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Looking at the timeline of Code Vein from announcement to release, it’s clear that there were bumps in the road for this anime-styled third-person action game, which was delayed for a year just a month before its planned 2018 release. The creative talent behind the God Eater series diligently kept working on Code Vein but, unfortunately, it might not be the smash hit that they’re expecting.

On paper, Code Vein sounds like an excellent proposition. Third-person action in the vein of the Souls series with heavy anime elements and style? Sounds good. Sign us right up. The reality is a bit different, however, and there’s a fair bit to unpack as to why that might be. 

Code Vein kicks off with an incredibly robust character creation system. The options for creating your anime avatar are almost endless. If you want to be someone with a glowing top hat and twin tails, you absolutely can. Choices are so overwhelming that it’s easy to get completely lost simply admiring what’s available.

Don’t worry: you’re able to slightly redesign your character throughout the game, so you can keep revisiting it. One odd exemption is the lack of body type selection for both male and female characters, and it’s disappointing that such a basic feature is missing in such an extensive customisation system. 

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When you’re finally dumped into the game, after spending an eternity tweaking the tuft of hair over your eye, it gives us some exposition about its world. The rough beats are of a fallen modern society; your main character has the ability to slowly purify the surrounding areas from the pollution within the Code Vein world. This equates to you being picked up by a ragtag band of buddies ready to disrupt the system. 

This sets you up in a hub area where you’re able to change up your appearance, upgrade weapons, buy items and… go to a random hot spring while in a building, but suddenly be outside, where all the NPCs are suddenly in towels and you can splash them. There’s an impromptu photo mode in this hub that lets you take snaps of your character in various areas – a nice addition for those who want to show off the painstaking effort they spent in the character creator. A little highlight for those who want to show off their characters online. 

From the hub world, you can warp to points on the map with a bonfire-like system, meaning that you’re able to quickly warp out when exploring and have found a new location. It’s strongly recommended that you bring an AI partner with you before going into a level, as the game is not designed to be played solo.

This becomes abundantly clear while you’re exploring –  a lot of enemies are thrown at you, and having a partner to help out makes this a lot more bearable. While you’re on foot, you slowly map it all out as you go, which is an incredibly welcome addition when you’re running through levels again. Checking out every nook and cranny can often lead to finding hidden treasures that are integral to upgrading your character and weapons. 

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The combat of Code Vein apes the template of weighty and deliberate action that the Souls series pioneered – with some notable changes. Character builds are locked behind Blood Codes, which you unlock while progressing through the game. This in turn allows you to assign Gifts, or skills that you’re able to take into battle. These can either be passive or assigned, and can do things like buff your attack, or give you special moves.

Ranged Blood Codes often rely on levelling up your Gifts to perform your most powerful attacks. This is in addition to a conventional weapon upgrade system that is your main way to power up your character in combat.

Unfortunately, this deliberate, slower type of combat often relies on the game having the right kind of weight behind attacks in order for the fight to feel good, and that’s something that Code Vein lacks. Even while you’re swinging a six-foot sword, it doesn’t feel weighty. Combined with the hordes of enemies coming at you in levels, this can often lead to feeling as though you’re hitting out with a papier-mâché weapon. 

This is the biggest disservice to the game. The combat doesn’t do anything new to freshen up what it offers, and the Blood Code system can lead to limiting the player rather than offering freedom. In comparison to games such as Nioh, which has taken the same basic template as Souls and built upon it in a meaningful and satisfying way, Code Vein feels like a bootleg anime Dark Souls that is nowhere near as good to play. 

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This is further compounded when looking at boss fights. Supposed to be the highlights of encounters and combat, they are reduced to an unsatisfying, often frustrating experience. Bosses have predictable patterns, are often paired with some sort of gimmick, and hit like a truck. Paired with the lacklustre combat, skill-based encounters that could have been great end up feeling like an unfair slog. 

Code Vein’s art style and setting mean that you trudge through bland environments during the first 10 or so hours, and eventually, once you’ve walked past yet another busted-up car or broken building, they all start to look the same. We see this drab visual design in countless games, and Code Vein never pushes it forward or builds upon it. The same can be said for the main NPC design. Your companion Io’s design is questionable, to say the least, and this juvenile attempt at titillation carries throughout, seen in other characters and NPCs.

Verdict

A ruined, post-apocalyptic anime future could have made for a fantastic game, but it falters at every genre it attempts to ape. Code Vein is clearly attempting to spin a lot of plates. But unless you’re into playing a great character creator with a bad Dark Souls clone attached to it, we’d say steer clear.

The post Code Vein Review appeared first on Trusted Reviews.

Another year, another entry into the PES franchise. However, PES 2020 brings with it a series of changes. A few could be considered surface-level, while others have the biggest impact on the game in years. 

For PES stalwarts, this may initially appear to be another iterative update, but this isn’t the case. For those returning to the series, or for newcomers, it will seem immediately more polished throughout.

PES 2020’s visuals are better-looking than ever before, both on the pitch and in the menus; the clunky and boxy PES interface is a thing of the past.

On the pitch, player models continue to improve, and from the view of the camera the game looks stunning and is swiftly catching up to its main rival.

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PES 2020 feels great – it feels like Konami has continued to refine the PES formula, with it reaching near-perfection.

