We interviewed Cindy To, Principal Level Designer at Gunfire Games, to discuss some of the improvements made to Remnant 2.
At Summer Game Fest 2023, Gunfire Games and Gearbox Publishing announced the release date of Remnant 2. The sequel to 2019’s Soulslike-inspired third-person shooter game will be released on July 25th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X.
Following the first game’s success (From the Ashes had sold over three million copies by the end of 2021), Gunfire Games is looking to expand upon that foundation in several ways.
To discuss that, we had the chance to interview Principal Level Designer Cindy To during the Summer Game Fest’s Play Days for the press. Also, look forward to our hands-on of the Remnant 2 demo on Monday.
According to the lore, how many years have passed since the first game?
It’s been a couple of decades since the end of Remnant: From the Ashes and the beginning of Remnant 2.
And will there be several returning characters?
You could say that!
All right. How did you guys select the canon choices from the first game? Was there a narrative reason, or did you pick the most common player actions?
So obviously, if I had the lore team here, they could probably dive into a little bit more details. But I think we’ve always had an overarching story that we wanted to tell you of the humans who worked on Ward 13, as well as some other storylines that we wanted to expand on. So the choices that were made and presented in Remnant 2 align with kind of this larger story that we wanted to tell.
The branching storylines are definitely a big focus with Remnant 2. Can you talk a little about how they work and how much replay value you think they can bring to this title?
So in Remnant 2, there will be a main driver that keeps an overarching story and a main driver that brings purpose to the player coming toward their team, seeing what’s going on there and, due to some unforeseen circumstances, allowing them to travel and visit other worlds. And then, during that journey, everyone’s playthrough is very different.
Like, in this middle part of the game featured in this demo, visiting this world and the things that happen there will be a different experience amongst different players. For example, the demo we have here today features the world of Yaesha, but you could wake up in and realize you’re in some weird temple or ziggurat and you’re just wondering what’s going on. But the person next to you did not start there, and in fact, they started in the heart of the jungle.
That alone alludes to the fact there must be at least two different storylines obviously what we took from the first game is the different experiences that occur along the way. So, player A plays the game and sees this boss, but player B plays the game and sees a completely different boss even though they’re both in the same area.
