I love soulslikes; I love the challenge it often offers, the world —full of secrets and a non-linear narrative, the enormous possibility of builds I can create, or see stunning locations. A lot of what described above were the reasons why I loved “Code Vein” so much. It was a breath of fresh air in an era of games that relied on a bit too much in the “dark / low fantasy” angle. Bandai Namco’s souls like let me use a rifle. I mean, a rifle with a bayonet, how cool is that? I hoped that “Code Vein II” would follow in its footsteps and be more ambitious. After finishing it, I regret hoping for that.
Much like “Dark Souls 2”, “Code Vein II” is less a direct sequel and more a reinterpretation of some of the core concepts established by its predecessor. Where the first establishes a calamity known as “The Great Collapse”, which brought Revenants —name given to humans with vampiric powers — who are treated almost like an ostracized society. The sequel makes the Revenants more amicable to a point where they befriend humans and even create an alliance, albeit fragile, to prevent a new calamity, the “Resurgence.” Or rather, to prevent it from returning.
The world of “Code Vein II” is one that has already been affected by the “Resurgence.” An entire city has succumbed to the monsters created by this calamity, and the “heroes” who prevented it the first time around have turned into statues. A painful reminder of what humanity had to survive, and a warning to future generations. At least that’s what Bandai Namco tries to present in the first few hours. Good luck trying to figure it out.
The narrative is unnecessarily complicated and full of jargons that doesn’t always make sense. As soon as I finished creating my character — which by the way, Code Vein II’s character creator is incredibly robust and easily one of the game’s strength’s, I was thrown into multiple cutscenes full of long expositions.
“Wait, who are you, what’s your role in the story?” I asked that question so many times. I had such a hard time even understanding what the heck was going on in the plot. One moment I was introduced to the director of an institution charged with preventing the return of the “Resurgence,” the next I had jumped forward in time and a series of new characters were already talking to me as if the fact that I had literally appeared in front of them was not something to be questioned.
The initial hours completely fails to demonstrate how serious of a situation a new “Resurgence” could be. Much of the dialogue is generic. I wondered if a character was actually talking to me, or if they were just there for exposition and to drive the plot forward. The lack of dynamism and movement during conversations only exacerbates the problem. They looked more like puppets in a low-budget play — mind you, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that — than a game that aims to tell a story of struggle, resistance, and sacrifice.
That’s not to say there aren’t great moments in the story, most of them are found in what I consider to be the second and third acts. Parallel to that, the personal stories of the “heroes” who prevented the “Resurgence” the first time around, with whom you interact to try to understand how to prevent another “Resurgence” are amazing I would say that their dialogue with the protagonist is much more impactful and engaging than the overall plot.
Even with these (few) positive points, I still wanted more out of the main plot. “Well, if the narrative itself isn’t going to do the job, I imagine the open world of ‘Code Vein II’ will”, I told myself. I had no idea how hopeful I was.
It’s hard not to. After all, it is is one of the biggest changes compared to the original. An open world, filled with secrets, optional areas, and perhaps bosses. Now overlap with a story that takes place in the present, past, and future and question such as: “How would the structures change?” “Would my actions in the past allow me to access new areas in the present?” are inevitable. Sadly, this potential is not fully utilized.
Although there are subtle changes in certain areas of the map, much of it remains static. Not even side quests—which I imagined the game would excel at— are interesting. If anything, they are mostly the bog standard of “go there and kill an enemy” or “retrieve X amount of resources”.
At one point, I decided to explore the ruins of a refugee station, now overrun by monsters. Josée, one of the “heroes” accompanying me, pointed out: “If we manage to eliminate the monsters, this region will become safer, and we will be able to use the station again.” I killed all the monsters, including the boss, and Josée thanked me. Did the station become a new safe zone, a new area with NPCs? No. Not in the past, much less in the present. Shortly thereafter, it was overrun by monsters again. This time, Josée said nothing.
It is hard to look at “Code Vein II” and not think that “Elden Ring” greatly influenced its open world structure. But exploring Elden Ring is rewarding, and more than that, it arouses curiosity. Rarely did I look at an area in “Code Vein II” and wonder what could be there.
The times I did ask, the answer was as “uninteresting” as possible. Healing itens, crafting materials and items to enhance your weapons. From time to time, I would find a merchant with rare items, but even they left me disappointed. Do not expect secret dungeons, at most a boss here and there that will challenge you — sometimes for the wrong reasons (more on that soon).
If you read the paragraphs above and thought, “Well, it can’t get any worse,” believe me, it does. Describing the map interface as “a little difficult to read” is being very, very kind. I rode around on my motorcycle—another new feature in the sequel that adds little besides speeding up movement around the map—for almost an hour until I found a tunnel I had to enter to continue with the main story.
