I'm trying to force myself to finish this, but honestly? I'm bored out of my skull. The character creator is the most interesting thing about this game. I'm something around 80-90% done with the game and will edit this review if my opinion changes when I finally do finish the slog.

EDIT: I did eventually get around to finishing this game. My opinion remains largely the same, but I'll add a few more notes and revise where appropriate.

Code Vein wants so badly to be anime Dark Souls, but the combat, enemy variety, and world building fall flat.

Character Creator:
I'm not going to lie, I spent hours in the character creator. Once you learn to use the system to layer elements and disable/combine layers of preset outfits, you can create a surprising variety of characters. I made a couple close approximations of characters from other games or series I liked for fun before settling on my final design.

You can go back and tweak it at any time, too. They clearly put a lot of love into this feature and it shows.

Character and Weapon Aesthetics:
Assuming you are into the style, the character design and equipment are all nicely done. The women are ridiculously proportioned and costumed in many cases, though. I'm chalking that up to "because anime."

Combat:
The systems are the same basic Souls-esque functionality you're used to by now. Vertical attack (fast), Horizontal attack (slow), Block, Parry, etc. It's not ground-breaking, but it mostly does the job. Some movesets feel clunky and the overall execution doesn't always feel as snappy as it should.

The drain mechanic is sort of interesting, but ends up feeling like a chore to get yourself back up to a functional level after each death. Turn on the option in the game menus to disable the cinematic drain camera, trust me, the novelty wears off fast.

Music:
There aren't really any bangers here. The soundtrack is generic and forgettable with the exception of a couple tracks in the end credits.

Most of the time outside of cinematics all you'll hear is ambient noise or the same repeated "enemies are near" or "battle" tracks.

Multiplayer:
Nobody is ever around for multiplayer. I've tried searching many, many times and joined another player exactly once. They promptly died after I joined them and that was the end of that. I have no idea what multiplayer is like because it may as well not exist.

Optimization:
I've got a beast of a machine and sometimes this game just craps out for no reason. This was worse before upgrading, but now I'm up to relatively high tier specs and it still performs poorly at times. Good luck if you're trying to play around minimum recommended specs.

This is a poorly-optimized console port. You'll especially feel that when alt-tabbing; Code Vein really hates to lose focus.

Enemies:
You've got your melee grunt, shooty boi, heavy hitter, and then a few miscellaneous beasts with little HP and minmal damage. That's mostly it; the game just reskins them and sometimes gives them an ability or a dominant element/status effect. The AI is not very bright and you can pretty much just breeze through anything other than mobs of enemies.

The hardest thing you're going to have to deal with are probably the ice berserker things in the snow area. Just use fire to knock them out of iceball mode, problem solved.

Skill Unlocks:
Skill unlock cutscene areas are a giant time sink, and at a bare minimum you are required to load into each zone, then load back out for every set of skills you unlock. Instead of just showing things in a pre-structured cinematic, you have to actually walk through a little gallery area at slow walking speed. You cannot skip segments or go faster than the native pacing of the scene, you can only skip it all or walk through it all.

Partners:
The game is balanced for you to have a partner, but having an AI partner trivializes most encounters as they split aggro, deal damage, heal you, and take care of ranged things for you.
Playing without a partner leaves you vulnerable to one-shot damage nonsense revealing that the healing mechanic is a crutch implemented to make the monsters hit hard enough to provide a semblance of challenge when running with a partner, but that encounters weren't scaled for unpartnered forays.
Then don't even get me started on the repeated voice lines...

Level System:
Levels don't matter until late game. In fact, leveling puts you at a disadvantage for grinding out skill affinity to unlock things for use in other codes. Once I learned that, I stopped leveling up at all. I played the majority of the game at level 16 and I'm pretty sure I could have just never leveled at all and been fine. Just keep your gear up to date and use a decent build, you'll be fine.

Post-Completion note: I made it up through the final boss of the Crypt Spire before leveling past 16. I believe finishing the game at 16 would have been doable, but adding 160 levels with the couple million haze I was sitting on did ultimately add a significant HP buffer and damage increase using scaling equipment at higher tiers, which hastened completion.

Environment Design:
The areas you visit are by and large open, bland, and uncomplicated. The path will take you where you need to go.

The notable exception is the white Anor Londo rip-off area. That place is a frustrating maze where everything looks the same. Have fun with that if you need to backtrack or track down something you missed.

NPC Interactions:
Ugh. The writing is terrible here. Also, nobody moves their mouth while talking unless it's during a significant cinematic scene, despite this being released in 2019. Weird.

Despite all of the cinematics, the pretense of friendship, and the tragic backstories of characters, you're probably not going to walk away caring about them at all, or what happens to them.

Would I recommend this game? Only if you are really hard-up for a Souls-like to fill your time, you like the anime aesthetic, and only if it's on a substantial sale. It's a fairly bland but acceptable offering in the genre that'll kill time if you're bored, but it's not exciting or memorable.

Code Vein never really gets to a level where you feel engaged, and it never hits that sweet spot in terms of difficulty that we see in From Software titles.

Overall rating 3/5. There are better things to spend your money on.

