Code Vein

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 642 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 451 out of 642
  2. Mixed: 103 out of 642
  3. Negative: 88 out of 642
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  1. jbabkin
    Nov 20, 2019
    6
    I've always been a huge fan of the Soulsborne series and that's what got me into this game. This game will definitely scratch your itch if that's what you're looking for. But aside from the Soulsborne style gameplay, I feel like the game really lacks a satisfying experience. It just doesn't feel as good to defeat bosses and the general gameplay feels like it lacks the weight that I felt inI've always been a huge fan of the Soulsborne series and that's what got me into this game. This game will definitely scratch your itch if that's what you're looking for. But aside from the Soulsborne style gameplay, I feel like the game really lacks a satisfying experience. It just doesn't feel as good to defeat bosses and the general gameplay feels like it lacks the weight that I felt in Dark Souls.… Expand
  2. Enkindled
    Nov 2, 2019
    7
    Code Vein is a fun game to play but it will let you down in some aspects that it successfully hides from you. This is heavily based on the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne. More bellow.

    The Pros: - Customization: This game has a good customization system for your characters' appearances, which is totally based on style. You will have some fun here. - Battle Customization: This is the    Code Vein is a fun game to play but it will let you down in some aspects that it successfully hides from you. This is heavily based on the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne. More bellow.

    The Pros:
    - Customization: This game has a good customization system for your characters' appearances, which is totally based on style. You will have some fun here.
    - Battle Customization: This is the meat of the game. You have tons of classes to choose from, where you can switch between them every time you fell like it while keeping your progression of the last one. This is also enhanced by the massive amount of passive and active skills you can use, that FOR SURE will fit your style of play somehow. This is why this game is fun: combat.
    -Artwork: Mixed feelings here. Solid artwork but bad art direction.

    The Cons:
    - Art direction: This game is not bad in terms of graphics but the art direction killed it. Everywhere you go feels the same: rubble, point spikes, destroyed buildings, stones, messed streets. Hence and repeat. There is little variety and the looks just start to feel absurdly boring after a while, where nothing appeals to your eyes anymore.
    - Soundtrack: There are good soundtracks but little variety, gets repetitive fast.
    - Story: Ths game might well have no story. It is your standard shonen anime plot: [no spoilers just general idea] bunch of people turn into friends to stop some evil, they go through a lot of cliche dramas (a lot of cliches), done. Additionally, this game loses points to really rip off the souls series like its nothing. You are all trapped in some life-death cycle (all from the souls series + Sekiro), blood is a bid deal in this world (Bloodborne), you can go aid some players around the work or call them (all from Souls Series). Some places are almost a rip-off. Another lame factor is the character's personalities that are CLICHE to a fault, which makes you lose interest fast. You will not get attached to any of them. They are the most non-appealing NPC ever. Maybe Yakumo is cool, the rest are not.
    - Memories: There are a lot of memories to see in this game, that will not only trigger some class for you to learn but will also let you go deeper into the lore. Sounds good? Well, it isn't. There are tons of memories, they take forever to see, they are not interesting at all because they are all stills, they are no cutscenes.
    - Loading time: Long loading times. Unfortunately, you will be teleporting a lot, thus, be prepared to stay still and look at the same loading screen.
    - Side Quests: They are so irrelevant that if you don`t make any of them, you will not lose anything. They give you nothing interesting and "The Depths", which are a series of side-quest maps that are redundant and repetitive.
    - Cutscenes: WAY TO FREQUENT. That's it, just way too frequent.

    Look, I gave this game a 7 because it is still fun to play. However, be warned... all I mentioned before is true and it has the potential to leave you disappointed to the point you will rush through the game just to finish it.    … Expand
  3. Barrymore45
    Nov 3, 2019
    7
    This game is good and players will not regret their time with it, however there are several issues that hold it back from true greatness.

    Gameplay; Combat is generally decent, challenging and requires thoughtfulness at all times. However the levels are regrettably samey and a fairly small enemy pool means that levels can become a drag. Enemies often refused to be downed without getting    This game is good and players will not regret their time with it, however there are several issues that hold it back from true greatness.

    Gameplay;
    Combat is generally decent, challenging and requires thoughtfulness at all times. However the levels are regrettably samey and a fairly small enemy pool means that levels can become a drag. Enemies often refused to be downed without getting at least one swing off, which becomes tedious especially when you get lost.

    Exploration of levels is good, the maze like qualities of certain areas convey a sense of scale to proceedings and the mapping system and breadcrumbs left on the mini map are one of the strongest parts of the game. Replay ability does not particularly benefit however from sprawling mazes, and subsequent playthroughs can feel a little bit tedious because of this.

    Bosses are a mixed bag, often acting so fast that it requires very quick reflexes or learning. Many times I have been at opposite ends of the arena to a boss who is currently not attacking, and the moment I try to heal, the distance was instantly closed and I receive a hit for more than my heal amount. Overall the combat is fair but I did find it frustrating. The game is tuned to co-op play with an AI companion, and this is one of the better AI companions that exists in gaming. It did often feel cheap to win a fight purely on how well the AI companion performed rather than anything I was doing, after all, who is playing this game? Often it felt like the AI companion.

    The blood code system is serviceable, but the ability to change it on the fly actually harms replay-ability. Why would one want to play through the relatively tedious levels again, when you can just change blood codes and test it out for a while?

    Multiplayer is a little disappointing, no PVP is available and the co-op dungeon diving does feel quite drawn out, tacked on and a little superfluous. As a side note, the trophy list is spoiled by one particular trophy which required 400 bosses to be killed in co-op. This can be mindless grind at best, or torture at worse. This is a shame as the other trophy's are fair.

    Unfortunately this leaves game-play to be only just above average, and if scored alone I would probably give it a 6/10.

    Story and everything else.
    The story is good. The world built is intriguing and leaves you wanting to know more, This narrative hook brings you through the game nicely. A misstep though is how it too often descends into the realm of anime melodrama. Without spoilers, see all of those characters you are meeting? Well prepare to have attempts made to tug on your heart strings for every single one of them. This gets repetitive and the players becomes numb to it fairly early on.

    The game excels in its soundtrack, graphics and character customization. These features help to bring the game up to a 7/10 despite the mixed game-play. I think Bandai Namco are on to something good here, and it would be nice to see improved combat and game-play in a sequel or in the DLC's.

    This game deserves the chance to improve, as this first entry is a mixed bag, especially in game-play.    … Expand
  4. IgnatiusSp
    Oct 8, 2019
    7
    Code Vein has really good ideas, specially with the classes, skills, armors, and their potential mix-ups. And the new combat mechanics this game has, provide an interesting approach to the fights.
    Uses the known Souls-like formula and throw in something new and different for the players. This makes the game really interesting and fun to play. Fighting is closer to the feel you get when    Code Vein has really good ideas, specially with the classes, skills, armors, and their potential mix-ups. And the new combat mechanics this game has, provide an interesting approach to the fights.
    Uses the known Souls-like formula and throw in something new and different for the players. This makes the game really interesting and fun to play. Fighting is closer to the feel you get when playing God Eater or Dynasty Warriors, so your hits lack the impact any hit on Dark Souls has. Combat is a bit clunky. But it's really enjoyable, nonetheless. The character improvement is focused around buying skills and mastering them, way more than leveling up. Being over-leveled for an area reduces the mastering rate of skills, for example.

