Remember Me

Sometimes, it is hard for a reviewer to separate expectation and reality. When you see a project that has promise and potential, you sometimes create expectations as to what the final product will be like. This is the problem I've had to deal with when reviewing, “Remember Me.” It's a game that takes place in a dystopian future where memories can be manipulated by technology. Companies can create new memories, delete old or painful ones, and sell them to anyone willing to pay for them. In this new society you have people who pay for memories of experiences they've never had. People who pay to have the painful memories replaced with more pleasant ones. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what is possible with this premise.

This is actually where one of my biggest gripes with the game starts: It never seems to deliver on the strength of its ideas. There is one point in the game where it presents a prison where the prisoner's memories have been altered in such a way that they never remember not being in prison. You play as Nillin, a “memory-hunter” with the ability to control and manipulate memory at will. She can delete memories and replace them with new ones and in fact, this is actually a core game play mechanic. I should qualify though, that when I say “core,” I actually mean, “shows up only a handful of times.” This is but one example of how poor execution really hurts this game.

To continue with the story, when we meet Nillin, she is in the process of having her memory erased. She is guided by the mysterious Edge, a leader of a resistance faction known as The Errorists who are opposed to the memory-manipulative technology and fight to see it destroyed along with the company that peddles the stuff. Nillin herself has a sort of amnesia and is told by Edge that she is actually a messiah of sorts for the Errorists. As great and talented and awesome as we are told Nillin is, one can't help but feel as though she's just a generic fighter that does whatever she is told. The reason for this being is that for large portions of the game, she simply goes from objective to objective, all of which are given to her by Edge without any real deviation.

In fact, the linear quality of the game is another area where it struggles. You see, there are a lot of platforming bits within the game. While I'm completely on board with platforming in all of its forms, I'm not so much a fan of giant, yellow arrows pointing to the next ledge I have to jump to. There is never a point where you are ever lost, confused, or are very aware of what your next objective is. The game spells it all out for you in very bright, apparent detail. While this is useful to an extent, it takes much of the fun of exploration that could have been had.

Since I mentioned exploration, that is another area that the game simply doesn't deliver on. I understand that this isn't Skyrim, so we shouldn't be expecting an open world. Honestly, I'm not that huge on open-world games to begin with. What I would have been happy with is a few simple moments of interaction. Times where I felt like I was actually apart of the game's bleak, filthy, futuristic vision of Neo-Paris. To the game's credit there are quite a few collectibles here and there. They come in the form of text logs that explain more of the background of the world. While it makes for some good reading, it is simply does not make you feel apart of this world. There are stores and cafes, people who litter the streets, none of which you can really interact with. Even hidden items are revealed to you in the form of little screens that pop-up in each new area. This absolutely kills what little exploration there is to be had.

One of the game's true core gameplay elements come in the form of its combat. This is another area where the idea is better than its execution. The combat plays out a lot like Batman: Arkham City. There is a menu option called the “Combo Lab,” where you acquire special attacks called, “Pressens.” In the combo lab, you can combine Pressens you find in the game to create unique combo attacks. Some Pressens are designed for dealing massive damage, while others are designed to heal Nillin upon contact. The potential for crazy combinations is there, but again, it just doesn't happen. Most of the time, you just combine your best healing Pressens and spam them to victory. There really is no need to use any of the other options when one good, healing Pressen combo is all you need. The timing on actually executing the combos is a little awkward. It takes some adjusting and is certainly doable, but it is hardly fun. Especially when you consider that even minor enemies take a long time to take down. It should be noted that healing Pressens do less damage then normal or damage Pressens, but even with these alternatives encounters seem to drag on much longer than necessary. Simply put: The fighting is a chore and it is 60% of what you do in the game.

To re-tread a point about an earlier mechanic, the ability to manipulate the memories of others is actually the most fun you'll have playing this. How it works is this: There are moments in the game where Nillin dives into someone's mind and views a particular memory. You watch a cut scene of the memory and at the end, you are instructed to manipulate the scene. How this is done is through carefully “re-winding” the scene and finding little interact-able cues. Not all cues are needed though, and part of the fun and challenge is finding what combinations lead to the desired memory. As an example, one of the first memories you have to change is one of your would-be assassin. The memory in question is of the assassin watching a memory of a loved one being treated by the company which hired her. Instead of being cured, your job is to change her memory in such a way as to have her believe the person was killed in the operation.

My expectations were admittedly high for this one. A female-lead game with themes such as identity and the importance of memory? What's not to like about that. The problem comes in that many of the games' ideas are simply either not fleshed out very well, or are very poorly executed. This isn't to suggest that there isn't some fun to be had. Again, memory manipulation is a blast. But it happens so little that it is hardly worth the price of admission.

Stay away from this one.

2 out of 5