[h1]Summary[/h1] I'm trying to force myself to finish this, but honestly? I'm bored out of my skull. The character creator is the most interesting thing about this game. I'm something around 80-90% done with the game and will edit this review if my opinion changes when I finally do finish the slog. [i]EDIT: I did eventually get around to finishing this game. My opinion remains largely the same, but I'll add a few more notes and revise where appropriate.[/i] Code Vein wants so badly to be anime Dark Souls, but the combat, enemy variety, and world building fall flat. [h1]The Good[/h1] [b]Character Creator:[/b] I'm not going to lie, I spent hours in the character creator. Once you learn to use the system to layer elements and disable/combine layers of preset outfits, you can create a surprising variety of characters. I made a couple close approximations of characters from other games or series I liked for fun before settling on my final design. You can go back and tweak it at any time, too. They clearly put a lot of love into this feature and it shows. [b]Character and Weapon Aesthetics:[/b] Assuming you are into the style, the character design and equipment are all nicely done. The women are ridiculously proportioned and costumed in many cases, though. I'm chalking that up to "because anime." [h1]The Bland[/h1] [b]Combat:[/b] The systems are the same basic Souls-esque functionality you're used to by now. Vertical attack (fast), Horizontal attack (slow), Block, Parry, etc. It's not ground-breaking, but it mostly does the job. Some movesets feel clunky and the overall execution doesn't always feel as snappy as it should. The drain mechanic is sort of interesting, but ends up feeling like a chore to get yourself back up to a functional level after each death. Turn on the option in the game menus to disable the cinematic drain camera, trust me, the novelty wears off fast. [b]Music:[/b] There aren't really any bangers here. The soundtrack is generic and forgettable with the exception of a couple tracks in the end credits. Most of the time outside of cinematics all you'll hear is ambient noise or the same repeated "enemies are near" or "battle" tracks. [b]Multiplayer:[/b] Nobody is ever around for multiplayer. I've tried searching many, many times and joined another player exactly once. They promptly died after I joined them and that was the end of that. I have no idea what multiplayer is like because it may as well not exist. [h1]The Bad[/h1] [b]Optimization:[/b] I've got a beast of a machine and sometimes this game just craps out for no reason. This was worse before upgrading, but now I'm up to relatively high tier specs and it [i]still[/i] performs poorly at times. Good luck if you're trying to play around minimum recommended specs. This is a poorly-optimized console port. You'll especially feel that when alt-tabbing; Code Vein [i]really[/i] hates to lose focus. [b]Enemies:[/b] You've got your melee grunt, shooty boi, heavy hitter, and then a few miscellaneous beasts with little HP and minmal damage. That's mostly it; the game just reskins them and sometimes gives them an ability or a dominant element/status effect. The AI is not very bright and you can pretty much just breeze through anything other than mobs of enemies. The hardest thing you're going to have to deal with are probably the ice berserker things in the snow area. Just use fire to knock them out of iceball mode, problem solved. [b]Skill Unlocks:[/b] Skill unlock cutscene areas are a giant time sink, and at a bare minimum you are required to load into each zone, then load back out for [i]every set of skills you unlock[/i]. Instead of just showing things in a pre-structured cinematic, you have to actually walk through a little gallery area at slow walking speed. You cannot skip segments or go faster than the native pacing of the scene, you can only skip it all or walk through it all. [b]Partners:[/b] The game is balanced for you to have a partner, but having an AI partner trivializes most encounters as they split aggro, deal damage, heal you, and take care of ranged things for you. Playing without a partner leaves you vulnerable to one-shot damage nonsense revealing that the healing mechanic is a crutch implemented to make the monsters hit hard enough to provide a semblance of challenge when running with a partner, but that encounters weren't scaled for unpartnered forays. Then don't even get me started on the repeated voice lines... [b]Level System:[/b] Levels don't matter until late game. In fact, leveling puts you at a disadvantage for grinding out skill affinity to unlock things for use in other codes. Once I learned that, I stopped leveling up at all. I played the majority of the game at level 16 and I'm pretty sure I could have just never leveled at all and been fine. Just keep your gear up to date and use a decent build, you'll be fine. [i]Post-Completion note: I made it up through the final boss of the Crypt Spire before leveling past 16. I believe finishing the game at 16 would have been doable, but adding 160 levels with the couple million haze I was sitting on did ultimately add a significant HP buffer and damage increase using scaling equipment at higher tiers, which hastened completion.[/i] [b]Environment Design:[/b] The areas you visit are by and large open, bland, and uncomplicated. The path will take you where you need to go. The notable exception is the white Anor Londo rip-off area. That place is a frustrating maze where everything looks the same. Have fun with that if you need to backtrack or track down something you missed. [b]NPC Interactions:[/b] Ugh. The writing is terrible here. Also, nobody moves their mouth while talking unless it's during a significant cinematic scene, despite this being released in 2019. Weird. Despite all of the cinematics, the pretense of friendship, and the tragic backstories of characters, you're probably not going to walk away caring about them at all, or what happens to them. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Would I recommend this game? Only if you are really hard-up for a Souls-like to fill your time, you like the anime aesthetic, and [i]only[/i] if it's on a substantial sale. It's a fairly bland but acceptable offering in the genre that'll kill time if you're bored, but it's not exciting or memorable. Code Vein never really gets to a level where you feel engaged, and it never hits that sweet spot in terms of difficulty that we see in From Software titles. Overall rating 3/5. There are better things to spend your money on.