    And yes, this title is more lenient than others in the genre, if you go with a companion or play online. Not the case if you play solo. But thanks to the companion and the overall game difficulty, it's perfect for new players of the genre.

    The biggest team any player can create, is a 3 people team, the host, the AI companion and a guest player. The AI is pretty competent in combat. So it can help people learning the ropes, protecting them. If you turn off your companion, only one guest can join anyways, but a 2 people team usually is enough to handle everything.

    It's a blast to play even with the issues it has (issues they're fixing with patches).

    Has one of the best character creators I've seen. Even when there are not so much different clothes and faces to choose from, the big amount of options at your disposal makes up for it.

    The story is your generic action anime thingy, and is presented that way, with a lot of videos. It is enjoyable, and you can empathize with the characters, but there's nothing awesome about it. It is spectacular to see some scenes, I should say. It's fun, good enough. I actually expected it to be worse of what happened to be in the end. Thus, no complaints here.

    The maps are bland, and close to those old styled Japanese RPGs where you could find a lava island next to an ice island, just because reasons.
    But that doesn't hinder at all the enjoyment, if you don't care that much about it, that is.
    The whole OST is pretty solid, but the combat music you hear the most is not that varied, so it might get boring in the long run.

    No other company is able to provide such a world building as From Software. I think it's pretty unfair to expect that from any other Soulsborne. If other companies can deliver, it's worthy of praise, if not, it doesn't matter. And, if you care too much about it, you can play any of the From Software titles again or wait for their next title.

    The animations are good, but they're not that fluid compared to other titles. And the game has some clipping and frame-drops here and there.

    And clearly, Shift, the developers, had no manpower or money to do a better product than this.
    It's a decent and average game. They are the developers of God Eater 1 & 2 (and their 2015 ports to PS4). Setting the bar there, the work Shift has done here is pretty good.

    Japanese voice acting is way better than English, so I would recommend to choose Japanese voices in options. And their chitchat is less annoying when traversing the world.

    Info on three of the Japanese voice actresses, for anime fans (to get an idea of what you can find):

    If someone has seen New Game!, Rin Murasame is voiced by the Japanese voice actress for Suzukaze Aoba, Takada Yuuki.
    And Coco's voice actress, Mori Nanako, is Kodama Miyako from Yagate Kimi ni Naru/Bloom into You.
    Same happens for Mia Karnstein's voice actress, Kayano Ai, as she is Saeki Sayaka, from that very same series.

    Let's go back to the review and wrap it up.

    My inner 16 year-old kid is amazed by the game. It's really fun to play, and has nu-metal music in the opening, some story videos, and in the home base. The intro song is Underworld by VAMPS. Check the opening video of the game to get a taste on how much "over the top anime" this game is.

    It's like the Dragon's Dogma of the Soulsborne games. Not bad, and not even close to be a masterpiece either. Just a good or decent game. But you're always coming back for more, because it's really entertaining to play.

    Might be not the best thing out there, but is undeniably fun, and it keeps me playing. That is the most important thing. Some people can find a gem where others can see just a rock. It's you who can decide what this game is. If you want to try it, there's a demo on PS4 and Xbox One.

    As Fry from Futurama said: " I can't stop eating this delicious ooze."

    "In the face of certain death, we rise." Code Vein.    … Expand
  5. Lujeto
    Sep 30, 2019
    5
    Code Vein can be summarised simply as: mediocre. While the customization options are quite vast & fun to experiment with the game itself however is very monotone, dry looking & very bland at times. Annoyingly this extends to the hub area which feels uninspired, plays constant j-pop rock music just because. all atmosphere the world is trying to establish here is lost somewhat. Enemy &Code Vein can be summarised simply as: mediocre. While the customization options are quite vast & fun to experiment with the game itself however is very monotone, dry looking & very bland at times. Annoyingly this extends to the hub area which feels uninspired, plays constant j-pop rock music just because. all atmosphere the world is trying to establish here is lost somewhat. Enemy & monster designs are serviceable in variety but don’t seem that standout or interesting including bosses.
    Any soulsborne player can identify immediately this is a very weak experience overall from the get go, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before or played with the exception of anime influences, strong character creator and a checkbox class system. If you desire for a rewarding, challenging combat system akin to a fromsoftware title with deep lore, intriguing world building with intersecting paths, secrets & thinking on your feet. Look elsewhere.    … Expand
  6. Wrath_4givnez
    Oct 1, 2019
    7
    What a curious game this is.

    Coming from the creators of the Monster Hunter rival known as "God Eater", the developers of SHIFT decided to take a stab at the subgenre that FromSOFT had cultivated through their "Souls/Bourne" games. The results are a tad messy, but no-less enjoyable. However, let's address the elephant in the room. IE, the fanservice... It's there. That's all really.    What a curious game this is.

    Coming from the creators of the Monster Hunter rival known as "God Eater", the developers of SHIFT decided to take a stab at the subgenre that FromSOFT had cultivated through their "Souls/Bourne" games. The results are a tad messy, but no-less enjoyable.

    However, let's address the elephant in the room. IE, the fanservice... It's there. That's all really. If you've played other SHIFT titles, this isn't the first time you've seen it this blatant. My only real complaint is that the majority of said fanservice tends to lean on the garish side, but that's the artist in me rather than a complaint about the sexualization.

    Gameplay obviously borrows heavily from FromSOFT's aforementioned "series", complete with gear allocation, basic combat flow, lore distribution, and an emphasis on cautious navigation and heavy exploration in tightly squeezed pathways and areas. But, that's kinda where the similarities end, as the game introduces Blood Codes and Blood Veils to act as the meat of the game.

    Blood Veils, plain and simple, are special armor/coats that act as a combination of a tertiary charge attack that steals Ichor (your "skill/magic" pts) from enemies, adds additional attack and defense parameters to your overall stats, grants certain resistances and buffs, and change your parry animation and attack. Some can be used any time, while others may require certain Blood Codes to be in effect.

    Which brings us to the Blood Codes themselves. These are effectively "classes", but with a few interesting twists. The first of which is that you can swap them out at any time. They alter base stats, health, resistances, stamina, and even effect the use of weapons and Blood Veils. The crux of their existence, however, is granting skills under the two catagories: passive and active. Active skills are effectively spells and techniques your character uses outside of their weapons (or sometimes, in conjunction with them) in order to buff, debuff, attack, defend, or even lay temporary traps, each of which require a cost of Ichor. Passive skills are exactly what they imply; skills that remain active as long as they are equipped, that require no Ichor cost. The second twist is how skills work. All skills normally are available only to their respective Blood Code, but utilizing a Blood Code long enough with the skills present allows the skills to become available to all Blood Codes, allowing you to use them freely with your preferred blood code. This can allow for a huge diversity of different combinations in terms of skills and Blood Code set ups that can work in a variety of different situations, or fine tune a specific favorite code to suite your playstyle. It's not as easy as just using whatever codes you find however.

    At the start of the game, effectively during the tutorial area, you will receive four different Blood Codes that can be used and added to by purchasing "gifts" (Ie, the skills). They are all complete, and only require the player to gain the skills from a save point and utilize the Code long enough. Later Blood Codes, however, will come in fragments, and will require the player to find the missing pieces and put them back together, before they are able to access the more powerful skills.

