Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
Gunfire Games started delivering smash-hit DLC drops for Remnant back with the first game and the team has managed to do the same throughout Remnant 2. Every piece of DLC fundamentally improves the game through brand new content, more bosses, new areas, weapons, gear, and other odds and ends for players to collect and discover. So, it should come as no surprise that The Dark Horizon sends Remnant 2 off in style.
As the third and final piece of planned DLC for Remnant 2, The Dark Horizon takes players back to N’Erud to uncover some more mysteries and hopefully an answer to some long-burning questions about the strange location. Like the other DLCs, The Dark Horizon takes players to a brand new biome within one of the base game's locations. In the case of N’Erud, this new biome is an agricultural area with plenty of alien entities that look like they could be farming versions of Half-Life’s Combine forces.
This new biome is unlike any other new addition, thanks to it having a level of verticality not seen before in a Remnant game. Sure, other levels would have you walking up stairs and ramps, but this new area of N’Erud features gliders. You’ll literally grab a glider by the edge of a ravine and cruise across the broiling sea to a distant ledge, or use well-placed updrafts to glide through caverns to reach barely accessible areas.
The glider is a neat way to freshen up the exploration, even if it is a bit clunky to use. There are also some timing woes related to its functionality. The glider appears at set points around certain ledges, and once a player grabs one, the next player has to wait for a new one to spawn. This results in one player making it across the chasm and through tunnels and potentially starting a boss fight while the second player, or even third, is left waiting for the glider to spawn.
However, once you get used to the finicky glider setup, the agricultural sector of N’Erud becomes a gift you want to rip into. It’s a dense mass of ledges, tunnels, ravines, and hidden areas to explore. It can be easy to get lost among the different elevations as you try to work out how to get to where you’re going, but that’s all part of the fun.
Much like the previous DLCs, players can access the area using a single-use, one-shot campaign roll. This generates a version of the world where every single dungeon, collectible, and boss is from the new content. Once you complete the campaign (or reroll it), the content will be added to the pool of N’Erud variables so when you play it again, you might get new stuff or something from the base game. You won’t see everything the DLC has to offer on first playthrough, so anticipate running into some new surprises even after you clock the final boss. It’s a great setup that worked in Remnant: From the Ashes and still works in Remnant 2, providing players with fresh experiences even after countless hours in-game.
As with the previous DLCs, The Dark Horizon adds a new Archetype for players to unlock in the form of the Warden. This class has some similarity to the Handler, except it features a drone that can’t die. This drone can be self-cast or sent to an ally, whereby it will continually replenish their shield, heal them, or buff their fire rate, all while zappin’ enemies. It’s a neat new Archetype that feels like a set-and-forget support class. I just wish the drone’s incessant buzzing was dialed down.
But even those who aren’t paying for the premium DLC are eating well when The Dark Horizon is unleashed. A free update for all players will arrive alongside the DLC and this content drop is impressive in its own rights. It adds a Boss Rush mode, the Prism system, as well as an item search filter. It’s a meaty addition that ties a neat bow around the package.
Boss Rush is sort of similar to Remnant: From the Ashes’ Survival Mode: you’ll face multiple bosses in sequence. But that’s where the comparison ends. In Boss Rush, you’ll take your own build into the gauntlet and see how it thrives (or dies). Along the way you’ll get some boons that only last for the duration of the run, like increased health regen, a Vampire Survivors-like orb that circles around you dealing damage, and other nifty boosts. It’s a neat way to add a little bit of rogue-lite goodness to the mix.
The mode feels like the natural progression of Survival Mode. It’s rewarding to be able to take your build in and test it against a series of randomly selected bosses, rather than try and make a build from scratch like a traditional roguelike.
It’s also nice to know how long you can set aside for a Boss Rush session. The mode features three different formats: three bosses, six bosses, or more than a dozen bosses (those who pick the last two will also need to face Annihilation), plus the Survivor-to-Nightmare difficulty selection.
The mode is also extremely generous with its XP handouts, which is thanks to some clever design choices by Gunfire Games. The team knows players want to min-max their XP gains, so why not give them a neat new mode to play where the XP is flowing? Plus, you still get rewards even if you fall at the gates; you’ll walk out with XP and maybe some unique rewards from bosses if you haven’t encountered them in Adventure Mode. The reason why Gunfire Games wanted Boss Rush to be an XP-rich environment is thanks to the new Prism system, which adds yet another way for players to hone their perfect build.
The Prism is a brand new way for players to interact with Fragments, which have been massively overhauled. You can still select three Fragments to activate, but now you’ll have a Prism that has five additional Fragment slots.
Each time you level up the Fragment, you’ll choose from three randomly selected Fragments, and once five are locked in, you’ll be upgrading them. Max out the Prism and you’ll get a powerful Legendary Fragment. Furthermore, some of these Fragments can be combined into a dual Fragment that offers both benefits. If you luck out, you could get a Prism with more than a dozen powerful Fragments active. You can even have seven of these Prisms, so there’s just so much buildcrafting potential here.
The team at Gunfire Games has nailed the trilogy of DLC drops, and this last one should keep players entertained for an age. Even if you do smash through the new N’Erud area quickly, there’s compelling replay value to be found in the Boss Rush mode and the desire to build the perfect Prism. The Dark Horizon DLC, and its accompanying free update, is an excellent send off to Remnant 2.
This impression piece is based on a Steam code for The Dark Horizon provided by the publisher. The Dark Horizon DLC and the Boss Rush update is available on September 24, 2024, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.