Remnant II: The Dark Horizon: DLC review—A brilliant way to end a brilliant game

The Dark Horizon DLC for Remnant II is one of my favorite DLCs that I have played up until the very moment this article is published. I will admit, I was skeptical because the DLC in the first game was subpar at best and left a horrible taste in my mouth.

The thing about DLC for me is that I only want a few things. First, I want a complete experience that in some way ties back to the base game. Second, I want items that I can use in the base game. A story expansion is just icing on the cake. If a DLC adds any story, I expect it to be good, and I always expect the DLC content to be worth the price. With all of that being said, I love this DLC so much. It hits all of my criteria and more and only has a few issues that did not stop me from enjoying my experience.

This review is full of spoilers, so if you don’t want any, it’s best to leave the article. One final thing is, if you’re expecting a grand story addition that adds to the base game of Remnant II this is not the DLC for you. It took us a total of 6 hours to beat this DLC and find everything we absolutely could.

What’s Included

In the Dark Horizon DLC, you’ll be delving deeper into the world of N’Erud. N’Erud is my favorite world, so I was very excited to hear this. If you’re wondering how we are exploring N’Erud, it’s because the place where the DLC takes place is preserved in time: This is reflected in the base game too. Even after N’Erud is destroyed in the base game, you can still explore these locations.

A new glider system will allow you to traverse the map. It took my partner and me a few tries to get the hang of this system, but it’s entertaining. You have to use the glider to get around and find the various secrets on the map. The glider brings the map to life too, allowing you to explore above and below your spawn. I adore how vertical this map becomes once you start exploring.

There are tons of new weapons, rings, and equipment to find. A lot of it has to do with shields because of the Warden Archetype: I will talk about this further later on in the review the review. I am sure we didn’t find everything either. There is a new armor set, too! It’s my favorite in the game right now. It’s heavy and because of its heaviness, it goes perfectly with my tanking build.

There are a variety of new enemies. I’m sure they all have official names, but I don’t know them. Instead, I like to just make one up as they appear. My favorite of the new enemies is the techno-spiders. They’re kind of creepy at first and their attack pattern might take a second to get used to. But I love how they move. They’re also pretty tanky at first, so the first encounter with them was a touch rough.

You’ll notice right away that the bosses are all designed after the new enemies. I didn’t have an issue with this because their movements changed and, for the most part, so did their visual designs. I would’ve loved a few of the bosses to step out of the box, but they didn’t. The arenas are extremely fun though! At one point, we had to fight two bosses slinging tornadoes at us and that was my favorite fight in the whole game.

Side Content Galore

There is a good amount of side content to enjoy. I like all the NPCs I ran into, even if one of them tried to kill us after we helped him. The first NPCs we ran into was this robot that we had to put back together. I’m sure this thing has a name, but I just call him the unappreciative robotic jerk. After finding all of his missing pieces, he will be fully repaired! Finding the pieces was a bit more challenging than we originally expected because of how much searching we had to do. As a reward for beating this guy, you get a new trait and probably some irritation.

There is another NPC I called the wandering robot that will come back to Earth with you after you defeat the main antagonist of the DLC. I love her so much. When she gets back to Earth with you you’ll be able to explore the other worlds in the game and bring samples back to her to get items from her. I haven’t explored this part of the DLC yet because I am consumed by the free Boss Rush mode.

There is so much to see and find too. We did a few dungeons and in each one, we both got a new item for the most part. These new areas blend in perfectly with N’Erud, and each dungeon feels like it popped right out of the base game. I love this tile set so much, and I appreciate how seamless the whole experience is.

The Warden

The new Archetype is called The Warden and it’s pretty fun. I didn’t get the chance to use it during my playthrough of the DLC, but I am using it now to complete the others. It’s a turret-based class that can apply shields, do damage, and it can heal. It’s alright, I haven’t finished leveling it up yet but I do like how it functions. A big complaint that I have is that the turret always seems to get in the way and it has some of the most irritating sound effects in the game.

You can choose to play it as a support class if you want to but I saw no reason to do that because me and my partner both have end-game equipment. We could both put on new Archetypes and be fine, so I hogged my drone for myself. One glaring issue I have is the lack of new trait points. I wish they would’ve brought the trait cap to 100 or something.

Everything is Beautiful

I am completely obsessed with the color palette and atmosphere in this DLC. I love the purples and oranges. I love the electric blues that seldom appear and even the blacks and grays. I just love how everything looks. There is a dead beauty to this DLC that I adore.

Even the bosses and minibosses have a simple color pallet that absolutely works with the surrounding area. It’s a stark contrast to the reds that are present in the base game. I welcome this change because red can be extremely overbearing when used too much. But everything here just looks right. It feels right. And the sound effects are stellar and really bring everything together in a way that I deeply appreciate.

Bugs?

A couple of the hitboxes in the DLC are broken. My friend got stuck in a flower once, and when gliding I found myself hitting invisible walls a few times. Strangely, I was never able to recreate these bugs in single player.

Once we hit the final boss fight I couldn’t enter and my partner had to die because I was stuck in the walking animation. I couldn’t pull away from the door so we had to restart.

The final boss is laughable

Okay so Alepsis-Taura is revealed to be the final boss and at first, I was super excited, and in a way I still am. The fight is extremely fun, and the difficulty is not lost on me. I also love the atmosphere of the whole location.

But the characterization of Alepsis-Taura is so lost. It is not scary and all-knowing; it is not too mean and condescending. I can tell that there was a real effort put into making this thing seem like an omnipresent force of nature. Unfortunately, this guy comes off as a real joke. It’s goofy to have a shape that doesn’t even have two boss phases talking down to me! At one point it will call you a bird. It can read your mind, but the only thing I could do was crack jokes! I wish the characterization was so much better for this guy because it would’ve brought the DLC together nicely.

Final Thoughts

Dark Horizon is far from perfect. We ran into our fair share of bugs, and sometimes the tile set could be a touch irritating to traverse through but damn this DLC is so much fun. I love the new enemies so much, even though they fly and drive me crazy.

The new dungeons are to die for! There is one where you have to travel through an area that has moving trains. You have to make sure to jump at the right time to avoid being hit. Another more obnoxious dungeon featured us having to sprint through poison gas. It’s a good thing I was playing with someone because I could not get through this without my character puking to death.

Above all else? This was extremely fun to play. Yes, it’s pretty short and yeah, the final boss is laughable but fun to fight. There are so many things to grab in this DLC, new rings and amulets, a new armor set, and a host of new enemies to mow down. Dark Horizon is an extremely fun, semi-challenging, and thematically nailed DLC that everyone should try. In the end, it really is more Remnant II and for me that’s perfect.

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