    These two gameplay mechanics alone warrant at least a try from any action-RPG enthusiast, as it grants a huge amount of customization options.

    The game on its own merits is actually quite competently made and quite fun, but there are a few issues and nitpicks one might encounter. The first is that, during certain areas that are action intense or scenery intense, the framerate can begin to chug for a moment or two. Another issue tends to be with texture pop-in, which is thankfully seldom. A small gripe can be said about a distinct lack of variety in locals and detailing (with some few exceptions), and most places the player will explore may feel repetitive. Sound, while decently made, may have the music loud enough to drown out conversation. Finally, if you dislike character chatter constantly, it may be best to avoid playing the game with an AI partner (which, due to the unfortunate fact that they are both competent and easily act as a second life bar if you're in trouble, may not be recommended)

    The story itself is a complicated mess that doesn't like to share many details upfront, but if you're willing to seek out Blood Code fragments and re-complete them, talk to the large variety of (garish) NPCs that populate the home base and the game's stomping grounds, and do a few side quests, you'll learn just a little bit more about just what the hell is going on.

    All-in-all, it's a fun vampiric romp through a post-apocalyptic warzone filled with mutant ash monsters, loaded with customization options, has some neat gameplay mechanics that set itself apart from other "souls-like" games, and has fanservice enough that may cause the easily offended to shy away.    … Expand
  7. Samyar91
    Oct 21, 2019
    5
    To me,it’s a mediocre game..I’m not comparing it to other souls game..judging the game I can say the story is good..but the level design of the game is so similar and not something that you remember..but the worst thing which is the reason I’m review this game is combat and the design of the enemy..one of the worst that bandai namco can offer!!It’s so bad that after hours playing it thereTo me,it’s a mediocre game..I’m not comparing it to other souls game..judging the game I can say the story is good..but the level design of the game is so similar and not something that you remember..but the worst thing which is the reason I’m review this game is combat and the design of the enemy..one of the worst that bandai namco can offer!!It’s so bad that after hours playing it there is nothing that makes me want to go back to this game… Expand
  8. OKE27
    Oct 28, 2019
    5
    This game feels fine in the first 3 levels, but when you reached Code Vein version of Anor Londo. Game became stressful and boring. Story is childish, I kept skipping. Enemies are very repetitive, also there aren't enough weapon and skill variety, The maze like map is a time waste. I purchased deluxe edition thought I would love this game but now I felt a little bit regret. It is anThis game feels fine in the first 3 levels, but when you reached Code Vein version of Anor Londo. Game became stressful and boring. Story is childish, I kept skipping. Enemies are very repetitive, also there aren't enough weapon and skill variety, The maze like map is a time waste. I purchased deluxe edition thought I would love this game but now I felt a little bit regret. It is an average game, possibly play once and you will never touch it game. I suggest people to wait for half price sales, deluxe edition isn't worth the value as far as I can see right now.… Expand
  9. Prrgangsta
    Jan 8, 2020
    7
    Finally picked up a copy and all I can say is it is a good game. I love the anime style and the combat feels pretty good to me. It isn't as difficult as Dark Souls or Bloodeborne but it would be a decent start for those that want to try their hand at those style of games. Character customization is really deep and intricate, probably one of the best in gaming I have seen. My problem withFinally picked up a copy and all I can say is it is a good game. I love the anime style and the combat feels pretty good to me. It isn't as difficult as Dark Souls or Bloodeborne but it would be a decent start for those that want to try their hand at those style of games. Character customization is really deep and intricate, probably one of the best in gaming I have seen. My problem with the game though is my created character has no personality to add to this game's story. It is a personal sin to have a story driven game with character creation and then that character becomes more a background character than a main protagonist. Louis feels more like a main character. When there are conversations during cutscenes my character just stands there looking interested and nodding his head. Let me have a chance to interact during a cutscene so my character can feel like a member of the group and at least have a personality. My other issue is the story is TOO anime. What do I mean? You know those shounen anime where they say friendship is important? Well get ready to hear a lot of "my friends are important", "we're officially friends", and "I'm always there for my friends". I personally am not a fan of this even in anime. No one talks like this except in anime and maybe at parties when your friend has too much to drink.… Expand
  10. Gohax
    Oct 3, 2019
    7
    So CODE VEIN is a funny story to begin with because as I was thinking if I should buy the game I saw some YouTube reviews and most of them either hated the game or said it’s an okay game so I gave the game a chance and after playing it I understand why people give it bad reviews its because most people didn’t even finish it and gave their reviews only by their first impressions so after ISo CODE VEIN is a funny story to begin with because as I was thinking if I should buy the game I saw some YouTube reviews and most of them either hated the game or said it’s an okay game so I gave the game a chance and after playing it I understand why people give it bad reviews its because most people didn’t even finish it and gave their reviews only by their first impressions so after I finished the whole game and almost 100% most of the maps I can give my most honest review to it

    Story:
    you are a revenant in other words a vampire after waking up to the white haired girl ( yes that one) she helps you to the blood tree that grows blood fruits of sorts and after drinking it you come to your senses shortly after you are forced to go find more trees like the one you drank from by a revenant unit you meet Louis who becomes your teammate and best friend who also introduces you to the hub world and his friends

    Pros:

    The art style is amazing and you can really see how the unreal engine 4 just makes everything prettier

    The animations are really smooth and good looking

    The game is a bit difficult and it takes time to learn the attack of some enemies plus your healing potions
    barely heal you which really adds a challenge to the game

    The character customization is one of the best ones I saw in a while so good that you can actually customize your character to look like other anime characters

    Really deep story and a lot of character development

    Your AI partner isn’t dumb at all from telling you that you are low on healing potions and to wait for him so you won’t go alone to helping you out in battle staggering enemies and even reviving you when things go bad

    Every area has its own unique mobs

    The bosses design is really something most of them I still remember just by how cool they look

    there is some replay value i guess because there are 3 endings so you can try to finish the game three times for those endings also for endgame content there are this dungeons you can do that are really similar to the chalice dungeon from bloodborne also for endgame you can try to complete maps by exploring everything and 100% every map in the game

    Cons:

    I know it’s an anime game but the amount of Over-Sexualization in this game just becomes disgusting at some point because most of the women in the game are half dressed and their huge chest is just sticking out they even went as far as doing it to the female bosses in my opinion they really over did it

    another personal con is the fact that you and your friends are high powered vampires that can lift really heavy swords and do really incredible things but you still have limited human like stamina and it takes forever for you to swing a sword which is kinda dumb they could add their own spin to the game by making everyone super agile like in sekiro so again in my opinion its a huge con

    maps are really boring and blend sometimes even looking the same

    some weapons also look boring and its a shame because the devs are knows for designing awesome looking weapons

    the way they tell the story by making you walk slowly to a kind of a slide show is just awful and sometimes i even tried to avoid those

    the main thing that made people write negative reviews about this game is the class system and the amount of stats you as the player need to go through before you actually get to play the game is just ridicules

    because of the class system and the build you are forced to make at some point bosses just become super easy just of how much op the build you made is sometimes i even 4 shotted bosses that's just absurd

    the mechanic they added to the game where you need to find and purify this flower things just to uncover some parts of the mini map is just not necessary it would be cool just to have a general map or no map at all

    all in all this game feels like an indie game although its developers are not i guess its their first souls like game so they had some difficulties with it which bring me to the final score to this game and its a 7 out of 10 its a cool game but needs more polishing and fixing at some areas i do recommend it but at a lower price    … Expand
  11. Ishi123
    Oct 25, 2019
    7
    This game fumbles on the gameplay sometimes, making grave mistakes that Dark Souls never did, which I will list for you now.

