WHAT’S NEW PLUS-SY CAT?
Digging into the random acts of gaming a lengthy PS Plus subscription offers
On PS Plus in March we battled through doomed futures before going deeper underground. On PS5 and PS4 we had multiplayer shooter Battlefield 2042, then on PS4 only we had hack-and-slash spinoff Minecraft Dungeons.
The final offering for the month was Code Vein on PS4.
Get ready for the puns because we’re about to sink our teeth into that lattermost soulslike. We make no apologies, and neither does Code Vein as it presents a vampiricallyinfected post-apocalypse.
Your custom protagonist, though fanged and functionally immortal, is called a Revenant. The idea of ‘our vampires are different’ doesn’t end there either as, while human blood hits the spot, there aren’t many mortals still kicking about. Instead, the thirsty Revenants rely on blood beads that literally grow on trees.
Even though supping on humans is off the table, Code Vein tries to squeeze what melodrama it can from the scarcity of the red stuff. Unfortunately, losing sight of that human element bleeds the story dry of most opportunities for over-the-top emotion.
Dungeon design and combat is similarly bloodless. Falling down holes in what looks like a hasty copy of FromSoftware’s homework is a particular nadir, though this husk isn’t dusty all the way through. Beyond varied weapons, there are Blood Codes, which function akin to a class system, bestowing stat bonuses and weapon proficiencies in addition to special abilities called
Gifts. You can switch between the Codes easily, allowing you to adjust your strategy whenever you’re faced with a new threat.
It’s not going to win any points for originality – but you know me, I just can’t say no to anime vampires. I only wish that, upon all that well-trodden apocalyptic ground, Code Vein took rather bigger swings with its comically oversized weapons.