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 On 03/06/2014 at 02:06 PM by TheMart22 See More From This User » |
Good Thursday to you all! It’s a grand day here in the ‘Burgh. No snow on the ground and although still cold, the sun is shining. Spring as not too far off!
I thought I’d spend a little time informing you fine folks of my experiences with Remember Me which is currently available from PS+ via the Instant Game Collection.
The dominant word for Remember Me popping into my head is “decent”. The game has some very clever ideas and some rather bone-headed ones which basically cancel each other out. This leaves the player with a rather enjoyable though not very good experience.
Let me start with the presentation. The world of Remember Me is wonderful to see. And I really mean wonderful. Set in the year 2084 in “Neo-Paris”, a future Paris subject to enormous class division, wealthy citizens are able to share & relive their memories via the antagonistic company’s ware. You control Nilin, who after escaping a facility where she has her memory partially wiped, helps old allies and tries to regain her full memory yadda yadda yadda. I’m not sure why they’re wiping memories yet but I’m sure it’ll come up. The story may turn out completely different but that’s what I’ve taken from it two hours in. Graphically the game is decent (there’s that word again) but does leave something to be desired. While the world itself is gorgeous, issues with lip syncing are rather frequent and other graphical anomalies occur fairly often. It’s not an ugly game but any means but it certainly isn’t on par with an Arkham Asylum for example (which I just finished!).
Gorgeous!
Gameplay consists of part traversal, part combat. The games traversal controls handle very, very similar to Uncharted but in my humble opinion are not as tightly developed. Combat on the other hand is rather unique as far as I’ve come across in a 3rd person action game though rather frustrating to start. The combat system is centered around hitting combos and building up a meter to unleash a special attack. It’s definitely my favourite aspect of the gameplay. While, there have been times where I felt the combo system didn’t work as crisply as I would like, for the most part, it’s entertaining. New moves are unlocked as you proceed which allow you to customize the combos as you wish. The interesting part of the combo system is the different effects each move added to a combo brings. Different moves add either damage, healing, special attack cooldown boost or link (boosts other moves) stats to each combo. This enables the player to pick and choose how they want to fight. I’m not sure I’ve gotten the full grasp of the system yet but it’s rather nice that it’s different from the norm.
Another great aspect of the game is the memory remix challenges. Here Nilin delves into someone’s memories to change things with some objective in mind (pardon the pun). The whole idea is kinda messed up but it’s certainly fun. I’ve only had the opportunity to do it once so far but hopefully there’s a lot more to come.
Get away from me you creeps!
Word to the wise, if you choose to play Remember Me, you better like linear game traversal cos that’s what you’re getting. This may be the most annoying thing about the game, predominantly due to the fact that the world is so interesting. The player has one path in which to travel and NOTHING ELSE. No popping into random shops which look interesting. No wondering down some alley to check for secrets. NOTHING! I’m not against linear gameplay, but to go to the effort of realizing such a wonderful world and yet not letting the player fully explore it seems wrong. After a while, it all feels like window dressing and honestly, it takes me out of the whole experience.
Anyway, therein lies my initial impressions. Some good, some not so good. If I end up completing it, I may write a separate review but more than likely I’ll give it a paragraph in a random update blog.
Hope everyone is keeping well. Weekend starts tomorrow!
Later
I've been debating whether or not I should play this, but every review I read/watch brings up the same issues you did. They are all keeping me from downloading it, despite my interest. Yeah, the game is free, but my time is precious and if a game is going to be "meh," I'd rather not chance it.
Memory remix sounds awesome and I hope that maybe it'll be used in a less underwhelming game.
On the plus side, howlongtobeat.com puts the game at 10 hours long. Not the biggest time investment but I get what you're saying. For me the fictional world is worth the time alone. You should check it out and see for yourself.
That's not too bad, and the backdrops definitely look cool. I'll at least put it in my downloads list for the PSN. Once I cut down on my backlog, I'll give it a try.
It's sitting on my drive right now waiting. I will check it out for myself but I'm thinking that combos means learning different combinations of buttons and if so I'll suck at it. LOL
Unfortunately yes. Annoying sometimes this isn't as accurate as I'd hope either so it can be frustrating. Let us know if you like it.
I'm currenlty playing it too and have very similar feelings about it as you do. It's good, but not great. When I first started playing it it seemed like it was going to be something special and I couldn't understand the mediocore reviews. It didn't take long to see why though. You're right about not being able to go anywhere it doesn't want you to go. You basically just have to run around and look for the orange highlighting whatever it wants you to jump to, which might be next to a half dozen of the exact same thing that you can't jump to.
