Remnant 2: The Awakened King Review – Needed A Bit More Work

I had the pleasure of reviewing Remnant 2 back in July of this year when it first came out. And despite experiencing so many other amazing games since then, developer Gunfire Games managed to pull me back into their fantastic looter shooter again with the first of three DLCs for their game.

The Awakened King as it is called, expands much of the base game, adding a new narrative quest, gear, a new class, and brand-new levels to explore. But it’s not without its fair share of problems.

Story And Setting

While the base game allowed us to venture into the cosmic hellscapes of Lonsomn, the Awakened King heavily expands on the original world’s foundations.

The story itself picks up on a loose narrative thread, one that was touched on briefly in the main campaign where you were given a reminder of how the One True King who was put into a deep sleep, akin to that of a coma, has now suddenly awakened.

It is now up to us, the Lonesome Traveler, to investigate this occurrence and put an end to the ever-lasting dispute between the Fae and Dran, as well as unravel the intentions of the King himself.

While there are quite a few interesting narrative threads to follow here, the ending left me wanting more.

The new setting, especially when arriving on the Forlorn Coast for the first time, felt unique in contrast to the other worlds. It has the feeling of a European countryside, mixed in with the occasional cosmic horror vibe that Remnant 2 is known for.

And while I’m not a huge fan of the game’s lore here, at least the NPC variety won’t make you feel lonely. There are quite a few notable new characters in the new locations that I found quite interesting to engage with. They really help add a lot more personality to the expansion.

A few familiar faces appear here as well, which caught my eye as they get you up to speed on what’s happening, making the DLC’s events feel seamlessly integrated with the main campaign. And while there are quite a few interesting narrative threads to follow here, the ending left me wanting more.

Gameplay

Now, I’m sure many of you will be eager to know how much there is here in terms of the ‘new’ content, especially if you’re an avid looter shooter fan like me. Fortunately, The Awakened King provides a decent amount of stuff to do and items to chase after.

But to me, a lot of this just feels like an afterthought to be honest. First, the DLC only 2 actual boss fights, the final one of which just felt uninspired and boring. There are multiple different regular boss fights in the base game that actually give this final boss a run for its money, that’s how bland it is.

Secondly, The new Ritualist archetype does feel great to clear trash fodder ads quickly with its status effect damage. But in all honesty, when comparing it alongside the new loot and weapons in the DLC, I just couldn’t justify the price tag I paid, even if it was only $10 for the package.

However, I can understand how some players would enjoy the overall experience of trying out a brand-new class, and that’s saying nothing of exploring the new seacoast with a friend. Of course, the replayability is worth it too, since the new gear featured in the DLC doesn’t require much grind or consecutive runs to obtain.

Some of the new enemies introduced in The Awakened King can be really annoying to fight when taking into account the type of area or situation you may encounter them in.

But to offer some flexibility here, the procedurally generated level design in the new map just doesn’t work well, considering how linear the entire area gets after a few runs.

It is also worth noting that some of the new enemies introduced in The Awakened King can be really annoying to fight when taking into account the type of area or situation you may encounter them in. But thankfully, that didn’t ruin any of my initial run of the campaign.

The reason why they can be annoying is primarily due to their behavior when fighting them, as they like to move about the area irregularly, and since the arenas are narrow as they are in the DLC, you can face slight discomfort in fighting them all together, especially in large numbers.

Speaking of first runs, it is worth pointing out that the DLC will purposely start you off in a special ‘One-Shot‘ mode. As the name implies, this is focused on giving you a prearranged experience for the first time around, and after you clear that run, you can then jump into the usual RNG-focused runs of the DLC.

Aside from that, the Trait Cap being increased to Lvl 85 allowed me to add more depth to my current builds, giving me an added incentive to tackle fresh runs with my friend and min-max any new gear that caught my interest across my treasure hoarding from the various new dungeons featured here.

Visuals And Performance

When it comes to the visuals of the Awakened King expansion, Gunfire Games’ artistic minds have done a marvelous job bringing this DLC to life. From gloomy coastline villages resembling something out of Bloodborne to the sophisticated exteriors of the castle itself, there is a lot to see and admire here.

As I stated in my original review of Remnant 2, I did not run into any major issues with the expansion. I saw a stable framerate of 60 FPS once again on my RTX 3060Ti and i5 13th gen, easily letting me experience the DLC on medium to high settings.

Gunfire Games’ artistic minds have done a marvelous job bringing this DLC to life.

However, I can’t overstate the rare bugs and glitches I encountered, including my character getting stuck to the terrain after being hit by an enemy. Other than that there was also the usual jank during combat, like how you can get overwhelmed and stuck amidst the collisions or environment.

Verdict

While Remnant 2 was certainly declared as the best Soulslike title to have been released this year, the major post-launch content update that it has received now with the Awakened King feels rushed.

I loved the core game experience, and while the DLC also has its highs, the lows here are just so painfully obvious that you might feel that the $10 price tag is a bit hard to justify.

Despite its QoL improvements, such as marking dungeons in the new map or the brand-new gear for progression incentives, I can’t help but feel that the Awakened King just needed a little bit more polish to make it seem worthwhile or fun to play in the grand scheme of things.

This has been our Remnant 2 – The Awakened King Review. While you’re here, consider checking out some of our other articles. 

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Review
• Jusant Review
• Like a Dragon Gaiden Review
• The Finals Beta Review
• My Time at Sandrock Review
• RoboCop: Rogue City Review