Remember Me

Created by French developer Dontnod Entertainment, and published by Capcom, this single-player game takes place in future Paris - excuse me, Neo-Paris. The exact year 2084, and in this world there exists a device called a Sensen. A device so ubiquitous it's practically mandatory all citizens of Neo-Paris wear it. And with this so-called Sensen, people are able to have their unpleasant memories removed, or pass on their pleasant memories to others. Sensens are so popular in society, they are even used to "rehabilitate" hardened criminals in a way akin to a lobotomy. The game starts the player off in control of an Errorist named Nilin, who was recently captured, and just underwent a memory wiping process. However, her resilience to the process allows her to retain memory fragments such as her name, but she recalls little else.

One of the strengths of Remember Me is the imaginative world in which the game takes place. There's something Phillip K. Dick-esque about a world that allows its inhabitants to change the perception of their lives through memory wipes. It's not an original concept, granted, but it's fleshed out by the utilization of advanced, almost Orwellian technology. There's an economic divide in Neo-Paris that allows the rich to go about their lives blissfully unaware of any hardships they may have faced, while the poor must slog around in their nearly-flooded dwellings remembering every depressing event that ever happened to them. While playing as Nilin, you're constantly told about the plight of oppressed, and the ultimate goal the Errorist movement. Their motives are commendable, but they're not entirely without fault in how they go about achieving their endgame.

Remember Me provides a unique and satisfying narrative, but it lacks a cast of deep, engaging characters. Nilin is a strong-willed female protagonist - she isn't the problem. Over the course of the game you learn a lot about her; her insecurities, her confusion over who she was; and her perseverance to find her true self. Nilin is great, even though she occasionally repeats lines so cheesy they'd make a person who's lactose intolerant throw up. Another great character is Edge - the "Otacon" to her "Snake". He communicates with Nilin from the beginning all the way to end, and you're never quite sure if his intentions are genuine, or if he's just taking advantage of a compromised Nilin. Those two are really the only characters with any depth; the rest of the cast leave a lot to be desired. You have characters that disappear shortly after they're introduced, and then you have characters with names like Bad Request, and Trace - really?

Combat in the game is very similar to Batman: Arkham City, except it's less fluid. During the game you are given to ability to unlock attack components called Pressens, which can be linked together to form a combo. The more PMP, or experience, you gain the more Pressens you can unlock. The makers of the game boast tens of thousands of Pressen combinations, and while there are four types of Pressens (damage, chain, healing, and cool down) there are only four predetermined combos you can assign them to. However, there's a lot of strategy to be found within fighting, especially when you're surrounded by numerous enemies - which happens frequently. The only way to heal yourself in battle is by completing combos with healing Pressens, but you'll go insane trying to dodge enemy attacks while keeping your combos active. Another way to dispatch of enemies is to use S-Pressens, or special moves. Each S- Pressen has a specific function that can be applied to a specific enemy, or group of enemies. But after using them one time you have to wait for them to "cool down" before you can use them again. Even then, your Focus Gauge has to be completely filled before they're even activated. And as final attack, Nilin is able to perform a Memory Overload on dazed opponents, which is a nice addition, but lacks variety. Overall, battles in Remember Me can get tedious very quickly; the repetitiveness of dodging while keeping a combo active is enough to have you begging for your own memory wipe. Yet, it's addictive experimenting with Pressen types and watching Nilin pirouette around enemies.

Outside of the battles the game plays very much like most other platformers. Nilin traverses the buildings of Neo-Paris using any object her Sensen identifies as climbable. Along the way there will be objects that must be interacted with in order to progress further. None of them offer much excitement, and sometimes act as a hindrance when all you want to do is progress through the story. It's fun and sometimes jaw-dropping walking around Neo-Paris, especially the nicer parts of the city. However, other than some isolated paths in which you can find collectables, the game pretty much keeps the player on a linear track.

Remember Me's gameplay mechanics can come off as derivative and underdeveloped. Yet, one mechanic stands out as the true reason to play Remember Me at least once. That's the memory remixing sequences - the primary feature of Remember Me, and sadly its most underutilized. When remixing memories as Nilin, you tap into a subject's Sensen device and manipulate a defining memory in the subject's life in order to influence their actions in the game's world. Each one has a set of bugs the player can alter that would allow a memory to play out differently. This feature is the most fun you'll have playing this game, and you'll find yourself hoping that a cutscene ends with a memory remixing sequence. The problem is there's only a handful of them throughout the entire game. Amazingly, no one has thought of this concept before, and it should definitely be explored more if they ever decide to make sequel.

