Remember Me review - an unforgettable experience
What would happen if your memories could be traded, stolen and bought just like any other resource or commodity in the world? What if, your deepest darkest memories and your brightest were all up for grabs, or even in control, from various different corporations? Remember Me, the latest action game from Capcom and DONTNOD Entertainment, examines what the world might be like if this were the case. The game takes place in a futuristic version of Paris (Neo-Paris) in the year of 2084 in a world where the exchange of memories is so ingrained in society, it resembles the social networking craze of our current generation.
The player controls Nilin, an elite memory hunter with the unique ability to literally remix and change the memories of others. Nilin begins the game with her memories wiped as a prisoner of Memorize, a large corporation that has a monopoly on the entire memory management market. A strange voice guides you out of the prison and you begin your journey to regain your lost memories and stop the bad guys from doing bad guy things.
While the initial setup may lack originality, the core concepts and setting are extremely rich with detail. As you walk the streets of the slums, you'll see lots of graffiti that seems appropriate, run-down areas that look about like higher-end areas of today's society. Once you travel to the upper areas of town, robots roam around the streets selling goods, cleaning or shopping for people. By using the Sensen technology (mental implants, notice the floating icon behind people's heads) augmented reality has evolved beyond even the up and coming Google Glass to display advertisements and messages in real-time within the environment.
Due to the detailed nature of the world, it's unfortunate that these areas were few and far between. A lot of the game is spent either in-doors, or in the streets and rooftops of areas that could easily be in 2013 Paris, not 2084 Neo-Paris. Granted, it is a real-world location so it may be more difficult than usual to dream-up fantastical locales, but that's the thing - as you can tell in the game several times, the thought actually is there. Neo-Paris is simply beautiful. I wish I had gotten to explore the city and actually see it a bit more during my time with the game.
Compounding this issue even further is the game's need to throw mediocre platforming segments at you between every battle for stretches of time. Not only do they lack creativity, but also fail to achieve any semblance of difficulty due to the blatant and intruding yellow arrows that literally point you in the correct direction at all times. I don't mind being told where to go, but if Nathan Drake and Lara Croft taught me anything, I enjoy finding my own path, to some degree, instead of always having my hand held.
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