2084 in Neo-Paris. The Memorize Corporation’s mission is to digitize human memory. You can purchase, swap, or even permanently wipe the selected memory from your mind for a charge. Memorize is a market monopolist. It not only performs total monitoring of society, but it also conducts unlawful experiments on people, which frequently fail. The company is cutthroat. In each of these cases, the subject’s memory is erased before he or she is slain. Nillin, the main character of the game Remember Me, is one of those sentenced to death.
A unknown voice whispers in Nillin’s thoughts just before the execution. Edge is revealed to be the leader of the Errors, rebels hostile to the Memorize dictatorship. He assists the heroine in avoiding death and escaping from the famed Parisian jail, the Bastille, as we discover. The hooded guerilla informs Nillin that she used to work for the company as a memory hunter and was the finest in her field. However, after some time, the business kidnapped the heroine and formatted her memory to safeguard their interests. Nillin has no recollection of her background, home, or family, and to make matters worse, she is being followed by officials on an arrest warrant. This is how an extraordinary voyage begins, with events from the past, present, and unknown future intertwined.
Remember Me is a well-crafted game that captivates and intrigues from the start. Nillin’s narrative and image of a future in which mankind is on the edge of annihilation are deeply affecting. Dontnod, a new studio, has expertly merged polished gameplay aspects. We watch the intriguing story with bated breath, exploring the culturally and geographically varied Neo-Paris, battling brutal hand-to-hand combat, and remixing the memories of the major individuals we meet in the future city and Nillin’s old, forgotten past. The game is broken into eight chapters, each of which is accompanied by the Edge radio. The Errorist leader directs the completion of additional chores, which results in the destruction of Memorize. Meanwhile, we learn more and more intimate details about the main character’s history, which surprisingly collide with the rebels’ ideals. The game is linear in nature, with each chapter requiring us to perform a predefined job despite the hurdles we face. True, the creators do not provide us with any moral options, but the well-written story more than compensates for this. Remember Me’s tale builds momentum with each episode and is full of unexpected plot twists. It’s a clever and unexpected narrative. We begin our journey in the worst section of Neo-Paris, aptly named Slums 404. Then we proceed more aggressively – we investigate into the nouveau riche sectors, we meet our contact, a hacker with the not-so-inadvertent moniker Bad Request, we infiltrate the Memorize offices and prison, hunting the corporation’s most significant officials.
It’s not simply about preventing Memorize from carrying out illegal experiments that endanger people’s lives. First and foremost, it is about manipulation: creating the image of a wonderful existence by removing painful or traumatic memories. It is also critical that the in-game money closely reflects the euro of today. The government and the Memorize corporation persuade inhabitants that they live in a perfect environment, and that advocating for alternative solutions or opposing the dominant value system constitutes terrorism. Every human movement is followed and logged, and rich consumers of trade products are unaware of the problem of poverty and illiteracy in the regions where they live. Nillin must use much effort to attain his aim while exploring the world. The protagonist climbs classicist buildings’ jutting cornices, walks over neon ads, and slides down the gutters of ancient tenement dwellings with grace. Sometimes we’ll have to flee or give chase, while other times we’ll have to solve some fascinating riddles. We can’t complain about boredom while playing the game, and mission objectives might alter owing to an unexpected series of circumstances. Although Neo-Paris is simply a semi-open area of operations, the game environment impresses with its aesthetic and vast distances looming in the backdrop. Each chapter takes place in a separate city district or in a prominent building. We can occasionally pick one of the two possible pathways or detour from the course to locate tiny upgrades or extra knowledge about the city’s realities. Combat is the link between the exploration of the world and the plot told through repeated memories, dialogues, and cutscenes. The heroine does not want to encounter the beasts who sharpen their claws at her at the start of the first combat. When he learns that fleeing is just postponing the inevitable, he meets his opponents face to face. The fighting is reminiscent of the long-forgotten Oni game and the second installment of The Witcher. It entails repeatedly pushing two buttons that control striking with hands and legs. The hits may be grouped into an astonishing sequence of combinations that can be reinforced with pressens. These are enhancements that allow our acrobatics to inflict more damage, heal the heroine, or reduce the time required to use Sensen again. The latter are exceptional strikes that may shock opponents, force drones to self-destruct, or momentarily render Nillin invisible on the battlefield.
