Remember Me is a 2013 third person action adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment about an amnesiac former elite memory hunter who can break into people’s minds and even alter their memories set in 2084 Neo-Paris.
Remember Me tells the story of Nilin, a woman who has her memories erased by Memorize, a corporation focused on creating a happy life for its rich in Neo-Paris 2084. Nilin’s quest is guided by Edge, a voice hacked into her memory system who takes from one place to the next to find her memories, figure who she is and find out why Memorize finds it so crucial to stop her. In Remember Me, Neo-Paris is a world never so separated between its wealth where the rich indulge in a perfect world full of structure and happiness whereas the slums of Neo-Paris are full of humans who have gone out of their minds with fragmented memories living in the sewers and rubbish.
Remember Me structures its game mechanics around a heavy focus on combat, primarily starting with melee combat and then as she goes along beating more bosses, she acquires other abilities and weapons/gadgets that help her. The combat system focuses on collecting something called pressens which help create different combos that can help boost damage or heal for example. When done right, it can also charge up special abilities that become imperative to defeat bosses and other types of enemies or simply to get out of a tough situation. However, it is also this combo lab that falls short. The combos becomes a game of memory to complete and the timing also lacks polish in accuracy, making it hard to complete the longer combo links while evading the frequently numerous amounts of attackers. It eventually turns into a button mashing affair to try to trigger health boost. Because the fighting moments are so frequent, this lackluster system becomes cumbersome and frustrating.
In terms of boss fights, there are both big bosses which are key NPCs in the different chapters which develop the story and often either expand the story or end up having a gadget like a Spammer from Kid Xmas, one of the first big boss to defeat. While the boss battles are fairly tricky and requires finding what works against them, be it the attack mode or the special abilities, they all are unique and rather tough to get through. However, because of the frustrating combat system, these boss battles become a chore to get through. In fact, it’s quite a shame because the boss designs are clever to say the least.
Aside from combat, Remember Me also has an Uncharted adventure style where Nilin navigates the city by shimmying across ledges, jumping across platforms and pelting over ramps and such. However, this is navigation is also fairly on rails. There are paths to divert to find other extra boosts which becomes quite worth it to collect. There is always a clear idea of where to go next because the next place has distance indication to make it more apparent. There are some parts with quick time events and such. Remember Me may have created a beautiful world but for some, the on rails part limits the open world aspect. You can still look around but in the end, the accessible parts are only the next ledge or pipe to climb up or the areas where boost packs called SAT Patches or Focus Boosts are hidden. However, there are some fun moments like the chase scenes which require quick thinking and observation.
Remember Me also has a very clever mechanic using memory manipulation. Nilin is a memory hunter and because of that, she has a special gift to not only take memory but also manipulate it. This manipulation enters into a world where we can rewind and find glitches that can trigger certain events to modify the memory to result in a different end result. This is one of the high points of the game however, it also is one of the mechanics that happen far and few. For a game about memory, it definitely feels underused.
Remember Me is the debut game from Dontnod Entertainment. The same studio that since then has brought to life the massively successful Life is Strange (review) and recently, Vampyr and Life is Strange 2. It makes it even more meaningful to go back to look at where it all started. Despite its change of genre in its later games, there is no doubt that Remember Me does have a team with love for both world building, character design as well as narrative direction, a few traits that stand out in their later games but also some of the strengths of its debut.