Still, I wish they would make a sequel. It's a fun game, just kind of repetitive. The sequences where you change someone's memory is really neat and I wish they expanded on that and did more of it. And they did do some other things right. This is one of the very few games where they show people (and robots) moving around and doing things through windows in houses/stores. I really like touches like that.
I'm not far enough into it to know if I'd bother with a sequel yet but maybe it's processing power that was holding it back exploration wise. I don't think it sold too well though so i'd imagine a sequel is unlikely
Oh, I wouldn't bother with a sequel either If it was more of the same. Although I don't think it's bad, I don't really care about the story either. I just think the game has a lot of potential. The world is really cool, and if they opened it up more it would be awesome. I like the memory sequences and wish they had more of that. I also like how it sometimes does different stuff with puzzles than the typical action game, like the rememberances and later in the game the way the do the locking-unlocking thing with doors. I was also interested in how they took the combo type fighting popularized by Batman and did something different with it (how each move does something different), but they need to refine it, as we discussed below.
I think the game had a lot of good ideas, it was just sort of lacking in execution. I would hope a sequel would be a lot better, but like you said, the sales woulnt likely justify it. Heck, I didn't buy it and am glad I didn't. (got it off of ps+).
One thing that really bugs me about the game is that you can't continue a combo from one enemy to another (unless I'm just doing something wrong). It can get really annoying when you're fighting 5 people that are crowded together and you've done 6 out of a 7-hit combo and someone else gets in your way. Or even worse, the guy drops dead before you finish the combo and it instantly starts over when you hit the next person.
Haha I'm the same in not knowing if i'm doing things right or not. I feel like I suck but i've managed to make it to episode 4 so I can't be too bad. I feel like there is a way to keep combos going in crowds by jumping over opponents mid-combo and continuing on landing. Easier said than done though. I worry that the game just simply isn't accurate enough to pick up the combos at times. Not the best thing for players to be concerned with if i'm a developer
I really dislike it when a game has a lovely landscape and doesn't give you any opportunity to explore it. Why have these beautiful locales if I can't explore them at some time or another?
100% agree, especially when it's the major draw of the game
This game always interested me. Neat story and world for sure.
It's worth a try for the world alone for sure. Characters seem interesting enough too I suppose. Story feels like a mess to me at the moment but it certainly has potential.
I don't mind linearity, but the way you described the cities sounds like someone playing a video game in front of you and never handing you the controller.
The amnesia story makes me yawn, until you mention mind control, which is cool.
For some reason that last screenshot made me think how cool it would be to water bend peoples' bodies like in Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.
I don't get the Avatar reference as I've haven't consumed either show or manga (it's a manga right?).
The game is obviously linear if that makes sense. It becomes apparent very quickly that there's nothing really to discover on your own. Shame.
It wasn't at first, but there are comic books (it's American-made, the animation studio is in Korewa, though) after the fact of the cartoon.
Ah fair enough. I tend to get it mixed up with Naruto I reckon (which I also want to get into)
Huh ... I'm not sure I see it, outside the fact both are styled like anime.
I've never really seen Naruto and I'm not sure I have much interest in it, but if I get an opportunity to watch an episode, I guess it couldn't kill me.
The only connection between the two for me is that i've seen neither. The problem with Naruto at this stage is that there's a boatload of content the get through. Kinda intimidating to start.
Yeah, they might be similar for all I know, it just doesn't look like it to me, having seen Naruto imagery. The number of episodes is why I'll never get into One Piece, which apparently is a huge thing for anime viewers/manga readers.
Sorry man, I had to skip some of your blog because I haven't played it, and I didn't want to run into any accidental spoilers
I try avoiding spoilers in mostly everything I write (unless called out beforehand) but you're probably right to play it safe. I like going into games with a clean slate too
That sounds about on par with other opinions I've heard of the game. I know it's definitely B-tier but the world and story are enough incentive for me to want to play it.
I finished it yesterday and I'd go as far as to say it's one of my favourite worlds this gen. For me the story was only servicable but some of the areas you play through are truly great
I was wondering about this game for I see it has a price drop on XBLA. But I'd like to own it on PS3 since I don't notice any online modes to the game.
Yeah it's definitely not bad but I certainly wouldn't advise any great expense to obtain it.
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