If you are reading this, chances are that you have played Dark Souls, or at least know about FromSoftware’s legendary series. How could you not, really? Throughout its three installments Dark Souls produced a revolutionary experience that it carved out an entire sub-genre of action RPG’s. Nothing says you’ve shaken things up like having a suffix attached to your game’s name: Souls-like.
However, something unexpected happened on the 22nd of March. The gaming community could once again bask in the brilliance of Hidetaka Miyzaki’s design philosophy, but it was Seikiro and not Dark Souls 4 that landed on shelves. Seikiro looked, played, sounded and felt like Dark Souls, and rumour told that it even tasted the same if you licked your monitor.
Still, many felt something was missing. Fans longed for the days when they could once again light bonfires amidst the ruins of a godforsaken castle. Their withdrawal symptoms did not go unnoticed by publishers eager to capitalise on the Dark Souls-shaped absence in our Steam libraries (that even the re-release of Dark Souls couldn’t really fill).
Some interesting attempts have therefore crawled out of the woodwork in recent times. There was an Irishman fighting Yokai in Japan, dudes in exo-suits wielding chainsaws on polearms, and even a game where developers couldn’t be bothered to give their characters faces. Now we have Code Vein, the latest entry that looks at all the Souls clones and says: “Step aside folks! Let anime show you how its done.”
If you can’t beat ‘em… use a bigger sword?
It is seriously difficult to review Code Vein and not make it sound like I am writing about a FromSoftware game. During marketing for this game, Bandai Namco even used the catchphrase from Dark Souls “Prepare to die” and changed it to “Prepare to dine,” so you have an idea just how eagerly this game borrows from its pedigree.
As it turns out, this was only the tip of the iceberg. The characters in Code Vein also exhibit that same, floaty movement. There is a heavy focus on stats and the maintenance of your stamina bar. Enemies will likewise attack based on proximity triggers. The bonfires have now been replaced with ‘mistle’. The twisty, curvy paths are designed to curve in on themselves…
I could do this all day. Frankly, I almost got disappointed when I didn’t see the words “YOU DEFEATED” every time I destroyed a boss, and no “YOU DIED” when the last dregs of my health bar left the screen.
However, there is something unashamed and deliberate about this ride on Miyazaki’s coattails, because it is precisely in moments when Code Vein is most loyal to the Souls design that the experience is at its best. The devs have replicated the FromSoftware formula with surprising accuracy, and, as such, Code Vein feels more like a homage to the genre rather than a money-snatching, Soulsborne knockoff disguised in anime.
As you would expect, this is a game that wants to make you feel vulnerable. Like the majority of its brethren, the gameplay involves exploring an extremely hostile, open world with environments that carry a persistent sense of death and destruction. Danger is everywhere, with enemies around every turn that can disintegrate the player in just one or two swipes.
Why even go outside then? Well, this is all in pursuit of a central currency in this game called ‘Haze’ (which is Code Vein’s way of saying ‘Souls’). Haze gets you the good stuff which could be anything from sword upgrades, maximising the efficiency of spells and leveling up.
As you’d expect all that Haze will be snatched away from you if you die, but at least they will be floating patiently at the last spot you kicked the bucket. Make sure you do not die on the way to retrieve them though, as you will instantly loose all that sweet moola FOREVER… and ever… and ever…
Bloody good and bloody awful
One of the areas where Code Vein’s gameplay is perhaps superior to other entries in this genre is the emphasis on flexibility. When you look at the stats screen for your character, the abundance of numbers makes you feel like accidentally walking into a seminar on theoretical physics.
Those stats are there for the player to manipulate as they see fit in order to turn themselves into their the best version of a vampiric fighting machine. You have access to a really staggering array of offensive perks and buffs which you can manipulate with numerous weapons, spells, armour (‘Blood Veils’), special items or by altering your entire character class (Blood Code) on the fly.
