Code Vein 2 review

I've never felt more kinship with a silent protagonist than in Code Vein 2. Just like being stuck with someone rambling all about the Definitely Interesting details of their job, there my little make-a-me was in the early hours of the game, listening to a giant goth mom monologue a string of proper nouns—something like "using Forma and Revenant Jails, destroy the Metagen holding Pathos below the Luna Rapacis in order to open the Hero's Cocoon and MagMell from the Horrors."

I could only pull the time-honored technique to survive any boring conversation: smile and nod. Like many of those one-sided conversations in life, though, dig past all the pretensions and Code Vein 2 is a lot simpler than it wants you to believe—for both good and bad.

A standalone adventure despite the title, Code Vein 2 sets itself in a gothic art deco-tinged post-apocalypse inhabited by the vampiric Revenants, under threat of a double apocalypse unless five legendary heroes of the past are murdered for… reasons.

Your boss Lavinia, who dredges up those same feelings Lady Dimitrescu from Resident Evil Village awoke, tries to make the mission sound awfully complex, but the basic idea is simple: travel back in time to meet a handful of anime hotties and then kill them in order to save the world. Everything else is set dressing, and boy does this game like to dress some sets.

Blood Born

Though Code Vein 2 carries all the hallmarks of the soulslike—limited heals, bonfire equivalents, and invincible dodges that had me somersaulting more than an Olympic gymnast—it often feels more like a pure hack-and-slash than any kind of Dark Souls imitation. Leaning heavily on number-go-up RPG leveling as well as fast, forgiving battles, it's comparatively accessible for those less skilled at timing attacks and dodges, welcoming us lowly button mashers with open arms.

Sure, there ARE heavy attacks if you want them, and specials, and unique life-draining skills called Jails, but I managed to get through near every challenge with nothing but my trusty friend: light attack. Little mutant dog? Mash light until it's dead. Giant undead skeleton centipede grafted onto a rotting masked corpse? Mash light until it's super dead.

There's plenty of customization to dig into for the more minmax inclined: a host of weapons upgradable into various elemental styles, as well as all sorts of stat boosting equipment. I was able to put together builds that played noticeably differently, meaning there's at least some depth to how any given scrap in Code Vein can be tackled. It's a shame it's all largely optional, never giving a palpable reason why I should engage fully with everything on offer when I could take down even the toughest bosses with nothing more than a bit of elbow grease and some extra EXP to make sure my big sword hit extra bigly.

I didn't have to go through my killing sprees alone. Joining me at every step was one of several AI companions acting totally independently. While I was busy hacking away at a health bar, there they were doing their own damage, drawing aggro, and even sacrificing themselves temporarily to refill my HP when I died, giving me a consequence-free second chance to double down on a "fight first, think later" style that Code Vein 2 encourages at every turn.

It all makes for a propulsive experience, but I can't shake the feeling that those soulslike systems, designed for a more methodical pace, end up holding Code Vein 2 back from its full potential. The stamina bar feels more like a leash than a thoughtful constraint, yanking me away at the last second whenever I try to lean fully into the aggression the game asks for.

Still, that so many of the dungeons I spent my time plunging are such lookers helped keep the skeleton skull smashing fresh. From maximum security prisons to abandoned amusement parks to buildings lost underwater, reflections of waves dancing across the walls, dungeons cover a wonderfully wide range of tones. Not all are slam dunks—expect some standard caves and military bases—but their broader visual variety combined with their condensed size meant I was always excited to see what would show up next and never had to wait long to find out. Whether it's fighting or exploring a haunted house, it's all about moving forward in Code Vein 2.

Well, except for when it's about moving to the past, and it's there that things start to struggle.

Empty Pastures

The big switch up in Code Vein 2 from its predecessor is that this time it's open world; there's an entire post-apocalyptic land waiting to be explored to your heart's content. Two, in fact!

Kind of.

While time travel does play an important role in the game and I did get to explore both the past and present of the world map, the difference between the two is trivial. Time and time again, I traveled boldly to a bygone age only to be greeted with the same destroyed buildings and the same flipped cars, none of which had moved or rusted at all in 100 years.

And though the world is refreshingly compact, much of my time spent wandering its prerequisite forests and mountains and—gasp!—green plains, felt superfluous, unneeded downtime littered with upgrade items I already had plenty of and materials for an underbaked, completely unnecessary crafting system.

Even if I liked the idea of rummaging for parts, Code Vein 2's rough performance ensured that I only ever felt dread at the thought. What initially seemed like an easy 60 fps on high settings on my rig (Intel Core i7-13700F, GeForce RTX 3060 Ti) crumbled when I stepped out of the first dungeon and into the wider world. Besides little hangs when entering new areas, I was constantly plagued with seemingly random framerate hiccups that switching to lower settings only alleviated, never solved. My graphics card is slightly weaker than the recommended RTX 3080, but far above the minimum spec.

At their worst these were less hiccups and more framerate vomit, enemies stuttering to catch up like they were suffering bad online lag. Code Vein 2 is a handsome game, but not handsome enough that I should've expected any resistance to getting a consistent framerate going, and its poor optimization only hurts its furious pace and the heavy atmosphere it tries so hard to maintain.

Shallow Graves

It's in the past that most of the story is hiding, a predictable drama aiming for operatic tragedy that never makes too much sense if you think about it for half a second. Code Vein 2 mostly gets away with it by keeping the cutscenes mercifully short. I'll admit there were points where the game yelled at me loud enough to "FEEL SAD, PLEASE, FEEL SAD" that something stirred in my cold heart, but that was more thanks to the stunning soundtrack, all swirling romantic strings and delicate piano melodies, than anything else. Textures having a bad habit of visibly loading in during the most dramatic moments certainly doesn't help the game's tone, either.

The cast doesn't fare any better, which particularly stings because it's the characters that Code Vein 2 seems to care the most about.

There are some exceptions, like Lou, the pale girl with a hole in her chest and a beating gold heart, who suggest an ethereal, horror-tinged side to their design, but a majority of the cast go for by-the-numbers anime looks to highlight only their most obvious characteristics. Josée is small and half-naked but has a big personality, Lyle has a cold elegance but is warm-hearted, and Valentin has huge round glasses (a subtle nod to the fact that he's smart, you see).

They're all written with that level of subtlety, relying on tired backstories and played-out personalities. I respect Code Vein 2's attempts to connect me with them through fighting together, learning their quirks by struggling through dungeons side-by-side, but there's just not enough to latch onto to let those connections bloom, a fault that only multiplies as the story increasingly hinges on caring deeply for these collections of clichés.

Code Vein 2 wants to be a game about connection and choice, about avoiding the easy path and bashing your head against a vicious boss for the sake of others, because it's the right thing to do. But by overstuffing on sugary ideas and underserving on depth, its loftier ambitions go unfulfilled. A satisfyingly fast-paced action RPG hides beneath all its pretensions—just be prepared to smile and nod your way through some nonsense to get there.