Remember Me review (Xbox 360)

Barrie finds ‘he’ll always have Paris’, but will he Remember Me?

So every now and then a game that you weren’t aware of or even heard of appears on the scene. Sometimes this is a good thing and you are pleasantly surprised and other times it is a bit more of a ‘Damn! Wish I still had never heard of this game!’. Upon receiving Remember Me and reading the back of the case, I was immediately intrigued and was hoping for a Total Recall type story in what sounded like a interesting setting, Neo-Paris. And of course when the player character is female, decent looking , and in tight clothes, who wouldn’t want to at least check the game out, if only for its visuals…

Waking up as a prisoner with very little memory of who or what you are, you are quickly reminded that you are Nilin, a member of a rebel group who aren’t big fans of the Memorize Corporation and their Sensen technology, which enables memories to be uploaded and downloaded to the internet. So begins Nilins mission the regain her memories and bring down Memorize. Remember Me is a game that can be easily broken down into three core gameplay elements, parkour- like exploration, combo heavy melee combat, and adventure-puzzle sequences that have you rewriting memories. These three styles are very separate with you having to clear one battle area before moving on.

The exploration element of Remember Me has you scaling all manner of buildings through out Neo-Paris on your quest to remember. Scattered through the city are pickups which enhance your health and combat abilities as well as journal entries on various things from the Remember Me universe. Unfortunately the ‘free running’ style isn’t as free as you would hope for. You are confined to only climbing and jumping in certain areas which are marked by visible tell tales. It is frustrating when you can leap between buildings but not skip over a small fence to have a look around. This is especially disappointing when you look at how well the recent Tomb Raider and venerable Assassins Creed series worked. I guess by fixing the points that you can explore means you can really show off some of the beautiful backdrops of Neo-Paris, which they do.

The combat in Remember Me is almost all melee and is similar to the Batman games with combos playing a large part. To mix it up a bit you are able to create your own combos using skills that are unlocked with experience. This enables you to string together some solid hits and even regain some health. To reward those with timing and stop people just button mashing, hits get stronger the further along the combo string you get. This is all well and good but we are let down by our good old enemy, the camera. So often I found myself pinned against an unseen object or fighting enemies that I couldn’t see. Particularly annoying when you are required to complete many encounters before continuing on your way. Escape is not an option, strange considering how covert you are trying to be much of the time…

The final piece to the gameplay of Remember Me, and the post enjoyable in my opinion, has you rewriting memories to upload to people which in turn causes them to react differently to something in the real world. This takes place in an almost editing suite style of play which has you watching the original memory before rewinding it looking for glitches you can mess with. It might be moving and object or changing a setting , they all have an outcome, but getting the right mix of changes to get the right outcome can be a interesting task. It all takes place at a much slower pace which is good, as you may need a break from the thumb straining combat.

Overall Remember Me is a solid game but when broken down it lacks some polish to take on the big hitting titles out there. Bonus points for an interesting story and reminding me how cool Total Recall (the original, not the POS remake) is. But unfortunately Remember Me is a game I probably won’t remember…

Released 6th June 2013 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.