Code Vein is a souls-like, dress-up game directed towards people who really like comically large anime booba.

This game does some things right, but so many wrong that I don't think I can recommend playing this game, unless you are into dress-up games, because the character customization is actually pretty solid in this game. Or maybe if you have played God Eater, since it seems to be connected (I don't know, haven't played that yet). Keep in mind that I have played this game 100% solo and that this review contains a few gameplay spoilers, but no story spoilers whatsoever.

So, I'll start with the positives aspects and end with the negative ones. Here goes:


(+) Alright story. I only finished it, because I was actually interested in how it ends and it has multiple outcomes in the middle and at the end of the story, which I find really neat.

(+) Trying different builds is super easy. Since you don't invest any points into stats when leveling and instead choose your "blood code", switching build and playstyle is as easy as pressing a button. And new weapons you find usually are already upgraded, so you can try them right away (why Elden Ring couldn't do the same is mind boggling to me).

(+) The Soundtrack is surprisingly good, I really liked it.

(+) Good character customization options.



(-) The enemy variety is abysmal. From the top of my head I can think of 6 different enemies, which get slightly changed both visually and gameplay wise throughout the game. Enemies being recycled doesn't have to be a bad thing, but not bringing in completely new enemies from time to time makes it so imo.

(-) My most sincere fck you goes out to the level designer, who littered the game full with those "haha, gotcha!" moments.
You didn't look where you were going for two seconds? Woops! The ground you were on was actually instable :P
Enjoy walking all the way back x3
Additionally we have enemies surprise attacking you constantly and barely visible spike traps in the walls near the end. And my personal nemesis: the cathedral. You will spend half of your playtime just trying to figure out where the fck you're supposed to go and even if you do, it just drags on while you keep seeing the exact same assets over and over again. I will gladly do a hitless Iron Keep run in DS2 before playing through this area again >:(

(-) Build variety seemed very lame, to me at least, but to be fair I didn't really understand how you make a proper build in this game, so I can't say much to that x)

(-) Except for one boss, which I actually somewhat enjoyed despite him feeling kinda unfair at times, the boss difficulty only ranged from dumb-easy to slightly challenging.

(-) From my experience, enemies and bosses randomly change aggro without any reason, so playing a tank build and having your partner be a ranged support is not really viable. And it's just annoying in general. You think it's safe to heal and boom- boss jumped you :P

(-) Bonus: Did they have to give almost every single female character the largest chest I've ever seen in a video game, I don't want to feel like a loser playing this game xd



So, should you play this game?

Give it a try, if you..
• enjoy anime women with big tiddies (spoken in Niko Bellic's voice)
• played God Eater, maybe?
• really like Soulsborne games and just need more to satisfy that itch, even if it has to be with mediocre games

Don't give it a try, if you..
• are an average soulsborne fan and are looking for more, good souls-likes


In the end, that's my opinion and if you think the gameplay looked interesting enough to you, then feel free to try it out :)
There are a good amount of fans of this game, so you might just become one of them :3

(Copy from my Steam review)

Starts off strong with the Prologue but sadly falls flat after.
Story is mostly uninteresting and has slow pacing, dialogue boring and the additions to gameplay are just not enough to make it worth playing after 2 and Brotherhood.
UI design is also annoying, loading longer than the menus of the past games is just an achievement honestly.

Currently my favorite metroidvania game out there :)
Beautiful story and soundtrack.
Gameplay great too, big recommend to souls-like fans :3

My only issue with it is that the sound design feels somewhat incomplete, like cutscenes and dialogue in general.

Really fun writing and characters that make the story really interesting :>

My only issues with the game are...
1. H-Scenes - Just disable them, unless you enjoy cringe humor xd
2. Heaven's Feel - I personally thought that the third and last route was a bit less enjoyable than the other two and felt a bit distant from the rest of the stories, but it's still a good story overall.

Improves some things from the previous game like variety in levels or being able to open doors while holding bodies xd
Sam finds himself in many more scenarios in this game, which is really refreshing after the first game's levels, which were mostly just building (oil rig level was cool tho).
I think except for the last, the level design in this game was very solid :>

It does have a few issues of course.
The alarm system is just unfair and I can't imagine playing this game without save states/quick saves. Unfortunately, this makes the game very trial and error. This is my main reason as to why I recommend playing the game emulated, even if emulation isn't butter-smooth for this game.
Then there's the NPCs having a weird combination of being legally blind and having wall hacks. At some points they can't see you in kissing distance and at other points they spot you through objects.

Now, in case you're interested in playing this game, I recommend that if you want to play it emulated you either choose PS2 or Gamecube and if you want to play it on the real thing, then play it on Xbox (I've at least heard that the Xbox version is the best).
PC just doesn't work from my experience and isn't even worth a try, unless you have a PC from around 2004 xd.