Code Vein

 PC
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 482 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 323 out of 482
  2. Mixed: 92 out of 482
  3. Negative: 67 out of 482

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  1. ElementalSoldie
    Dec 4, 2020
    3
    Extremely overrated game! Enjoyed playing with the character customization tools more than I did actually playing this miserable game that really wants to be DMC and Souls, but just cannot find a comfortable in-between. Gets insanely boring fast. Hard pass.
  2. Goosho
    Oct 11, 2019
    0
    I am giving Code Vein a 0 because it utterly fails in every category as an enjoyable game.

    - Gameplay: Have you ever wanted to watch your big brother play your game for you and have him trick you into thinking the 2nd controller is plugged in and that you're playing? Well then you'll love Code Vein. The entire game is designed around putting so many enemies everywhere to make sure    I am giving Code Vein a 0 because it utterly fails in every category as an enjoyable game.

    - Gameplay: Have you ever wanted to watch your big brother play your game for you and have him trick you into thinking the 2nd controller is plugged in and that you're playing? Well then you'll love Code Vein. The entire game is designed around putting so many enemies everywhere to make sure you're using a party member that it makes Dark Souls 2 of all games look like it's devoid of enemies by comparison. This would be alright if they were mainly unique, but you'll find most enemies are reskins of the ones from the first area and the tutorial area. Your companion revives you when you die, does more damage than you, always tries to draw more aggro, and there's no way to command it to stay somewhere or play defensively or anything, it just plays the game for you. But don't worry it never shuts up whether you're in english or japanese voices and constantly reminds you you're doing a good job to make you think you're the one doing the work.

    - Story (without spoiling past the tutorial area): You have a long variety of slow and long cutscenes in Code Vein, after you do the forced tutorial you have a lot of cutscenes before you play the Not Undead Asylum (tutorial area), where you meet the Not Firekeeper (Girl in White) who is an emotionless character with ripped clothes that they never bother to change later so that you can see more of her skin I guess, which is a reoccurring theme throughout this game. You get told to go into the mines to look for Not Humanities (Blood Beads) to stop the Not Undead (Revenants) from going Not Hollow (Wandering). Inside you meet Not Oscar (Oliver Collins) who breaks his gas mask to save you and then tells you to go on ahead. You fight the Not Asylum Demon (Transformed Oliver Collins) and then the other characters learn you can light Not Bonfires (Mistles) so they take you back to Not Firelink Shrine (Homebase) and the game continues the same pattern as DS1 from there.

    - Music: Since this game loves imitating Dark Souls so much it must mean it has great music and a music for each boss right? Unfortunately no, every boss except for the last one has the same boss theme which just sounds like Squidward walking into a talented orchestra and telling them to play as loudly as possible. The battle theme sounds like they just took the, "Fight Against an Armed Boss" theme from Super Mario RPG and took out the additional instruments and musical phrases. All of the music loops often and has a lack of length or musical progression and most of it won't be heard until you watch the slow cutscenes that feature them anyway.

    - Sound Design: Have you ever punched a wall and it didn't do anything? Well that's what the sounds feel like in Code Vein. You could hit a giant monster with the craziest looking, biggest weapon possible and it will just sound like you're cutting into a smoked ham. The weapons have no sound design variety and the sounds do a horrible job indicating when you've been hit until you get low on health and it fills your screen with blood and monochrome. Overall all of the sounds are just flaccid versions of sounds that are trying to sound natural rather than sticking out and leaving a positive impression.

    - Character Design: There's a clear pattern you can see the character designers were following here. All of the female characters: bosses, enemies, and allies, where almost nothing at all. All the male characters however wear huge jackets that don't fit them and have Bloodborne clothes on as if they're going to the wedding of Leonardo da Vinci. It's ok for a game to give characters hardly any clothes if they do it to both sexes equally, but maybe they wanted to give some characters clothes so that there would be more clothes than content in this game.

    - Level Design: Since they take so many pages out of Dark Souls' book the game must at least have good, open, interconnected design right? Nope. All of the areas are either extremely long, snaking tunnels or these 3D puzzles that require you to fall straight down somewhere so you can climb up a ladder to a higher point and then fall somewhere else again. Well the game gives you a map, so it's ok right? Nope. The map doesn't show you the different layers, which each area has many of, so the map will lead you astray more times than help you. Even FromSoftware's King's Field IV from 2001 has a multi-layered map in it, and that game has a lower metacritic score than this one. Why? I couldn't tell you, I'd much rather be playing anything over this.

    - Extra Content: The game does technically have infinite content, in the form of, "The Depths". These are randomly made dungeons where you fight the same enemies again and you fight normal enemies with higher stats as bosses, they are always grey, and always boring.

