Remember Me Strategic Hands-On (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)

Capcom has a pretty good Summer slate coming up in the months ahead, including its revival of the Disney classic DuckTales, the arcade compilation Dungeons & Dragons Collection and Lost Planet 3 finally coming out in August.  In the midst of all those is a bold new adventure from Capcom, one that has you configure your action experience however you see fit while trying to recall just who you are and where your random memories come from.  Remember Me is definitely going to be something worthy of discovery.

The game takes place in the year 2084.  You’re in the middle of Neo-Paris, a bustling city with lots happening above and below.  Citizens of this futuristic metropolis are driven mad by Sensation Engine memory implants.  This leads the main hero of the story, memory hunter Nilin, to try to figure out what’s going on while also avoiding dangerous enemies that want to shut her down.

Remember Me is divided into combat and platforming.  When it comes to getting around the city, the game borrows a little bit from the old Prince of Persia games when you’re climbing across beams, up platforms and exploring new areas to help you regain memories that were lost before.  Sometimes you’ll need to execute tricky jumps, but Nilin’s Sensen implant helps by letting you know which ledges can be grabbed and where you can move up (or down) to.  Nilin can also look for glitches that help form your memories even sharper than before, utilizing a special feature known as the Aug Eye.  Though the hands-on demo didn’t give us too much time to explore this option, we’re intrigued to see how it shapes up in the final game…especially when it comes to going off the beaten trail and seeking out secret items.

As for the in-game combat, it’s shaped together between a terrific fighting engine and a configurable menu known as the Combo Lab.  You can actually put together your techniques through open slots, depending what you feel like.  This also limits you to select certain techniques in your combat but they’re quite effective when it comes to bringing down the various enemies you run into, whether they’re fast moving Leapers or tough armored Skinners.  You can also put together a long string of combos, mixing up the possibilities and diversifying your attack patterns as a result.

The attack moves you utilize in the game’s Combo Lab are divided into Pressens, which can fit into three categories – Power, Regen and Cooldown.  Each are vitally important as Nilin faces off against her adversaries, so finding a balance between the three is a useful tactic.

With Power combos you’ll be able to dish out more damage.  This is vital when it comes to facing off against more than one Skinner or tougher enemies that show up down the road.

Regen combos enable you to earn more health as you fight in combat.  It’s wise to use these if your health is running a bit low, or you want to play it cautious when it comes to keeping as full a health bar as you can for later on in the game.

Cooldown combos enable you to pull off some spectacular moves because of special signature moves known as S-Pressens.  Though you can only use one at a time in the heat of combat, their execution is spectacular and can bring down someone rather quickly.

Though we didn’t see all the moves that were offered with our hands-on time with Remember Me (including the Overload finishers that sound quite exhilarating if you pull them off right) we did find the Combo Lab quite simple to use.  It’s a matter of going into the sub-menu and assigning button pushes to set up whatever combo you want to use through Pressens.  Sometimes you’ll even get to experiment a bit between battle types, just to see how well they come off against certain enemies.  Don’t be afraid to tinker with this set-up and see how it works for you.

Even if Remember Me sounds a bit quirkier than other titles we’re used to from Capcom, that’s really a good thing.  With a game delving into this much creativity between the combat and exploration, it’s sure to be a breath of fresh air as you get through the Summer months.

Look for Remember Me on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June 4th.