New IP’s are hard to come by nowadays, especially those that are inventive or actually something new rather than a copy of something else masked as a new game. Capcom and DontNod’s new game, Remember Me, just happens to fall into this bracket and it brings with it a couple of new tricks to the table. Having had the chance to play it, here is our Journey through the world of Neo-Paris and what we thought of it.

In Remember Me, you play as Nilin, who doesn’t seem to remember much about who she is. There is a reason for that; Nilin has lost her memories because of the organisation, Memorize, who are responsible for controlling and storing away people’s memories. Unfortunately for our heroine, Niilin, she happened to have her memories taken away and this is how the premise is introduced to the players. You probably know as much about Nilin as Nilin knows about herself at that point. In this tale of amnesia, it’s interesting to find out more and more about the character at the same time they do. There seems to be a deeper connection with Nilin because of this. Maybe because she’s a female lead, or because you want to help her get her memories back, who knows?

In relation to Nilin and her memories, the game’s plot is one that you will certainly take something away with you and keep in your own memories for a while. Remember Me is most certainly a story-driven game and without spoiling too much, it does it superbly. The plot will take you all over Neo-Paris trying to regain your memories from Memorize. There are a few moments that do make you think about if you’re doing the right thing or not, but that is the excellence of a compelling plot at work.

Tied in with the game’s narrative is Nilin’s ability; the power to remix people’s memories. These moments present themselves at various times during the play through and it is up to you to remix the memory to create the desired outcome. These sections take you away from the regular game puts a great deal of power in your hands. It was fun working out the remixes as they came up, but the issue didn’t lie with the remixes, it was the lack of them. It’s a major shame that such a great part of the game was greatly underused; it would have been great if the writers had written in more remix section into the game, there seemed to be plenty of times during the game where a remix might have been a good idea, but it doesn’t detract too much from what was well written story.

The entirety of the game takes place within 2084’s Neo-Paris. This wonderful looking city is separated into different layers; the slums, and the upper city, which doesn’t look too far off a semi-futuristic utopian city. The upper city has a clean and fresh look with plenty of sunlight compared to the dark, dingy and cramped slums, the two sides of the city are almost polar opposites and the aesthetic design of both city and slum complement each other very well. It’s great to see classical Paris architecture having been implemented into the design of Neo-Paris and the juxtaposition of old and new works well.

The slight issue comes in the graphical department as more than once, textures seem to be on the side of lower quality. It wouldn’t be an issue, but it can be quite noticeable at times. Unfortunately, some sounds of Remember Me can be slightly hit and miss. The soundtrack has some great tracks but others were a little questionable and sounded out of place. Some of the music seem belong to a children’s ghost adventure and didn’t sound like they should be in the game. However, the rest of the music and sounds are presented fairly well and help to provide a great atmosphere in the world of Neo-Paris.

Remember Me’s gameplay comes down to a few simple things; adventure platforming and combat. The mixture of the two is what makes up a majority of the game when you’re not being told the story or diving into someone’s mind to remix a memory. The platforming is a little linear, but all areas have been designed well enough for this not to be too noticeable. You will spend much of your time shimmying across the side of buildings, ledges and poles. This is how most of the level has been broken up so you are using a lot of the linear spaces in a non-linear way. However, it becomes slightly obvious when a large fight or a boss might be about to come due to the increased size of the area ahead. This can be both a good and a bad thing as you can assume that something is coming up ahead.

Speaking of combat, it is an absolute treat. Being able to pound away on Leapers, or several of the other enemies in the game, is quite satisfying when you’re doing it using moves that you have built up yourself. It’s great that button bashing has been done away with and now, a somewhat fresh method of combat has been implemented. Even on the normal difficulty that was played for this review, enemies were quite challenging and it became a little frustrating but perseverance did the trick in the end. Boss fights also happened to be bundles of fun and provided an adequate amount of challenge for playing on the normal difficulty. Bosses just kept getting better as the game went on and did not fail to disappoint, except for the use of QTE’s to provide flashy looking endings. It would be nice if developers could think of a little more than just a quick-time event to get players involved more at the end of boss fights.

Using the game’s pressens in the combo lab, you can create some really amazing attack patterns. These pressens allow you to create combos for power, health regeneration, cooldown time and move chaining. The greatest thing is that it is entirely down to you to create the perfect combos for your chosen play style or situation. Also available to Nilin are the S-Pressens which are Remember Me’s version of special moves. These will become available to the player throughout the game in situations where Nilin just so happens to remember how to use them. This is actually a neat little touch, as moves that become available seem as though Nilin is regaining her memories rather than just learning certain moves out of the blue. The combat mechanics and combo labs were great, but at times, it felt like the combat became a little repetitive. With only a set number of combo’s available to you, they are essentially the same moves over and over, with the difference being how they affect the gameplay. A little more variation in moves wouldn’t have gone amiss here.

Remember Me is a great little gem that keeps poking its head into the limelight. The game has done away with the button bashing of old, and provides a new combat system that lets you control how you want to fight. The game’s plot will most definitely keep you intrigued throughout and provide some spectacular moments, including the games memory remixing. Sure, this might not have to best looking environments or the greatest soundtrack, when it hits the right moment, some of the sights and sounds of Remember Me are absolutely breath-taking. All in all, Remember Me is one game that certainly will leave a lasting image in your mind in a very positive way.