Staff – October 17, 2019 at 9:46 AM
As an anime vampire generator, Code Vein is without peer. If you’re going to commit your time to a sprawling game, you might want some degree of control over how your character is going to look throughout its duration. Bandai Namco’s action-RPG is absurdly generous in this respect: a vast library of nose and mouth shapes; eyes that range from adorable to demonic; luminescent cowboy hats and metallic horns; the ability to tweak the length, color, and pattern of individual peninsulas of hair. The engine is a delight to mess around with. You’d be forgiven for losing hours styling your avatar before the experience begins in earnest.
After you’re finished with that many-detailed character creation screen, you are introduced to a fantastical world in ruin: collapsed highways and devastated caverns crawling with malicious megaflora, halberd-wielding wraiths, and gigantic, aardvark-nosed warriors. As you progress through these labyrinths, you learn more about how everything has gone so severely sideways and why you’ve been tasked with setting things right. One of the practical reasons you’re the hero this hellscape needs is that you literally cannot die.
Producer Keita Iizuka describes your protagonist’s journey as “an immortal vampire struggling to survive even after death,” and Code Vein is definitely a struggle. Its winding stages disguise brutal enemies and traps, checkpoints are few and far between, and the spectacular boss fights that wait at the end of these gauntlets require both careful pre-battle planning and sharp timing within the heat of combat.
That strategic dimension is where Code Vein shines. According to Iizuka, the game has “several dozen Blood Codes,” which are essentially flexible classes. Each Blood Code boosts a handful of your attributes and weapon affinities while also bestowing upon you an assortment of gifts — special attacks, area effects, item-specific perks, and so on. As you slash and spellcast your way through the game’s dungeons, your mastery of the Blood Code you’re using increases, allowing you to port those gifts over to other classes.
By dabbling in a number of Blood Codes, you can create a hybrid character who combines whatever traits suit your fancy. And you’re not locked into the choices you make. Switching your build is both painless and exceedingly useful if you’re having trouble with a particular enemy and want to try a fresh approach.
Once you believe you’ve set your character up with the proper abilities and weaponry, combat is a frenzied, stressful affair. Veteran action-RPG players will feel at home — divining attack patterns, dodging at the correct moments, and whaling on baddies when a window presents itself — but one of Code Vein’s unique twists is managing Ichor, the precious sticky stuff that fuels your most powerful moves. Though Ichor replenishes slowly when you strike an enemy with your weapon, the quickest way to refill it is through drain attacks, during which you plunge your fangs into an exposed foe and do what vampires do best. These gambits are tricky to pull off, but they can be tide-turning in a brawl that isn’t going your way.
You don’t suffer Code Vein’s treacherous post-apocalypse alone. The game provides you with your choice of one of three AI companions. Iizuka said they’re with you to “offer strategic support in order to get through complicated situations.” You’ll appreciate the help as your partner functions as another target to soak up attacks, an emergency healer who swoops in right before you keel over, and an advisor barking out the odd helpful suggestion. Iizuka informed us that “each partner has their own story” that develops alongside your own and serves as another lens through which to engage with the game’s peculiar lore.
Without giving too much away, Code Vein’s storytelling is twisty and grand. Iizuka said that its ending “branches depending on the player’s choices,” which is in keeping with the way the game encourages creative class-building and quick, improvisational combat maneuvering. Code Vein spins an epic yarn, but it leaves the specifics up to the player. There is, after all, more than one way to skin a flaming devil-cat.
Code Vein is now available for PC.