    Its controls can be unresponsive. The camera and lock-on often is uncooperative when you need it. It starts approximately 100% of enemy encounters with a monster closet. Your stagger animation upon getting hit is a full second so you WILL be stunlocked to death if    This game fumbles on the gameplay sometimes, making grave mistakes that Dark Souls never did, which I will list for you now.

    Its controls can be unresponsive. The camera and lock-on often is uncooperative when you need it. It starts approximately 100% of enemy encounters with a monster closet. Your stagger animation upon getting hit is a full second so you WILL be stunlocked to death if you take on more than one enemy at a time. Some enemies and bosses straight up have no windups to their attacks and/or have attacks that are literally single digit frames long requiring near clairvoyant timing to avoid. Many of the bosses have no cooldowns on their attacks at all, giving you literally no time to heal. The game doesn't know how to make bosses difficult so some of them just have arena-wide instant kills that you can't avoid or see coming because the telegraphs are either unreasonably fast or subtle. Some normal enemies have straight instant kills for some reason. The level design gets shorter and more linear as the game goes on. Enemies will aggro to you and ONLY you, completely ignoring your AI partner or any player help you have to gank you. You CANNOT run away from encounters that go south, as enemies have an infinite aggro range and will follow you literally to level exits, meaning if you want to try to get away to heal, you will be run down and killed by the conga line of enemies that sprint after you. The AI partner is reliable but literally only feels like a crutch to compensate for all of the above, like they were aware of how BS the game can be and just decided to give you a permanent partner instead of actually fixing the game. And lastly, the game will sometimes just straight up instant kill you with literally no way to avoid it aside from prior knowledge just to laugh at your face.

    Quite a few issues that a seasoned Souls veteran can see from miles away. We already got the best version of this kind of game, guys, if you're going to copy it, copy it good, how about?

    However, what the game does have going for it is a compelling world, amazingly realized characters, and holy hell this music is so good. For the most part all of what I mentioned CAN be learned through and if that doesn't work there's always brute force, I guess, but I found myself going back to it every time it gave me a BS death that I didn't deserve because of all of those things. The character customization is really great, and not just in the appearance, but in the gameplay as well. Many ways to mix and match different abilities and weapons and armors to suit your playstyle perfectly, and when you find your perfect build it just feels so good to lay it into your enemies.

    The game is flawed as hell, for sure, but for a brand new IP it's not a bad start, and if there are going to be any plans for one, a Code Vein 2 is definitely something I'd keep an eye out for.    … Expand
  12. TheFrog
    Oct 15, 2019
    6
    UPDATE: my initial review was enthusiastic, see below, but I had to lower the score after finishing the game. The game features a number of easy bosses that are perfect for someone, like me, who hates boss encounters with a passion. Then, at the end, you have a number of super frustrating, overpowered bosses that are as bad as those in Dark Souls, possibly worse. Attacks that cover theUPDATE: my initial review was enthusiastic, see below, but I had to lower the score after finishing the game. The game features a number of easy bosses that are perfect for someone, like me, who hates boss encounters with a passion. Then, at the end, you have a number of super frustrating, overpowered bosses that are as bad as those in Dark Souls, possibly worse. Attacks that cover the whole arena and cannot be avoided or parried, non-stop swipes that cover 340° around the boss with a radius of several meters, area effects that prevent you from attacking even in that miserable split second that you could (you spend the rest of the time avoiding those nearly infinite combos). You just try and try and try, until you get lucky and defeat them, thanks to your sidekick reviving you. I cannot make heads or tails of this design. This is certain to anger both boss lovers, who'll begrudge the easy ones, and boss haters, who'll suffer with the later ones. It looks like the game was too short and they decided to artificially extend the duration by cranking difficulty up to 11. A huge disappointment for me.
    Also, in hindsight I realized that while it's true that you can choose among dozens of gifts, most are useless or worse. If I see an opening, I can unleash a combo on an enemy, which will deal damage and recharge ichor ("mana") or a gift, which will probably deal less damage and *consume* ichor. There are powerful area-based gifts that in theory would be great when you are surrounded, but in practice will go through 10% of the time, due to the long animation that exposes you to the attacks of the enemies, who never stop attacking for more than half a second, no stamina meter for them.
    Finally, the red tint of everything has an explanation, but makes everything look drab and boring nonetheless.

    I am having a blast with this title, that has far exceeded my expectations. Think Dark Souls minus the frustration: the game is not nearly as punishing, while maintaining the satisfaction of a challenge. Especially bosses, which I hate, can often be beaten at the first attempt. A negative for some, I’m sure, but great for me, who prefer confronting the mob while exploring levels.
    Where this game really shines is customizability. Scores of different abilities to choose from and to activate with 8 hot keys. You are free not only to choose your preferred path, but also to switch it at a moment’s notice. In certain levels I breezed through using a spear, then I found that the short sword is much better in the next, punishing one. No problem, insta-switch.
    Certain enemies go from near invincible to easyish if you use the ability that augments your stagger value, others react better to poison, others still are powerful but slow, opening them wide to backstabs. I love the variety, I love the fun, I’m grinding just because I don’t want it to finish so soon.
    The story is ok, narration is very anime-oriented, which is not really my cup of tea, with lots of unconvincing drama. No problem, I can forgive the designers and anyway I’ve seen worse.
    Since many ppl are criticizing the Cathedral level, and I understand why, I can say that mapping such a 3D maze in the form of a graph, using a mind mapping tool on a tablet, is pretty satisfying. You know, creating your own maps instead of relying on the automap takes me back in time, and it’s not a bad sensation. By the way, I totally had to do the same for Bloodborne, so I honestly cannot see why it’s such a sore point here.    … Expand
  13. Sumbyv1
    Oct 1, 2019
    6
    Really wanted to love this game but its definitely at the lower end of souls like games. Weightless combat that is unsatisfying compared to other games of this genre along with awful level design (cathedral) made it a slog to get through which is a shame...
  14. Bloodfallen
    Sep 28, 2019
    7
    Decided to make an account to review this game, could not think of a good username so I just went with something related to the game. I find this game rather enjoyable. I would like to say the character creation is one of the most in depth character creation systems I seen in a game, however I didn't spend my money just for the character creation, I wanted a good game. So far I believe theDecided to make an account to review this game, could not think of a good username so I just went with something related to the game. I find this game rather enjoyable. I would like to say the character creation is one of the most in depth character creation systems I seen in a game, however I didn't spend my money just for the character creation, I wanted a good game. So far I believe the game to be fun and has a decent story, but the story its nothing to write home about. It's biggest downfall is the bugs. I experienced a few bugs when playing the game, but the biggest of which was a bug which prevented me from getting past the first bosses cut scene. Every time I killed the boss the game would crash. I was able to get past this bug buy entering the ps home screen as soon as the cut scene started. I didn't experience any bugs this bad since, but a few small and annoying ones. These bugs are the biggest reason for the score of 7, but if I didn't experience the bugs it would have been an 8.… Expand
  15. TrapKing101
    Sep 27, 2019
    6
    Dark Souls but anime, whats not to like? Enjoying the game a lot! Been waiting for this game a while and im not dissatisfied at all.
  16. omatsu
    Oct 29, 2019
    7
    Soul like action game with Japanese girl character for light gamer. But poor level design spoils them…