The reason? Well, the game has dozens of tunnels, but almost all of them are collapsed, except for this one and a few others that are related to the story. There is no clear identification on the map that this is a tunnel I could enter. And mind you, I’m from the era where we didn’t rely on GPS, so if there’s one thing I am good at, it’s finding my way around using a map.
What I described above simply adds fuel to my personal frustration. Mainly because aesthetically, the world of “Code Vein II” is one that I am interested in exploring further. Dilapidated ruins, shopping malls that at some point in history were full of life. Buildings whose structures were about to collapse. “What used to exist here? Who worked here? What was this region like before the ‘Resurgence’?” I didn’t expect a direct answer, but the game doesn’t even allude to anything. Just a bunch of “copy pasted” buildings with barely any cohesion.
The absence of a more intriguing open world ends up undermining one of the most fascinating components—and by far what the series does best—the incredible variety of builds.
Maintaining the unorthodox style of its predecessor, “Code Vein II” does not use a direct progression system. You don’t allocate points to attributes, but rather level up through “Haze,” obtained by defeating any type of enemy. What really matters is your Blood Code. Think of it as an easily interchangeable “class.”
The system is vastly expanded in the sequel, bringing benefits and drawbacks that you need to balance. Certain Blood Codes will give you an absurd strength bonus, but in return will drain your life if you don’t use skills often. Others excel in extending ranged attacks or creating new effects such as a poison “missile” that you can throw at enemies.
Messing around with the system and finding the best solution for a specific area or boss is delightfully enjoyable. Besides, it’s much easier to test new weapons or skills than to stick to just one combat style. I changed weapons dozens of times just for the pleasure of testing them. Not even one-handed swords have the same attack animations.
Another change that helps the possibility of “playing” with builds is the fact that “Code Vein II” leaves behind the co-op mode in favor of a “partner” system where the AI controls an NPC. The risky move works. You can have someone by your side during combat, or “absorb” them and gain passive bonuses. It’s the kind of mechanic that leaves me with that little urge to ask, “What happens if I change partners?” or “How would I fare if I combined this partner with this Blood Code and this weapon?”
Once again, I regret the fact that the open world was not used to its full potential. I would have loved to delve deeper into the mechanics that the system offers against a set of enemies or explore dungeons hidden across the map. Sadly, I had to settle for building builds against bosses. Which doesn’t sound like a bad thing until I started fighting them. And the more I fought, the more the problems with “Code Vein II” appeared.
As I pointed few paragraphs above, the bosses in “Code Vein II” will challenge you, but not always for the right reasons. A small number of them feature creative or even unusual mechanics, but the fights against them are “fair.” You will die, learn their attack patterns, and eventually emerge victorious. However, the vast majority are a test of patience.
Much of this comes from the inconsistency of the attacks — something that it’s not necessarily limited to bosses. Bosses can interrupt your healing before the animation even starts, attacks that should cause area damage deal none, while others that appear to be short-range attacks cause massive damage even when you are far away.
To make matters worse, the camera tends to point at the wall and make it almost impossible to see the boss. Why? I have no idea, maybe it likes walls a lot. It’s more common in huge bosses that take a large portion of the screen. Guess which game has that? Exactly, “Code Vein II”.
It’s been a long time, a really long time—since the days of “Dark Souls 2”—I’ve seen a game with such erratic hitboxes. I’m not someone who pays much attention to that. But when a boss punches me, and I take damage without his fist even coming close to me, something is wrong.
I can’t stress enough how much this erodes the combat foundation created for Code Vein II. Every time I thought, “Wow, this weapon is cool, I’m going to explore the map, get items to upgrade it, and try it out,” I ran into some problem. An enemy with a strange hitbox, a boss with attacks so long and so few opportunities to attack that it would have been easier for the game to offer me a chair to sit on and wait for my turn to strike.
When the credits rolled in “Code Vein II”, I didn’t felt like I had accomplished anything, that sense of “Hell yeah, I won, I beat it, that was awesome”. I felt relief, relief that I wouldn’t have to explore that world again, much less think about the boss who kept me up at night. That’s not the feeling I want to have when completing an RPG, a soulslike, or any game.
Over the past seven years, I’ve played about 35 soulslike games (in case you’re curious about how saturated the genre is); Code Vein II is not among the worst of them, but it’s one of the most disappointing.
It is especially painful because, much like the first “Code Vein”, I do see the potential that was left on the table. And “Code Vein II” is almost like history repeating itself.
On the other hand, Bandai Namco has the ability to turn this ship around and fix the biggest problems. There’s no way to “redo” the open world, but there are ways to improve combat, the hitboxes, the inconsistency of the bosses—and even improve the animation of certain cutscenes.
I saw games like Lords of the Fallen and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and how hard the teams worked to improve them, and now both are among some of my favorites in the genre. I hope the same will happen with Code Vein II. And if the improvements Bandai Namco promises for the coming months come to fruition, you can be sure I’ll be the first to play it again.
Until then, my time with it is over.
