The Revenants were created to fight the cataclysm, but the Queen of the Revenants frenzied and had to be put down
Code Vein
WILL THIS CHALLENGING BLOODSUCKING ACTION RPG STEAL YOUR SOULS? CHRIS BURKE
PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO / DEVELOPER BANDAI NAMCO / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £49.99/$59.99
Of The Mists, trapping Revenants,
monsters called The Lost, and a few
remaining human stragglers.From the dead
When they are created, Revenants
lose their human memories, but are
reborn every time they die. Which is
handy, because you will be doing that
a lot. But the downside of being a
Revenant is that, as with all vampires
before, you must have blood. Human
blood is prized, but there are also
blood beads grown on white trees
called Bloodsprings, which tap into
the blood mists and underground
‘veins’. If Revenants don’t feed, they
will eventually lose their minds to
the hunger and become The Lost,
creatures that roam the land whose
only motivation is to kill you. And
kill you they will, sometimes with
one solitary hit. They’re also deeply
cunning. Each area is designed for
maximum claustrophobia and as much
potential for ambush as possible.Never grow old.
Never die. But you
must feed... and
fight really difficult
boss battles. That’s
pretty much the Lost
Boys-And-Girls fantasy at the heart of
this anime adventure, the soul to its
Soulsborne-influenced gameplay. Code
Vein is an action RPG with a gorgeous
anime art style, it’s a tough-as-Souls
hack’n’slash dungeon-crawler, a
bonkers vampire yarn and a sprawling
sci-fi opera with a complex and mature
narrative. But with all the game’s
ideas scrabbling for first dibs on your
engorged gamer’s jugular, does it raise
the stakes, or merely suck?
Okay so that’s (most of) the vampire
jokes out of the way. The world has
fallen to a cataclysm. To fight this
evil, Revenants – super-powered
vampires – were created by attaching
a parasitic bio-organism to humans’
hearts. Now the world is cloaked in
a miasma of blood, called the Gaol
The Lost are waiting around each
crumbling edifice in the ruined city,
just waiting to jump out and take
half your health instantly. The game’s
‘bonfires’, plants called Mistle, are
sometimes really far apart. Die and
you return to the last Mistle, which
can also be used to teleport to other
areas. All the Lost you just dispatched
with careful, patient melee moves
will be back and frustratingly this can
mean up to an hour’s progress can be
undone in an unblockable instant.
Sadly the game doesn’t quite
match From’s challenging melee,
as your parry is a tad unpredictable
and blocking is largely ineffective.
Dodge-rolling out of the way proves
the best way to avoid being hit. Die,
and you drop your experience, called
Haze, requiring you to go back and
fetch it. You always have a companion
in battle, but when this is an AI buddy
rather than online human, this has
mixed results. We’ve stood back and
watched as our AI friend bossed theshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
A vampire action RPG
with extensive
customisation and
challenging combat.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
It feels lazy to call it
an anime Dark Souls,
but, well, that’s
exactly what it is.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Fans of anime,
vampires, punishing
third-person action
RPGs, masochists,
you know.080 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
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