Remnant 2: The Forgotten Kingdom DLC review

Remnant 2’s first DLC, The Awakened King, was a hard act to follow. Not only did it continue one of the best and most complete stories delivered in the main game’s fractured narrative, but it added to it in a way that felt organic, bringing back characters we already knew from Losomn such as the goddess Nimue. The second DLC, Remnant 2: The Forgotten Kingdom returns us to Yaesha and pits us against another goddess – only this time it doesn’t feel quite as well connected.

This time around you can select The Forgotten Kingdom One Shot Adventure to be dropped into the Glittering Grotto. Instantly, it feels less magical than The Forlorn Coast, missing that almost iconic musical sting and lacking the immediate crumbled grandeur of the Dran city. But Yaesha is a very different world, one of bioluminescent forests, stalking beasts, and natural magic. Here you’ll join “Walt”, a Pan archaeologist obsessed with uncovering the truth about his lost tribe.

The plot involves Lydusa, one of the trio of demigod sisters you dealt with before (Kaeula and Maedra), who asks that you restore her form – a form that was “shatter-split” when she suffered a great tragedy. The Forgotten Kingdom is low on story, and the main plot is over and done in a couple of beats. It took me around 6 hours to play the entire adventure the first time, which is about standard for any Remnant 2 adventure, and I was being quite thorough.

Once again, Gunfire Games has rammed these new dungeons full of secrets and puzzles, several of which I still haven’t solved. The ones I did solve rewarded me with new rings, weapons (including a kick-ass crossbow and a rifle that fires a beam of concentrated sand and is almost certainly going to be nerfed), new armour sets (of which I found two), and other items. The puzzles here are more or less what you might expect, with a few stand-out areas.

The Proving Grounds takes the trap systems from The Lament dungeon and absolutely runs with them, filling the place with fiendish physical death-traps that took me a while to get through. There are also several new bosses, of which the Stonewarden is my favourite. Lydusa has created an army of stone monsters, and he’s the leader, forcing you to fight him in a coliseum surrounded by other living statues. It’s an interesting fight, but on standard difficulty none of the new bosses are too tough.

Perhaps the biggest draw for Remnant 2: The Forgotten Kingdom is the new Invoker Archetype, which comes with its own set of armour and signature melee weapon (if you can find them). It’s a class that calls upon the powers of nature to damage enemies – if you can find it. The Invoker is hidden deeper than the Ritualist was, and you’ll need to put in a little work to find it. In honesty, there’s a concern that Gunfire Games might be pushing the “master of secrets” thing a bit too far with this one.

But that’s what we come to Remnant 2 for, isn’t it? Few games capture the thrill of exploration and experimentation like Remnant 2. It’s unique in the way it presents its worlds and challenges, and The Forgotten Kingdom is no different. The new locations are beautiful, the forests of Yaesha stunningly lit, riddled with waterfalls and ancient ruins.

The additional story here might not feel as integral as The Awakened King did, but The Forgotten Kingdom still does some interesting things with the greater lore, introducing what could even be the big bad of a future expansion or instalment and hinting at the greater universe. Or it could be all red herrings, who knows? Either way, Remnant 2: The Forgotten Kingdom remains a worthy addition to the main game and a solid, if less exciting, successor to the Awakened King.