After the absolute train wreck that was Dead Island, I don't often find myself getting duped by a fancy looking trailer anymore. The philosophy has always been if they aren't showing me game play footage then its not something I want to take a chance on.
However, for today's game I saw a bit of the games puzzle aspect and when hearing about the over arching theme of the game, needless to say I was pretty intrigued. It is also a new property, which excites me because those seem to be more and more rare these days. I don't often shoot from the hip for my games anymore, but why not give this new one a shot?
REMEMBER ME: (PS3)
Our game opens up with a commercial for a product called a Sensen. A glowing HUD on the base of one's neck which allows the individual to share their memories with another and allow them to have them implanted into them. This product becomes hugely successful to the point of addiction as people are able to share their true thoughts and feelings. It has become pivotal in the exchanging of information and the Sensen creator, Memorize inc, ends up becoming one of the most powerful industries as a result.
Flash to our heroine, Nilin, writhing in agony on the cold floor of some futuristic jail cell. Some one approaches her and begins to interrogate her. She can only remember her name, as this group basically ripped all the memories out of her head and has prepared her for dismantling. As she is slowly paraded where she will be disposed of a voice hacks through to her head and tells her they are going to kill her, and if she wants to live she needs to follow his instructions.
After a bewildered escape from the facility from one of the disposal coffins, Nilin learns that her mystery savior is a man named Edge, an Errorist (so dumb) who apparently at one point was one of Nilin's comrades at arms. He holds the fight against Memorize who pretty much holds a monopoly on memory control and as you learned from the games intro, has the ability to use against people to strip them of their memories, control them, and dispose of them. As her abilities slowly come back to her, Nilin reluctantly joins Edge's cause in the hope of regaining her memories.
So I'm never huge into Sci-Fi really in any genre sans for a few rare exceptions, like Mass Effect. And the moment you have control of the game? Believe me, this game smashes you over the skull with the Sci-Fi hammer. Everyone has some ridiculous Sci-Fi variation of normal clothing, every single wall, sign, and terminal has some 3D projected HUD (which is super annoying because it makes you think that things are important, when they aren't). And the entire layout to the maps have this very Fifth Element feel to them that everything is crowded but not laid out in any kind of logical grid system.
Remember Me is one of those games that kinda borrow a little bit of everything from every genre a bit. There is a handful of platforming to do with a lot of kinda Tomb Raider-y, Uncharted-y climbing sections. This you would think allows the game for a good deal of exploration. Although that never really ends up being the case. Many of the maps manage to be excessively confusing while at the same time incredible linear. The game pops out these "hey stupid, this way" markers but they kinda blend with the all the other stuff popping out of the screen. So if they weren't there it be easy to miss, but with them there its just "follow the straight line, dummy." You would think with all the climbing you do there'd be hidden areas or something.
The games real meat is the combat system. Which for the most part is well executed but not without its flaws. It operates on the two button combat system like you have seen in a number of games ranging from Devil May Cry, God of War, Yakuza, and so on. But where its originality comes in is how the combos are produced. As you level in the game, you unlock longer combo tree's. All of the button presses you have are set in stone from 3 to 6 buttons.
But where you come in is each of your attacks have different attributes: some do damage, some heal, some reduce ability cool downs, some chain the previous effect. But giving each attack its own property it allows the player to organize the combo for pressure situations. For example, you start off with a basic three square combo. I quickly ended up making that my healing combo with 3 simple healing attacks. It wouldn't do a lot of damage to the enemy but when my health dropped it was a fast panic move to start healing again. All I had to do was mash my square button. I used a longer simple combo to recharge my specials when I needed it and the super long combo for big damage. It kept things simple for me but effective to do.
As you fight you unlock special abilities that have cool downs. Most of these are enemy specific so as you fight hordes of baddies you'll have one or two of them you'll need these abilities to take down. One can blow off a shield, one is a massive stun that makes invisible enemies visible, one charms robotic enemies that will fight for you. They throw some cool interesting options into fights but you really want to make sure you have a combo to reduce cool downs or the fights will outlast you.