I couldn’t ignore the reality that the combat felt just a tad bit clumsy, and I noticed that levels often allowed enemies to jump out from behind objects, or drop from the ceiling at the player. However, using this impressive arrangement of variables, perks and play styles, Code Vein’s swordplay always felt interesting and engaging.
It really surprised me how soon I could be turned into chopped liver being dependent on one particular character build, only to emerge victorious by swapping around a few things. In this way, the gameplay always felt like it presented a strategic difficulty and that I was being pushed to play smarter rather than harder.
This customization even stretches to your companion, which is perhaps one of Code Vein’s biggest idiosyncrasies. For players that prefer a little companionship while they slaughter, you have the option to to string along a constant AI partner to bully monsters. You also get to choose your partner’s class in case you prefer more help with spells, or if you prefer a companion with a sword.
Yes, it is true: Code Vein does not quite match the same levels of sadistic difficulty as Soulsborne games. So, for veteran players, I would therefore advise tapering your expectations. To someone who has always been reluctant to play these games due to their difficulty, Code Vein might actually be an excellent place to dive in before moving on to more unforgiving games.
Not making out head or tale
I have been putting off discussing the central plot in Code Vein because I haven’t the faintest idea what the hell is going on here, even after Steam has just ticked over to 26 hours. Something about the miasma causing people to die who were brought back to life by viruses, and then trees stopped giving off blood beads because of the zombies everywhere, so the strong vampires enslaved the weak ones, and then humans became enslaved, but thankfully your character can make the trees bleed again because they are all connected by arteries underground and your job is to kill the queen vampire… wait what??
I am no stranger to the convoluted narratives of anime, but in Code Vein I had no idea what my character was supposed to be involved in. This is because of the game’s tendency to overload you with plot details at every chance, which didn’t so much achieve building up the game’s narrative as making me feel lost.
Also, many female characters like Io sport excellent boobs (more on that below!) so I was… uhm… a little distracted perhaps when they were discussing important plot points. Naughty Pieter!
Yet another visual triumph
The Unreal Engine 4 is now officially my favourite game engine of all time. Every single title I have played over the last year looks freakin’ awesome on this platform, and Code Vein firmly joins the ranks.
While the enemy designs are awfully generic, this is definitely the most colourful and flashy game I have ever played in this genre. It comes as a refreshing change from the washed out greys and browns we have been inundated with in Soulsborne games in recent times.
The frantic particle effects also add another layer of icing on the game’s visuals, and there are also some striking animations for finishing moves as well. However, the biggest award in aesthetics must go to Code Vein’s character creator.
As noted by Jim Sterling, Code Vein’s greatest achievement in this day and age is the fact that players have been given customisation options to rival even The Sims, and Bandai Namco have not asked for a single cent extra in microtransactions. Whether you want to spend hours making your perfect waifu, or trying to recreate the leading characters of your favourite anime, chances are you will have a blast with all the options available here.
I have been reading quite a few objections to the opulent cleavage for female characters in this game, but I kind of like it because it takes me back to when games were still allowed to be sexy. Rather than seeing this as rampant over sexualisation, it is nice to experience a game being a little more daring in terms of depicting naughty eye-candy.
This kind of audacity is just rare in games nowadays, and I prefer to see this as Code Vein affirming it is not for kids. If anything, this just shows I am an aging player from a bygone era. If you are offended, don’t worry: we are a dwindling breed.
Stories around the bonfires
Whenever you have a genre that begins filling up with copycats, it always makes the whole thing feel like a fad the industry needs to get over. This is particularly the case with battle royale games where it seems studios are more eager to stick a finger in the pie made of money rather than taking risks with their own ideas. The market is more competitive than ever, yes, but even highly-populated scenes should still reward originality, right?
I almost do not want to like Code Vein as such. For all its visual fanfare, Code Vein is far from original in its basic formula. In truth, if you play this stuff all the time, I cannot guarantee that this game will not just end up feeling like more of the same once the anime novelty wears off.
