Remember Me: First Impressions

Remember Me - First Impressions 

Meet Nilin, the star of Remember Me

I fired up Remember Me immediately after completing the recent Tomb Raider reboot, which I found to be pleasantly surprising. The Combat and navigation in TR really brought the game to life and I hoped for the same from RM.

I want to get the worst aspects out of the way first so here goes:

Maybe Tomb Raider raised my expectations a little too high, but a lot of the gameplay felt tired in comparison. Walls have no collision detection and the climbing sections were insipid, Prince of Persia (2003) is more fluid in that respect, despite being over a decade old.

Every two meters you have a visual waypoint to babysit you along your journey which isn't needed. 

The combat leaves a lot to be desired. At best it could be described as a mix between the original Witcher title with a little Assassins Creed and a few unlockable moves thrown in, but it is less satisfying than either.

This is a major shame, as the Pressen fighting system could work if given a major overhaul. For many fights there was no need to bother unlocking new skills, let alone use tactics when choosing combos. (Which admittedly is a decent idea in theory.)

Basic Combo Lab

In fact the first fight that forced a combo change was the second boss as he repeatedly headbutted me into oblivion.

Despite the early exposition being boring, the remixing memories selling point was very well done and kickstarted a marked improvement in the game. Going through the different scenarios was as fun as you would imagine as you target weaknesses in your targets memory, slowly bending them to your will.

It may sound like a gimmick, but these help to immerse you in the story as you start to truly understand Nilin's power and how dangerous she actually is.

Neo-Paris looks amazing at times and the game shows strong artistic direction across the board, from the flashy UI to the floating advertisements that dot the landscape. 

The story has brought up decent philosophical questions about the future of pure capitalism and the value of memories. I'll have to wait and see whether these issues are dealt with during the course of the game but hopefully they will be as the story is by far the strongest part of the game in the early stages.

The voice acting isn't anything to write home about, but in general the sounds are fitting for the futuristic setting and I had no concerns with the graphics or any glitches. 

 Sadly, Remember Me hasn't lived up to its early promise, but that doesn't mean it's a poor game. The gameplay may yet improve but I have a funny feeling that this may pretty much be it, with the combat and climbing unable to match the memory sequences.

So far it's been better than average, but it could have been so much more.