    Save your money and buy a game that isn't devoid of creative aspirations and fun.    … Expand
  3. Flutterrager
    Sep 29, 2019
    2
    Did you like Dark Souls but thought to yourself "how could I make this more clunky?". Then Code Vein has got ya covered! Combat pacing is either off or laggy and some of the bosses are such a visual mess that it's a spectacle **** show. And the ai partners either trivialize combat or purposefully kill you.
  4. elpoyolocho
    Sep 26, 2019
    4
    I have requested a refund on steam after an hour. The bad controls and glitches I encountered at the start of my playthrough were more than enough for me to think that this experience was not worth a full AAA game price.
  5. AceHunt
    Sep 27, 2019
    1
    Biggest Mistake ever, High hopes and thats what we got. just a good charakter editor. fightsystem from 2002.
  6. Trev45
    Oct 2, 2019
    0
    It had a bad camera and was not that difficult but one of the levels which i am sure everyone knows ruins the experience.
  7. Virusi
    Oct 10, 2019
    0
    Pues yo no pude acabar este juego a 3 horas del final, la sensación que he tenido jugando durante todo el juego es como de aburrimiento y que jugaba como obligada, la personalización de personajes muy chula y tal, pero no podeis dar un 10 a un juego por tener una personalizacion buena, de locos... luego, los personajes están mal escritos, con la personalidad de una piedra, no tePues yo no pude acabar este juego a 3 horas del final, la sensación que he tenido jugando durante todo el juego es como de aburrimiento y que jugaba como obligada, la personalización de personajes muy chula y tal, pero no podeis dar un 10 a un juego por tener una personalizacion buena, de locos... luego, los personajes están mal escritos, con la personalidad de una piedra, no te encariñas/empatizas con nadie y hace que no te interese la historia. Las historias de los fragmentos al final acabé pasandolas en plan: a ver si se acaba esto ya...

    El diseño de niveles de algunos mapas es... sin comentarios, mira que llevo jugando desde que tengo uso de razón y me ubico en el mapa perfectamente, sé donde he ido y donde no, aquí era un caos, la zona de la catedral ha sido lo más frustrante que puedo recordar, y que hagan a algunos enemigos más fuertes que a algunos bosses y tengas que repetirlo 1 y otra vez me es muy aburrido...Hay formas más divertidas de alargar un juego, resumiendo podría haberme ahorrado unas horas preciosas no malgastando mi tiempo con este juego    … Expand
  8. ME123
    Sep 26, 2019
    2
    Dropped the game after about 5 hours. Absolute GARBAGE!!!!!!!! One of the worst games I’ve played all year. Extremely disspointed.

    Do not waste your money.
  9. bartcbem
    Nov 4, 2019
    0
    This game is bad Dark Souls wannabe for anime fanboys. Also PC version is terrible to play. Avoid at all cost.
  10. CivilizationAce
    Feb 16, 2020
    0
    So I downloaded the demo. I normally wouldn't review a game just from the demo, but I think it showed me enough.

    I created a character, got to the platform to talk to the girl, changed my movement keys to ESDF, and then I was stuck. Nothing I clicked worked. The interface is so appalling that I couldn't even imagine being able to stand playing this game, presuming that there actually is    So I downloaded the demo. I normally wouldn't review a game just from the demo, but I think it showed me enough.

    I created a character, got to the platform to talk to the girl, changed my movement keys to ESDF, and then I was stuck. Nothing I clicked worked. The interface is so appalling that I couldn't even imagine being able to stand playing this game, presuming that there actually is a way to play it. I'm just happy that I didn't spend actual money on it. I've seen some awkward unintuitive interfaces in my time, but this is by far the worst. Maybe it'll make sense to you, but I doubt it.    … Expand
  11. cgRiot
    Nov 6, 2019
    0
    This crap is bugged as f@ck. Constant CTDs every 10-15 mins. The worst port on pc i've ever played. Waste of money.
  12. 2random
    Mar 19, 2021
    0
    Graphics look so dated! Do not believe fake trailers! No hdr. No rtx. No reflections. No hair animation. No face animation. No bloom. No depth of field. There's even no shadows lmao. What is it, 2004?

    Levels are real mazes with multiple floors, Enemies spawn around you all the time. 90% of gameplay you will be walking around same corridors killing same mobs over and over while trying to    Graphics look so dated! Do not believe fake trailers! No hdr. No rtx. No reflections. No hair animation. No face animation. No bloom. No depth of field. There's even no shadows lmao. What is it, 2004?

    Levels are real mazes with multiple floors, Enemies spawn around you all the time. 90% of gameplay you will be walking around same corridors killing same mobs over and over while trying to find a checkpoint. And if you can't find it for too long, you'll eventually get killed. Oh, you've died 2 times in a row? Well, progress lost, congrats on wasting 2 hours of your life.

    Camera feels unresponsive, It is barely possible to track an enemy without locking. FOW is way too limited. You cannot cancel your attacks. Press attack, an animation starts playing, you see an enemy starting to attack as well, you press evade... and it does not work! You get hit by a bot.

    Sometimes, the game would spawn an enemy right behind my back and make it kill me with one hit. I guess the devs did realize this made the game unplayable, so they added a helpful "companion" bot that will resurrect you all the time.

