Summary
Remnant 2’s The Awakened King DLC is simply more Remnant 2, for better or for worse. Much of it is just rehashed content from the base game, but the new enemies, bosses, and weapons are refreshing.
Developer – Gunfire Games
Publisher – Gearbox Publishing
Platforms – PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, PC (reviewed)
Review copy given by publisher
Gunfire Games’ Remnant 2 took the world by storm a mere three months ago and the team is already releasing the first paid expansion to their successful “Dark Souls with guns” sequel. Titled The Awakened King, this DLC explores more of the lore and story built upon the base game’s world of Losomn. To no one’s surprise, much of the narrative is focused on the One True King, who has become corrupted by the Root and seeks revenge.
I was initially quite disappointed with the lack of variety in terms of locations in the base game. There were only 3: N’Erud, Losomn, and Yaesha, which was just recycled from the first game. Note that I’m not counting Ward 13, the Labyrinth, or Root Earth because those were not full sized levels or were just hubs. I figured the developers were for sure planning on adding a brand new world in their upcoming DLCs, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, at least for the first expansion: The Awakened King. This first of three planned expansions features an extension of Losomn, with new areas that are unfortunately just recycled assets of what you already saw in this locale.
What you are getting in The Awakened King is a brand new storyline, new enemy types, new bosses, a new starting archetype, and tons of new weapons and gear. In terms of specifics, the trait cap is now raised to 85 as well. The new Ritualist class is exceptionally cool, and capitalizes on debuffing enemies and dealing damage over time (DOT) to enemies.
This DLC is initially tacked on as a One-Shot challenge that can be accessed by players through Adventure Mode after they complete the Losomn world. You start your one-shot adventure off at the Forlorn Coast, a derelict shipping dock filled with deadly new monstrosities. But note that this DLC also injects itself organically into the Campaign Mode so DLC areas can be generated in your subsequent playthroughs.
A pleasant surprise is that those who decide to not purchase the DLC can still enjoy its contents with a friend who already owns it through cooperative play. The only caveat is that you won’t get any of the new gear introduced in the DLC, but you still get to experience the new enemies, bosses, and levels. Much like with the base game, a major selling point of Remnant 2 is the 3 player seamless co-op that makes the game a blast with friends.
With all that being said, this DLC is priced at a very fair and low price of $9.99. One playthrough of The Awakened King will likely run you around 3-5 hours, but there’s plenty of secrets and collectibles to uncover that require you to re-roll the world multiple times. You can easily pour in 10 hours or more given the game’s procedurally generated world. If you enjoyed what the base Remnant 2 had to offer, then this is pretty much a no brainer purchase for those who want more of it. But for those who were on the fence, there’s nothing that really breaks the mold here.
Performance issues continue to plague the PC version of Remnant 2. Even months after release, the game suffers from frame drops, stutters, and even hard crashes on a high end PC. This review was done on an RTX 3080 with 32GB of ram and I frequently had my frame rates drop to 40 something when playing on Ultra graphics settings. It’s clear that the team needs to take more time to optimize the overall PC experience before starting to work on new content.
Remnant 2’s The Awakened King DLC is simply more Remnant 2, for better or for worse. Much of it is just rehashed content from the base game, but the new enemies, bosses, and weapons are refreshing. It’s undoubtedly a missed opportunity that the developers didn’t take the time to create a brand new world, or bring back a returning area from the first game. Here’s hoping that the remaining two expansions will feature something completely brand new!