Every year, PES shoots to further establish its capabilities as the true football simulator, but in the years so far the game has come up short as a result of messy graphics and stinted gameplay. However, these particular concerns are virtually no more.

Instead, what we get is something that truly feels like a football game, allowing you to vary your play style and see your opponent counter in kind. Slow build-up or blistering counter-attacks, PES 2020 can do it all.

Make no mistake, it isn’t always easy to pull off your best-laid game plans. PES 2020 rewards you for playing the match like it’s a real one, for taking a split-second longer to consider what would be the real-life consequence of the decision you make.

In the past, PES has been guilty of punishing you a bit too much in its goal to create the ideal football sim. This year’s edition doesn’t sacrifice this idea, but seems to rewards you for considered play, leaving you eager to try again when it doesn’t come off.

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A new feature that epitomises the balance between simulation and enjoyment is the new “miss-kicks”. Miss-kicks occur when you get carried away; when you try a quick pass or first-time shot while your player is facing the wrong way. The miss-kick sees your player fumble the ball and potentially lose possession. If miss-kicks were wrongly implemented, it could be a game-breaking addition. Konami has been brave to add it; and it’s paid off.

Miss-kicks don’t seem overbearing but they do sit in the back of your mind and encourage you to refine your play. The millisecond you take to ensure your player controls the ball also gives you the opportunity to instinctively consider your next move. This makes the whole game feel that bit more engaging.

At the other end of the ball control scale is new “Finesse Dribbling”. Finesse Dribbling feels like a completely new idea, despite the fact that it really isn’t – and it’s partly due to its placement on the gamepad.

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Many a football sim has had a feature that allows for slowing down dribbling – sometimes to calm down the play; sometimes to fool an opponent and neatly dodge them. Finesse Dribbling feels a bit more fluid than previous implementations and is therefore much more usable.

To use Finesse Dribbling, use the right-stick while already running with the left-stick. The implementation initially feels cumbersome, but much like skill moves, it’s something to be mastered. 

Its addition is another move towards realism. Skill moves can be a huge feather in the cap for those who use them well, but when “mastered” they can look a bit silly when strung together. Finesse Dribbling provides more life-like moves for getting past defenders:  slight touches and subtle shimmies.

While Finesse Dribbling is a stand-out new feature, PES 2020’s regular dribbling makes its mark too. The clunkiness of player movement has been a long-time criticism of PES, but things have improved significantly in this regard.

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The complete PES 2020 experience provides a wonderfully crafted way to experience football. The attacking play is a massive highlight.

PES 2020 allows you to smartly pick passes as you work your way up the pitch. You can use some carefully chosen dribbles to get into a dangerous position and, perhaps most satisfyingly, pick out the perfect pass in a crowd.

While PES 2020 is more polished than ever before, one area that could do with refinement is the AI of your teammates – but it isn’t all bad. The AI during attacking moves always seems active with players make incisive runs constantly. The smart runs enable you to make defence-splitting passes on a regular basis.

The downside is the runs actually occur too often. When you want to slow down the play, your teammates don’t always play ball. You may be looking for a short pass and find yourself without a free man nearby, your teammates already off on a run beyond the defence. A bit of restraint here would be a great improvement.

The defensive AI has its problems, too. If you’re up against a decent opponent, it can sometimes feel like your defenders are nowhere to be seen when you need them. The effect can be mediated with some quick-thinking or modified tactics, but it’s less than ideal.

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The gameplay really is the standout talking point in PES 2020; it’s remarkable. However, this isn’t all that’s new this year.

One of the most noticeable is the new camera: ‘Stadium.’ This opts for a more dynamic way to follow the ball than the more traditionally stationary wide view. At first it seems like a big change, but it’s something you’ll settle into quite quickly.

Outside of the white lines, the biggest change is Master League Remastered – PES 2020’s attempt at rejuvenating its Career mode. Unfortunately, it seems “Remastered” is just a buzzword.

Master League Remastered’s main triumph is that it finally fixes its transfer system. Previously, the value of players was extremely unrealistic. Thankfully, Konami clearly recognised this and says it’s used real-life data to improve the transfer market this time round.

The main crux of the supposedly reinvented Master League is a new dialogue system, which has appeared in non-verbal cutscenes in FIFA’s career mode for several years now. The feature isn’t great in FIFA, and in PES it’s largely an annoying addition. You’ll quickly get tired of sitting through a litany of elevator music as you watch character models gesture back and forth.

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PES 2020’s dialogue system is at its best when your choices come to impact the game. Whether it’s being told by a coach that a player is disgruntled, or you declare that you’ll definitely win the league this year. The feature is interesting, but it would be better presented as a text-based system and ditching the unnecessary cutscenes.

The online modes remain largely unchanged and, frankly, unexciting. These online modes are now dubbed “eFootball” on the homescreen in line with PES 2020’s new official name. Its only new addition is “Matchday” and it isn’t much to write home about. The mode is simply a slightly different take on FIFA’s equally unexciting “Match Day Live” mode.

Verdict

It’s undoubtedly the definitive football sim of 2020. PES 2020 takes what you love about the series and makes it more satisfying and fun, without sacrificing its simulation pedigree. The lack of captivating online and offline game modes hold it back, however.

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