Remember Me: Dontnod’s First Game has a Great Concept

Some first-rate games start with great ideas, and so had a Dontnod entertainment. For their first video game “Remember Me”, the French developer has made a name for it. Remember Me is an action-adventure video game with unique cyberpunk story, excellent graphics and dynamic combat and puzzle variation. Ambitious objectives, which stimulates gamers interest- unfortunately not all of them met.

Set in Paris 2084, where an organization called "Memorize" has an ability to control the population. Instead of they promised to keep only the good memories in the minds of people, brains are manipulated so that people become mindless slaves who operate according to the request of the organization. Nilin, the main character of the game is also a victim of the memory manipulation, during the process an unknown person hacked into their system, stops the attempt. Nilin wakes early without her own memories - and now she is busy trying to put things back to normal.

What begins as a thrilling mystery turns out to be half-baked science fiction story that often stumbles over its own claims. So it is not easy to identify with the unapproachable Nilin: you beat opponents, climbing building and breaks into prisons, chasing evil corporate CEOs and puts half the city in ruins - beautifully staged, but her motivation here is hardly understandable. Besides, the storyline is full of plot holes plugged and then suddenly told that the red thread often falls by the wayside. Several times Nilin must enter into the mind of certain supporting characters and manipulate their memories. These sequence work like a movie that you can fast forward and rewind as desired to modify such details.

Remember Me, Game, Dontnod entertainment


Even with some plot holes, the splendid scenery saves a lot of ambiance: Neo-Paris is a place worth visiting with detail-oriented streets, great architecture, lighting and so many panorama views. In keeping with the tone, the dark vision of the future is accompanied by a great soundtrack from Olivier Derivière. However, the story-driven game comes with strictly linear level design. Collectable upgrades are rare, additional tasks, side paths or freedom of choice in vain. Even the many climbing through the Paris urban canyons run as on autopilot, because a target indicator is always on when the player has to jump to that point.


The player guide is not really important, because the camera occupies most solid angle. It is like watching a movie, but almost impossible to make precise jumps. Many compare its combat system to the Arkham City, but without reaching its depth. Our protagonist fight with only two basic attacks: punches and kicks so the battle scenes can be somewhat repetitive.

Remember Me is a good game - but it could have been so much better. The possibility of memory manipulation is a great concept but unfortunately the linear sequence made the game a bit uninspired.

Comments