    Good: Character design and class system. - Create your original wife, quality of character making system is well. - Easy to switch the build by class system (Blood-code) Bad: Poor level design. - Stage is like maze, long and narrow aisle, you can see similar scene. No experience    Soul like action game with Japanese girl character for light gamer. But poor level design spoils them…

    Good: Character design and class system.
    - Create your original wife, quality of character making system is well.
    - Easy to switch the build by class system (Blood-code)

    Bad: Poor level design.
    - Stage is like maze, long and narrow aisle, you can see similar scene. No experience like exploring great building or wonderful location.
    - Enemy is almost same. Because almost of all enemy is human type (include boss), only difference is size and their weapon. You can see similar enemy from early stage to final stage.    … Expand
  17. Zeest
    Sep 27, 2019
    7
    Плюсы.
    +Аниме
    + Есть сюжет + Хорошая графика + Костомизация + Саундтреки +Атмосфера Минусы - Система напарников - Тупые нпс - Упрощённая система прокачки - Озвучка (не знаю как в японской озвучке, но в английской они говорят нормально в противогазах. Комментарий: Игра позиционирует себя как соулслайк, но нпс и система напарников просто ломает жанр и это превращает в рпг. Только на боссах    Плюсы.
    +Аниме
    + Есть сюжет
    + Хорошая графика
    + Костомизация
    + Саундтреки
    +Атмосфера Минусы - Система напарников
    - Тупые нпс
    - Упрощённая система прокачки
    - Озвучка (не знаю как в японской озвучке, но в английской они говорят нормально в противогазах.
    Комментарий: Игра позиционирует себя как соулслайк, но нпс и система напарников просто ломает жанр и это превращает в рпг. Только на боссах вспоминаешь чтоо она похоже на соулслайк игру. Поэтому моя оценка 6-7/10    … Expand
  18. Hardycore
    Sep 28, 2019
    6
    This game is pretty good and fun. Then why only a 6, you might ask. The reason is that it claims to be a souls-like game. But it is not. I mean, it would be, if it was without the amazing atmosphere, the depth, the complexity and most of all the difficulty. What's left of that what you can consider dark souls like? Close to nothing. It basically is a kiddy version of Dark Souls with a lotThis game is pretty good and fun. Then why only a 6, you might ask. The reason is that it claims to be a souls-like game. But it is not. I mean, it would be, if it was without the amazing atmosphere, the depth, the complexity and most of all the difficulty. What's left of that what you can consider dark souls like? Close to nothing. It basically is a kiddy version of Dark Souls with a lot of hand holding, where dying is pretty difficult. Not only are enemies mostly push overs and bosses boring and bland (from what I've seen), but you are also teamed with over powered NPC that will clear most for you and even revive you when you die. It reminds me of WoW, where at first the game was tricky and fun but got replaced by hand holding to cater the children.

    Now this doesn't make the game bad. Even with all the hand holding the game is still more difficult than most games nowadays (which admittingly says more about the majority of games released), the concept of being able to change classes whenever you feel like it to suit the situation is pretty cool, the combat is still pretty fun and all that. It just hurts to get this when you are expecting a game like Dark Souls.    … Expand
  19. jelloskins
    Mar 9, 2020
    5
    It started off as such an amazing game but ended up simply frustrating and not fun. A game should not be frustrating. I play games for fun. After the invading executioner boss I had to quit. After many of hours on one boss, looking up strategies and continuously failing fast, I realize the game is just not fun.
  20. cylentstorm
    Mar 14, 2023
    5
    Yet another Souls-like with plenty of goofy anime/JRPG cheese... A few cool mechanics do little to separate a mediocre, yet mostly solid slasher from the rest of the formulaic pack.

    Loose controls and repetitive action are melded to inconsistent performance and dull level design. The game is far less of an artificially-difficult chore than From's clunkathons, and at least the    Yet another Souls-like with plenty of goofy anime/JRPG cheese... A few cool mechanics do little to separate a mediocre, yet mostly solid slasher from the rest of the formulaic pack.

    Loose controls and repetitive action are melded to inconsistent performance and dull level design. The game is far less of an artificially-difficult chore than From's clunkathons, and at least the cringe-tastic story and characters are as comprehensible as they are annoying.

    Wait for a sale or save your cash for something more inspired and deserving of your time.    … Expand
  21. tomvs123
    Aug 10, 2020
    5
    An interesting Dark Souls clone that does a great job at level design and graphics, but gets everything else mostly wrong.

    The story is better (more mature) than the typical anime-style game (such as God Eater), but still has a far way to go to get to the level of Dark Souls or Bloodborne. The story is basically Dark Souls all over again, but with a lot of explanation and    An interesting Dark Souls clone that does a great job at level design and graphics, but gets everything else mostly wrong.

    The story is better (more mature) than the typical anime-style game (such as God Eater), but still has a far way to go to get to the level of Dark Souls or Bloodborne. The story is basically Dark Souls all over again, but with a lot of explanation and impact-on-daily-life stuff thrown in. This might be great for someone who thought Dark Souls was too vague or abstract to understand. But if you understood Dark Souls, then Code Vein will seem dumbed-down to you.

    A big aspect of the story is looking at peoples' memories to unlock skills. So just about nothing is left to the imagination. You know exactly how everyone feels, and unfortunately, they all feel about the same. This makes these memory sequences feel repetitive after a while. So take that, along with a bit of power-of-frienship and melodrama and you'll get an idea of what this story is like.

    The level design is actually pretty good. It does its best to emulate Dark Souls and Bloodborne and pulls it off to some extent. I don't like exploration in games, but liked this one due to how similar it was to the good soulsborne games.

    And while exploring those levels, you get some pretty good area graphics. That's important for a game like this since you'll likely be going to the same areas multiple times.

    The character models and customization options are also impressive for this style of game. While you're all basically undead, there's no shortage of pretty characters. At least they give you a good number of scars and evil-looking tattoos to choose from to at least make yourself look partially dead. Clothes options are decent, but you get only one skirt for your female characters. At least they didn't restrict the camera angels, so if interested, you'll get to see that they modeled all parts of the characters equally well.

    And then come the negatives. Combat is just not as good as Dark Souls. It's modeled after Dark Souls, but ends up feeling more hack-and-slashy. Spending too much time trying to learn enemy moves and attacking them at the right moment always ended up being worse than just running straight up to them and flailing away. This is mostly due to just about every enemy having extra-wide-swinging attacks, so you're frequently getting hit even when standing right behind them. So your best option is to hit them frequently, causing them to be staggered/stunned, and then just continue hitting until they're dead. And I rarely ran into a stamina issue. For most non-boss enemies, you'll need less than a full bar of stamina to kill them.

    The normal monsters are easy when fighting them by yourself. And they're even easier when you bring along one of your NPC companions (who you'll have for most of the game). The game seems to realize this, so it sets up about one section per level where hordes of enemies attack you at once. Those are really the only challenging parts of the game to an experienced soulsborne player.

