I do love a Soulslike, but I’m a bit of a purist at heart — if you don’t give me the exact combination of forlorn ambie…
I do love a Soulslike, but I’m a bit of a purist at heart — if you don’t give me the exact combination of forlorn ambience, intricate world design, lore excavation, and precision combat developer FromSoftware so consistently delivers, I’m probably going to struggle to care. So, having completely overlooked Bandai Namco’s anime-hued Soulslike Code Vein when it released back in 2019, its sequel was well off my radar. Until, that is, dark forces (Eurogamer editor-in-chief Tom Orry) conspired to nudge it into my orbit. And having now played a good few hours of Code Vein 2 over this last week, I’m both surprised and delighted to discover I’m having a lovely time.
I should probably preface all this by saying if you’re already well-accustomed to the original Code Vein, there’s likely only so much you’ll find useful here in my wide-eyed discovery of its sequel — which, for all I know, might be almost exactly the same. But for similarly placed newcomers, the immediate good news is no real familiarity with the first instalment is necessary at all. Code Vein 2 is a bit of a clean slate with its new cast and a new post-apocalyptic world, but do prepare to be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of terminology (Revenants! Formae! Haze! Blood Codes!) thrown your way in the first few hours. Luckily, the Soulslike fundamentals are familiar enough that I found it easy to muddle through.
After being resurrected and hugged into the past by a big-eyed anime girl with a gaping chest-hole (don’t ask), you’re quickly dropped into combat as you begin your quest to thwart a resurging calamity sealed some 100 years prior. And Code Vein 2 builds its action from a core of light attacks, heavy attacks, dodges, and parries that won’t need much explanation if you’ve any experience with the genre.
