Remember Me? Possibly... - by scumble
scumble on 9/3/2014 at 10:34
I don't know if this is a problem with my attention, but I seem to have failed to keep going with either Thief or Dishonored, and then I randomly bought Remember Me because Amazon made a suggestion.
It has a PC version, but clearly this was designed with consoles in mind. It's easier to play with an XBOX controller.
The core of this game turns out to be almost an old fashioned beat 'em up. Not a gun in sight, or any conventional projectile weapon. It's a bit like going back to Final Fight, but having it look nicer. That wasn't really a comparison of the games, but it reaches back to those 80s side-scrollers with an endless supply of baddies. Unfortunately it has some of the repetitiveness. It's made vaguely more interesting with the ability to play with combos of hits that have a secondary effect like healing, or speeding up the recovery of a super-move that has a cool-down period. In terms of actually affecting how the combat works it just seems to be a a way of shuffling various kicks and punches.
This combo thing is like merging the more recently common vs fight 'em up with the older style of continuous oncoming thugs etc.
Added to that is a bit of Lara Croft like jumping and climbing between ledges.
The thing is, in this case the combination of familiar gameplay elements makes it kind of relaxing to play, and the fights are interesting enough to start with. Unfortunately it suffers from "tedious boss battle" syndrome - the first one I encountered makes you repeat a sequence several times until you have time to see which buttons the game wants you to press to complete the battle. I don't see what this adds to something that's really just a cutscene finishing move thing. That was similarly daft in Far Cry 3 - pressing the right button in time. Reduces gameplay to nothing essentially. The only game I've played that has boss battles done well is Okami. Every other time I've had to deal with boss battles it has just been annoying for me. Why the hell do they have to keep doing this? It's a holdover from 80s arcade games that I can do without. I guess some people like boss battles which require the "Specific Weakness" must be exploited to win, but to me it's a dull part of the game that's a chore to get through so I can carry on with the actual fun bit. Metroid Prime 3 was ruined for me by a boss battle that I just couldn't be bothered to keep retrying, so I didn't finish the game.
The originality element, which apparently isn't used as much as it could have been, is the main character's abilities. I was a little annoyed with the reviewers revealing how the plot emerges, as you start only knowing you are this woman called Nilin who is having her memory wiped via this memory device that everyone has called a Sensen. It allows people to replay certain memories or experience someone else's. She is apparently a memory hunter, but I'm not sure what that means yet so I'm rolling with the fact that Nilin shouldn't know who she is either. So she can steal memories if she's close enough to someone's Sensen, and in a pinch apparently rearrange memories fast to stop someone killing someone. This stretches believability a bit, as "remixing" a memory takes a while in game, but it's enough to make this game stand out. However I think an opportunity was missed to make this more of a part of the gameplay, rather than something the game throws at you at specific points. Also there doesn't seem to be much choice about how you alter memories so it gets reduced to a puzzle rather than a question of what you feel comfortable doing noodling with someone else's mind. This seems to be a common problem in a world where so much effort has to go into designing game assets, a lot of unrealised potential in story telling.
The game does look very good mind you, so I can't fault it much on that, but I have read that bits of it lack variety later on. The environment of Neo-Paris is very well realised. I think the walking and idle animations are a little above par too, and so far they are consistent with the context of the game. There's quite a good "almost falling over" bit, and later on the character has a furtive looking around sort of look. The only trouble is that this comes across as scripted rather than the game responding to what you're doing.
Jason Moyer on 9/3/2014 at 12:38
The combat is much better, if no less repetitive, later in the game as are the boss battles imho as they actually require you to have some strategy to your combos as well as using your special powers (sensen or whatever the game calls them, I can't remember). The atmosphere/world/story + the remixing bits are brilliant throughout though, imo. The primary negative I had with the game was the camera, which ranges anywhere from tolerable to barely functional.
henke on 9/3/2014 at 13:14
I played it after Christmas and I'm having a hard time remembering much of it. I think it was alright though, just utterly forgettable.
scumble on 9/3/2014 at 18:07
That can be a problem with games that follow a lot of the common elements. Entertaining but not memorable. I tend to have phases of intense gaming followed by a gap of a few months so I have probably gone through fewer games than most gamers here. The upside of being like that is I usually get to catch up on a lot of interesting games. I think in practical terms it tends to follow me acquiring some updated hardware...
The first boss battle was very annoying, so I hope there is some improvement. The most memorable bit was actually realising the voice actor was the same guy who did the male orcs in Skyrim.
Something I forgot to mention is that I was pleased the main protagonist was voiced by an english actor, yet maybe it would have been better if they'd got some French actors instead. It's a bit weird that the location is Paris but it's mostly full of Americans. Possibly no more annoying than the fact that Jean-luc Picard is supposed to be French, but I reckon Audrey Tatou would have been a great choice for Nilin, for example. My knowledge of French actors isn't exactly extensive mind you...
henke on 9/3/2014 at 20:13
Actually, you can switch the spoken language to French, and just have English subtitles.
scumble on 10/3/2014 at 11:07
I didn't think of that. It would make it seem a little more convincing being in Paris.
I'd re-iterate Jason's comments about the camera - it's a pain when you have to keep switching stuff on in a particular fight. I refer to the bit where you have to battle the invisible leapers that can only be seen under a floodlight, and you have to twiddle the camera to see the switch. It's also a pain when you have to get leapers off the wall. I also don't like it when you are only given one way to get round a particular situation like that one. I can see where they were going with tweaking your combos for various fights, but the implementation is a bit flaky. It would have been better if the game was a bit more forgiving about timing hits so you don't have to spend all your time watching your combo display at the bottom of the screen to pull them off.
The way they've done things just makes it feel too close to the old "choice" based games like Dragon's Lair, which was just an interactive laserdisc. I remember having a little go on that when I was about 7 and the timing element was a real pain...
