Remnant: From The Ashes Swamps Of Corsus Review

The same but different

Making the familiar uncomfortable forms the basis of a lot of horror and thrillers, it’s what you know, but it’s different, everything is slightly off, and it makes it entirely new and deeply unsettling. It’s not for everyone, but it also informs a lot of what makes roguelikes entertaining in the first place. When you take a game with roguelike elements and give it a full roguelike mode, it has this effect. You get to experience a game you’ve already played, see areas you’ve mastered, fight against enemies you know well, but all through a different lens. It’s like walking around looking at the world through a fisheye lens, it’s not quite right, but it looks cool.

The survival mode of Remnant does this perfectly. You start off with a pistol and a small amount of money to spend. You can choose to invest that money in traits, or weapons, or items, but you’ve got to hope you choose well. You then interact with the crystal and get warped to a random area. That’s it, now all you have to do is fight your way through the levels and try and survive. Killing enemies grants experience as you’d expect, chests give you new equipment and traits, and enemies will happily slaughter you if you make a single wrong move.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

It’s a revelation, a genuinely new way to play Remnant, and my god I could not be more into it.

This DLC also includes a revamp to the world of Corsus, a swampy area full of infected humanoids that are being eaten from the inside out by parasitic bugs and end up becoming horrifically large bug people and occasionally tree monsters due to The Root. This would all be deeply unpleasant on its best day, but now you’ve got a few more reasons to actually go back there.

The new content includes a lot of stuff, like new bosses, enemies, weapons, mods, and even traits. All of these help to enrich the experience of the game, and not just Corsus itself. That being said, it’s hard not to feel the focus on the swampy world given that’s the main selling point of the DLC.

And another one

It’s a very good excuse to boot up a new instance of Remnant and play through again, or you can just jump into an adventure just for Corsus instead. Either way, you’ll have a great time shooting and hacking your way through the hordes of enemies to get your hands on that sweet new loot.

To be honest, I think I’d rather have seen a new area introduced entirely to Remnant. The appeal of something entirely fresh grabs me more than a spruced up area as is done here, but that’s a personal thing.

The Swamps of Corsus is a must-buy for any fans of Remnant: From The Ashes, and the new survival mode will be a huge draw to anybody that wanted just a little bit more roguelike in their third-person Soulslike. It’s a lot of fun, and it’s not too pricey either, which is always a nice bonus.

[Reviewed on PC]