➤ The weight of memories 🎮

Remember Me, originally Adrift, is the first project of the young French house Dontnod, a studio that welcomes developers from Ubisoft, Criterion Studios and Quantic Dream. Born in 2008, the game underwent an extremely troubled gestation, almost risking cancellation, finding new life (and funds) thanks to Capcom, which decided to produce and distribute it. Set in a futuristic Paris, the title fully embraces the cyberpunk vein with a non-original but always intriguing premise, that of the manipulation of memories, and it does so by exploiting a female protagonist of rare charm, ironically the greatest source of headaches for programmers. But the surprises don't end there.

Empty heads

2084. It is a day like any other in the future of Neo-Paris, a future governed by the Sensation Engine, for friends Sensen, a revolutionary brain implant that allows you to download and share memories online. Positioned on the nape of the neck, this sinister orange valve-like hologram renders people like hard drives, heading for inexorable dehumanization. In this chaotic scenario we take on the role of the errorist Nilin, a prodigious hunter of memories able not only to take them from the Sensen, but also to modify them at will. But now there is no time to think about this, because Nilin is in big trouble, imprisoned in the Bastille, the main prison of the city, the girl finds herself deprived of memories and about to undergo a little reassuring "conversion" therapy. The intervention of the mysterious Edge prevents events from precipitating, providing our heroine with an escape route. After the initial dismay, Nilin tries to organize herself to find her identity and discover those responsible for what happened to her. A series of events, more or less fruitful encounters and a long series of missions govern the plot of the game, up to the inevitable final twist.

Custom barrel

Remember Me is a third-person action that mixes different elements together in an attempt to offer a deliberately confusing experience, so much so that the game itself seems like a distorted memory grafted into someone's brain. The vocation towards the platform is very strong, with parts that recall on several occasions both the various Assassin's Creed, Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Nilin moves easily between the neon signs and the windows, lowering herself with the grace of a kitten from the ledges, but she also has a true warrior nature, particularly useful considering the countless fights that see her involved. The multinational creator of Sensen, called MEMORIZE, has set up a militia of super-technological soldiers, the SABERS, who represent the main enemies of the game and are supported by deadly drones. As if that weren't enough, we also find ourselves facing the disturbing Leapers, mutants and outcasts driven mad following a rejection of the Sensen and who dominate the slums of the city.

These unpleasant encounters result in increasingly complex combat sections characterized by a customizable combo system. The player is able to freely assign on each of the keys that make up the combos four series of skills, called Pressens, which guarantee a series of additional bonuses in battle. These affect both the ability to heal, deliver powerful blows, or increase the effect of the chain. The idea is truly innovative, because it allows you to develop different strategies depending on whether you prefer a defensive or pure attack approach. To these we add the fundamental special attacks, which can be performed through a ring nut recalled with the left trigger. These range from deadly logic bombs, ferocious bursts of shots, and the ability to sabotage support droids to turn against their own masters. Finally, Nilin can interact with the Sensen connector of enemies once they have received a sufficient dose of hits, in order to give him the final blow. The opponent's attacks are instead avoided through a special move to be made at the sight of the exclamation point above the enemy, in a manner completely similar to the Batman of Rocksteady Studios, titles from which Dontnod is clearly inspired. The use of special moves is particularly decisive in battles against bosses, long and exhausting.

Remix, what a passion!

But Remember Me is not just jumping and martial arts: the programmers have inserted stealth phases in which we must avoid reconnaissance droids, and others where we find ourselves facing a series of environmental puzzles. Between the need to move objects or bypass terminals thanks to the powers contained in Nilin's glove, there are some parts in which it is necessary to assimilate the memories of others to continue. In this case we see holographic images superimposed on the screen that repeat pre-calculated sequences in loops, such as the opening of closed doors or the overcoming of deadly traps, which serve as a guide for the action to be taken.

The most bizarre addition, however, is the remix of memories, a feature widely heralded by game director Jean-Max Moris and which highlights the studio's ties to Heavy Rain. These are basically sequences that Nilin must alter in order to change the course of events. These sequences are real short films built with the game engine, with the possibility of being rewound at any time via the analog stick, just like a movie. The aim is to alter details of the memory to modify its outcome, just to give an example, we must prevent a bounty hunter from killing us or inducing our victim to suicide, making him believe that he has murdered his wife. Unfortunately, it is impossible to go further on the details so as not to spoil the surprise, but the experiment turns out to be very stimulating, creative and decidedly original, even if a little disconnected from the rest. We even managed to achieve a goal by achieving a memory outcome that was not expected as optimal. Too bad for their small number: we would have appreciated a more integrated study with the base game, which despite these pleasant brackets remains anchored to mechanics by now consolidated on the market.