Remember Me is the contradiction between having some truly original ideas and executing them in an ordinary fashion.

Set at the dawn of the 21st century in a dystopian version of Paris, you play as Nilin, a memory hunter, part of the 'Errorist' movement. In this world, everyone has a reality-augmenting brain implant of sorts that enables people to transfer memories between one another. Apparently, memorial manipulation feels awesome but people get addicted to it and there's all kinds of health hazards related to overdosing on a memory trip. Taking care of business in tight jeans and thigh-high boots, Nilin's goes around kicking ass and fighting 'Memorize', the corporation behind the whole memory-orgy deal.

The bleak, dystopian scenario is certainly not super original. According to a few dozen Hollywood blockbusters, neither is the memory manipulation theme. Having said that, every element in this gray universe is combined in a very specific style achieved by tasteful art, nice environments, smooth animations and a solid soundtrack. The facial detail looks a tiny bit dated, but it's still decent. On the other hand, the writing and acting can be inconsistent and even cheesy at times but, in the larger scheme of things, it works out. The sauce is the 'reality augmentation' plot device. It enhances a memorable presentation through all sorts of crazy, colorful things popping up as you travel Neo-Paris, mostly in the form of contextual indicators, signs hovering over objects or extra information about your surroundings.

The premise behind Nilin is that she can know everything about you and make you do anything she wants, due to her ability to manipulate people's memories. This is such a great concept for a video game because it opens up so many possibilities. Sadly, the chosen genre ends up as a poor vehicle that limits the potential for innovation tremendously.

Combat is based on a 2-button system that allows you to perform combos. Combos are customizable with different attacks that have a variety of properties, like life regeneration or quickening the cooldown on other, more powerful abilities. The combat is functional and mildly creative but mashing two buttons can get old fast. When not busy throwing roundhouse kicks, you'll be mostly parkouring about. The climbing is pretty straight-forward and more reminiscent of old platformers where you need to time your jumps to avoid falling to your death, which feels kind of simplistic by today's standards. On the flip side, it allows you to see some beautiful landscapes with fancy camera work every now and again.

There are also boss fights, typical environmental puzzles and other gimmicks that seldom break things up, but none even come close to the memory-remixing sequences that you'll have to submit some enemies to. You hack into their brain and a specific memory plays out. You can then pause, rewind or fast-forward it and interact with objects in the scene to trigger a different outcome, in turn shifting the victim's sense of reality. The 'interact-with-object' mechanic could use a bit more depth but, overall, these sequences are really, really well done. With the exception of Nintendo DS' Ghost Trick, I've never seen anything quite like that before. Sadly, these events are few and far between. If the game was more about this genius concept and less about the mind-numbing fighting and pointless climbing, we would have a brilliant product in our hands.

At its core, Capcom's Remember Me is a typical action/adventure title with limited core gameplay that you sort of put up with just to get to the next cool moment.

Apart from some glitches with contextual interactions and a terribly clunky camera courtesy of console-porting, the game does have a major drawback: it's incredibly linear. Level design, missions and the general format, while riding on interesting notions, make it so there's always one and only one available path to progress. When walking down the streets to your next objective, it's hard to avoid this feeling of 'look but don't touch'. There's a sincere drive to interact and play around with this gorgeous world around you, but you're not allowed. There are still some collectibles to find but, in general, you'll be doing what you're told and there's no choice involved. Some more freedom in Neo-Paris would've been great, not only to enhance the fun factor, but also replayability: being a story-driven action game, there's only so much you can do with it before you move on.

The tragedy is that the presentation and some innovative mechanics that went into this project are beyond excellent. If this had been a more open game where you can choose how to fulfill your goals, even a different kind of product altogether, like a really fleshed-out adventure game, it would've become a triple A hit. What DONTNOD Entertainment delivers, instead, is a somewhat generic experience where the entire theme and concept behind the protagonist become completely irrelevant.

A wasted opportunity to make something truly revolutionary, Remember Me turns out to be an okay action game with few neat features and fancy wrapping.