There are a handful of bosses in the game. None of them are the massive sized test all your abilities kinda boss fights I so sorely miss in video games, but I'll take what I can get at this point. Most of them is figure which attack the boss is weak to and when you can use it and wail on them. Better than nothing though, and certainly better than fighting wave after wave of shitty regular enemies. All in all the combat was different and interesting enough to keep me entertained. If the animations were a bit more fluid I would have really loved it.
The combat is fun, and the set piece is cool. But those two leave me underwhelmed. The story itself has a very brilliant concept. Nilin has the ability to go into people's memories and remix them, making a subtle change here and there so they remember thing different, and ultimately have a massive change to their personality. This is displayed in these cool puzzles where you hack into a certain memory, and it gives you goal and you need to make subtle changes to make them think a certain thing happened.
For example, the one displayed in one of the trailers you have a target and you have to alter his memory of the day his wife left him. You have to change it to make him think he killed his wife. So you can fiddle with the safety of the gun, the location of the bottle he was drinking, where the table location is, and a bunch of other options. If you do it in the wrong combination you see an alternate version of the memory play out, but you can rewind and fix it. If you find the right combination, that person will have a drastic change of personality because they feel they've lived their life with this incorrect memory.
This is a fucking awesome mechanic, and really might be the most evil version of mind control I've ever seen. That is super villain shit, not something for the hero. That being said this was the main reason I picked up the game, because its a really original concept for puzzles. The main problem with it is, you only do it like 5 times in the whole game. It's really a pisser because if the game was more open exploration or sandbox style, and involved me needing to go in and shake up peoples memories more to unlock certain areas or gain certain allies, this would have the potential to be something amazing.
I suppose my biggest complaint about this game as a whole is it plays it too safely in all its areas, it fails to stand out in any one of them. The combat is pretty good, but its not amazing. I feel the animations were not smooth and very jerky, and being able to alter your combos to your design is a good idea but it makes Nilin look like she's flailing around instead of a hardened warrior. They design the levels to make you feel there is a bit of exploring to do, but it basically pulls the Uncharted move of keeping you on a convoluted single path. The puzzle mechanic is interesting and original, but you don't do it enough times to really enjoy it. And finally the story had lot of potential for a lot of cool twists, but ends up being pretty lack luster at the end.
To be totally honest, I wasn't really wild about a lot of the characters either. Nilin is the only one you see through out the majority of the game (as you should, since she's the heroine). But the game throws all these other characters at you from time to time, but never gives them enough screen time for them to be characterized enough for you to really give a shit about them. Most of them get one or two scenes tops. It makes some of the supposedly emotional twists of the game have zero weight behind them. And honestly, I can't take a fucking villain seriously when his name is Xmas (yes, its pronounced Christmas in the game {and its fucking stupid}).
Really, my video of it really paints it as much worse picture than it actually is because I had set it down for a while and forgot about some of the more frustrating moments of the platforming. I go into it with very little to say and the quality of the video suffers for it. Its not one of my better videos, and I apologize for that.
I'm not gonna make some awful joke about how Remember Me is forgettable like every other dounkburger in the blogosphere. I feel this game had a lot of potential, but it lacked polish. I hadn't really heard about it until not long before its release, and every now and then I'll take a chance on something to see if its flying under the radar. Sometimes on these occasions I feel pretty good that I took the chance, and sometimes left horribly disappointed. Remember Me fell around the middle of this leaning on the good side.
There was a lot of potential, and a lot to like here, its execution just left a bit to be desired. While the Remember Me property didn't explode out of the gate, I think that there really can be something to this series. If it has a sequel, I would look forward to it. As for this one? Might wanna wait for a used one or give it a rental.
Remember Me is one of those games that kinda borrow a little bit of everything from every genre a bit. There is a handful of platforming to do with a lot of kinda Tomb Raider-y, Uncharted-y climbing sections. This you would think allows the game for a good deal of exploration. Although that never really ends up being the case. Many of the maps manage to be excessively confusing while at the same time incredible linear. The game pops out these "hey stupid, this way" markers but they kinda blend with the all the other stuff popping out of the screen. So if they weren't there it be easy to miss, but with them there its just "follow the straight line, dummy." You would think with all the climbing you do there'd be hidden areas or something.