Digital madness

Graphically Dontnod manages to paint a fascinating cyberpunk universe that denotes the typical European taste: the work on the costumes and settings is nothing short of sumptuous and focused to the maximum on the fascinating protagonist, but also everything else denotes a remarkable care. The Unreal Engine is always a guarantee in terms of quality and guarantees defined textures, a high polygonal load and rich colors, a little less animations. The confidence of the development team in any case is almost impressive and brings a yield completely free of slowdowns or tearing, with a framerate anchored to thirty frames per second and excellent video cleaning, but the lion's share is represented by the sound.

The musician Olivier Deriviére has produced a true visionary masterpiece that will set the standard, with a prevalence of symphonic parts enriched by electronic sessions and dissonances that loop like unhealthy viruses. The audio is totally synchronized with the action to give the idea of the supremacy of the binary code over reality, while the unrecognizable main theme is played entirely only at the end of the game. The game is fully localized in good quality Spanish, although the number of voice actors is certainly not striking. The chromatic choice is also decidedly pleasant, preferring the white and orange tones to obtain an alienating contrast between the aseptic cleanliness of the upper districts of Neo-Paris (or the Bastille itself), contrasted with the degradation of the slums. Too bad that the story fails to do justice to the visual rendering, being rather confusing and not very well told, considering the shortage of cutscenes and not-so-brilliant dialogue. Most of the elements are then provided in the loading sequences between the game chapters, compromising the narrative fabric. The developers said they were inspired by George Orwell for the story, but on balance there are many more ties to Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell.

Xbox 360 achievements

Remember Me features 50 achievements for a total of 1000 player points; concluding the adventure will earn you just over 200, the rest requires finding the collectibles or performing certain actions, such as creating a combo consisting of 17 Pressens. The most exhilarating is what you get after being killed five times by the reconnaissance drones, an event that is far from rare, which will bring you 30 coveted points. Not all evil comes to harm!

Where is the problem?

As we have already said between the lines of the review, Remember Me is not an innovative product, perhaps to meet the needs of the market: the game follows in a fairly canonical way a consolidated structure, alternating platform phases with fights for its entire duration. . The stealth grafts and environmental puzzles are simple conjunctions to give variety to the formula, although quite brilliant, especially the latter that require a minimum of reasoning to be overcome. The problem is basically the execution of what we can consider as the main framework. The fights fail to evolve as in other exponents of the genre, resulting repetitive and sometimes frustrating.

Although special abilities are gradually acquired through experience points, you never feel a real growth in your abilities, as the game does nothing but alternate enemies that require different patterns to induce error, or that continually break the chains surrounding Nilin. The variety of opponents is also very limited, in essence they are color variations of the same model of soldier SABER, the droids and the outcasts, only the way in which to fight them changes. The platform phases follow a similar line, oscillating between the elementary and the cumbersome, with the second case often resulting in excesses of "trial & error". In short, Remember Me is undoubtedly a challenging title, but the difficulty curve is more linked to the moodiness of the game design rather than the player's skills. The levels are very linear and there is no way to return to the old areas visited, but it is possible to replay the episodes individually to find the collectibles, present in large quantities, which allow you to unlock 3D galleries and the inevitable objectives. The adventure has an adequate duration, settling between eight and ten hours, but there are no additional ways or online to extend the life of the product.

Comment

Version tested: Xbox 360 Resources4Gaming.com

6.9

Readers (67)

7.9

Your vote

Remember Me is a product that continually demonstrates how the effort put into creating a fascinating and credible world has taken away from everything else. There are several appreciable ideas, such as that of the sections dedicated to memories, truly innovative but small in number and totally disconnected from the rest. Most of the game time is spent in qualitatively fluctuating and linear sections at the limit of schematicity. Despite the gimmick of personalized combos, which could create a new course, the realization of the fights does not keep up with the best exponents of the genre, while the undoubted charm of the protagonist can not stand alone a confused and anything but memorable story. . It's a real shame, because Dontnod's game boasts a first level technical and artistic realization, but unfortunately the dress doesn't make the monk.