It is pretty much a combination of La Femme Nikita, Léon: The Professional, and Minority Report. Put another way, you're playing a naïve woman—who's an amnesiac—living in a world where people are addicted to memories. Unlike most others, she has the ability to hack, edit, and modify these memories. Which makes her dangerous to the powers-that-be.
Taking place in a future Neo-Paris, with cafés and terraces intact, you walk around and hear NPCs talk about "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité". That's how French this game is. Even the robots have French mannerisms.
Because this is published by Capcom, you might think this is a Japanese interpretation of French culture. Au contraire. It was actually developed by Paris-based Don't Not Entertainment—the same folks behind Vampyr and Jusant. In fact, Remember Me was their first ever game.
Because this was Don't Nod's first game, it is perhaps too ambitious. A bit flaw is that they try to do too much. This game is simultaneously a beat-'em-up, a parkour, and a point-and-click puzzler. Two hours into the game, I was still being fed tutorials, and it was a bit much.
Despite these flaws, I like Remember Me quite a lot. Even though the graphics are showing their age, the art direction is absolutely beautiful. Whether walking through garbage-filled slums or skulking around bourgeois apartments, it was truly wonderful to experience this world.
Looking at several screenshots, I can't help but notice how it seems "AI". Obviously, this being a game with a cyberpunk aesthetic, that's just how it will go. But Remember Me was released in 2013, so I assure you that humans made this—not generative AI.
In a weird way, the fact Remember Me predates generative AI kind of works within its themes. Because this game is very much about the consequences of human memory merging with computer memory. This idea behind this dystopic potential could practically be a doctoral dissertation.
But the biggest reason I love Remember Me is because it works so well on Steam Deck. How awesome is it to play a AAA title at 60fps at high settings? And the gamepad support just works too.
This is my version of a cozy game. It's perfect to play in bed while trying to keep warm during the blistering cold of winter.