The games real meat is the combat system. Which for the most part is well executed but not without its flaws. It operates on the two button combat system like you have seen in a number of games ranging from Devil May Cry, God of War, Yakuza, and so on. But where its originality comes in is how the combos are produced. As you level in the game, you unlock longer combo tree's. All of the button presses you have are set in stone from 3 to 6 buttons.
But where you come in is each of your attacks have different attributes: some do damage, some heal, some reduce ability cool downs, some chain the previous effect. But giving each attack its own property it allows the player to organize the combo for pressure situations. For example, you start off with a basic three square combo. I quickly ended up making that my healing combo with 3 simple healing attacks. It wouldn't do a lot of damage to the enemy but when my health dropped it was a fast panic move to start healing again. All I had to do was mash my square button. I used a longer simple combo to recharge my specials when I needed it and the super long combo for big damage. It kept things simple for me but effective to do.
As you fight you unlock special abilities that have cool downs. Most of these are enemy specific so as you fight hordes of baddies you'll have one or two of them you'll need these abilities to take down. One can blow off a shield, one is a massive stun that makes invisible enemies visible, one charms robotic enemies that will fight for you. They throw some cool interesting options into fights but you really want to make sure you have a combo to reduce cool downs or the fights will outlast you.
There are a handful of bosses in the game. None of them are the massive sized test all your abilities kinda boss fights I so sorely miss in video games, but I'll take what I can get at this point. Most of them is figure which attack the boss is weak to and when you can use it and wail on them. Better than nothing though, and certainly better than fighting wave after wave of shitty regular enemies. All in all the combat was different and interesting enough to keep me entertained. If the animations were a bit more fluid I would have really loved it.
For example, the one displayed in one of the trailers you have a target and you have to alter his memory of the day his wife left him. You have to change it to make him think he killed his wife. So you can fiddle with the safety of the gun, the location of the bottle he was drinking, where the table location is, and a bunch of other options. If you do it in the wrong combination you see an alternate version of the memory play out, but you can rewind and fix it. If you find the right combination, that person will have a drastic change of personality because they feel they've lived their life with this incorrect memory.
(Until I can get my fucking timestamp working, just jump to 2:46)
This is a fucking awesome mechanic, and really might be the most evil version of mind control I've ever seen. That is super villain shit, not something for the hero. That being said this was the main reason I picked up the game, because its a really original concept for puzzles. The main problem with it is, you only do it like 5 times in the whole game. It's really a pisser because if the game was more open exploration or sandbox style, and involved me needing to go in and shake up peoples memories more to unlock certain areas or gain certain allies, this would have the potential to be something amazing.
I suppose my biggest complaint about this game as a whole is it plays it too safely in all its areas, it fails to stand out in any one of them. The combat is pretty good, but its not amazing. I feel the animations were not smooth and very jerky, and being able to alter your combos to your design is a good idea but it makes Nilin look like she's flailing around instead of a hardened warrior. They design the levels to make you feel there is a bit of exploring to do, but it basically pulls the Uncharted move of keeping you on a convoluted single path. The puzzle mechanic is interesting and original, but you don't do it enough times to really enjoy it. And finally the story had lot of potential for a lot of cool twists, but ends up being pretty lack luster at the end.
Really, my video of it really paints it as much worse picture than it actually is because I had set it down for a while and forgot about some of the more frustrating moments of the platforming. I go into it with very little to say and the quality of the video suffers for it. Its not one of my better videos, and I apologize for that.
I'm not gonna make some awful joke about how Remember Me is forgettable like every other dounkburger in the blogosphere. I feel this game had a lot of potential, but it lacked polish. I hadn't really heard about it until not long before its release, and every now and then I'll take a chance on something to see if its flying under the radar. Sometimes on these occasions I feel pretty good that I took the chance, and sometimes left horribly disappointed. Remember Me fell around the middle of this leaning on the good side.
There was a lot of potential, and a lot to like here, its execution just left a bit to be desired. While the Remember Me property didn't explode out of the gate, I think that there really can be something to this series. If it has a sequel, I would look forward to it. As for this one? Might wanna wait for a used one or give it a rental.
Kid Xmas gives me visceral anger.
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