Remember Me: XBox Preview
Games that are novel and new are occasionally few and far between.
But it looks as if 2013 is shaping up to be a creative beast.
Particularly if Remember Me is anything to go by.
The new game, from Capcom, looks promising and utterly stunning if the hands on preview I played is anything to go by. And from being nowhere on my games radar, it's suddenly shot up to the top.
You take the role of Nilin, a memory hunter who's now living in a dystopian, Blade Runneresque world in 2084. When we first meet Nilin, it's after an infomercial for Sensen, where a series of talking heads discuss the benefits of having their memories stored in one place and shared.
But Nilin's not in a happy place - this streak haired heroine is getting her memory wiped at a medical facility and is screaming out in pain. That's because she's clearly formerly part of a freedom fighter unit, whose job is out to take out the company running Sensen and essentially enslaving the lives of all humanity. Staggering around corridors in a space warehouse type place, with its sleek white corridors and all manners of technology, Nilin's guided by a probe to an area where the wipe can successfully be completed. As she waits in line, a voice in her ear tells her to get ready to run, when a distraction is caused.
It's here that the game starts to get really interesting. While the initial scenes are well put together and the cut scenes demonstrate the cinematic edge of the game while espousing the credits, it's only when Nilin tries to break out from the centre on the word of the voice in her ear, that the game begins to reveal its central storyline.
The voice belongs to Edge, one of the city's resistance leaders, and he exhorts Nilin to escape the medical facility - despite the massive robot chasing after her. Diving through a chute (in something akin to a sequence from Star Wars) Nilin finds her chance to escape and ends up in Neo-Paris in 2084, where she begins the job of chasing down her memories and setting about bringing down the Sensen world.
Once you get to Neo-Paris, Nilin's job is to get to the Leaking Brain bar and meet up with Tommy - and it's here that the game play style starts to become more evident. Leaping around buildings, ledges and hanging off surfaces, it's akin to Uncharted in many ways - and it's certainly a hell of a lot of fun as it mixes combat with platforming.
It's a shame that you can't wander off the beaten track in Neo-Paris, as the detail of the world around you is utterly breathtaking in terms of landscape and lives. Hordes of people inhabit the city and there's plenty of life teeming around on the streets, so it's a real shame that aside from collectibles and mission quests, your time in Neo Paris has little interaction with the locals. Never more so is this evident than in the sequence where Nilin runs through the markets or via a side street which has a cafe; you run into people or stand near them and there's nothing to do with them, except bump into them.
However, given that you've got combat to deal with, I'd suggest that remains more of a focus than anything else. Taking on the leapers who live in the slums of neo-Paris is a challenge. These spindly limbed mutated people are horrific to view, but thankfully, using a combination technique and moves that appear to be out of the Batman: Arkham series, you can leap over them, smack them to pieces and collect their health for power ups. But here's the kicker with the combat; you can use combo moves which you can select and build upon. It takes a little time to get to grips with these so called Pressens, which can be slotted around, depending on what you want to do with the bash you're unleashing. Build your own health, attack harder - they're all possible in the combo lab and it's a great way to mix things up and get to your goals quicker. Chained combos and the ability to glide from one baddie to the next without losing the combo means you're not constantly on the back foot.
The most intriguing part of Remember Me though, is the memory remixer. (All sounds a wee bit Total Recall doesn't it?)
It takes a little time to get your head around it, but by rewinding moments and changing pivotal parts of it, you can disrupt the outcome and influence how it goes. In the demo, Nilin's challenged by a bounty hunter called Olga, who's determined to bring her in. But, given the powers from a techno glove operated by Nilin, which in her words, give her the power to play God, you can change her perception. I think it's this power which is one of the key story reasons why she's being hunted but time will tell. Zapping back to when Olga's partner is undergoing some surgery and an influx of memories, by altering key moments on the hospital bed, you're able to ensure that the doctor kills Olga's other half, meaning she's converted to the cause. Morally, it's an incredibly powerful argument and I'm intrigued to see if this has any bearing on the story telling - and the alternate routes they could go down. The remixing is actually tricky to master, but as different story paths play out, it offers an interesting facet to what lies ahead in this story-driven adventure.
All in all, Remember Me has suddenly come violently onto my radar. It's a preview that tantalises and excites and offers something a little new into the gaming world which is rare these days.
From knowing little of this title, this demo's got me thrilled and excited for its release in June - I can't wait to spend more time in Neo-Paris, exploring Nilin's world, quests and conflicts. Based on the hands on time I had with this title, I'm guessing that I won't need my memory altered or wiped when it releases because it's thrilling, engaging and enthralling.
