Imagine the most beautiful thing you ever laid eyes upon or the most fantastic experience you ever had. It’s nice isn’t it? Replaying that memory in your head. It gives you a calm and satisfied feeling, you want to go back to that place, you want to relive that memory. The beauty about memories is that nobody can see them, nobody can see your deepest secrets. This will change in the future. Companies like Memorize will monetize your memories and delete or add other memories straight into your brain as they please. The rich will gain more money while the poor loses their humanity completely. A world like this calls for an avenger. A world like this calls for Nilin.
Neo-Paris, year 2084, Nilin wakes up confused and disoriented in the high secured prison ‘La Bastille’. She doesn’t know where she is, the only thing she remembers is her name and that’s too much. Her core memory needs to be deleted, she walks towards the deleting-machine when a mysterious person called ‘Edge’ makes contact to save her. Confused and afraid she manages to escape the prison and enter the slums of Neo-Paris. Her adventure of remembering who she really is can finally start.
Needless to say, you control Nilin in Remember Me, a new IP created by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom. Releasing a new IP in the already flooded market isn’t an easy choice. Dotnod Entertainment took the risk and delivered one of the most refreshing games of this year. A new IP needs a good story, the story in Remember Me is deep and forces you to act as humane as possible. You’ll often find Nilin struggling with her own thoughts, wondering if what she’s doing really is the right thing.. Based on all the sacrifices you’ll have to make during your adventure it’s not weird for her to do so. While Nilin seems to struggle sometimes, the player will start to wonder the same thing and will think the same way as Nilin. This truly is the power of the story.
As said before the story is about the company Memorize and their diabolical grip on memories in the futuristic Paris of 2084. Memorize gathered all memories of the citizen and can delete or add some in citizen’ brains, for the greater good. Nilin was a threat, a danger for the company and needed to be wiped form the earth as soon as possible. Nilin is a memory hunter and can steal and even remix memories of each individual. She does so by hacking the Sensen (sensation engine, upload portal of memories straight in the brain) and steals whatever she needs. Memorize tried to stop her but failed. Now it’s up to Nilin to defeat the organization and punish the rich for ignoring the poor.
It sounds rather confusing but the story really is the beating heart of the game. It’s because of the thrilling story that you’ll find yourself returning to Nilin’s world faster than you might first expect. Of course a videogame is far more than just a beautiful story. What really matters is the gameplay. Remember Me didn’t stick to one path but created a unique combination of an action-adventure mixed with RPG elements.
One of the first things you’ll do in Remember Me is jump and run through your environment using Nilin’s acrobatic skills to jump from ledge to ledge with just air between her and the ground. Consider this as a light version of the Prince of Persia platform sections but with the same amount of satisfaction once you reach your goal. Remember Me is quite hard on the platform sections, once you fall (and you’ll fall multiple time), you’ll have to restart that same section with a little less health.
Remember Me really turned out to be a refreshing game.
While jumping and running her way to her goal, Nilin will be forced to stop at certain points of her parcours. She’s a wanted errorist (criminal who can erase memories) and will often have to face the guards in combat. When you enter the slums you’ll have to face the more dangerous Leakers (mutants that had their brain drained too many times) in open combat. The combat is the second important gameplay element and tries to innovate what others did before.
The big difference between other games and Remember Me is that you’re able to create your own combos in the combo lab. By selecting certain buttons in a row, you can create new combos. Nilin fights with her hands and feet rather than guns, so mastering those combos is key to survival. When you activate enough combos during combat, you’ll gain so called Focus. Nilin needs this to activate her special and more powerful attacks. The first one you’ll get (remember) is the Fury-mode where she turns into a brutal killing machine. These moves are called S-Pressens and need a cool down once activated. Later in the story you’ll unlock other S-Pressens moves like D.O.S, Camo, Logic Bomb and R.I.P.
The fun part about creating your own combo is that some moves have a little extra power like Regen, Power, Cooldown and Chain. An example, if the second X-button you hit during a combo is equipped with the Cooldown power, you’ll be able to activate your next S-Pressens faster than before. Combining these special buttons with regular buttons and creating your own combos is innovating and makes the battle far more personal. It’s a great innovation but it couldn’t stop the battles from becoming repetitive after a while. The battles always remain the same and you won’t find pleasure in all of them. Lucky for us, there’s something much bigger than combat.
The last gameplay element is called Memory Remixes and really is the star of the game. The goal of Memory Remixes is finding the key to change someone’s memory. Someone who just tried to kill you can turn out as one of your best friends once you messed with their memories. You can rewind or fast-forward the memory and look for things you can change. Not everything you change ends up the way you want the memory to be, so you really have to think and find the only good solution. This puzzle is something completely different and challenging nevertheless. Remixing memories is one of the greatest things to do in the game, too bad you won’t be doing it often.
Dotnod Entertainment tried hard to make a triple A IP and you can really tell by the way the game looks. Remember Me is a slick, detailed and beautiful game. The beauty often comes from monuments such as the Eiffel Tower or Sacré Coeur , showcasing its beauty in the background of the game. Remember Me is created with love and you can really tell. Aside from the graphics, the soundtrack also hits the right spot. The soundtrack is created by an orchestra and activates and adepts while you’re fighting. Activating combos will result in a steamy-beat. It’s a nice little touch but proves that both Dotnod and Capcom wanted to deliver a great game.
We can say that they did deliver a great game but not a perfect game. Remember Me’ main problem is the lack of freedom. Nilin always has to walk a programmed path and can’t deviate from it. Not only the path is set in stone, so are Nilin’s emotions. It’s a bit of a shame that the player can’t interact with the inner conflicts of Nilin or act his/her own decisions out in the game. The story is based on a social problem and the way you handle it, good or bad. It’s a shame you’re forced to live the adventure as Nilin and can’t change her mind.
These minor points don’t affect the game too much, Remember Me really turned out to be a refreshing game. In a market filled with clones and emotionless characters, Nilin really is a great character to control. The story and gameplay offer enough innovation to give you an experience other than the once you had before. Remember Me isn’t a perfect game but it sure is game that can offer you one of the best gaming memories. Don’t let this new IP go down in the flood of the mainstream, open your minds and be ready to play something different this time. Remember Me deserves to be a new franchise.