    And then we have the bosses, all of which are worse than every soulsborne boss. I was able to take down the majority of them on the first try - which is unheard of in a soulsborne game. Just hit them from behind until you're out of stamina, run away, and repeat. Their attacks are either forward-facing or are slow and easy to see, so you can easily dodge out of the way. But then there's the traditional hack-and-slash bosses that somehow made it into the game. These bosses are constantly flailing about, making very quick attacks, hitting everything around them, and hitting you from across the room when you get too far away. These fights are all about having a high damage output weapon. You will get hit, but if you can hit faster than they do, then you'll win.

    So very disappointing boss battles from the game without the strategy or learning aspects that you get from soulsborne. But at least compared to standard hack-and-slash games, they were decent.

    I'll talk a bit about the spells and skills. They're mostly worthless and there doesn't appear to be an easy way to make a mage character, like you could in Dark Souls. Physical attacks were always more effective per my testing and it wasn't even worthwhile to use spells to augment my physical attacks, as that took away time I could have been swinging.

    So it's a great effort at making a dark souls like game, and might be just for you if you're looking for something easier and less vague, and don't mind teen-focused stories.    … Expand
  22. KayVen17
    Apr 30, 2020
    6
    Es ist ein solides Souls-Like, was mir persönlich mehr Spaß gemacht hat als Nioh zum Beispiel. Trotzdem ist die Story wirklich komplett langweillig. Ich musste oft kämpfen nicht zu skippen in Cutscenes. Dazu kommen leider zu viele Kopien vom Vorbild. Ich verstehe das der Bosskampf mit Ornstein und Smough in Dark Souls ikonisch ist und man etwas ähnliches machen wollte, aber einfachEs ist ein solides Souls-Like, was mir persönlich mehr Spaß gemacht hat als Nioh zum Beispiel. Trotzdem ist die Story wirklich komplett langweillig. Ich musste oft kämpfen nicht zu skippen in Cutscenes. Dazu kommen leider zu viele Kopien vom Vorbild. Ich verstehe das der Bosskampf mit Ornstein und Smough in Dark Souls ikonisch ist und man etwas ähnliches machen wollte, aber einfach ebenfalls einen dicken langsamen und eine schnelle Kleine hinzustellen ist wirklich dreiste Kopie. Ich hatte definitiv meinen Spaß, aber leider verspürte ich zu keiner Zeit einen ähnlichen Zauber wie in From Software's Meisterwerk.… Expand
  23. zencube
    Jul 17, 2023
    6
    Unfortunately another Dark Souls Clone without having any spirit of the original Game. And it doesn't matter if you like Anime or not. We've got 1:1 all the mechanics of the DS Series, like Bonfires, Leveling-System, Weapon-Upgrades, etc. which is not a bad thing at all. Actually everything that was copied from the Master works good and without flaws...

    BUT the levels itself are truly    Unfortunately another Dark Souls Clone without having any spirit of the original Game. And it doesn't matter if you like Anime or not. We've got 1:1 all the mechanics of the DS Series, like Bonfires, Leveling-System, Weapon-Upgrades, etc. which is not a bad thing at all. Actually everything that was copied from the Master works good and without flaws...

    BUT the levels itself are truly AWFUL to look at AND to play. It's always an extremely narrow lane, tiny areas, Graphics from PS3-Area and the way they are build are just nonsense! It all fells like a big surreal picture without any references to how a world actually would exist. Beside those non-existing worlds, we've got stupid cities, deserts and a government building that's just so artificial nonsense, it reminds me of the games in the 90s, where Level-Design just had nothing to do with any sort of real worlds. How would anybody design and build a building like this?!

    Anyway, the mechanics and combat is okay, nothing special though and it saves the Game from beeing a total disaster. But still, it's so average in every way that I was just relieved when the final Boss hit the ground. And don't bother with buying the Add-On! It's basically recycled Bosses, tiny areas and a complete waste of time.    … Expand
  24. SplitMind
    Jul 22, 2020
    7
    I've had a rocky relationship with the Soulsborne genre. I find them generally hard for the sake of being hard. Despite some rocky moments with Code Vein also, I have ended up really liking the game.

    The graphics here are mostly good, with the anime theme setting it apart from its contemporaries. This does result in a bit of blandness in some backgrounds, especially the likes of the    I've had a rocky relationship with the Soulsborne genre. I find them generally hard for the sake of being hard. Despite some rocky moments with Code Vein also, I have ended up really liking the game.

    The graphics here are mostly good, with the anime theme setting it apart from its contemporaries. This does result in a bit of blandness in some backgrounds, especially the likes of the Cathedral level, however at other times such as with flames and sand it really pulls it off quite well. The framerate I found to be inconsistent in some parts, but rarely an issue.

    The gameplay is where this gets really interesting. I absolutely loved the way you could basically mix and match your style of fighting to skills used, making it very customisable to my individual way of playing. Furthermore, there is one key difference that made me like this game over other Souls games, and that's having a partner controlled either by AI or a player. This really took the edge off the more ridiculously difficult and unbalanced parts of the game. All games should have difficulty levels as without this option of a partner I would never have gotten far into the game and not enjoyed it much at all.

    The gameplay doesn't suffer from any major issues but minor ones such as the backstab being very inconsistent to pull off; it really needs a specific button prompt. The lock-on also sent my attacks in the wrong direction a number of times, which can easily be fatal. Some of the levels, especially the aforementioned Cathedral, were much better on paper than in reality. In reality the Cathedral was an absolute painful slog that I did not enjoy. This brings me to another point - at so many junctures in the game I actually didn't know where I was meant to go next and had to resort to online guides. Again, not a major issue, but a minor nuisance in a game where progress can easily be stalled at the best of times anyway.

    The story and characters I found myself liking more and more as the game progressed, however all of the venturing into memories caused the story to be very disjointed for me as I tried to pinpoint whose memory I was looking at and why. There are quite a few minor characters who pop up and are easy to forget. While I found the scenes of people turning into stone quite heart-wrenching, I struggled to understand why this was happening. The story could have benefitted from a more coherent and concise delivery, however a game like this is not designed to be played just once like I have, so I can appreciate the wealth of lore for the hardcore players.

    Overall, Code Vein is a game I can definitely recommend and is a pleasant surprise in a sea of Souls-like games which all try to be the most unbalanced and punishing experience instead of a genuine challenge. I would put forth this game as a good first experience of the Souls genre.    … Expand
  25. Souls-Lurk
    Sep 28, 2020
    7
    As a huge fan of Soul-likes (if you couldn't guess from the username) I was looking forward to getting may fangs into Code Vein and... it was okay. On a scale of Bloodborne to Lords of the Fallen, I'd have it somewhere below the middle of the scale. All of From Software's games and the Nioh games and The Surge 2 are definitely better. This probably around the level of the original SurgeAs a huge fan of Soul-likes (if you couldn't guess from the username) I was looking forward to getting may fangs into Code Vein and... it was okay. On a scale of Bloodborne to Lords of the Fallen, I'd have it somewhere below the middle of the scale. All of From Software's games and the Nioh games and The Surge 2 are definitely better. This probably around the level of the original Surge game, with higher production values but not quite as fun.

