Gunfire Games’ Remnant: From the Ashes officially launches August 20, but players who preorder the gritty Souls-like shooter can play today and tomorrow as a bonus ‘VIP preview weekend’ event.
If you haven’t been following Remnant: From the Ashes, it’s an action-RPG that’s taken more than a few cues from the Souls series, adding in a load of guns and co-op activities and extra-dimensional plant monsters (actually, I’m pretty sure Dark Souls had those, too). You can play with two co-op partners to try to take on its chittering hordes, or play solo.
As Rich found when he tried a preview build recently, it’s a challenging game that’s about using resources wisely – ammo is scarce, so it’s crucial to use what little of it you have efficiently. Remnant also rewards you according to how you play with perks tailored to the way you’ve approached situations. Stealthily taking out enemy snipers at a distance, for example, rewards you with the Shadow Walker trait, which reduces enemy awareness of you. But you’ll also be able to pick out abilities in trees you unlock, which gives you a measure of manual control over how you spec out your character.
Perhaps the most promising aspect of Remnant is the procedural dungeons. Rich saw that Gunfire has taken the Chalice Dungeon concept from Bloodborne and improved upon it, creating much more intricate and detailed levels than FromSoft’s PlayStation-only classic offered.
In any case, the folks over on Reddit say you can still get into the VIP preview weekend if you pre-order Remnant now, and you can find it over on Steam.