have magic powers based on their
blood type and, er, can turn their coat
sleeves into metal wolves.
In other words, these ain’t your
grandfather’s Draculas – and your
customisable protagonist is the
most special of them all. His or her
chosen one-like ability is to act as a
blank slate, taking on the powers andabilities of other vamps. In practice,
that grants you a huge array of
character options, all of which can be
swapped on the fly.You suck
Whenever you like, you can change
out your weapon type (including guns,
hammers, swords and polearms),
your ‘Blood Code’ (a package of stats
and spells that serves as your class),
your AI companion (who supports
you in battle with heals, buffs and
flanking attacks) and more. You can
even mix up how you drink your dinner
with Blood Veils, equippable coats
and other fashion accessories that
transform into vicious, claret-draining
implements in combat – from a
gauntlet that becomes a giant claw to
sentient lupine sleeves.
But the point to all this choice is
more than just excess. The game’s
tricky encounters encourage you to
try out different loadouts for different
situations, ensuring that success is
as much about experimentation and
planning ahead as it is about your
sheer agility and skill in the moment.
We have had our concerns from
past hands-on opportunities that
the core combat at the centre of all
this isn’t as tight as it needs to be,
however. Even compared to the very
deliberate action of Dark Souls, it felt
disappointingly sluggish. But the good
news is that the developers aren’t
oblivious – they’ve revealed that
tightening up the combat was one
of the key goals behind the game’s
long delay, and thanks to a ‘network
test’ beta period they’ve had lots of
feedback from fans to help them on
their way. Here’s hoping it’s been a
year well spent. QSince its smash success back in
2011, there’s been no shortage
of pretenders to Dark Souls’ lofty
throne. Standing out in the action RPG
subgenre FromSoftware has left in its
wake is harder than ever. So what’s
Code Vein’s tactic? In short: restraint
is for suckers.
Everything about Bandai Namco’s
latest, finally emerging this September
after a year’s delay, is gleefully
over-the-top. Its post-apocalyptic
setting, overrun with the undead,
is ruled by ‘Revenants’, a society of
fabulous vampires. These spiky-haired
goths represent a very specific new
interpretation of the classic mythology- sure, they still drink the red stuff and
wear a lot of black, but they’re also
kept alive by parasites in their hearts,
The game features an absurdly in-depth character creator, though you still always end up looking like a Hot Topic employee
BELOW Never grow
old, never die.
But you must...
spend hours on
your spiky anime
hair-do.
Code Vein
Vampiric anime action RPG sets
out to prove blood is thicker
than warfare
Robin Valentine
PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO DEVELOPER BANDAI NAMCO
ETA 27 SEPTEMBER“Everything
about Bandai
Namco’s latest
is gleefully over-
the-top”
036 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
PREVIEW