When Gunfire Games announced the follow-up to Remnant: From the Ashes, Remnant 2, it also promised the game would receive several DLCs within a year. We’ve already received the first DLC, Remnant 2: The Awakened King, which took players to Losom to provide some closure regarding the One True King storyline but didn’t give us any update as to whether the Root was utterly destroyed. With Remnant 2 – The Forgotten Kingdom DLC, we’re headed back to another location we visited in the base game, Yaesha, the jungle location—something about an angry spirit and a lost tribe.
Game Name: Remnant 2 – The Forgotten Kingdom
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X|S
Developer(s): Gunfire Games
Publisher(s): Arc Games (formerly Gearbox Publishing)
Release Date: April 23, 2024
Price: $9.99 or free if you purchased Ultimate Edition
Even before I made it into the new DLC, I noticed a warning of sorts, which wasn’t present in the previous DLC. Now, when you select The Forgotten Kingdom, it’s labeled as a “One Shot,” upon selecting the bite-sized adventure, you’re told explicitly about what this is. I suppose that the last DLC caused some confusion, and to alleviate this, Gunfire Games decided to spell it out ultimately.
If you’ve been playing Remnant 2 since the beginning or jumped in around the first DLC, you’ve pretty much experienced the gameplay, as nothing has changed, which was to be expected. As I’ve (we’ve) seen, the goal of this DLC was similar to that of the first; introduce new lore or help tie connections together. Which is what is done in this one. I know I wouldn’t say I like talking about story bits, but I felt this qualifies as breaking that trend as it is needed.
We find out in Remnant 2 – The Forgotten Kingdom that the Pan, the faun-like creatures we’ve experienced during Remnant: From the Ashes and Remnant 2, make up more than one tribe that we once thought they did. Of course, we wouldn’t have found that out without the help of one obsessed Pan who is determined to uncover the secrets of the past. That part, I’ll let you find out on your own.
I know many of us hoped that Gunfire Games would give us some closure as to what happened to Andrew Ford and Clementine. Both of them were some of the main characters of the base game of Remnant 2 who ended up going missing. While that doesn’t happen, a nice Easter egg is found in the game, though I’m not sure if it is part of the game or more of a “find it if you can” deal.
There’s a lot to like in Remnant 2 – The Forgotten Kingdom, but for lore hunters, you’ll be more than happy to get more of the Remnant universe. However, where we have the good, we have some bad. Part of what makes the Remnant games so different from nearly every Soulslike game out there is the RNG element of them. Levels will appear differently or be made up differently, or you won’t even encounter the same boss more than once, or sometimes not at all. It’s this where I was frustrated with this DLC as there’s only a handful of new bosses. On the flip side, there’s a nice addition of mob enemies that spice up DLC, some of which are damned annoying as heck to fight but damned cool as well.
During my three playthroughs, I’ve only encountered one new boss just once, and the main boss, which is a requirement to beat the DLC. Outside of that, I’ve encountered boss from the base game of Remnant 2 more than I’d wanted to. I suppose that could be helped given that we did return back to Yaesha, and as such, we get to encounter the same pool of bosses. Despite that, the new bosses that I did encounter have to be some of Gunfire Games’ best boss designs yet.
There’s also the difficulty ramp. I like playing my games a bit more difficult than others, but I feel there’s a problem when you’re traversing through a level and instead of encountering your normal set of enemies, you’re constantly hearing that “high-pitched” sound to indicate that you’re being ambushed. Once in a while, it is fine, but when it’s going off repeatedly, especially when you’re trying to find a way out of a level or figure something out, it gets annoying.
Remnant 2 – The Forgotten Kingdom is also relatively short. Once you’ve completed it, you can complete it in under three hours or less. Of course, there are secrets galore for both weapons and gear. I’ve spent hours trying to locate stuff that Gunfire Games has carefully and cleverly hidden away. Some were hidden behind some very torturous traps that had me on the edge of smashing my controller. There’s plenty to find, and I can’t wait to see how the Remnant 2 community tackles it all again.
Overall, this solid expansion of Remnant 2, albeit short, will keep fans of the series coming back.
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Summary
Remnant II – The Forgotten Kingdom, is a solid expansion of Remnant 2, albeit a short adventure that adds more lore to the series and will beckon players back. I wish it was longer and I’m still looking for some closure that followed the end of the base game.
Pros
- Same great gameplay the series is known for
- New lore for fans
- New bosses are interesting
Cons
- It’s very short
- No sign of Ford or Clementine
- Those damned traps
