Remember Me maliciously leaps into the future combating not only through a physical world, but a mental one as well. It's a rare find, a unique twist on the action-adventure genre... Cyberpunks, this one is for you.

Dontnod Entertainment boldly creates a vivid and unique experience merging several gaming elements together along with a few impressive innovations of their own. This vision of a “futuristic” Paris (Neo-Paris) borrows both from sci-fi lore while adding enough gusto to make Remember Me stand out from other 3rd person games. The premise stems from an “evil” corporation called ‘Memorize’ who can practically re-write a persons brain via an implant called Sensen. Memorize steps over the boundaries of being humane with the corporation turning into a militarized entity that is capturing and re-writing the populations memories for their own personal gain. For a summary think, "cyberpunk", and you'll get the jist of the direction of Remember Me's prose.

Your character is Nilin, a member of ‘Errorists’; a select group of rebels who are working to pull back the curtain from the Sensen brain-zapping wizards. Starting with the obligatory memory wipe incarceration, you slowly begin to retake your mind and uncover the conspiracy that lies behind the Memorize Corporation. Discovering Niln's own history along with foiling the "bad guys" plan is worth the time invested. More so, it is great to see another positive female role model who doesn't need to put her chest first, if you know what I mean.

The tale, and subsequent setting is one of the strongest bullet points for Remember Me. Fresh from the crop, you will feel like you’re playing through a twisted tale of Tron meets ‘Blade Runner’, for lack of a better reference. This one is definitely for the sci-fi fans who don’t mind a little bit of obscurity.

The art direction leads the pack in tying in this vision with the actual graphics playing catch-up. Graphically, Remember Me can be muddy at times while lacking a high polish. However, energetically the developer side-steps this by using its digital premise to its advantage with lots of "8-bit" styled flavour, giving Remember Me a distinctive look. As long as you don't expect a grand ‘Epic Games’ production, Remember Me's style is enough that you won't need to scramble for your glasses.

The gameplay in Remember Me is a mix of platforming, minor exploration and of course combat. The combat is mainly melee with upgrades added later that add a shooting mechanic. Each element works, although a few problems arise with targeting multiple enemies or some clunky platforming sections. As a whole it is nothing to complain about although don’t expect it to be on par with other action games like ‘Assassin’s Creed’ or ‘Batman: Arkham City’.

While the core essence is cool and steadily regulated with upgrades and new powers (which includes a neat combo building system) the highlight is when you get to rearrange someone’s memories. This not only in a plot standpoint, but in a game mechanic one is outstanding.

By “hacking” into a mind, you can replay certain memories and change how they remember them. This can be done to the extremes of making a character commit suicide or turn and enemy into a friend. It’s interesting to see how changing minor details in a memory can change the final outcome. Now these are pre-determined sections, so don’t get too excited that you can do this for every encounter. Although when they happen, you will wish you had more. The core idea is basic; you rewind and interact with “highlighted” objects/characters within a selected memory. Like an interactive puzzle, you will have to decipher the proper triggered events to be successful. These sections aren’t too difficult to figure out, so the real reward comes in watching each event play out in real-time.

A few collectables are scattered throughout the world, although the expansive vision of Neo-Paris is unfortunately locked-out. This is a shame because so much preparation and detail has gone into creating the world. It makes Remember Me a “once off”, where as some replay value would have been nice. I’m not sure multiplayer was needed to do this, rather a few more “nooks-and-crannies” would have been appreciated. Additonally, the A.I. is viodless making blasting through Remember Me on the hardest difficulty a breeze. A few areas might be a little trying (if you're achievement hunting), but for the most part, game vets will have no troubles.

Remember Me is a unique inclusion into the standard action adventure genre. Rich in atmosphere, this memory wiping cyberpunk adventure has enough creativity and core elements to keep players invested. While it might only be good for one run, the story and “memory rearranging” segments make it worth drudging through waves of combo-centric combat. Fans of the sci-fi genre and action games with their own twist should check out this eccentric offering from Capcom.

Memory rearranging is ultra-cool Unique and stylized plot and art direction Plot keeps you guessing, even if the core mechanics do not Strong and imaginative characters for the most part Combat and platforming can be “clunky” at times Needs more exploration, very limited Aside from the tricks, the graphics are muddy and at times flavorless Quote: "Rich in atmosphere, this memory wiping cyberpunk adventure has enough creativity and core elements to keep players invested." Reviewed by DowntownJimmy | 08.21.13 | Platform Reviewed: Xbox 360

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