Remnant: From the Ashes is a third-person survival action shooter set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monstrous creatures. Available now on Xbox One, challenge-seeking players can look forward to 100+ unique enemies, 20+ epic bosses, and endless adventure. Gunfire Games Principal Designer Mike Maza breaks down how challenging, shared experiences are as good as any loot in the game.
Jared Browar, Community Manager: What’s the difference between Remnant when played solo, vs when played with up to two other survivors?
Mike Maza, Principal Designer: The game will automatically scale the strength and quantity of enemies as each player joins the group. This ensures that the overall balance of the game remains consistent whether it’s played solo or as a group. A team of three heroes, working in concert, can bring a tremendous amount of firepower to the table so we’ve worked hard to create a system that can match that potential with increasingly challenging creature combinations – some of the most difficult and gratifying fights in Remnant are found in multiplayer. To offset that greater challenge, the quantity of rewards and the likelihood of finding rare and coveted items are increased as more and more heroes are involved.
JB: Why add multiplayer? What layers of depth does 3-player co-op add to the game?
MM: We believe games, in general, are at their best as shared experiences. The social aspect of playing a game with friends (or even random strangers) reinforces the need for communication, teamwork, and camaraderie. There are few gaming experiences as rewarding and elating as overcoming a difficult challenge as a team. Remnant’s 3-player cooperative game mode gives players a chance to develop characters that mesh well together – characters that enhance each player’s specific playstyle and fill the need of the group as a whole. A team that eschews defense in favor of offense can experiment with that combination to see how they fare in Remnant’s diverse encounters. By the same token a defensively oriented group might experience a very different set of challenges when faced with similar confrontations. There is no wrong or right mix of characters in Remnant… just different ways to approach the brutal and rewarding encounters the game has to offer.
JB: How does loot work with a team? Is it shared, instanced, etc.? Describe the design philosophy behind this decision.
MM: Any loot picked up by a player in Remnant is distributed equally amongst all players in the group. If someone takes the time to search every nook and cranny of a dungeon and collects a sniper rifle, for example, every other member of the team also receives the weapon regardless of where they are on the map. The same holds true for armor, mods & trinkets, consumables, resources and Scrap – the game’s currency. There were long impassioned discussions on the merits and flaws of shared or instanced loot but, in the end, the team as a whole decided that this treatment of instanced loot was the best approach for encouraging teamwork and rewarding players for taking calculated risks that might benefit the group.
JB: How do Remnant’s shared worlds benefit co-op players? Describe how players will be able to conquer more of the game’s challenges and earn more loot by jumping into another survivor’s world.
MM: A single playthrough of the main story campaign won’t expose a player to all of the different quests, rewards, events and creatures found in the game. There’s so much content in Remnant that it’s not a guarantee that a player will experience everything the game has to offer even after multiple playthroughs. As we develop additional downloadable content for the game, this will be even less likely. Each time players generate new campaign worlds they might uncover quests and enemies that some or all of the group have never seen before… and we make it seamless and easy for them to jump right in and meet those new challenges together.
Thanks again for reading, Survivors. We’ve crafted a challenging experience that I hope you feel a little more prepared for. If your back is against the wall, just remember to bring some friends. Remnant: From the Ashes is available now. Fight the Root of all evil!
