Remnant: From the Ashes
A third-person shooter with Dark Souls-inspired difficulty and co-op.
Remnant: From the Ashes is an action role-playing game from Gunfire Games, published by Perfect World Entertainment. It launched on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in August 2019, with a Nintendo Switch version arriving in March 2023. Critical reception was generally positive, and by December 2021, the game had sold more than 3 million copies. A sequel, Remnant 2, came out in July 2023.
The gameplay draws from the Dark Souls series but replaces pure melee combat with a third-person shooter focus. Players carry up to two guns—a main weapon and a sidearm—alongside a melee weapon. These firearms range from machine guns and shotguns to hunting and sniper rifles, and each can be fitted with mods that grant extra abilities like teleportation. Players create a custom character and must defeat tough enemies and bosses across a randomly generated world, though a fixed story still guides them. Materials found in the world allow weapon and armor upgrades, and trait points earned can boost character stats.
Up to three players can team up to progress through the story, with difficulty scaling based on party size. When a player joins another’s game, they earn the same loot, but returning to their own world means replaying story sections because each player’s world has different enemies and bosses. Unlike similar titles, death does not cost items or skill points; players simply return to a checkpoint, where enemy numbers or types may shift, keeping each run varied.
The story is set on a post-apocalyptic Earth overrun by the Root, an interdimensional evil. The player, a wandering survivor, aims to stop the Root by reaching a tower on an island that seems to be the invasion’s epicenter. Early on, they find Ward 13, an underground bunker for human survivors, and are sent to find its founder, Ford. After exploring a ruined city, they discover a portal to the Labyrinth, an interdimensional rift that lets them travel between worlds.
First, they go to Rhom, the barren remains of a civilization that destroyed itself to escape the Root. There, the Undying King tasks them with traveling to the swamp planet Corsus, killing its Guardian—a being that protects planets from invaders like the Root—and bringing back its heart so he can create a new Guardian for Rhom. In exchange, he will point them toward Ford.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Remnant: From the Ashes
- Developer
- Gunfire Games
- Publisher
- Perfect World EntertainmentPublished by THQ Nordic for the Nintendo Switch
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Platforms
- Microsoft Windows · PlayStation 4 · Xbox One · Nintendo Switch
- Released
- Windows, PS4, Xbox One / August 20, 2019 / Nintendo Switch / March 21, 2023
- Genre
- Action role-playing, third-person shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Director
- David Adams
- Designer
- Nicolas Fikac / Anthony Norcott / Cindy To / Richard Vorodi
- Composer
- Rob Westwood
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Remnant: From the Ashes is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth overrun by an interdimensional evil called the Root. The player character, a wandering survivor, seeks to end the Root by reaching a tower on an island that is the epicenter of the invasion. Early in the journey, the player arrives at Ward 13, an underground bunker of human survivors, and is tasked with finding its founder, Ford. Exploring the ruined Earth city leads to a portal to the Labyrinth, an interdimensional rift that allows travel between worlds.
The player first travels to Rhom, the desert remains of a civilization that destroyed itself to stop the Root. There, the Undying King tasks the player with killing the Guardian of the swamp planet Corsus and bringing its heart to him. On Corsus, the player may choose to give the heart to the Iskal Queen instead, forcing a confrontation with the King. The player then goes to the forest world of Yaesha, frees the imprisoned Ford, and receives a key to activate a portal in Ward 13 leading to Ward 17, the tower. In Ward 13, records reveal the Root were brought to Earth by failed experiments using human subconscious as gateways; the Root are linked to subjects called Dreamers. The player battles and defeats the Dreamer in his subconscious, killing a massive Root creature and ending the Root at their source.
Reader's Guide
Remnant: From the Ashes is notable for adapting the punishing, checkpoint-based structure of the Dark Souls series into a third-person shooter with a focus on ranged combat. Players can wield up to two guns alongside a melee weapon, and weapon mods grant abilities such as teleportation. The game features a randomly generated world with set story progression, and difficulty scales with the number of players in co-op (up to three). Unlike many similar titles, players do not lose items or skill points upon death, but enemies and their numbers may change after respawning at checkpoints. The game sold over 1 million units by October 2019, 1.6 million by July 2020, and over 3 million by December 2021, surpassing internal expectations. Two downloadable content packs were released: Swamps of Corsus (April 2020), adding a roguelike survival mode and new content for Corsus, and Subject 2923 (August 2020), focusing on the origins of the Dreamers. A prequel, Chronos: Before the Ashes, was released in December 2020, and a sequel, Remnant 2, followed in July 2023.
Did You Know?
- Players can wield up to two gun weapons and one melee weapon, with weapon mods granting abilities like teleportation.
- The Root were brought to Earth by failed experiments using the human subconscious as gateways to other worlds.
- A prequel, Chronos: Before the Ashes, was released in December 2020, based on Gunfire Games' 2016 VR game Chronos.
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