Zero Punctuation: Remember Me

[Metalrocks]

i actually enjoy the game. sure it has some flaws and the controls are a bit clunky, but over all a good game with an interesting story.
and yes, remixing memories was really a good idea that should be possible with more characters instead 4 in the entire game.

 

[Ryan Hughes]

I really do hate plot "twists." Not just the ones that you see coming, but really most plot twists in general. They tend to be made by lazy writers who think: "Oh, look! I can fool the audience, I am so smart!" Kinda like those horrible "Oceans's Eleven" remakes.

One of the few people who could use twists was Alfred Hitchcock. Not because of the twist itself, but because he would literally tell you what was going to happen, and then you would still be surprised when it happened. But games writers tend to be a few steps below that of Hitchcock -to put in kindly- and think that twists equal great storytelling or something.

Basically, it is a mistake for a writer to try to put the audience in a state of awe. Just tell your damn story and develop your characters, that is all you really need.

 

[Schadrach]

I had high hopes for this game, I really did. I bought the game, I played it for a while and kept thinking "This combat flows like a river of bricks".

The concept was brilliant, being able to mod your combos, because you DON'T ACTUALLY MAKE THEM!!! You add what buffs you want to use (health, damage, cooldown, etc) and if you manage to get the timing down, BY WATCHING THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN TO MAKE SURE YOUR TIMING IS RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKING COMBAT, you get the effects...

I could barely be bothered finishing as much as I did (past the first boss) before thinking, 'Fuck it, this combat is too awkward'.

Others might enjoy it, but I am not one of them.

I'm confused what you mean by you don't actually make the combos. You have a set of moves (a series of punches and kicks for each type of on-hit effect) and you pick which ones you want to chain together. No two -cooldown punch pressens are identical, for example. My 6-hit actually used spinning bird kick and dragon punch from the DLC in succession. They are both a bit slower than some of the other attacks available, but have a wider hit area (spinning bird kick hitting in a 360 which is why I put it where I did, as other enemies are usually closing in by the third hit of a combo and it saved me a dodge more than once).

I'd give it awkward, but you seriously don't have to look at the icons at the bottom to do combos correctly -- it's not like the timing changes each time you do it or something, instead each move has it's own timing and once you get that the icons are irrelevant. It's one of the reasons I heavily leaned on a single combo swapping out the first attack with everything else in it being chain pressens -- it makes the timing mostly consistent, and also maximizes raw output of that one thing it does.

For the first 20% of the game, yes. Once the faster and more complicated enemies come into play though, you're pretty much required to abuse the hell out of the combo creator system (and you'll die a lot even then).

There were fights where I'd switch my combos around multiple times mid fight (the 6-hit was my mainstay and all but the first attack in it was a chain-pressen so swapping my combo around from "NEED HEAL NOW!" to "COOLDOWN BAD!" was just a matter of swapping out the kick at the start). Thing did enough damage with a power pressen that most of the normal enemies died before the combo was over.

Those bastards with the damage shields though, are such bullshit. Especially since the damage shield hurts you even at range, and hits harder if you use the high damage shot that burns the entire bar.

 

[Mr. Q]

Not sure if I want to play Remember Me, but I am hungry for a soft pretzel for some reason.

And on the subject of "joking around with the title" ...

 

[Sergey Sund]

I'd speculate that the Red Riding Hood quote came from a low-level developer assistant, raised on 80s action movie one-liners, who had been waiting his entire life to get into a position where he could belt out a cheesy comeback.
Then, he had this Ocean's 11-type mission where he smuggled it into the game's code.
So, it's actually a lot sadder:
That quote represents aprox. 6 years of planning and ass-kissing.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

Like Babylon AD, another French written near future sci-fi, Remember me seems to have had it's budget cut, or at least bitten off far more than it could chew. The characters which had potential were completely un-fleshed out, and I didn't give a toss when one or the other bit the dust.

The menu music (ergo the theme) is this melodic almost tragic piece, but

Spoiler

nothing really sad happens

. It felt like a waste. The combat I enjoyed, though it is clearly stolen from Arkham, and I daresay Arkham's still better at it. Make your own combo is a cool feature except that half the moves look like complete stand-alones like jumpkicks or superman punches. The puzzles and jumping got old fast, along with the collectibles. "Find this item -- oh wait you walked too far, can't go back now". And unskippable cutscenes. That alone reduces the replay value by 75% right there.

All in all nice music, especially the dynamic dub-esque fight music, interesting set, but overly ambitious.

 

[MetalMagpie]

The voice acting for Nilin is barely ok and her accent is more distracting than anything considering no one else seems to have one at all. I take it she's the only European in France, since everyone else sounds American.

