Remember Me Review: Sadly Forgettable

Game Reviewed: Remember Me

Release Date: June 4th, 2013

Developer: DONTNOD Entertainment

Publisher: Capcom

Platform: [Reviewed: PlayStation 3], XBOX 360, PC

Genre: Action

Rated: M for Mature

To be quite honest, for me, Capcom’s and DONTNOD Entertainment’s new title Remember Me has been one of the hardest games to remember. But the time has come where the title has fully surfaced and leaves you know choice but to “remember” its presence.  The only question that lies is how will it be remembered.

Welcome to Paris, Neo-Paris to be exact, as Nilin, one of the greatest memory hunters there are. So much that her memory has been wiped clean and been erased  by authorities, through M3MORIZE. They fail to get the job done as Edge and a few members of a special cause to expose the organization free Nilin and attempts to help her retrieve her memory.

The first type of enemies you’ll be combative with are leapers. Leapers are underground humans that seemed to have just barely survived a memory wipe and death. You’ll find the combat system similar to those of both The Amazing Spider-man and Rocksteady’s Arkham Asylum and City.

You can earn new combos and special abilities by consistently landing combos as the enemies pile up. The combos can appear through different colors, granting Nilin health,  making combos more powerful, shortening the recovering time for special powers and more.

The game also strings together elements from Assassin’s Creed through its platforming. Climb and leap boundaries to get from one objective to another. While it was a fun aspect in AC, it doesn’t quite work here.

Both the combat and platform become too excessive to enjoy further than you may want to. As you fight enemies, you’ll find yourself tackling on anywhere from 4-10 leapers or other foes. But the mind-numbing amount of attacking becomes over saturated and quickly feel bland and uninteresting.

The climbing and dropping isn’t any better. It is almost as if the developers ran out of ideas of what to do with the heroine and settled for this route. In fact, Nilin does much more climbing than walking .

The game’s biggest aspect is Memory Remixes. Memory Remixes are moments that Nilin has the power to go back in time and manipulate “glitches” in the time the memory takes place. There is more than one event that can alter the outcomes and play a huge factor for the progression, and worth every bit of it. The true problem is the lack of its usage. It’s genuinely the highlight of Remember Me that will be remembered more than anything else.

Nilin’s story plays feels like a movie and graphically reminds me of Mirror’s Edge. Neo-Paris has it’s highlights but you can never truly experience it. The lack of having the opportunity to steal memories or even alter them is a sheer disappointment.  With all that Nilin is designed to do, one would expect a bit of open-world capabilities. Unfortunately you are only able to follow the story’s path from beginning to end.

Remember Me definitely had the potential to be something greater, but fell short to deliver on what was offered. The Memory Remixes alone, if utilized more throughout the campaign, could have raised the bar, giving gamers a new element to continuously look forward to. But overall, its final impression is an unfortunate lackluster.

The Scores

Gameplay: 3/5

Visuals: 3.5/5

Audio: 3/5

Controls: 3/5

Value: 2.5/5

Overall Rating: 3/5