Memories play a very important role in our day to day lives. Whether it be as basic as to remember to wash some clothes or remember how to cook a meal; or perhaps it could be a more personal matter such as remembering a birthday, a past event or even who you are.
What if you could digitally store your memories, archive them like pictures on a computer. What if you could alter someone's memory, make them believe a different version of events...or even steal them, wipe their mind, make them start from scratch. This very premise is what Remember Me attempts to explore and whilst it makes for an interesting concept, its execution is were it falters.
The year is 2085, an international business named M3morize has successfully installed a memory storage system called SenSen into every human being on the planet. When Paris was nearly destroyed 50 years previous, a citywide reconstruction project is almost complete, the new city being dubbed 'Neo Paris'.
You play as memory hunter Nillin, a young woman who awakes in Neo Paris' top prison with no memory of who she is or her life before prison. When you are contacted by the leader of a resistance organisation, one that plans to bring down M3morize, and subsequently assisted in escaping prison; you agree to help the cause and in return the cause will do all they can to help you regain your memory.
Its a story that shows promise and ultimately doesn't come off as a retread of stories such as The Bourne series. What is delivered is something much more heartfelt and personal, that being said, it doesn't use enough of the world its constructed to make it really stand out from the crowded 'memory loss' genre all that much. That doesn't mean you wont be given a great story that is well worth experiencing all the way to its final twists and turns, but it does mean that it missed out on a lot of potential individuality and depth.
Gameplay is Remember Me's bum note. For a game that shows such promise the gameplay boils down to a basic beat-em-up combo masher. How it handles these combos is in its own way rather interesting but in practice its rather repetitive, uninspired and downright boring.
As you progress through the game you unlock 'Pressens'. Pressens give your combo's their punch whether it be making it more powerful, healing you with each landed hit or decreasing the cooldown on special attacks. These special attacks, called 'S-Pressens', are abilities that aid you in combat by either giving you the ability to have a super combo for a short period, turn invisible, strap a bomb or turn an enemy robot into an ally as well as a handful more. S-Pressens can only be used when you have Focus which is gained by successfully completing combos in combat.
Its a tight and cohesive system that lets you tailor the combos the way you want to use them and lets you use some devastating attacks when you really begin to kick some ass. But Nillin is boring to watch whilst fighting as its slow and you're only given access to a very small number of combos over the entirety of the game.
Remember Me is also pretty heavy on platforming. Its pretty basic stuff, think Lara Croft kind of abilities and you'll be headed along the right lines. Though these sections are extremely cinematic due to great camera work, they are also quite uninspiring. Nillin makes every jump as long as you are facing in the relative direction of the object you wish to reach and some of the larger platforming sections are treated almost like set pieces, restricting you to when you can progress.
Not to mention you are constantly being pushed down the linear path by an atmosphere detracting waypoint.
It all makes sense in context of the story and the universe, but in terms of gameplay it just doesn't transfer so well which begs the question if Remember Me would have been better suited to a non-interactive medium such as TV or Film.
Graphically Remember Me looks pretty good. Its not jaw dropping but the Mirrors Edge style Neo Paris with its clean cut & sterile appearance does wonders for aesthetic appeal and making the game stand out among the dull colours saturating the market. Contrast this to the more conventional slum sections surrounding Neo Paris and you have a game that covers a good range of different looking environments, even to the point where different districts have distinctly different architectural design. It makes me long for a free-roam option so I can explore the city at my leisure, but unfortunately, for the sake of the story, that is not an option.
Character models are good if a little rough around the edges and one of the games worst points is the horrible, unstable framerate which frequently plagues you through the entirety of the game.
The soundtrack however is very enjoyable and adds a lot of life to the game, a great mix of orchestral & electronic music that really brings across a futuristic European giant such as Paris.
The voice talent however is a bit of a mixed bag, characters such as Edge are simply appalling with forced, awkward dialogue and an irritating voice actor to boot. But compare that to characters such as Charles Cartier-Wells whose dialogue is some of the best in the game and voice talent that makes the character ooze personality. The characters aren't overly memorable and this may be in part to the on and off voice talent, but also perhaps to some overly cheesy and cringe worthy dialogue.
Many say that Remember Me is ironically forgettable and I wouldn't disagree with them. A world and story that are packed with potential only to miss pretty much every opportunity it had to grasp that potential due to boring gameplay, technical problems and below average dialogue.
However I want to see more from this IP. I want to see it make a return either as a re-imagining or as a sequel of some sorts, hell I would even be happy for a film/TV adaptation because its a universe with so much potential and so much originality.
If you find a copy on the cheap I wholeheartedly recommend it on the individuality of the world alone, however don't expect to be remembering it too far into the future.
Remember Me – 6/10
+Unique Look At The Future
+Unique Combo Management
+Artistic Style
+Soundtrack
-Boring Gameplay
-Awful Dialogue
-Terrible Framerate
-Seems Better Suited To Another Entertainment Medium
