Review for Code Vein. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/09/2019
In our review today we will talk about Code Vein, which we tested on the PlayStation 4. The new IP of Bandai Namco yes rises from the ashes of the famous "Dark Souls" saga and since the launch of the promotional campaign the proximity to this game was very present (ed, also wisely exploited at the commercial level).
The slogan "Prepare to dine", published with the first trailer of Code Vein, immediately made it clear that "souls-like" genre of this new IP. But be careful: similarities but not copy-paste. The development of the game was entrusted to Hiroshi Yoshimura, the father of the famous God Eater series. It is likely that you will only remember the third installment of the series, the only one to land on PS4. The game, born on the PSP console, was famous for having anticipated a genre, the action RPG, which only a few years later would win the hearts of many nostalgic JRPGs.
God Eater's action vein has been revived and improved in Code Vein, also thanks to the new powerful means available to the Yoshimura team for the development of this new IP.
Alive or dead ... or revived
The adventure begins with the creation of our character. The huge amount of details and options left us pleasantly surprised: you can customize the details of the face, from the hair to the color of the iris. You can also change the color of the highlights on the hair. Another interesting aspect is that, once you are tired of your outfit, you will have the opportunity to access the editor and reinvent a new style.
Once your hero has been created, it is time to study. A long tutorial awaits you, where a girl with an angelic voice and breathtaking beauty named Cruz will guide you to discover the main controls and features of the game. Now, not to demonstrate the ability or not of one software house compared to another, but in terms of tutorials, many should take an example from Square Enix, with its step by step style. A tutorial aims to introduce the aspects of the game in a moderate and graduated way, so that a user, even inexperienced in the genre, is not afraid of too many notions to learn. Unfortunately Code Vein chooses the path of "everything and now", so you need a good quarter of an hour of introductory notions.
After the lesson, which fortunately for you can also be skipped, the real game begins. Your protagonist is a revived, died and risen, that it feeds only on blood. All those who cannot feed themselves, they progressively forget their origins and their identity and become corrupt, your nemesis in the game. In this version of vampirism 2.0 blood, in addition to being a source of nourishment, is also a kind of cure and medicine.
Code Vein gameplay inherits Dark Souls' legacy of offensive movement. Light, heavy, charged attacks, both while standing and moving, they will feed on stamina. Dodging and parrying, like offensive moves, will also affect her.
A special mention should be made for the dodge mechanic: depending on the type of weapon, the speed of the defensive movement varies. The sine qua non between a classic roll and a shot is given by the nature of the weapon. Sometimes they are details like these that show the depth of a game.
On the right side of the screen you will find, in addition to the minimap, the gifts, which are none other than the skills that can be equipped in Code Vein. You can equip 8 of them, each activated with a specific command. The activation of a skill consumes icore, a resource obtainable by draining the enemies.
In addition to the skills there are also objects, which can be activated using the directional arrows. They, for example, allow you to recover vital energy and stamina.
Souls Like or Anime Like?
Once the tutoring is done, our adventure up into the world of Code Vein begins. A girl, as soon as we open our eyes, manifests herself in all her beauty. The character design is typical of an anime: fine lines and large breasts (the “I see I don't see” reminded us a lot of Agent Najica). But it's not just the character design that takes you back to the world of Japanese cartoons. In the settings and scenarios there are important contaminations that recall great names from the more or less recent past: these semi-destroyed skyscrapers, almost from the post-atomic era, are very reminiscent of those of Hokuto No Ken (Kenshiro, for those who don't know). THE colors and contrasts, with the strong predominance of red (the importance of chromatic subliminal messages is fundamental and works perfectly), remembers Master Mosquiton, anime whose protagonist, coincidentally, is a vampire.
Let's close the anime parenthesis and continue with our PS4 review of Code Vein. After our awakening, we are able to gradually grasp the clues and information about the story behind the game. In this respect we remind you that it is very useful to interact with the NPCs and read the descriptions contained in the various objects. The Lore behind Code Vein is very beautiful and the work done by the developers is undoubtedly of excellent workmanship. But besides being beautiful it is also complicated, so we highly recommend enjoying every single aspect of the game.
Making a brief summary, also not to anticipate and spoil too much, it seems that the world has been hit by an event called "The great ruin", as a result of which the survivors were very few. Those left, implanted in the bodies of the corpses of the modified parasites called BOR, thus creating the revived. As in a day of the macabre version of the marmot, the latter cannot die and every time they come back to life they lose part of their human memory.
As anticipated in the first part of our Code Vein review, the only source of survival is blood. This, in addition to being drained by enemies, it can also be extracted from mistletoe plants. In fact, they periodically release fruits called "drops of blood", useful life-saving objects.
Dry mistletoe plants also act as checkpoints where health can be restored. In addition to this, you can also level up, teleport to high unlocked viscous, acquire gifts and upgrade them
This level is quite linear, although there is also a very small vertical and interconnected structure. We will also have a minimap, at the top right, which will mark the path taken by the player character and the presence of objects to be collected. In addition, there is also the possibility to unlock a definitive mapping of the surrounding area.
Good old RPG never dies
It's not easy nowadays to create an original RPG with new and unseen schemes, but Code Vein tries, introducing the blood code, a feature from which the game's title derives. It should represent the class of our character and defines the gifts we can equip, be they active or passive, and our character's stats. So far nothing new compared to a classic RPG. Code Vein invents something outside the box, the playable multiclass. Our blood code has been destroyed so we have the ability to change it whenever we want.
You will have to choose wisely why for every situation there is a suitable code. Are you a lover of hand-to-hand combat and the situation requires you to have greater physical attack power? The blood code of the Berserker will be for you. Do you want to slow the advance of a group of enemies to buy time and work out an attack strategy? The Hunger will be the solution to your problems.
In addition to the blood code, there is another aspect that describes Code Vein's RPG heart, the Veil of Blood. This is none other than the dress worn by the revenant which confers the typology of the gifts that can be equipped and of the draining attack. The latter represents the special ability that allows you to quickly eliminate enemies and thus obtain Ichor. The animations of these attacks are truly fantastic. The Veil of Blood Ivy, for example, unleashes a quick attack through thorns that protrude from the ground and pierce enemies, even from a distance.
Like the blood code, the choice of the Blood Veil must also be made according to the situation and the enemies.
In Code Vein you will never play alone but there will always be an NPC who will be part of your team and will help you throughout the game. In case you want to play online, you can either play with a friend or send a request for help. You too will have the opportunity to answer distress calls and join your new partner's session. In these co-op matches you also have the opportunity to trade items and unlock some exclusive gifts for this game mode.
It's time to take stock on the sidelines of our Code Vein PS4 review, which we feel we can call beautiful but not impressive. This is the feeling that remains at the end of our experience. The genre works and even though there are important points of contact with the souls ancestors, Code Vein still maintains its own identity. Technically the gameplay is good, but it is only suitable for an audience experienced in the sector. Although the genre is currently inflated, originality is not lacking.
► Code Vein is an Action-RPG type game developed and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 27/09/2019
