Remnant II: The Awakened King is more of what made the base game great
While I didn't review it ourself, Josh greatly enjoyed his time with Remnant II earlier this year - and so did I. So, when Gearbox reached out asking if we'd be interested in checking out the game's first DLC, Remnant II: The Awakened King we were more than happy to revisit the game with some of the new content. If the rest of Remnant II's DLC is much the same, one of the year's best games will be a real must play when all is said and done.
To simplify matters, Remnant II's game is made up of two preset worlds, and then three additional worlds - each with permutations for the base story you'll be engaging with during your run through the game as a whole. In the base game, each of these worlds had two permutations, with additional randomized changes coinciding with these major shifts to how the story of any specific world can turn out.
Wtih Remnant II's DLC, each of these worlds will be receiving an additional "campaign" that can be seeded for each playthrough - and in The Awakened King, players get a chance to meet the One True King that was only ever alluded to in other versions of Losomn's world. While not every piece of content in this version of Losomn is unique to the DLC, players will nevertheless have access to fight new enemies and bosses, explore new environments, and engage with new characters and their personal quests - all while being able to unlock a new Archetype to use with your character.
Which is to say that The Awakened King is by no means an earth-shattering change to how Remnant II plays; it's not, but it's a smart addition to the game that seamlessly slots into the existing content, much as we can probably expect to happen with the upcoming DLC that should do much the same for the remaining areas in Remnant II.
With how Remnant II is designed, of course, even a few extra pieces for the game to utilize when crafting new playthroughs is a welcome change, and yet even if players only intend to engage with the new content once with the prebuilt adventure - though we're lead to believe that not all of the new content will be viewable during a single playthrough of the Forlorn Coast - it's well worth the price of admission on its head for anyone who enjoyed Remnant II to begin with.
2023 has been a packed year for RPGs, and so its been very easy for great games to quickly fall to the wayside - such as with Remnant II. Whether you're new to the game, or looking to return to it, The Awakened King offers an excellent excuse to cross the World Stone once more.
Gearbox Publishing provided RPG Site code(s) for the purposes of these impressions.