Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC review: Bigger, meaner, and better

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC is admittedly the most surprisingly amazing gaming experience I have had so far in 2024. Back in God of War (2018), Kratos once said, "Keep your expectations low, boy, and you will never be disappointed." And if that quote holds true for anything this year, that has to be The Forgotten Kingdom.

I came to Remnant 2 pretty late, despite the game being on my radar last year. I eventually did give it a shot back in November 2023, and it immediately climbed to the top of my "Game of the Year 2023" list, right alongside the likes of Armored Core 6, Final Fantasy 16, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and Lies of P.

While I'm not a big fan of third-person horde shooters, the unique blend of Remnant 2's third-person dungeon-crawler/souls-like/looter-shooter gameplay loop immediately got its hooks into me. Having grabbed the Ultimate Edition, I also played The Awakened King DLC quite extensively in the last couple of months.

However, despite offering more of what I liked about the base game, The Awakened King DLC didn't impress me as much as I thought it would. But let me tell you, that's not the case with The Forgotten Kingdom; in fact, on some level, I think I like this new DLC more than the entire base game of Remnant 2.

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom DLC: More Remnant, but with a lot that's new, and ramped up difficulty (just how I like my DLCs)

Immaculate art style, and presentation

If there's one thing I really like about Gunfire Games apart from its ability to create games with robust combat systems and unique fantasy settings, it would be its unique and easily recognizable art style. I've been a fan of the studio, its art style, and the kind of games it created well before even being called Gunfire Games.

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom features what is easily the most vibrant and visually impressive locale in the entire game (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

The Darksiders series holds a special place in my heart, right alongside the likes of Super Mario Bros. Prince of Persia, Max Payne, and Bloodborne. The Darksiders series is where I first got to experience an open-world RPG, courtesy of the phenomenal Darksiders 2, featuring Death as the protagonist.

Since I first laid eyes on the original Darksiders, I was immediately a fan of Vigil Games' (now Gunfire Games) unique art style. And even after switching to a completely new IP, the studio hasn't deviated too far from its signature art style. Remnant 2, in many ways, looks like a Darksiders game.

I already liked the art style and presentation of the base game, especially the Yaesha map. However, with The Forgotten Kingdom, I seem to have found a new appreciation for Gunfire's craft. You get the same aesthetics, albeit with a more vibrant color palette, which looks much better in motion than in still shots.

The art style of Remnant 2 really shines in some of the optional dungeons within The Forgotten Kingdom DLC (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

I also really liked the DLC's new soundtrack, which seems heavily inspired by the original Remnant, i.e., mixing the hum of classical instruments with the energy of electrical ones. Other than the subtle change in vibrancy and soundtrack, The Forgotten Kingdom is identical to the base game. Of course it is...it's a DLC.

The story, or lack thereof

While Remnant 2 does many things really well, the one thing it falters on has to be its story and general narrative design. When I first heard about this game, I was quite intrigued by the premise of a post-apocalyptic earth ravaged by otherworldly monsters i.e., the "Root," with a bit of multiversal travel thrown into the mix.

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom attempts to deliver an intriguing story with some really fascinating characters (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

However, despite the premise being quite intriguing, with obvious inspiration from the work of authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Remnant 2's narrative isn't anything to write home about. I did enjoy The Awakened King's story a bit, but the base game's narrative was mediocre at best and incredibly forgettable at worst.

Unfortunately, The Forgotten Kingdom doesn't fare much better in this regard either. However, the new DLC does make for a much more intriguing setting. Since stepping foot in Yaesha, I was always intrigued by the history of that realm and wanted to know more about it. The DLC delivers on that front.

Just to be clear, the story in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom is as barebones as it comes, but it's still enough to drive the main questline. The story here is centered around a lost tribe in Yaesha, led by a stone spirit, Lydusa, who tasks you with investigating the land and finding the source of her corruption.

There are also optional questlines that attempt to flesh out Yaesha and the stone tribe's history (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

One thing I didn't like about The Forgotten Kingdom's story compared to The Awakened King is the lack of agency. Plenty of choices can still be made in the new DLC, but nothing seems to be substantial enough to affect the main story, regardless of what you do, you'll eventually end up face-to-face against Lydusa.

Level design (one of the DLC's best aspects)

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom's level design is easily the expansion's biggest highlight. While I was floored by the base game's level design when I first played it, it did start to get a bit stale over time, despite the procedural generation. And while I liked what The Awakened King offered in this regard, I wasn't that impressed.

There are some really cool puzzles to solve in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

I wasn't expecting much from The Forgotten Kingdom. I figured that much like The Awakened King, this new DLC would be a retread of Yaesha, with a few new enemy types, and bosses. However, this is where my expectations got subverted by Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom.

