Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon Review – A Climatic Conclusion

After roughly a year of support, Remnant 2 is set to release its third and final DLC, The Dark Horizon. Taking place on the infamous planet of N’Erud, players are tasked with confronting a being beyond comprehension in a final showdown. With so much on the line, along with several quality of life improvements, is Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon worth experiencing, or does it feel like a prison of its own making?

Similar to other expansions, Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon gives players a vague idea of what is going on. After returning to N’Erud, a mysterious figure introduces this new location to explore. Most of the narrative is reserved for those who exhaust every dialogue option, along with fully weakening the final boss, Alepsis-Taura.

Even if there story is particularly deep, I appreciate how Gunfire Games approached Alepsis-Taura. It’s very similar to Futurama’s take of a God Entity. A being that isn’t necessarily good, or bad, that approaches things in a fundamentally different way. But, before we can see if players can kill a god, they need to get there first.

Since Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon takes place on N’Erud, the prison planet, it can be something of a slog. This version slightly more interesting than the wastelands, though it retains all the elements generally disliked with the vanilla versions. Annoying enemies, large open areas to transverse with little to see, and some extremely frustrating dungeons to best.

Death Awaits

Stagnant Manufactory certainly stands out in this regard. The basic idea behind the dungeon is quite interesting. Each section is blocked off by a pipe filled with poisonous gas. The idea is to break it, dive head first into uncertainty, and figure out the path forward before something stops you. What makes it frustrating is the margin of error is painfully low. Taking too long will cause the gas to fill the room, giving players a set time limit to figure it out, with the added bonus of occasionally coughing. If that isn’t bad enough, several enemies will exploit this resulting in several, arguably unfair, deaths.

Thankfully, it isn’t all bad. Logistics Bridge is another new dungeon with a cool gimmick. Players need to jump across various railways as ships pass by. Players are given a decent amount of time to jump, I want to say like 15 seconds, making it exciting without being overly difficult.

Weeee!

Perhaps the worst part of Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon is the glider transversal system. As the name suggests, players glide from location to location. It makes figuring out where to go more complicated than it needs to be, with the action itself feeling rather tedious. Basically, get a glider, decide where to go, and either go directly there, or glide to a series of points that launch players upward until you reach the desired location.

While it’s too early to comment on the new loot, some of which I suspect will be buffed in the future, The Warden archetype is an interesting addition. The archetype is centered around making use of the included drone companion. It can shield, heal, or attack based off which skill is equipped. In turn, I think this is a class that is more about accessibility. Shields and damage reduction makes Apocalypse difficulty more approachable, though I wouldn’t be shocked if clever builds take it in another direction.

Speaking of accessibility, the newly added Boss Rush mode streamlines the Remnant 2 experience. Each section includes a wave of enemies, followed by an Aberration, and then one of the various bosses. Doing so awards experience, resources, and missing items. A full list of obtainable items is not currently known, though I can confirm I got a ring, and a few mutators I was missing.

As a result, it feels like a well constructed catch up mode. It eliminates some of the RNG, and esoteric elements in favor of giving players a somewhat clearer path to obtain new items. Plus, the additional modifiers keep things interesting.

The other new element is the Prism stone system. Streamlining the fragment system was a smart move, though I am not entirely sure this is a positive step forward. Basically, once a stone levels players can pick one of three perks. Each of these are added to the prism, so in Prism of Voracity’s case a total of five can be added. After that they can be leveled for additional benefits.

This is another concept that will require a fair amount of testing before it can be definitively stated as good, or bad. Based off what I have seen, it seems to have a lot of RNG for modest gains. For example, I didn’t receive the best perks, and went with things like damage reduction. Even after bringing damage reduction to level four, it adds a mediocre 1.6 percent reduction. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more of a nice to have, than anything something worth spending substantial effort chasing after.

Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon Review Verdict

Editor’s Note: Remnant 2: The Dark Horizon was reviewed on PlayStation 5, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.