Clicking two buttons alternately may appear to be a tiresome game, but employing ever longer and more powerful dodge combinations is a lot of fun. We fight in massive venues, cargo containers, and even small passageways like the men’s locker room. Remember that guardians utilize shields and defensive force fields that do damage to Nillin anytime it comes into contact with them. Robots soar over the battlefield and launch rockets at us, while leapers – misfits with overloaded memories – assault in groups led by their commander. We will fight multiple intense encounters in the game against larger opponents and bosses that do not shy away from employing powerful assaults and altering tactics based on their health. Battles sometimes need quick reactions and dexterity. Even on medium difficulties, you may find yourself on your deathbed multiple times. Fortunately, the automated save spots are strategically placed, and a possible failure during the boss fight does not necessitate redoing it, but rather returning to the final crucial phase of the fight. The adversaries and their assault style appear to be outstanding. Leapers, terrible critters, enjoy climbing neighboring walls and leaping down on our heads. Some robots freeze, and then release a massive charge beneath them that can hit them from a long distance. Nillin owes nothing to her adversaries. The heroine uses a hand cannon to fire nimble abominations, discovers the weak areas of titanium robots, and practically sucks the life out of warriors through their cervical vertebrae.
When we repeat the victims’ memories, we are transported to the digitized cells of the human brain, where the action occurs in an indeterminate environment like a vacuum. During sequences between chapters, we witness similar graphics, full of moving rivers of digital information, monochromatic and yellow cubes. Then we’re in Nillin’s head, surrounded by uncertainties and mood swings. Our protagonist is a strong lady who can stand up to her self-proclaimed boss, Edge, and put all on one card, but she also has questions about her abilities and the success and sense of mission she carries out on behalf of the Errors. Nillin’s battle against the Memorize government is beautifully underlined in Neo-Paris style. The mood of a divided metropolis hangs above bazaar food booths, beautiful cafés, austere chambers controlled by robots, drone dumps, and forgotten people’s dwellings. At the same time, the visuals amuse and scare. The morally corrupt world drew me in with its magnificence and turned me off with its hollow principles. Interestingly, each chapter begins with a motto borrowed directly from the greatest works of French literature, including works by Balzac and Camus. The quotes were carefully chosen to match the setting and circumstances depicted. Although there is a French influence in the game, it is not overt. The Eiffel Tower appears unexpectedly amid a backdrop of future skyscrapers, and a significant chapter is titled “Paradise Lost” – precisely like John Milton’s immortal book. As a result, the image of Neo-Paris is no longer a snobby mirror of the city’s pretentious ego, but rather a variant, a picture of the cultural capital of Europe of the future. Parisians will not feel fully at ease. Although we will visit some significant locations in Paris, their design will be far from that of a future metropolis. We will strike, among other places, the Bastille, which has once again become a horrific security jail. It’s a place filled with screams of pain, smells of insanity, and the monologues of deranged “patients.” Prisoners do not escape because they have no motivation to do so – their memories have been formatted. As a result, inmates have no idea whether someone or something is waiting for them outside, and their lives have no purpose.
The people you meet, the places you travel, and the filling of memory gaps all have an impact on the main character’s conduct. Nillin is not your average action game hero who learns to kill in the fifth minute of the game and then does it without complaint until the end credits roll. Remorse and uncertainty plague the heroine at all times. Nillin frequently questions if she is doing the right thing, whether she should listen to Edge, and whether the struggle she is fighting makes sense. She is delicate. Although strong, it is not bulletproof. Certainly one of the most intriguing female characters in video game history. Remember Me is a work of art. While leaping on the rooftops and balconies of ancient tenement dwellings, we take in the spectacular vista. Inside the austere rooms, the attention to detail is astonishing – in beds, the weather forecast and time are shown on the wall, pricing are presented in store windows and restaurant shutters, and an entertainment house controlled by robots can be found on a specific colorful street. The soundtrack – powerful and innovative – perfectly complements the portrayed environment.
Remember Me is like a good thriller – it’s better the first time you watch it. Because we know the outcome of a wonderful situation, replaying the game does not elicit such strong feelings. However, it is worthwhile to spend several hours playing the game and embarking on an astonishing trip into Nillin’s complicated background and personality in Neo-Paris. Remember Me also raises some significant concerns concerning mankind and future technologies, an excellent cyberpunk.