Then again, it is precisely Code Vein’s surprisingly meticulous adherence to FromSoftware’s blueprints that may appeal to you, and it is what I liked most about it. There is a rock-solid Soulsborne experience lying underneath all the anime hullabaloo, and the versatility in tailoring the overall experience will make Code Vein worth playing for the newbies and pro’s alike.
- Diverse character builds
- Gorgeous visuals
- Amazing character creator
- True Souls-like title
- Forgiving difficulty
- Bland enemy design
- Convoluted narrative
- Information overload
Playtime: 26 hours total. Includes substantial amount of… uhm… dying
Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox One Controller
Pieter hails all the way from the tip of southern Africa and suffers from serious PC technophilia. Therapists say it is incurable. Now he has to remind himself constantly that gaming doesn’t count as a religion even if DRM is the devil. Thankfully, writing reviews sometimes helps with the worst symptoms.
Funny, you didn’t put Japanese Garbage as a Con. I almost thought this wasn’t a joke review for a second.
This game was a waste of a Download and I have unlimited internet. Thank heavens for piracy, cause if I had bought this, I would’ve been pissed As Hell. Piracy is a very underrated service. Rubbish, lazily implemented & lazy combat games like these are why Demos no longer exists. Because they know…
see, thats the thing, i pirated dark souls because the pc version was crap, i played it, didnt like it, i never bothered with the series ever again. If i bought it i wouldn’t be able to refund it because it takes too much time to make progress. If i bother with any of those games again, i will pirate it to see if i like them. I just want a old school challenging action adventure that isnt just complete bs masochism, so i cant give money up front for something that might be almost as cheesy and grindy as a roque like.
“I just want a old school challenging action adventure that isnt just complete bs”
Which brings me to this… Me and my buddies started to game together again. It all started with Remnant, we sunk 70 hours into that game. After we’re done, we decided to keep it moving with other games just to mix up. You know what the problem is? In order to keep gaming together, we noticed that we’re playing games from 2011-2012. Because of what you just said, all these games are utter garbage.
WE HAVE nothing good to play together. The games are all Utter Garbage. It’s 2019 and all I’m playing is Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer. And yes that MP is still alive as hell. This fact is unacceptable, these games are all garbage. Nothing in 2019 or to look forward to. Because, if it’s not the tired AZz gameplay then there is the Shady Azz business practices & DRM. The gaming industry is PURE FECES.
from the ashes?
Also i wouldnt say garbage there are some decent AA games outhere but nothing exceptional. Apparently there are some zelda clones, decay of logos, pine,a knights quest, oceanhorn 2. Might wanna check them out.
It is totally cool if this game is not for you, and I agree that a demo is a criminally underrated means of giving people a sample of how your game plays (and not to mention excellent marketing for a game).
However, piracy is never okay. It is blatant theft and you are dead wrong if you think it has any kind of positive effect. We must leave piracy to the petty lowlifes and bottom-feeding thieves who are unable to get a real job and thus pay for the things they want like an upstanding, normal human being.
We gamers must trust in the power of our wallets rather than resort to common thievery. If a game is worthy of anyone’s money, we must band together and make sure it succeeds rather than making a virus-ridden, substandard version of it available on nefarious sites. Look at what happened with Darq – now that shows you the power of money and when gamers collectively support something they believe in.
“We gamers must trust in the power of our wallets….”
Ya, the only problem with this, is that most “gamers”, are brain-dead dolts. Why else does CoD, FIFA, Madden, NBA 2K, and all this other money siphoning garbage, top the charts each year?
Your stance of “speak with your wallet”, is like a whisper in a hurricane. Those days are over.
Preach it brother, I feel like I’m in church right now. Love the sermon, 100% Gospel.
Your wallet is still very powerful, and again, look at the example of Darq. Let the ‘brain-dead dolts’ spend their life savings on virtual slot machines if they want to in the games that they play. Maybe you can find a way to make money off them yourself!
