Forget me?
Remember Me is a new IP from Capcom, one that is set in a futuristic Paris where memories are digitized, bought, sold and traded. You play as Nilin, a female protagonist who is a former memory hunter who had her own memory wiped by an evil organisation. It sounds very promising, but is it memorable?
It’s tough to bring a new IP into the industry today, especially one with a female lead as only the likes of Lara Croft and Samus Aran have made the big time in this area, Nilin is quite an interesting character and the story itself is deep and will please sci-fi fans. It does have a “Total Recall” feel to it, but the gameplay itself could use some fine-tuning…
The combo lab lets you put together combos for fighting; you can unlock new ones over the course of the game and add new features like regaining health and so on during a fight, as long as you do the combo right. It’s a nice idea but I rarely entered it once I had the setup I needed, also the combat itself feels lacklustre, it’s nowhere near on par with the likes of the Arkham games which I believe have set an incredibly high standard for the genre.
There are platforming sections as well and they are hit and miss, the game will show you where to jump and climb but sometimes it just won’t work and Nilin will miss a basic jump, making you go back to a loading screen to redo the same jump. The camera is also problematic when it comes to this, making it hard to get a feel of where to push the analog stick for jumps and it’s not exactly smooth during combat either.
All of this is a shame because the actual world of Remember Me is really interesting and full of potential. The real highlight of the game comes from the “Memory Remix” sequences where you scrub through a person’s timeline and rewriting their memories, the only problem is that there are only 4 of these through the course of the game. The game could have been so much better with more of these. Visually, Remember Me is a nice looking game but the animation looks bland while the voice-acting is a mixed bag.
The Verdict
Remember Me is full of great ideas that never live up to their potential. The world itself is engaging, but the combat is dull and even lacks parry moves, the platforming is bland and the most enjoyable moments are short-lived. Overall, it’s not a bad game…it’s just one that doesn’t deliver on what could have been.