Remember Me is the first game from Dontnod Entertainment, a fairly new developer build by industry veterans from Criterion, Ubisoft, EA and more. The game’s title is a play on words that becomes apparent as players first get to know the main character and protagonist called Nilin who is a memory hunter who had her own memory erased. Remember Me is set in a futuristic sci-fi setting with Neo Paris at its center of the action. This Capcom published action platformer has one of the most intriguing worlds and settings which drew me to the game since its first trailer.
The Memorize corporation is at the heart of a major conspiracy within the world of Neo Paris where memories have become a commodity that is valuable – not just information – but currency, medical treatment and product. Memorize has found a way to digitize and store memories. Nilin had her memory erased and doesn’t know why but is hell bent to find out with any means possible. Her character is a welcomed change from the typical make hero who kicks but and curses until the fight is won. Nilin is different, unique and relate-able as a character.
Remember Me has a beautiful future steampunk look to it in which Dontnod tells a rich story which I couldn’t wait to see out even through the ending wasn’t quite as good as it should have been. Nilin’s main way of dealing with enemies is action melee combat that is driven by a customizable combo system called the ‘Pressens’ system in which players can remix and rebuild combos on the fly as new items and combo strings are unlocked. Pressens allows players to build unique combos to deal with specific bosses or rebuild health. Players are able to build power combos that can beat down foes or combos that will restore Nilin’s health meter as well as lower special ability recharge time.
The combo system is generally fun even if Nilin’s traversal controls a bit clunky. It took be a while to anticipate properly how to deal with certain situations knowing her insufficient movement abilities. This may sound overly negative but really isn’t such a bit deal in the grand scheme of things. Remember Me’s combat is fun and didn’t slow my progress. In fact, I loved being able to change combos on the fly and jump back into battle – we really haven’t seen this a lot in game, in fact – I cannot remember if I ever saw it before Remember Me.
Remember Me’s most unique and intriguing concept is the hacking into of people memories and actively rearranging them or changing a few things which alter that persons memory in Nillin’s favor. These memory remix sequences allow her to create an ally for instance but I don’t want to spoil any story beats here. I wish Remember Me had more of these sequences that it actually does but the fact that they are here set the game apart from other action games in the genre.
Unfortunately I cannot give Remember Me the highest scores on our scale because of the inferior animation and control responsiveness that make harder enemies tough to deal with – it seems that had Nilin controlled better, some parts of the game would have been more fun. The platforming in Remember Me is good and a fine way of breaking up the action.
One of the other great things about Remember Me I wanted to highlight are the great characters and story beats introduced along the way which made me want to explore the beautiful world of Neo Paris to find even more narrative in the side stories sprinkled around the city.
In the end Remember Me won me over with its great world and story even though it had some of those mechanical issues with Nilin’s controls. Some of the things that stay with me after playing Remember Me are the great memory remix sequences and the combo system that made being in menus fun. Remember Me has flaws but those are easily overshadowed by the parts of the game that kept me wanting to keep playing and seeing what happens next.
Score: 8 / 10
Resident Evil 6 was developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on June 4th. Retail copies of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were provided to us by Capcom for reviewing purposes.
