Potential in the Disarray: Code Vein Review

Souls-likes are an enigmatic part of gaming that make us fall in love with asking questions and looking at the grander puzzle. Code Vein takes the Souls-like formula and creates its own narrative around it. Much like Enotria, Code Vein is a Souls-like hybrid that utilizes the classic structure of the genre while adding its own zest to make it stand out.

Code Vein has its own version of bonfires, difficult bosses, and the ability to create your own build. It also utilizes great systems like the buddy system and Blood Codes, while telling a heavily linear story. However, it lacks the ability to individually level up your character and suffers from a confusing map and poor world design. These are the parts of Code Vein's world that blur the line between a Souls-like and a game that's simply difficult.

There Are Glimmers of Hope Everywhere

There were so many moments in Code Vein where I would love something, only for something else to come along and disappoint me. That was my experience with about 80% of the game. It would jump between fun, annoying, intriguing, and frustrating.

Code Vein did a lot of things where I could see the vision. I could see the goal! The bosses were intricately designed to the point where I could see the heavy Dark Souls influence, while areas like the Cathedral of Sacred Blood felt heavily inspired by Anor Londo.

Areas that were coated in beauty would eventually fall flat once I figured out how to approach certain enemies or navigate through the map. I would feel tired after figuring everything out and ready to move on to the next area.

In comparison to Dark Souls, Enotria, or Lies of P, the experience of Code Vein felt clunky and, in certain cases, difficult to approach. Now, of course, any Souls-like or Souls-like hybrid is going to be difficult to approach because that's the essence of how the genre's foundation works to begin with. But when there are active accessibility issues and clunky controls that work against me half the time, it becomes a tedious task rather than something that is difficult and fun.

The Bosses

This is where the game truly shines. Besides the music, Blood Codes, and weapons, the bosses are easily one of Code Vein's strongest aspects.

The bosses of Code Vein are stunning in their approach, and my favorite by far was the Gilded Hunter. Very Malenia-coded, and it had some of the best movesets of any boss I encountered in Code Vein.

The bosses, for the most part, created intrigue and had compelling stories that meshed well with the game. More importantly, they captured the aspect of Souls games that I find the most charming: the ability to be difficult while remaining fair. There is an addictive quality to these fights that urges the player to keep trying, even after they've been defeated.

On the flip side, the bosses would have been ten times better if the mechanics of the player character worked more in our favor.

The Blade Bearer and Cannoneer fight, for example, was by far one of the most poorly designed bosses I've seen in quite some time. Unrealistically brutal hitboxes, two bosses that hit equally hard with little reprieve, and attacks that layer on top of one another instead of giving the player a chance to breathe make this fight feel more frustrating than challenging.

“But Arielle, what about the Yharnam Shadows? Those were three bosses coming at you constantly!”

And you would be right—if they were designed poorly. But that boss fight in Bloodborne is actually a perfect example of how to handle multiple bosses in one room.

Each boss within the encounter has opportunities to attack without completely overwhelming the player, and you don't even reach the second phase of the fight until one of them is killed or reaches a certain percentage of their health. There is a sense of progression and control that makes the encounter difficult without making it feel unfair.

That's where Code Vein struggles. The individual bosses and the world itself can be fantastic, the game's mechanics don't give the player enough tools to respond to them, the difficulty stops feeling satisfying and starts feeling tedious.

An Accessibility Nightmare

It’s shocking how far away 2019 feels—so long ago, but also recent enough that it’s hard to believe some of these issues existed at that point. Accessibility in games has come so far, however, when I play games like Code Vein, it reminds me of how much work still needs to be done when it comes to how game environments are constructed.

While playing Code Vein, I often couldn’t tell that an enemy was there because its color palette blended into the world around it, or because the world’s assets blended together in a way that made it difficult to distinguish what was interactable, decorative, or dangerous. Mind you, if this happened once or twice, I wouldn’t have been nearly as concerned. But when it happens in almost every area of the game, with the exception of one, that becomes a serious problem.

The other major issue I have is the map.

The map in Code Vein, while I understand how it works now, is convoluted, messy, and a headache to maneuver through. There would be moments of pure bliss where the map felt straightforward and easy to understand, but most of the time, it felt like a mess.

