CODE VEIN

If you like soulslike games, don't mind reviews and try it. This game has a great storyline, extraordinary design, very interesting and new classes that you can switch any time, and a lot of weapons and abilities.
For me, it was an easier version of Dark Souls, where you knew what your next move was and didn't have to walk around a ton to find out, which made it very enjoyable.
The combat system and bosses were mediocre, but had fun whole game. 8/10

It is kinda sad to see, that the game has mixed recent reviews. Yeah it is not the Elden ring, but the game is still quite good.
Gameplay and combat is generally fun without any significant bugs. Bosses felt mostly unique and some are quite memorable. Story is not mind blowing but it is good enough to keep your interest.
The main weakness of the game are its levels. Different locations feel kinda unique, but within individual levels are used same assets again and again. So it starts to look bland and boring quickly.
Overall it is good game that does not deserve those recent reviews.

Great game to play alone or with friends. Heavy character customization and a good game system! Also, big bahongazongahoos

>dodge that doesn't work
>terrible gank fights
>boring level design
>downright terrible bossfights
welcome back dark souls 2

I had heard this game described as 'Anime Dark Souls' or 'Waifu Souls', and now having finished a playthrough I would have to say that those sort of humorous descriptors turned out to be fairly apt.

Code Vein doesn't stray too far from the formula. You have your similarly named equivalents to bonfires, estus, and souls, weapon and armour upgrades, iframes, stat scaling, etc., and for the most part they act about as you would expect. You fight many large, fast, punishing bosses. There's a sort of persistent multiplayer that I did not touch and which seems to be rather dead. The game can be quite challenging at times. There's even some generic extra areas which call Bloodborne's chalice dungeons to mind.

The most striking difference from the SoulsBorne games is that rather than build your characters through delineating stats, levelling up is just a standard increase in your health, stamina, and damage. Your other stats, what weapons and armour you can equip, how much ichor (MP essentially) you have, and your equip load and speed are determined by what class you equip. Each class has a number of 'gifts', passive and active abilities which can give you stat upgrades and powerful special attacks. After meeting certain requirements, these can be transferred between classes. There is a lot of mixing and matching you can do to come up with a viable build, though I just ended up using classes that use heavy weapons for most of the game as their ability to stagger enemies is quite useful. I never felt the need to respec for a boss.

Another key addition to the formula is the ability to drag along an AI companion. Though they occasionally make boneheaded decisions, they can be quite useful and do make things easier. These companions are optional.

The SoulsBorne games are noted for their sparse storytelling, and that is another area where Code Vein differs. There is a more traditional narrative, with a number of cutscenes. The story is not great, and how it is told is, well... a bit too anime for my tastes. I like the character designs and aesthetics, but the shonen tropes just don't do it for me here. Things can get very cheesy and melodramatic. The game has a dreary and dismal setting as with similar titles, and long speeches about the power of friendship or jokes about a character's rumbling stomach fit in poorly. A lot of the story is told through sequences where you stroll slowly through a character's memories, generally always a series of overly emotional scenes while lilting, sentimental piano and strings play in the background. I couldn't take much of this. Thankfully you can skip these (although they are optional in the first place, unlocking them also unlocks new abilities for your classes).

A major downside of the game, in my opinion, is the level design. Most areas are just one big maze. The map is terrible and only unlocks, piece by piece, when you find mistle, this game's version of bonfires. Mostly you have to navigate by sight and by a record of your footsteps that show up on the map screen. This is made difficult by just how similar the winding halls of each area look to each other, and neither the footsteps nor the map help much when you get to areas with some verticality.

Would I recommend Code Vein? That depends. If you don't like the soulslikes, action-rpgs, manga/anime, you might want to look elsewhere. However, if you are into those things you could do worse than Code Vein. Though nowhere near as good as the games that inspired it, I did like it. It scratches that itch. It is not a masterpiece, but it is not terrible either. It's a 7/10 game for me. Solid. The 30 hours my playthrough took were mostly enjoyable. I wouldn't pay full price for it though.

It's hard to find a souls-like game which has also contains a non-cryptic branching story. Only I can think of right now is Lies of P. The vestige system was perfect, listening the memories of your companions in a way as if you read it in a visual novel which is very nice design. Words can't describe the sound quality of this game (voice acting, soundtracks all are amazing).

The world seemed dull at start and I thought oh no here's another generic story comes again but the narrative changed swiftly and made me interested about the story again. All characters are very well designed, telling each one's story really made me want to explore more to find more about them. And game nails the first impressions for new characters because your opinion change drastically about them compared to your first meeting later in the game.

Difficulty is a problem for a souls-like game because it's non-existent. At mid to late game they start to scale up but you're already a god in the game so it doesn't matter that much. The unnecessarily complex and broken coop system is a huge disaster because game is already given you a bunch of companions so it's intended to play with them but not with your friends. Real shame.

The whole story, characters development top-notch for a souls-like game. I really didn't expect this much. But ending undone all the progress. All of the endings are terrible, I think that's a curse we can't really get rid of in these type of games. Muted player is a bad choice, because it really breaks the whole conversation. Only nods everything said to our player which is making him behave more like an npc instead of a player controlled living character.

There are 1 gamebreaking bug (stuck in elevator still anyone) which is annoying and some other minor bugs. For elevator part alt-tabbing the game solves the problem somehow still don't know why. And level designs (my nightmare) are gets worse each level thanks to over-designing the shit out of the map. Since all places look same thanks to reused textures (that's normal by the way but should have more clearer signs about places to be familiar with) you can lost countless times even with a map because you can't see floor levels on map only the obnoxious abomination on your minimap (a little bigger version in game menu).

Starting with the cathedral level, designs get much worse. I still think the worst level is cathedral, lots of shortcuts, jump downs, ladders, doors everywhere. It's a nightmare if you want to collect all collectibles (which is required for good ending I think).

For combat aside from it's over-designed features it's very satisfying and blood veils are too op to begin with, all you had to do move to the back of the enemy then let the blood veil do all the work for you. From the start and to the end of the game it deals insane amount of damage (for late game it makes sense but early game not so much). Enemy variety is scarce and it's a shame really. If you're not %100 exploring all places, you might not notice it but if you do depths missions (I still question why they even exist) you'll see lots of recycled bosses and enemies.

Definitely a recommendation, normally I don't play games that has an art style like this but they nailed it with the world setting and all other mechanics.

I really enjoyed Code Vein.
It's basically a souls-like game with an anime aesthetic.
The game itself is not that hard.
After defeating Soldier of Godrick (Rick for short) from Elden Ring I was able to rush through Code Vein bosses without any issues.
The real enemies I've faced were:
1. The labyrinths, with their maze-like locations, were a significant challenge.
2. Some random dude that was casting a frost armor on himself therefore becoming almost immortal
Anyway, I had a great time with Code Vein.
The engaging combat, interesting character customization, and unique setting make it a worthwhile experience.
I highly recommend it.
10/10 for me.