The second DLC for Remnant II sees us returning to the lush rainforest-like world of Yaesha. A stark contrast to the greys and dilapidated look of The Awakened King, but no less hostile. Will Remnant II: The Forgotten Kingdom continue to see one of our best games of 2023 go from strength to strength?
Once again, The Forgotten Kingdom is available as a one-shot adventure mode. This in itself is a brilliant feature that can be played alongside whatever your progress is in the main campaign of Remnant II, but these one-shots allow you to play through every new area and boss within the DLC without the main game features bleeding through. Subsequent playthroughs will be a mixture of the two, but even this has the potential for variations, with loot and items being useful across both.
The story itself surrounding The Forgotten Kingdom is not very memorable. If anything, it feels quite similar to that of The Awakened King; a god-like being has been wronged and is taking it out on anyone who enters their world, you included.
But it is the characters you meet there that are much more memorable. A Pan who you will keep encountering called Ro’thinderahenwalt, or Walt for short, pops up at certain wall murals to help you understand the wider context. He is also a merchant offering new Rings.
But the star of the show is Private Jack Driver, a human character that has also found themselves in Yaesha. He has accepted a mission with his army brethren to explore an entirely new world. The only problem is that this was over a hundred years ago, and he is unable to find his way home. His story links up with the wider lore of not just Remnant II, but also the series prequel Chronos: Before the Ashes in interesting ways. I best not spoil it here, but it is worth exploring it to the conclusion as it may be your favourite bit of lore in the entire franchise. Through both character interaction and some ingenious environmental storytelling it gives a fantastic insight into the creativity of Gunfire Games. Not that we needed another example, as that is obvious in almost every detail in Remnant II.
All the other new additions you would expect are here in Remnant II: The Forgotten Kingdom too: new puzzles, bosses, weapons, loot, traits, archetypes and more. Once again though, the new bosses are a bit of a mixed bag; standouts, like the challenging Stonewarden complete with arena obstacles, to the disappointing Cinderclad Monolith. The former is an agile and ultra-offensive floating statue, the latter is a giant rotating jar offering very little challenge.
I cannot comment on the final boss however, as I managed to bypass this quite easily. Many bosses in Remnant II have these types of ways around things, but some can be quite convoluted in their execution. Not so much this one though, and it was quite pleasing to be able to find it without an extensive walkthrough.
Similar for some of the puzzles, as a couple of them are clever without being complex. The new archetype however, not so much. This involves sitting in between two sand dunes in an area with one-hit kill projectiles flying out of the wall at you and staying there for five minutes and not moving. I am always amazed how things like this are ever discovered.
The new archetype is called the Invoker and has the potential to be a useful secondary class. It powers up skills by increasing their number of charges and duration whilst also buffing and debuffing those around. Perhaps more suited to a team of adventurers, it is slightly limited in its scope when playing single-player.
Remnant II: The Forgotten Kingdom plays somewhat shorter than the first DLC, The Awakened King. It also plays slightly differently: The Awakened King felt special being this one massive hub-like area with secrets and side-doors aplenty to explore. The Forgotten Kingdom however is much more like a regular visit to a world, with different areas to take in. They all join together, and the areas are distinguishable with their unique architecture, but it feels a little disjointed in comparison.
By this point, many players will already have their preferred weapons. But The Forgotten Kingdom’s weapons may sway you, in particular the melee weapons, purely on looks alone. They match the aesthetics of Yaesha and its enemies in particular, with large blue crystals adorning them. The DLC also presents a new way to get the Shovel; a far cry looks-wise from the other melee weapons, but don’t let looks deceive you.
The Forgotten Kingdom is yet another stellar piece of DLC for Remnant II. Its self-contained approach doesn’t detract for those jumping in mid-campaign, with plenty of new loot to then take back into the main game. The story is forgettable, but there won’t be many players who play the Remnant games for the story. That said, some of the best NPCs in the entire franchise can be found within The Forgotten Kingdom and are well worth searching out. Just like the best loot, searching high and low will reap the finest rewards.