    All in all, Code Vein feels like a cheap Dark Souls ripoff with way more useless enemies and **** graphics. The game lacks a good plot and is terribly short. It seems like there is about 10 hours of actual content. So, developers decided to crank up the difficulty and turn levels into mazes.

    Finally, the AI part is where the game lacks the most. Enemies always target you no matter what. So, you can just hold block and have some tea while waiting until your companion finishes everyone off. Same applies to bosses, you just shoot them once and roll around while your bot gets the job done.
    The game is not "hardcore", It's just not fun. With this amount of enemies, it should have been a slasher.    … Expand
  13. Defoxx
    Dec 1, 2020
    2
    Ожидал большего от игры. По итогу получился соулс-лайк с кучей ненужных механик и анимациями уровня дмс4.
  14. Garou89
    Sep 8, 2021
    0
    worst souls like ive played

    Leveldesign 2/10 Characters 2/10 Music 8/10 Setting 8/10 Gameplaymechanics 3/10 Story 4/10 Bosses 3/10 Im very surprised that this game is so well recieved. I played almost every souls/like game out there and never encountered one where i wanted to write a review about as this one. The core design of a souls game is here but it doesnt even feel    worst souls like ive played

    Leveldesign 2/10
    Characters 2/10
    Music 8/10
    Setting 8/10
    Gameplaymechanics 3/10
    Story 4/10
    Bosses 3/10

    Im very surprised that this game is so well recieved.
    I played almost every souls/like game out there and never encountered one where i wanted to write a review about as this one.

    The core design of a souls game is here but it doesnt even feel half as good as dark souls 1 and that is from 2011.

    The Leveldesign is the so horrible compared to any soulslike game i even enjoyed the cluster♥♥♥♥ of a labyrinth in the surge 2.

    The enemie hp is so low that you dont need to learn any movements to counter just block and 1 hit them.

    The partner makes parrying a risky move when youre about to parry and he/she decides to stagger the enemie.

    The weapons and armors are super bland in this game. You like to play with a 2 Handed sword here get this ZWEIHANDER and let it carry you trough the game.

    Leveling up feels fine if you compare it to how fast you can level up in the game and the bloodcode system couldve been something awesome if it werent for the bland skills.

    Here you have some buffs and some attacks who almost all are the same but do different dmg. Except for a very few cases where skills are doing something creative.

    Items are ok mostly trivial stuff but you dont need any of them.

    Puzzlemechanics and traps are super basic. The leveldesing is basically a corridor with a few branches that you can explore to open a new corridor with some branches until you hit the final room.

    Almost every Character is written in the same way and the emotional scenes left me cold since every pair is just: "i know ive sacrified myself so you can live in peace/ Oh damn youve done that for me now i have to see it trough for you! Nakama POWA"

    The memories are tedious walking slogs only because the writing of the characters are super bad, combine that with a mute protagonist with a personality of a dog and you wanna start skipping cutscenes.

    oh and only buy the season pass for 1-5 bucks its super bad.

    The depths are all the same port into reused assets go into 2-3 corridors 1 hit any normal mobs that are labeled as bosses get the keys port back and kill the next reused boss like you already did and repeat that ♥♥♥♥ many times.

    3.5/10 as a 60$ souls like

    6/10 as a 20$ action jrpg    … Expand
  15. Larsjess
    Feb 14, 2021
    0
    Terrible Ai, enemy design and level design. it's all very bad. Would not recommend to anyone
  16. Meeeeeeh
    Oct 14, 2022
    0
    Starts on the wrong goddamn monitor. This is 2022. USE THE PRIMARY OS MONITOR dumbass. Worthless port. Save your money for a dev company that actually cares about the experience they're peddling.
  17. ManHoof
    Aug 4, 2023
    4
    Primitive level design, same mobs with same move set (reskin only). Storyline like child cartoon. Some like Lady Bug :)
    Best parts of the game, is character creation and coop mode.

Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Most Discussed PC Game of 2019
91
#91 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
72

Mixed or average reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. Quarter to Three
    Jan 4, 2021
    80
    What if there were a Dark Souls for people who want something to do instead of play the same boss fight over and over until I get lucky and don't die? Well, this is! And this is it!
    Read full review
  2. Worth Playing
    Apr 3, 2020
    70
    Code Vein should be applauded for doing something different with the Dark Souls formula. It's great to be able to switch out your classes at will and combine them, and the almost-constant presence of co-op is a real selling point for those who may not want to jump into the deep end of this emerging subset of the genre. The rest of the game, from the story to the level design, feels bland, and the combat falls apart when you suddenly have no AI companion by your side. If you don't mind a heavy dose of anime in your action game, Code Vein may be worth checking out.
    Read full review
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 28, 2020
    60
    Code Vein is a successful nod to soulsborne games. It does not reach the highest peaks, but it deserves attention for unconventional setting, huge potential and interesting possibilities when it comes to character development and equipment. It is not perfect, but it is definitely more than just good. [Issue#299]
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