It’s not often that a large-scale, AAA console release drifts into the background and is forgotten about by the community. Although DONTNOD Entertainment’s new title “Remember Me” may not have been forgotten by everyone, it definitely slipped my mind after Dave mentioned it when he returned from Eurogamer Expo 2012. The reason I’m bringing it up today is because it now has a release date and it’s officially time to get excited: the game will be released on the 4th of June in North America and the 7th of June in Europe. But for those who have forgotten or just never found out I’m going try and explain just what “Remember Me” is.
The game is set in distopian Paris in the year 2084. Nilin (the protagonist) has the ability to view and rewrite people's memories, but she finds herself lost when her own memories are wiped. The game follows Nilin as she tries to bring down the company who betrayed her and regain her lost memories; however, Nilin is not the only 'memory hunter' out there, as the story develops in many interesting ways. If it turns out that Nilin's own memories have been compromised, the story could contain some nice twists. The game-play that I have seen looks very similar to the "Uncharted" series with the main character leaping around the world from one set piece to another in a seemingly open-world setting. While this is no bad thing, the creative director, Jean-Maxime-Moris, stated:
"Remember Me is a story driven, linear experience... We want to retain as much control over the events and the emotions that the player goes through as possible".I can imagine that a lot of the time went into the story and beautiful cut-scenes, and there is no way that DONTNOD want you to miss out on any of it. The combat system has been compared to the ‘Arkham’ games but it introduces a nice twist into the mix with its difficult to explain combat system: as the player progresses through the game and levels up they unlock ‘pressens’ - moves that can be ordered to create combination attacks, with each level earning the player more variety. The twist on the combat system seems like it will be a welcome change from the ‘Arkham clones’. I just hope it isn’t too complicated to use.
But I’m not just here to hype up “Remember Me” I also wanted to look at why I, along with a few others, couldn’t keep “Remember Me” in my head. The problem could be seen as a vicious cycle. People aren’t talking about the game, meaning people forget about the game, and so the “word-of-mouth” advertisement among potential customers is non-existent. The timing of the release could also be a problem with huge games from Naughty Dog (The Last of Us) and Ubisoft (Watch_Dogs). Both these games were announced around the same time and with “The Last of Us” being released in the same quarter, maybe “Remember Me” just isn’t cutting it with the gaming community, athough I doubt that’s the reason because the game looks like it will be a strong release. What I have noticed is that Capcom (the publisher) hasn’t really being pushing it as strongly as their other titles. With massive sequels like “Lost Planet 3” and “Monster Hunter 4” being released in the same month, and with focus starting to shift to the next-generation of home consoles, it seems to me like Capcom doesn’t want to put the same level of focus into marketing its new IP. It also doesn’t help that although the individual members of the team have impressive games under their belt (like “Splinter Cell”, “Rainbow Six” and “Heavy Rain”), “Remember Me” is DONTNOD’s first title, so they don’t have the, “Oh yeah, those are the guys that made X”, appeal that their competition has.
As much as I acknowledge the irony of the game’s lost advertising campaign (in comparison to its title), I really think you should give it a look; it looks like it contains some interesting game mechanics backed up with an in-depth story, making it well worth your time. That being said, this is just my opinion on the subject. To me, “Remember Me” has really lost out because it looks like a well-developed game and I just hope it gets the sales it deserves.
Max Wrighton
Amber Glass Broadcast
(If you are
interested in finding out more about “Remember Me”, you should check out Kirk
Hamilton’s preview on Kotaku.)
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