I guess it makes a change from that other cliche when the only person with the native accent in an American film/game set in not-America is the villain. (Disney, I'm looking at you.)

Although my gripe at the fact that the Empire in Star Wars appear to all be English (presumably for sulky historical reasons) has been soothed a little by the fact pretty much everyone appears to be British in Game of Thrones (presumably to sound "exotic").

 

[yellowmage]

I remember Yahtzee's review of Dark Void, where he said he prefers ambitious failures over yet more box-ticking, committee-designed sludge. And if there's one thing in which Remember Me is definitely not lacking, it's ambition.

Apparently, this game hasn't sold well at all, which is a shame because I'd like to see it do well just for the originality of the concept. A sequel on eighth-gen hardware could fix the flaws and polish the good parts to a gleaming shine.

 

[A Gray Phantom]

Title still reminds me of that episode of Futurama where Bender erects an Egyptian monument to himself.

 

[Remus]

Creepy ginger twins aren't all bad. They were half the plot of Bioshock Infinite. So we have a character that questions why she's beating people into submission before and after she does it? Sounds like another game developer fitting in a ludonarrative dissonance theme into their game. Yes we know, a lot of games are violent for lack of more compelling game mechanics to keep players interested. Stop whining about it through your characters and just do something different!

 

[Midniqht]

This actually sounds good to me. Not sure if it was the intended effect, but this actually made me want to play it. Initially, it was a tiny consideration in the back of my mind. Now it looks like a summer rental.

 

[Grahav]

Title still reminds me of that episode of Futurama where Bender erects an Egyptian monument to himself.

Pharaoh Bender as the main villan would be a good twist.

 

[Hutzpah Chicken]

Palindrome drug names, memorable asses, and M. Night Shyma-lama-ding-dong twists.

 

[4Aces]

Double Twists! Kinda like the M$ DRM choices for the X-Won. The first is that they have decided to let you play used games. The second will be in 18 months when they screw everyone over, upload a firmware 'fix', and suddenly announce no-used games anymore.

The combat is exploitable, and the production values are shoddy for their main focus (story). That was all I needed to know.

Cheers!

 

[suprluigibro]

This little red riding hood has a bucket full of kickass?

Yeah, that's impressively bad, even for a...

Nah, now I'm imagining Duke Nukem saying it in a really awful FPS and now it's funny, in a laughing at, not laughing with way.

Its a little out of context but still not the best line. The bad guy, Trace, was chasing her in an airship and quoting Big Bad Wolf stuff, which itself was pretty inane. Then when Nilin finally gets to the cockpit and steals Trace's memory, she spouts out that line. Definitely could have been better written, but not as bad in context.

Anyway, I did enjoy this game, but I also agree with everything Yahtzee said. The combos are fun, but the combat gets boring. One example is a certain enemy that damages you when you attack it, even with a ranged attack. So the only thing you can do is spam the regen moves, which are very low damage, over and over.

I definitely agree the memory alteration sequences were the highlight of the game. It was cool to do a minor change and watch the rest of the scene unfold. But, only having four sequences left me wanting more.

All in all, I found it fun but repetitive and missing the potential of memory alterations (as Yahtzee comments on in his Extra Punctuation).

 

[legendp]

I personally really enjoyed the game and It's a new ip, give it time. I enjoyed this more than the original assassins creed or uncharted, those games came a long way later on. I really hope to see more from this sereis (not as much as I want to see more tomb raider games). but it has interesting ideas and for the companys first game it's very well done

 

[TRex22]

Remember me was a game I was so hopeful for. It just pisses me off. No game is perfect but this game had so many imperfections. Small things like the game play mechanics just were not smooth and cohesive. The story left a lot to be desired. I like how the game tries to make the player fell bad for their choice. I like how the developers say they don't want to make any sort of message but then they quote 1984 as inspiration. I'm sorry but this game is definitely a good instructional on how to kill a good and ambitious idea. I 2 years who will remember this game? BUT WE DID NOT MAKE ANY CHOICES so pulling the morality card is really insulting. The water effects were really good but the graphics in general were forgettable. The AI was also inconsistent and not that great. The civilians also seemed surreal and it detracted from the immersion of the game. There were good things about the game. I did not at all mind a female protagonist although her being so well put together and stable after amnesia and the stress of being hunted she comes off as way too masculine. I feel that is an insult to gamers as being mindless males who cannot relate to any vulnerability. I really liked the scaling walls mechanic/graphical effect. That was really awesome. What truly angers me is how much promise the game had and how they just missed the mark.

I really needed to rant about Remember Me. I'm going to play bioshock infinite, hopefully that will make up for this.

I agree with Yahtzee and it saddens me how this game did not get the support from publishers that it needed to perhaps be better developed.