    As implied above the production values are surprisingly high with everything looking beautiful in a typically anime kind of way. The music is suitably gothic too but the constantly repeated phrases of the AI companions are incredibly annoying. The gameplay lets Code Vein down a bit for me though. There is just no weight to the combat... and if you like these kinds of games you'll know that the weight of a weapon should really impact the ability to swing it as well as the poise of the opponent it strikes. In Code Vein your little cartoony-looking character can swing a sword that must easily weigh upwards of 50kg (120lbs for the Americans among us) like it was made of tin foil. Not only that but these physic-s defying swings have no 'real' impact on the opponents either. Its sadly just very unsatisfying in that regard and affected my enjoyment quite a bit.

    Other aspects which I see as critical to whether a game is a 'worthy' Souls-like or not are very mixed. Level design is pretty boring for the most part. Environment-specific hazards are introduced to later levels as the game progresses but it all seems pretty by-the-numbers. That is until the final area which is now one of my favourite areas with a Souls-like. Same with the bosses, they're all really boring and don't really need any specific strategy until you get really late on. Then you get some great boss battles culminating in a fight (depending on the ending you're heading towards)that rivals the Orphan of Kos and Darkeater Midir in terms of difficulty if not in quality.

    Its still good... and if its your first Souls-like you may well really enjoy it. Nut as someone who has played almost all of them (haven't played Hellpoint, Ashen or Mortal Shell yet but will) its very average. An average Souls-like is still a good game though.    … Expand
  26. DD-Trainer
    May 4, 2020
    6
    I am certainly late to the party on this one but I can really drop a decent review on this **** show and well the game is okay but that's about it... the controls are okay but a lot of the game feels lacking as its only claim to fame is well "weeb-souls" it's an anime dark souls clone that fails to understand what made dark souls great.

    This game would rather spam mobs at you throw    I am certainly late to the party on this one but I can really drop a decent review on this **** show and well the game is okay but that's about it... the controls are okay but a lot of the game feels lacking as its only claim to fame is well "weeb-souls" it's an anime dark souls clone that fails to understand what made dark souls great.

    This game would rather spam mobs at you throw bland bosses that are just the normal mobs reskinned and reused and every now and again and a lot of the area's rarely stick out and feel uninteresting and in a later stage in the game will just be a maze this game isn't bad but I wouldn't call it good I'd call it mediocre to average and another reason why I feel it's at best a 6 is also due to it's terrible story that makes you nothing more than a decently important background character to the true games MC Louise.

    This game I felt would have fill the hole that dark souls left but all it did was leave me hollow and I had hoped the DLC's would have made the game more interesting but they are out right TERRIBLE do not and I implore you not to purchase this games DLC they are nothing more but the same mobs, bosses reused and for those of the "main bosses" in that area tend to be either very spongy or just down right unfun and broken Code Vein's dlc's can't even compare to what was a dark souls DLC and I feel they were just tacked on to fill a quota.    … Expand
  27. Wweald
    Mar 22, 2021
    7
    Pretty good game, I really really like the boss designs aesthetically I think they were all super cool. Gameplay wise most of them were solid too but there were a few that could have been better. The games too easy if you use the coop partner youre given, and too hard if you don't. I wish it was better balanced in that aspect.
  28. BigBlackGosu
    Jan 31, 2022
    7
    Good combat, nice customisation, really annoying map design. I'm getting bored from getting stuck because I missed a little passage that I had to drop on. All aside, a pretty fun game.
  29. Timenick
    Jun 21, 2022
    6
    Here is my theory how this game was made

    So Bandai Namco forced the devs to make a Dark Souls rip off (which is weird because its their own published series) but the devs had no idea how to make such a game. So they studied Dark Souls and they thought, yeah we can do this, but we lack the talent of the Fromsoftware team, so we have to improvise. So this is what they did: First they    Here is my theory how this game was made

    So Bandai Namco forced the devs to make a Dark Souls rip off (which is weird because its their own published series) but the devs had no idea how to make such a game. So they studied Dark Souls and they thought, yeah we can do this, but we lack the talent of the Fromsoftware team, so we have to improvise. So this is what they did:

    First they gave the game a setting of a dystopian destroyed city where rubble lies everywhere, so they would have an easier time with the level design. They studied the level design of Dark Souls quite a lot and managed to extract some sort of formula which they applied to every level in the game. So every level in the game isnt bad, its just the exact same kind of design everywhere. No variation like in Dark Souls. And they straight ripped off some enemies and areas from Dark Souls and Demon´s Souls, like Anor Londo and the Valley of Defilement, to have a least some visual diversity.

    They also gave the game actual mission objectives that tell you where to go, a mini map and completion percentage numbers for each level so players will never miss a single hidden thing. But it still feels rewarding to find everything. So exploration in this game isnt bad as well and you wont get stuck for too long trying to find the way.

    Then they made a combat system similar to Dark Souls 2, but way more clunkier to the point where its straight unplayable sometimes because the hit boxes and animations are a hot mess. So the devs had an idea: Give the player an AI companion all the time who is quite strong, draws enemy aggro away and makes the game a lot easier. That works quite well because the AI isnt dumb and does its job. But when the companion dies (which it rarely does though) you realize how terrible the combat system actually is.

    After that they just copypasted the whole stat system from Dark Souls and made a few adjustments to it. There are no builds in this game, you can level up but you cant select any specific stats to level, and everything is running via your equipped items which give you stat bonuses, weapon scaling and special abilities. Its interesting but my greatsword build is demolishing everything so the game isnt as challenging or intense as Dark Souls. Its far from it.

    The devs probably read on the internet that a big complaint many people have with Dark Souls is that Dark Souls doesnt have a story. They tried to "fix" that. So this game has a boring super generic anime story with lengthy 10 minutes cut scenes and unskippable walking simulator story sequences which arent very interesting. And you HAVE to do them to get new equipment. This is the worst part of the game.

    All Fromsoftware games have style, so this game needed style too. So they made the whole cast look like ridiculously over designed strippers so they can sell it to the basement dweller cum brain weaboos that buy games with skimpy character outfits and large anime tiddies to jack off. This also resulted in a character creator that is actually great. Probably the best character creator for accessories ever in a video game. This is seriously impressive and the best feature this game has.

    The other graphics of this game are quite bad though, areas and enemies are generic and it genrally looks like a PS3 or even a PS2 game. There are graphically similar games on the Nintendo Switch like Astral Chain that have way better graphics. At least it runs solid at 1440p 60fps on my PS5.

    In conclusion, I still have some fun with this game. What it does still works most of the time, even if its ripped off, and I love the Soulsborne series. I bought this on sale in the ps store and 16,79 is a good price for a trashy game like this. This would easily be a 2/10 if it would cost the unreduced and totally unjustified standard price of 69,99 (lol). If you like the Soulsborne Series play Salt and Sanctuary or Star Wars Fallen Order on Jedi Master difficulty, because they are way better Soulslikes than this, and then maybe buy this game on sale and give it a try.    … Expand
  30. Persona5GOAT
    May 2, 2020
    5
    clunky combat, difficulty that yo-yos from cake walk to making you want to smash your controller and back again, absolutely horrible camera that does you zero favors. some people really love the character customization but honestly i couldn't give less of a **** about that nonsense when the game is 90%+ combat, and not good combat at that. Enemy types are largely recycled with extra bellsclunky combat, difficulty that yo-yos from cake walk to making you want to smash your controller and back again, absolutely horrible camera that does you zero favors. some people really love the character customization but honestly i couldn't give less of a **** about that nonsense when the game is 90%+ combat, and not good combat at that. Enemy types are largely recycled with extra bells and whistles. Music is pretty good, characters and story are...passable. Some of the areas are ridiculous (cathedral) and go on too long or too short. Not a terrible game but not great either.… Expand
  31. OniII
    May 8, 2020
    7
    this game is good but it could've been so much better, i feel like a lot of concepts were rushed and weren't fully developed. i would recommend this game to anyone looking for a dark souls style game, it's definitely worth playing but it had the potential to be better than what it is
  32. Burattix54
    Jun 26, 2020
    7
    This game's combat is alright, but the difficulty scaling is pretty bad and the enemy and boss variety is lackluster. The build/class system is very interesting and pretty unique in the Soulslike genre.