Ask yourself, what are YOU as an intelligent gamer going to do once that crap comes to YOUR games. You just don’t give them a cent! Look at what happened with Shadow of War. That is an example of intelligent gamers collectively saying “No, get that rubbish out of our LOTR game. Go make half-arsed basketball games out if you want to pull those schemes.”
However, piracy is never okay. It is blatant theft and you are dead wrong if you think it has any kind of positive effect.
Ok then, piracy is never ok you say? And what the companies are doing to us is totally?. Ghost Recon: Break Bank is all good right? EA Games, Ubisoft, Take 2, Timmy Tennent & Square Enix; these are all not predatory Bank Robbers? You buy a game from them and all you get is Jam pack full of DRM, MicroTRANNYactions & good luck buying the “Everything Edition” Because it doesn’t exist.
we must band together and make sure it succeeds rather than making a virus-ridden, substandard version of it available on nefarious sites.
So what would you call the entire line up of Ubisoft games that is riddled with MicroTRANNYactions & DRM? it’s a sad day when pirated Games are more safer than what the publishers SELL TO YOU. Or what about Borderlands 3 with their key logger and constantly phoning home. You’re Delusional and very unfair dude. You need to look long and hard at the State of gaming affairs these days. Its not very hard to see who the real criminals are.
I was once like you but effective Feburary 2019 I started pirating games again. Before that I haven’t pirated anything since 2004. Then I looked at the State of gaming and I realize that I had become a fool for purchasing rubbish and paying for malicious software to be on my PC. With that said, yes I pirate; but I do have standards. I only pirate Denuvo & Epic Exclusives. Why the hell would I pay money for a game I never own? Are you mental. Try going offline and then booting up a Denuvo game you haven’t played in a week and see what happens.
In closing, You need to think long and hard before you defend these practices dude. You sound like a slave that’s defending his Time in bondage. You started out good but when you went into scolding me for leaving the plantation, that’s where i draw the line son. You can stay a slave picking that cotton, to each is own, but don’t start with that self-righteous rubbish.
I live in a third-world country, and if you really want to see the horrors of Denuvo and that classic Ubisoft DRM in their final form, come check out my third-world style internet. If there was ever an incentive to just hop onto pirate bay, this is it.
Yet, I am not going to. Must I allow Epic Store, Ubisoft and whatever game is running Denuvo to make a thief out of me? No thank you, I work really hard for my money and I would rather then just not play their game. I refuse to give them my money until they sort out their ridiculous, draconian DRM schemes, and I especially refuse to let them force me into thievery.
Do not pirate games my friend. If a company is pushing nefarious copyright protection or sly gambling practices, believe in the power of your wallet, and just don’t give them a cent. Publishers cannot operate on hopes and dreams so they have no chance when people just don’t play their stuff, pirated or otherwise.
This is as misguided as you think pirating supposedly is. One person or even a hundred thousand people aren’t going to stop companies from using DRM on major releases that sell millions, it’s a conscious choice a developer has to make to not include it at all, and they don’t have to include it to make a game successful. The Wither 3 had a no DRM release and it was one of the most popular games ever released in the history of gaming.
Point is, developers are going to make the decision and your “wallet voting” is severally under-powered compared to how many people play video games and purchase them. DRM is about control of a product and planned obsolescence. If a company wants you to not play a game, they will simply take away your ability to play the game. We’ve seen this time and time again with games going always online or relying on certain master servers for multiplayer. Or simply making the DRM not function any more, which leads to you having to pirate your own software that you own because some sociopath accountant decided your money didn’t matter at all.
Your wallet isn’t helping with that at all. That’s simply the way the video games industry has been moving for the past ten years. As much as I support not buying certain games as a collective whole, I also realized a long time ago that there are millions of people purchasing these video games and the majority of them have no idea what DRM is, or care about what DRM is. As long as that’s true than pirating the games they put this “draconian DRM” in is a fine decision.
You can do what you want. You to stroke your morally righteous and superiority complex ego? By all means do it.
