The year is 2084, and the location is the city of Neo-Paris. The game starts with an ad for Sensen, a device that stores your memories and let's you share them with other people. The people of the ad talk about their experiences with sensen and how it changed their lives. It looks wonderful, if we didn't know what we're about to play.
At the beginning of the game we find our heroine, Nillin, in a facility being held up, and beaten up. We find that allmost all her memories have been wiped from her sensen, thus from her brain also, keeping only her name and only little things. As she is being lead to the final phase of the treatment, someone calls into her sensen and helps her escape the facility. Bit by bit Nillin remembers how to fight and a bit of her past is revealed. She is in the Errorists, a revolucionary faction in Neo-Paris against the creators of sensen, that uses memory hunters, like Nillin, to get info and alter memories.
The world is very good looking. We get a feeling of the futuristic vibe that Capcom tried to show to the player. Lot's of screens, lots of augmented reality stuff lying around, the tone of light gives the game a great look, and is always clear when it needs to get, the city area is very bright, in contrast to the slums were I find myself lately hoping to find a light. The slums is one of my favourite areas, and is the first we get contact with. As we reach the slums we are greeted with the enemies for that area, the Leapers.
 |
| And you thought that meth was bad. |
Leapers are addicted to memories, it's like a drug to them, and because of that they are very mentally instable and agressive. It's never revealed how the sensen abuse makes them become disfigured. The other enemies that you will find are the S.A.B.R.E soldiers, that work for Memorize, the company that created sensen and rule the world.
 |
| "I'll kick your ass if you don't follow our dystopian world rules" kind of guy. |
The game takes a heavy look on how fragile memories are if shared like an app on Facebook. They can be copied, shared even modified and stolen (one of the missions in the game is to steal security codes for a dam). One of the defining gameplay features is the unique ability that Nillim has to 'Remix memories', to get into the memories of an individual and change them. It envolves seeing the memory in it's entirity and then search for moments you can alter, eventually modifying to the Remix goal (the first one is to make the target think her husband is dead), but not every change gives you the desired ending.
Other good point on the gameplay is the Combo Lab, you are given a series of numbered hit combos (3 hit combos, 5 hit combos etc), and you personalize them. Each combo is consisted in pressens, and there are a range of them: increased damage dealing ones, HP regen ones, ones that reduce the cooldown of special abilites, etc. It's a good way to give the fight the style you want, from a defensive one to using lots of special abilities by reducing cooldown. The only fault I put on it is that sometimes I find myself starting the combo with the wrong button, the first one can't be changed, and some are very complicated to do, the property of the combos can be changed but the keys for it can't. It's hard to grasp and it requires some practice, and it doesn't help that the game treats you like a begginer, even if you're in the end of the game, giving you the same advice when you break combos. It gets a bit annoying.
The rest of the gameplay is Nillin moving around the city, climbing buildings a lot, and when I say a lot is really a lot, running from S.A.B.R.E force or fighting Leapers. It could be good all the climbing and escaping if it wasn't such a linear world and the encounter zones fixed. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike linear games and sometimes even give up on some for being too open world (Far Cry 3 I'm looking at you), but as it takes place in a city that they try to make big, this linearity and lack of free choice makes it feel really small. And the camera doesn't help much, as it get's in the way too much. It's even hard to keep zones in your memory, as so similar they are. other thing that bothered me in the game was the empty apartments or rooms. I never found another person inside them and always found robots, that I can't understand why, ignore me and just let me go as I please. It seems that security isn't the future's priority, eh?
Even the music that goes with the game, it's nice to the ear but I find myself so concentrated in the combos I don't even listen to it and when I listen to it is like...meh. It's there to make noise.
I even find hard to sympathize with the main character, as I find hard how a person without memories follows orders from a stranger without even having a little doubt or denying moment, and when that moment comes, is so late in the game and is so short that it was like someone remembered that point when the story has advanced so far.
Graphics - 4/5 - Despite all zones seem the same, the world is very well made, and feels futuristic. Where it should appear bad is bad, and good where it is meant to be good. It just delivers, and don't make you stop to watch the scenery but still it meshes well.
Gameplay - 3/5 - Most of the time climbing, and the camera getting in the way. The combos are fun to edit, but require practice. The memory remixes are very good and are the best feature of the game.
Sound - 2/5 - It's just...meh.
Longevity - 2/5 - It's a game to clear once. The story is average, with one or two good revelations. The bonus hunting items that reveal background of the city don't reward as much as thought, I can't find myself wanting to know more about that world, but maybe for some, they will feel compelled to.
Remember Me had an interesting pitch but I feel that Capcom fell a little bit short on this one. The story is average, and it's an entretaining game, but it's not something to revisit a lot of times.
Remember Me gets a 11/20, but it will be hard to remember it.
No comments:
Post a Comment