While the question stated in the title may be too early to answer, our recent trip into Bandai Namco’s fortress made the question float on top of our heads. Prior to last week’s Tokyo Game Show 2017, we were given the chance to go around and try the company’s yet to be released games, one of which is Code Vein.
Just to make things clear, Code Vein is a Bandai Namco-developed game and will be published under their company. Dark Souls is a game from From Software and is published under Bandai Namco. Now with that cleared up, lets get into the gist.
So what the heck is Code Vein? I’ts a third-person Action/RPG that capitalizes on player movement and agility to bypass obstacles and foes. Sound like the typical Dark Souls, right? To add, the game doesn’t have any difficulty other than HARD, as stated by the developers themselves. This is a game where-in death is a normal thing. Also, the style itself is different from From Software’s take on hardcore Action/RPG, with Code Vein taking more of an anime appearance. To say, due to its fast-paced, dodge-oriented approach to combat, it is more appropriate to compare it to From Software’s award-winning Bloodborne.
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world where-in vampires are a thing. The player is one of such. In order to survive, the player must hunt down various creatures to absorb their “blood clots”. Detailed during the event was that there would be different types of these “clots” to be collected in order to grow your character.
So what can be said about the gameplay of Code Vein as of the moment? At first glance, the game looks like a more gothic take on Bandai Namco’s Sword Art Online games. It’s third-person movement and action, together with the presence of quick keys for skills, does make both games similar. Also, an AI character is partnered with the player to provide additional firepower and support. Should this AI supporter be downed, the player can opt to continue to reach the next checkpoint (Code Vein’s fireplace), or backtrack and revive them using the previous one. The game also features a stamina bar which drains whenever the player attacks or evades.
To say, the event made me look forward to the eventual release of Code Vein. It gave me a good peak of what the game aspires to be and how it is currently developed. It shows that despite its anime-esque design, it makes great use of Unreal Engine 4, being able to display spectacles and smoothness usually not associated with such design.
The game is set to be released early next year, 2018, and will be available for the Sony PS4, Microsoft Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
