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Gunfire Games attempt at a Souls-like, Remnant: From The Ashes<\/strong>, first launched for consoles and PC back in 2019. Instead of attempting to make another melee Souls-like, Gunfire Games chose to make a projectile Souls-like instead, embracing the use of firearms as your primary method of attack with a simple melee system as your last resort if anything made it past your ballistic barrage.<\/p>\n

At the time, the take on the genre was certainly unique as the game sported multiple play modes and crafting elements that most Souls-like hadn\u2019t considered. Running on Unreal Engine 4, Remnant<\/strong> showed an intriguing world that suffered from frame drops and stutters.<\/p>\n

This makes its jump to the Switch all the more intriguing as the Switch and Unreal Engine 4 haven\u2019t exactly had a copacetic relationship. The engine, as many would say, is just too much for Nintendo\u2019s little wonder machine to handle. So the real question for this review is, just how well Remnant<\/strong> has handled the migration from more powerful machines to the Switch\u2019s hardware.<\/p>\n

Before we get to the technical side of things, we should look at what Remnant<\/strong> is all about.<\/p>\n

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Set after the apocalypse, you take on the role of a nobody whose job it is to make it to a lighthouse that just may have the answer to deal with an invading force known as The Root. But before you can do that, you\u2019ll have to delve deeply into The Root\u2019s effects upon the world, confronting the monstrosities it has birthed across a multitude of worlds. What The roots are, where they came from and what exactly they want beyond the destruction of the human race, are just some of the questions you\u2019ll discover the answers to.<\/p>\n

Remnant<\/strong> is structured a lot more closely to a standard 3^{rd<\/sup> person shooter than a Souls-like, even though that is the bulk of its design. You have a hub area to sortie from, complete with NPC\u2019s that you can get side-quests from, answers and buy or sell merchandise along with upgrading your kit. Large, mostly linear levels await you when you travel from your base, known as Ward 13, into the broken worlds beyond.<\/p>\n}

Levels are somewhat procedurally generated, with the idea that each run or world reset will be different. Though in my experience I\u2019ve found that certain basics remain the same, though my starting points were sometimes different and the bosses could be randomised. My play-through for the first world, for instance, on PS4 had me starting in a different section of the level and fighting a different boss than my Switch run did. The area and certain landmarks remained consistent, however. How much more varied it could be, I\u2019m not certain, as I didn\u2019t feel like rerolling the campaign to see how vastly different an experience it would be or to fight those bosses again.<\/p>\n

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You can wield two guns, one sidearm and something with a bit more punch, and a melee weapon. But close-quarter combat really is a last resort as you can only dodge roll and not block. You really do want to blow things away before they can get to you. All of your gear can be upgraded, though the resources to do so don\u2019t come cheap. And you do need to upgrade if you want to have any hope of surviving. Weapons can be equipped with mods that can make your next couple of rounds flame rounds or spawn a healing pool at your feet. There\u2019s a large variety to choose from, each with its own perks and drawbacks, while special mods can be crafted from various boss body parts they drop on death.<\/p>\n

Every enemy killed gives you XP and once you level up, you\u2019re given a talent\/ability point to spend on 4 disciplines; health, stamina, elder knowledge for XP boosts and ability regeneration speed. These talent points can also be found in the world when you pick up hidden Tomes scattered around. Death pops you back to a checkpoint which respawns all enemies. By now, we all know this particular mechanic well enough.<\/p>\n

At Ward 13, the massive checkpoint and teleport crystal will let you travel back to the various worlds you\u2019ve unlocked, your last checkpoint and will also let you choose from three different game modes. You\u2019ve got the campaign, which you can reroll, an Adventure Mode that sets up a campaign based only on one world if you\u2019re looking to complete a certain quest or kill a certain boss and a Survival Mode whose difficulty increases over time.<\/p>\n

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Combat, of course, is what it all boils down to and for me, Remnant<\/strong> is a bit of a mixed bag in this regard. Weapons look and sound rather meaty, but Remnant<\/strong> doesn\u2019t operate like a traditional 3^{rd<\/sup> person shooter. You can dodge and crouch, but you can\u2019t hug cover or slide along a barrier. There\u2019s a very tank-like feel to your movements overall which makes the combat doubly frustrating as Remnant<\/strong> loves to throw hordes of enemies at you at a time.<\/p>\n}

Worst of all is that Remnant<\/strong> employs one of video games worst design features for me: Bosses with adds. The bosses can be pretty challenging b themselves, but coupled with the slow movement and the mobs charging your way, they become ingratiating, which is a disservice to their interesting design. Ultimately I found dealing with bosses to be a case of simply levelling up and increasing weapon damage, hoping to brute force me through them with heavy damage before the mobs did me in. Thus I never felt like fighting bosses again, even though the parts they drop could be used to craft some great mods or specific weapons that you can only get this way.<\/p>\n

That said, Remnant<\/strong> doesn\u2019t put its best foot forward with its first drab and dreary world, but once you start hopping between worlds, the world design and crazy guns elevate the game immensely.<\/p>\n

To make the Switch package all the more enticing, Remnant<\/strong> comes with all of the game\u2019s expansions, making this a complete edition to sink your time into. And if you have a Switch Online sub, you can play the game in co-op mode which will make dealing with the mob spawns easier.<\/p>\n

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But how does the game stand up on Switch technically?<\/p>\n

The answer to that is, amazingly well. Remnant<\/strong> on Switch is easily one of the best port jobs I\u2019ve seen for Nintendo\u2019s machine.<\/p>\n

It seems that every time I hear a complaint about the Switch\u2019s visual prowess along comes a game like Remnant<\/strong> \u2013 or anything from Nintendo\u2019s in-house stables \u2013 to make a point otherwise. And Remnant<\/strong> does so fantastically.<\/p>\n

The game is beautiful on the Switch\u2019s compact screen. And while it\u2019s been some time since I\u2019ve seen the game running on PS4 or Xbox, I\u2019m inclined to say it looks just as good as both of those versions. Remnant<\/strong> sports high-quality textures, models and a high resolution that, as far as I can tell, never dips at all. If there\u2019s any form of DRS, I couldn\u2019t see it. The world design and detail for characters and enemies look exactly as I remember it, perhaps better thanks to the Switch Lite\u2019s compact screen.<\/p>\n

And, more importantly, the game runs at a rock solid, steady frame rate which is, I think, at 30fps regardless of what\u2019s happening on screen. The stutters and frame drop that I experienced on the PS4 and Xbox versions are nowhere to be seen, along with some of the other UE4 problems that plague Epic\u2019s engine, such as late texture pop-in.<\/p>\n

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The porting team have done an amazing job bringing Remnant: From The Ashes<\/strong> over to Switch, making this my preferred way of playing the game.<\/p>\n

Remnant<\/strong> might not grab you immediately with its first drab and dirty world, but once you get used to compensating for the control system and start to hop to the more aesthetically pleasing worlds and pick up some of the game\u2019s more intriguing weapons, Remnant<\/strong> becomes a must play experience. Sporting beautiful visuals and a rock-solid frame rate along with all of the game\u2019s expansions, Remnant: From The Ashes<\/strong> on Switch is the best way to play this intriguing and somewhat Awkward Souls-like.<\/p>\n