This Cyberpunk game was absolutely slept on.
It’s 2013. Scientists are 3D printing ears made of collagen. The Edward Snowden story is blowing up. Francois Englert and Peter Higgs were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Everyone is playing the freshly dropped GTA V.
In that same year, Remember Me was released, developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom.
The game opens with testimonials for the Sensen, a memory captive device and already you get a sense of foreboding. There’s something eerie and cultlike about the way the customers speak. This sets an interesting precedence for the rest of the game and the way you, playing as the main character feels about it.
We meet our protagonist in a burst of color and sound as she writhes on the floor in apparent agony. It quickly becomes apparent that she is also a Sensen user. She is in a facility and asked to speak her name and the current year. She has recall of her name and it is obvious that this is not a desirable effect, at least not from her captors perspective. He informs our main character Nilin, that the year is 2084, a nod to the book,1984 .Nilin is being kept as a research subject presumably for the Sensen project.
After some dialogue between the captor and someone named Dr. Quaid, Nilin is left alone and instructed to stand and walk by a droid. This is very reminiscent of the start of the Halo series with Master Chief being recalibrated as a means to introduce you to the basic mechanics.
I am struck immediately by the color palette and soundtrack. Nilins facility uniform is white and stark against the high tech but shadowy facility making her pop on screen. The Sensen motif on her neck is very similar to the status HUD for Tom Clancy’s Division. The color palette helps that comparison as well.
As Nilin stumbles toward her destination in a stupor we see her attempting to be contacted by someone possibly using her Sensen as a means of communication. She stands in line docilly waiting to complete a process that can only be described as torture. Each person in line before her takes their turn having their mind erased in what looks to be a horrendous process.
The person is able to establish contact with Nilin to tell her to get out before her mind is also fully erased. He gives her detailed instructions on how to excape the facility. Nilin manages to trigger a senser and is attacked by a large terrifying mecha. Seemingly overkill for the facility full of humans. The voice in her head instructs her to take a narrow passage and she narrowly avoids being offed by the murder Bot. Ironic because his next instructions are to use a casket to escape the facility.
Before she is able to escape the coffin Edge informs her that the enemy that she must rebel agaisnt is Memorize, the corporation behind the Sensen technology.He explains that she is in fact an errorist, a freedom fighter, agent for Edge. She takes the coffin to the end of the line, Slum 404 in Neo Paris. It is here that Nilin encounters Leapers for the first time. Their zombie like, non sensical nature is quickly explained by their corrupt Sensens. Which means Memorize has been dumping these broken humans into the slums of their cities.
When her coffin is opened she is immediately recognized as not one their tribe and attacked by the Leapers. Enter combat scene! This is where Nilin first learns to use Pressens at the behest of Edge. Pressens are abilities that Nilin can use as a memory hunter. You can upgrade these forgotten combos through the menu as you progress through the game.
From here the game really starts as you explore the game and learn the mechanics of climbing and combat. Once you make your way out of the slums you head to the upper area to meet an old friend. The camera pans to show the environment are clever and purposefully cinematic bringing the artists concepts to life. The world of Neo Paris is as beautiful as it is distantly alien. The score does well to play off the storyline.
Olivier Deriviere is one of my favorite composers also known for his work on Vampyr (another Dontnod title), Greedfall, and Vampire: The Masquerade amongst others. It is very apparent that Mr. Deriviere prefers to use a full orchestra in his pieces and we love that immensely. He is a master of creating a spacious atmosphere with rolling fanfares. For this particular soundtrack he uses synths post production to give that disorienting, techno feel. The exact opposite treatment he gives for the organic feel in say 2019’s Greedfall.
Remember Me gets sort of a bad rep for it’s combat system, with a lot of people calling it uninspired. A 2013 IGN review by Daniel Krupa, mentioned the lack of a parry system that feels like you are left with only dodging. You know where I’ve seen a parry system? In Kingdom Come Deliverance, the Witcher Series and the Rocksteady Batman series that Krupa mentions. You know what those games have in common? Large, tanklike masculine characters who probably would not think twice about redirecting a blow. Nilin has a waiflike build and though she uses striking moves, it’s really about exploiting her opponents Sensen. She has a lot of parallels with rogue-esque characters.
All in all, Remember Me is a visually appealing game that really pulled through on its original concept art. The soundtrack is incredible and pairs really well with the theme and feel of the game. It was and still is worth the gameplay.