Now, Dark Souls didn’t have a map, but the rest of the game's design was balanced well enough to compensate for that. The connectivity of the world is the biggest example of this. Areas looped back into one another, shortcuts made sense, and learning the world itself became part of the experience.

I don't mind a Souls-like not having a map. I also don't mind one having a map. But if you're going to include one, it needs to work with the systems and level design already implemented in the game. A map shouldn't make navigating the world more difficult than simply learning the world itself would have been.

Is It a Souls-like, or Just a Difficult Game?

During my time playing Code Vein, I noticed a very clear distinction between the things that make this game a Souls-like and the things that push it further away from fitting into that niche.

Let’s talk about the things that make it a Souls-like first.

We have the game's version of bonfires: the Mistle. The Mistles act as your primary resource that allows you to level up, change your partner, teleport to different locations, view the gifts you've received, and perform other essential functions.

Character builds are handled a little differently as well. You can't level up individual stats on your character when going to a Mistle, in the traditional Souls-like sense. Instead, you can upgrade your weapons and choose the Blood Code that best fits your playstyle. Then when you level up your character, you’re leveling everything up at once, not leveling up each stat at a time. This creates a different approach to character customization while still maintaining that familiar Souls-like emphasis on building your character around a specific playstyle.

The bosses also hark back to the traditional Souls experience. There are difficulty spikes as you progress through the game, and the bosses—for the most part—are fair while still providing a significant challenge.

These systems are what make Code Vein feel more like a Souls-like hybrid rather than a true Souls-like. There are several things I’ve mentioned, along with stamina management, that help set it apart. The game takes the foundation of the genre and reshapes it around its own mechanics rather than simply copying what Dark Souls established.

Now, let’s discuss the things that push this game away from the traditional Souls-like niche.

The biggest one is the buddy system. While you can absolutely play the game entirely solo, you also have the option of bringing along one of several partners who accompany you throughout the game. I personally utilized Io for her massive health regeneration, while Louis has gifts like Hasten and Blade Dance that are incredibly useful. I’ve also utilized Mia quite a bit! Her Bloodsucking Blades gift is chef’s kiss.

Then we have the lack of individually upgrading your skill points. Honestly, this was a bit of a trade-off. While it wasn’t something I particularly liked when leveling up my character, there was something nice about not having to sit there for several minutes deciding exactly how I wanted to distribute my stats. It made leveling feel quicker and more straightforward, even if I sometimes missed having that extra layer of character customization.

Another thing that wasn’t necessarily Souls-like, but was still nice to see, was the heavy focus on the JRPG-style narrative. Dark Souls is known for its vague storytelling, mysterious NPCs, and for not telling you much about what to do or how to approach its narrative. Code Vein is so far from that.

Code Vein has an incredibly heavy story woven throughout its world, so going into it, I personally expected the game to be fairly transparent with its motives and how it wanted me to experience that story. I wasn’t aware that, in order to get the true boss at the end, I needed to revisit certain memories.

“Okay, Arielle, you know that Dark Souls has a vague storyline, and now you’re surprised?”

Not surprised. I just want consistency in the world I’m experiencing.

When a game presents itself to me in one particular way and then suddenly does a complete 180 and says, “Nah, just kidding,” it catches me off guard. If Code Vein spends the majority of its story being incredibly direct about its narrative and what it wants you to understand, then suddenly expects you to figure out a hidden requirement for the true ending, or another ending, it can feel a little out of place.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does clash with the way the rest of the game presents its story.

Not Bad, Just Needs Some Fine-Tuning

At the end of my experience, I hate admitting that I just wanted the game to be over.

The bosses were fun, the music was entrancing, and the Blood Codes were one of the most unique ways I’ve seen a Souls-like approach to build creation. There are a lot of genuinely great ideas in this game. But despite those strengths, the game as a whole felt more like a rough draft than a fully realized coherent experience.

The story was okay, and it became much more interesting toward the end, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it needed more substance. There were ideas and concepts that I wanted the game to explore further, but instead, it often felt like it was scratching the surface of something that could have been much more compelling. A vampire Souls-Like? I’m IN LOVE with that concept, and its something that I feel could have been explored into further with more texture and substance to the narrative design.

I won’t dive too deeply into the story here for the sake of avoiding spoilers, but by the time I reached the end, I was left with the feeling that Code Vein had the foundation for something great—it just needed more time and refinement to fully get there.