    The story is, unfortunately, not as good. It's not terrible but it's full of edgy exposition dumps, with the words blood, vestiges ore whatever being used like 1000 times. It's not bad    This game's combat is alright, but the difficulty scaling is pretty bad and the enemy and boss variety is lackluster. The build/class system is very interesting and pretty unique in the Soulslike genre.

    The story is, unfortunately, not as good. It's not terrible but it's full of edgy exposition dumps, with the words blood, vestiges ore whatever being used like 1000 times. It's not bad because it's Animey, but it uses way too many tropes. The flashback sections are not bad, but they get boring when you have to "play" through 20 of them to upgrade your blood codes. For the true ending I had to watch around 8 of them back to back and it wasn't enjoyable at all because they weren't even the best ones in the game.    … Expand
  33. illuvatar_1st
    Jun 25, 2020
    7
    Anime dark souls and im all over it.
    the game play is that of dark souls but a bit more flashy, after all its anime, unique skills have unique choreography. Fun game with interesting characters and a decent story to go alone. Music is a 9/10 but the best part is the Custom character menu. To give you a small idea there's around 150 options just for eyebrows. think about that .
  34. Danrose654
    Jul 4, 2020
    6
    Ok game but areas/ locations feel soulless
    Boss fights are weak
    The customisation in this game is insane. All games should aim to have customisation this deep
    Combat feels like dark souls lite...quite easy
    It seems like this is the sort of game that people who
    Want to get into dark souls series but want a bit of practice first should play
  35. JoseManuel10_
    Jul 5, 2023
    6
    Code Vein is an action role-playing game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
  36. tharikleo
    Apr 19, 2021
    7
    Se não fosse pela repetição incansável de inimigos, Code Vein seria uma obra prima com chefes muito originais e desafiadores.
  37. Kostas_Spirou
    Aug 10, 2023
    6
    A mediocre attempt to recreate a soulslike experience.
    Don't get me wrong, this game is solid, it's quite easy and relaxing, but it feels like it doesn't really know what makes the souls games so special, the amount of cutscenes and the emphasis on the story doesn't really fit for this genre, in a way, its a flawed soulslike game, but on its own, it's actually surprisingly enjoyable for    A mediocre attempt to recreate a soulslike experience.
    Don't get me wrong, this game is solid, it's quite easy and relaxing, but it feels like it doesn't really know what makes the souls games so special, the amount of cutscenes and the emphasis on the story doesn't really fit for this genre, in a way, its a flawed soulslike game, but on its own, it's actually surprisingly enjoyable for the most part.

    The gameplay is good and the exploration is pretty fun, the world looks very beautiful, I like the art-style, the characters look cool and the graphics are pretty nice, most areas look great, the destroyed city with the spikes coming out of the earth, the crystalline cathedral of the sacred blood, the corrupted dark caves, and many more.

    The character customization is fantastic, there are many options to choose from, even though there's a lack of clothing options, since your character is going to wear an armor and a mask most of the time, I do appreciate the amount of different customization options, I just really like creating my own character, and the game did satisfy me on that part.

    As for the progression system, oh well it's honestly so damn confusing, I still don't understand how it works, it doesn't make any sense and most abilities are useless, I ended up leveling up all the time and using a strenght build with a greatsword, didn't really bother with the Blood Codes, and I still decimated everything, even in the endgame areas. The boss fights are actually very simple, no challenge whatsoever, I do like the fact that you can have a sidekick but it makes the game significantly easier, which isn't really a complaint but I wish the boss fights had more variety and a bigger moveset, to balance it out, but unfortunately that's not the case at all.

    Also, it's worth to mention that the hitboxes are terrible, enemies attack in front of them and if you are behind them, chances are you still get hit, even if you are about to attack, because the frames are broken, it's very inconsistent and random.

    Lastly, the level design is very boring, most areas are okay, but some of them suffer from terrible level design, obnoxious platforming and monotonous layout, they're not connected well, and they feel copy-pasted.

    I know, I complained a lot, but at the end of the day, this is still an enjoyable game even with all its flaws. It's worth trying out but don't expect anything more than just a silly unmemorable little adventure, some people might enjoy it even more than I did but it's just nothing to write home about.

    Final Rating: "Above Average" ~ 5.5/10.    … Expand
  38. YFA
    Apr 27, 2023
    5
    At first it's fun to play but then it's average. expected more to be honest.
  39. Jdotdeedot
    Jun 30, 2022
    5
    I don't know why but I really can't get into this game. It truly lives up to it's "anime dark souls" title. I just can't sense it's originality that much and the gameplay doesn't do much to motivate me to keep playing like how dark souls does. Best thing I can say about this game is how unique and in depth the character creation is. I also just like the designs of the characters in thisI don't know why but I really can't get into this game. It truly lives up to it's "anime dark souls" title. I just can't sense it's originality that much and the gameplay doesn't do much to motivate me to keep playing like how dark souls does. Best thing I can say about this game is how unique and in depth the character creation is. I also just like the designs of the characters in this game in general. Especially io (yes I am horny).… Expand
  40. Avey123Avey
    Mar 19, 2023
    5
    An alright game with some good combat, great bosses/enemies and alright level design. The things holding it back are its garbage story, bad and overly confusing progression system, and some of it's level design is incredibly weak. It also simply doesn't have enough unique enemy types to last its overly long completion time. This game would have been twice as good if it were half as long
  41. Killerpummkin
    Aug 23, 2023
    6
    Code Vein is not really my thing. I've played through it, but I don't need to play it again.

Awards & Rankings

28
#28 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 69 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 33 out of 69
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 69
  3. Negative: 2 out of 69
  1. PLAY! Zine
    Dec 2, 2019
    80
    Code Vein brings a few interesting additions to the recognizable souls-like formula. It's stylish, anime-like and has some cool moves & classes, and lets you bring an AI friend to keep you from feeling lonely while being really useful in combat. Well, most of the time. If you are itching for some quality souls-like experience, try this - it could be just what you were looking for.
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  2. CD-Action
    Nov 25, 2019
    65
    Code Vein has its heart in the right place but I really wouldn’t want to spend my time playing stuff that have been already done better somewhere else. If a potential sequel finds its own identity, it would be an interesting addition to the genre. [13/2019, p.58]
  3. JeuxActu
    Oct 24, 2019
    50
    CODE VEIN is a vast disappointment, miles away from any of From Software's games, and the only thing to save is the blood code system which allows lots of freedom in the character customization.
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