Anemic
TLDR: Code Vein is a tactless, tasteless and thoroughly unworthy attempt to clone the Dark Souls formula onto an abysmally vapid 'anime' world.
I love Dark Souls. Those series of games are amongst my most favorite of any, and I will go to fairly great lengths to consume more of that formula, even if it's far from perfect. This thirst for more Souls games has let me to series such as Nioh, The Surge and even Lords of the Fallen (send help). As it lead me to this recently discounted title on Steam. This is practically a year old game at this point, so I will keep this short, but damned if I will let Code Vein get away scot-free...
THE GOOD:The core combat mechanics function well, and (some of) the bosses are well designed and intriguing to learn and best.
THE BAD: This (originally) full priced game reeks of tossed-off budget title in every facet. The maps are a series of utterly banal tileset corridors. The geometry detail hovers somewhere between PS2 and PS3 era quality, and the AI consists of roughly five different (occasionally) re-skinned mobs. Clearly rushed to the point of outright unfinished, the difficulty balance fluctuates wildly throughout the game, with some bosses being extremely trivial while others are absurdly cheap-hard. Similarly, the gear and abilities in the game all seem to rest on the same razor thin untested ice of being totally worthless or brokenly effective.
THE UGLY:So the story in this game... the characters... Imagine combining the worst of 'Slow-piano-playing-JRPG-sentimentality' with a big (BIIIIIGGGG!!!) helping of (totally unaddressed) titty anime, and then dressed it all up in a hipster New York fashion catwalk outfit. Imagine combining all of that, swallowing it with a bunch of drugs and then later that night, shitting it into your bed in a half delirious state.
Fucking holy fucking fuck it's bad, and I even like titty anime.
Do not buy this game.