I’ll continue to support people pirating software as long as video game companies currently head down this road.
Is this a satirical comment? You’re either kidding or you’re so full of yourself that it’s astonishingly borderline satirical. The way you talk about Piracy is practically Refer Madness levels of fear mongering nonsense. It’s downright hilarious.
“As noted by Jim Sterling…”
Now there’s a great reason to not buy this game.
Bingo! & A very terribly lazy excuse for a game.
You have to be incredibly thin-skinned to let the opinion of One Person completely inform your decision making abilities.
But I guess life is easier when you can’t think for yourself
Projecting, much. Nice straw man, too.
I saw your other recent posts. The butthurt is strong in you.
Lol, and using the term “Straw Man” seems to be the only kind of argument you know how to make.
Just admit that its absolutely dumb to say you don’t like something because someone else likes it. Only children think like that.
Still straw manning, I see. I’m sorry for you that you’re triggered by the truth as your posts here and in previous threads demonstrate. Like I said, the butthurt is strong in you.
Eh, I still don’t see how I’m Straw Manning your argument. You claimed that this Jim Sterling guy was a good enough reason not buy the game, and I called that into question, because from my perspective, it just seems like a dumb Opinion.
Indeed you don’t. Thank you for your opinion.
anytime
Suprised jimbo isnt whining about the big boobs.
His own?
no anime t**ties.
DSOG – “The Unreal Engine 4 is now officially my favorite game engine of all time. Every single title I have played over the last year looks freaking’ awesome on this platform, and Code Vein firmly joins the ranks.”
UE4 is definitely a great engine. we’ve seen so many different games use it that you would not even believe if you left that detail out.
literally 200,000 PlayStation gamers on youtube mistaken UE4 for Decima with titles such as “The Inpatient” “Hidden agenda” and “Dark Pictures.”
Dark Pictures though is pretty interesting, which it received the blunt of complaints after made aware of it’s UE4 based development change. but the interesting news actually Dark Pictures models are comprised of reused Hidden Agenda Models. for which you can see the cast below. along with their reception.
https://i.imgur.com/8Wa1JdV.jpg
“literally 200,000 PlayStation gamers on youtube mistaken UE4 for Decima with titles such as “The Inpatient” “Hidden agenda” and “Dark Pictures.”
What are you talking about?
this is years old news but yeah it’s correct.
the first videos uploaded on youtube of the The Inpatient and Hidden agenda were flooded with decima engine comments.
DF recently corrected the fan base that these older games were running on UE4.
edit – check the official trailer comments below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROKKStfVIjg
then read the DF comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9sqmIyAFCI
then view the comparison above.
That dude is a Blatant Homosexual. shoving that purple dildo up his own azz every day, cause i doubt he has a Boyfriend. Even Gay dudes have standards.
well, no one has seen him and his wife in the same room.
Is Jim married? I literally know nothing about that douche, besides that he repeats the same argument nine-hundred times across his videos and exploits his audience to make money.
“Convoluted narrative
Information overload”
basically japan.
I just realized John likes to have opinions that triggers DSOG readers to make people comment and stay on the site, like supporting Denuvo, EGS and sometimes the SJW agenda. Im not gonna even open that “news” about “Denuvo protecting Borderlands 3”, protecting from what John? From people that didnt even planned to buy that game, while hurting legal owners? So naive, so narrow minded, when John become like this? When Epic money start to buy the media, I guess. I recommend you to start looking somewhere as Im doing. It was good while it last, Good Bye DSOG.
I ended up really enjoying the game, the blood code system is a great addition and kept me changing up weapons and abilities right until the end. It is insanely heavy on cutscenes which got a bit much but they are done well and skippable. I just keep hoping some souls like game will have the balls to include an invasion mechanic, From are still the only ones to give us that.
Actually story is very good, and if you follow, you will understand no problem.
If the game is too easy you can play solo, just talk to your current companion and tell them to stop following you. This makes a huge difference in terms of difficulty.