterform, with deep extrusion inspired by the retro game esthetic. The new font, Roobert, is Inspired by the retro Moog synthesizer which is now present across Twitch.
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Video Player, Chat and Emotes: The Video player is now edge-to-edge so creators will be front and center with chat being cleaner and easier to use than ever. Emotes are totally unchanged but plan on seeing them even more!
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Brand Campaign: Twitch will also begin to tease their first-ever brand campaign “You’re already one of us” which will feature a series of teaser videos from Eric Andre. The campaign which will launch in the weeks ahead is synonymous with Twitch’s vibrant and loud collage of internet aesthetics, emotes and memes that represent the community.
Twitch’s brand refresh launches ahead of TwitchCon 2019, taking place this weekend on Friday, September 27 – Sunday, September 29 at the San Diego convention center. TwitchCon attendees will find Twitch’s new branding on display throughout the convention.
CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling Launches in October
CHIKARA Pro Wrestling is bringing its family-friendly style of professional wrestling to Steam on October 8th, 2019 with CHIKARA: Action Arcade Wrestling. This is the only licensed CHIKARA game, and over 30 wrestlers will be available in this wrestling game, based on the arcade wrestling games of the 90s. Today’s video also shows off CAAW’s Wrestle Factory Creation Suite, where players can create virtually any type of wrestler and arena their heart desires.
For those who want to try out the Wrestle Factory, they can head to Steam on September 27th, 2019, to download it for free.
Xbox: October Games with Gold and ID@Xbox
Xbox reveals the October Games with Gold, and the dates they will be available: Tembu the Badass Elephant, Friday The 13th: The Game, Disney’s Bolt, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge. In addition, ID discusses games coming to the Xbox Game Pass in the Fall of 2019.
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones Launches on Steam
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a CRPG that has officially launched on Steam, for 29.99, with a 15% discount for launch week. Based on the cosmic horror of the 1920s, each character is based on one of eight archetypes, with their own attributes, skills, and beliefs that provided defenses (and also weaknesses) against mind-obliterating horror. Players will face cosmic horrors, inhuman monstrosities, and fanatic cultists.
FEATURES:
- A hand-drawn 2D world reflecting Lovecraft’s themes of cosmic horror and dread.
- Enemies, environments, and storylines inspired by Lovecraft’s iconic original works. Take part in quests inspired by Lovecraft’s most beloved stories and see them play out according to your own decisions and role-playing style.
- Choose from 8 main character Archetypes, each with its own backgrounds and specialties.
- A host of weird companions to accompany you on your ill-starred journey: the lonely, antediluvian ‘Outsider’, a fallen soldier of the Great War reanimated by Herbert West. Recruit these and other outlandish beings to your crew.
- Your character’s Sanity and mental state influence their available dialogue options, offering both advantages and hindrances. Sometimes it pays to be mad in a world gone mad!
- Stygian’s Belief System determines how your characters cope with the warped reality of the new Arkham, as well as the rate at which they regenerate lost Sanity. Belief Systems also offer unique dialogue options, expanding the breadth of role-playing possibilities.
- A new kind of spell system which sometimes takes more than it gives. Being a master of the occult is not as simple as flinging colored missiles from your fingertips. The black magic of Stygian is potent but may cost you your mind, your health, and possibly even more.
- Strategic, turn-based combat from a 2D perspective, similar to the classic Heroes of Might and Magic games.
- The struggle in Stygian is not to save the world, for that battle is lost already. Pursue your own goals in these end times: salvation, vendetta, or perhaps something darker.
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition – Launch Trailer
Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition has officially launched on Nintendo Switch, and today’s trailer shows off Death’s best moments. It’s available for 29.99 USD.