While The Forgotten Kingdom does use almost the same layout as the base game's Yaesha, plenty of new elements make it stand out. The new map is much less vertical than the base game's Yaesha. You still will find plenty of elevation, but the majority of the map is grounded.

Another big departure you'll immediately notice is that the new map has considerably fewer enemy ambushes. Remember those spiked creatures that attacked you from all sides whenever you stepped into a new area within Yaesha? Those are gone. Don't get me wrong, The Forgotten Kingdom has ambushes, just not as frequent as the base game.

The build I used for The Forgotten Kingdom (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

I also liked the puzzles in the new DLC, especially the one that featured you interacting with various sand pedestals to unlock a door, leading to an extremely challenging but fun boss fight. There's also a dungeon with an incredibly annoying platforming puzzle, but I'll let you discover that.

Boss fights, aka, the real deal

While dungeon designs, puzzles, and art styles are all fine and dandy, what really sells me on any good action RPG or action game is boss fights. The prospect of fighting new and random bosses, with randomly generated perks drew me to Remnant 2 and other similar pseudo-roguelike games such as Returnal.

Even the early-dungeon bosses like the Stonewarden were quite challenging on Nightmare (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

While I expected some recycled bosses, akin to how The Awakened King delivered its share of boss fights (most of which were corrupted reskins of existing enemy types or bosses), I was quickly humbled and surprised by the sheer diversity of bosses and enemy encounters The Forgotten Kingdom has to offer.

First things first, Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom doesn't have any annoying enemy types like the bloaters (Dran Fiends) that burst into those annoying homing AOE bubbles upon death. One new enemy type comes close to being annoying but, calling it that would be a bit of a stretch.

Most enemies in The Forgotten Kingdom pose a considerable challenge, even at Veteran difficulty. I made the mistake of starting my playthrough on Nightmare but was immediately humbled by the first main boss: Cinderclad Monolith. I switched to Veteran to have a relatively easier time, but it still was quite tough.

The Cinderclad Monolith in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

Don't get me started on the final boss—easily the toughest one I've fought since Annihilation. I understand the steep difficulty curve might be off-putting for some, especially newcomers, but if you take the time to understand the game's mechanics, I promise you'll find an incredibly fun action RPG here.

Is Invoker, the new archetype worth getting the DLC for?

This one's for returning players who might think of picking up The Forgotten Kingdom DLC just to get their hands on the new archetype: the Invoker. To answer whether you should get the new DLC for the Invoker, in my opinion, it depends on the kind of build and weapons you prefer to use in Remnant 2.

The Invoker in Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

I previously predicted that the Invoker would work as an incredibly good support archetype for the Ritualist, which was added with The Awakened King. However, while playing the DLC, I found the Invoker more than capable of carrying itself as a primary archetype with classes like Archon or even Handler as secondary.

It also works great as a secondary archetype, but from the time I spent experimenting with the Invoker, I found it extremely well-suited as a primary archetype, perhaps with the Ritualist as a secondary. I should note that unlocking the Invoker isn't as straightforward as the Ritualist.

I rocked a melee-ranged hybrid build and never really focused on skills outside of additional damage dealers between regular attacks. As such, I didn't find much use for the Invoker, which is geared primarily toward skill use and buffs. However, I can see how it might work for players with a skill-focused build.

Few shortcomings

Remnant 2 has come a long way from its initial release, which, for lack of a better word, wasn't particularly stellar. The biggest issue many players had with the game at launch could be boiled down to performance and stability, which shouldn't be much of a surprise considering it's one of the first games to use Unreal Engine 5.

Despite the performance issues, The Forgotten Kingdom is a visual treat, especially with the graphics presets cranked to their maximum (Image via Gearbox Publishing)

However, the current version of Remnant 2 is more or less free of any major issues that plagued the game during its launch. However, a few lingering issues still rear their head in The Forgotten Kingdom DLC; most notably, the inconsistent framerate and occasional stuttering.

I played the DLC on a PC with a Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, RTX 4070 GPU, and 16 GB of RAM. Additionally, the game was installed on a Gen-4 NVMe SSD. With that configuration, I was aiming for 1440p High, which held a solid 60fps in most cases, dropping only in Yaesha and N'Erud.

However, in The Forgotten Kingdom, I had to lower some graphics settings to Medium and enable DLSS, something the base game didn't need. Frequent stutters also occur, despite the game going through the shader compilation step. While the performance issues aren't that bad, they're certainly distracting.

In conclusion

Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom is an excellent DLC; one that capitalizes on everything that made the base game great while adding its flavor. While a few minor issues exist, such as the less-than-stellar story and performance issues on PC, the number of things it gets right easily outweigh the negatives.

Much like The Awakened King, Remnant 2 The Forgotten Kingdom is a must-play for fans of the series. It not only addresses the major issues I and many in the Remnant community had with the base game and the first DLC but also adds some of the best boss fights in the series, alongside a really cool new archetype.