Remnant: From the Ashes’ Swamp of Corsus DLC Review

Almost 8 months have passed since Remnant: From the Ashes released, to some mediocre praise from myself and others. Over that time we’ve had plenty of updates and hotfixes to the main game, fixing plenty of the issues I had with it before, from several balancing changes to bugs that stopped both achievement and traits not unlocking. With all the updates a major one was released alongside a new paid DLC “Swamps Of Corsus”, the free update comes with a campaign update that includes new dungeons, enemies, bosses and rewards and the paid DLC which includes survival mode, Corsus adventure mode and armour skins.

It can be quite hard to tell what comes from what portion of the update and DLC, as they released side-by-side. The main portion of the DLC comes in the form of survival mode, where you start with a scrap pistol and a low amount of scrap to buy some random starting gear. From there you will enter into a random world with a set boss to fight, generally 1-3 zones ending in a boss fight. This mode is a nice addition to the game, adding in some more difficulty as well as a new approach to the Remnant play cycle.

As you play through the new survival mode, you will gain Glowing Fragments which also drop from hard mode runs in campaign and adventure. These glowing fragments tie into the 2^nd part of the paid DLC, armour skins. You can buy skins for your armour at 5, 10 and 15 shards for leggings, helmets and chest pieces respectively. As a weird twist, and quite a big annoyance, each armour set only has 1 recolour with no sign of armour transmogrification like many other games with skins. Since you have to pay real money to get the DLC to unlock skins in their entirety, it is a massive shame that they are so heavily underutilised. All you can do is add some red to your twisted set or make other armour black instead of white most of the time.

The 3^rd part of the DLC and the largest next to survival is Corsus Adventure Mode which now allows you to run the only world that was unavailable in adventure mode. With a new biome added, a weird Alien-like (Ridley Scott) building built with Corsus aesthetic in mind. Adding in new car-alarm screamers on the ceiling, new bosses, new gear and even some very missable items. You will have to run the adventure mode several times to see all it has to offer and sometimes with a full party to even see some portions.

The additions that come with the DLC are welcome, especially the survival mode, though a lot of the new content can be found somewhat in the free update. You will miss out on the modes, 2 or so areas and a few bosses if you lack the DLC. Combined with the update it is a great addition to the game as a whole. In particular, one weapon from the DLC, from a new boss, is grossly powerful against all other side-arms in the base game which makes it a bit pay to win though not enough to call it that solidly.

With a startling lack of lore in the form of books, letters or dialogue, it can be almost impossible to find all the hidden content in the DLC. From having to be under the effect of parasites to interact with 3 different sections, sitting in pools of acid that kill you to make a key, and more. The only hints I could find was 1 dialogue with a new merchant that was such a stretch of a hint that I only really mention it because of how obtuse it is. Without the discussion threads I would have missed so much in this DLC.

Sitting at around £7 right now, the DLC packs quite a bit of content, though survival is very basic as it reuses almost all of the base game just with some extra caveats. The skins are incredibly underused and underwhelming, with a sheer lack of variety or customisability. While the new content of the adventure mode can be done in around 4 or so hours, maybe even less, just due to how the random generation works you will have to grind far too much to get to it all.

Overall, Remnant: From the Ashes’ Swamp of Corsus DLC gets a 7/10. The new dungeon and content are great to experience with plenty of replayability but suffer from the base games’ reliance on RNG to pad gameplay time. Survival mode creates some extra challenge though only offers 2 rewards for your account. Skins are almost not worth mentioning at this point until they are can be transmogrified onto other gear. For the cheap price of £7 it is worth it to support the devs who have pumped out update after update in the last 8 months and easily has enough content to warrant that price.

• Developer: Gunfire Games
• Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
• Available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC

This Review is based on the PC Version of the game and can be purchased here if interested for around £7.19.

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