Summary
Code Vein is notorious for being extremely difficult but offers some amazing anime-like visuals and a back story to keep you going in the toughest of situations. Code Vein is an action role-playing dungeon experience that requires you to fight monsters and survive. The game rating is R13 and honestly, we think that a mature 13 year old could handle this game, we think that this game would be better suited to 14 year olds and over. It is simply the difficulty of the game that we consider is why a player would either need to be quite an experienced gamer, or older to understand the mechanics properly. You can either play CodeVein solo or team up with an AI partner or a friend to take on the toughest of enemies and venture out into a world with amazing visuals and experiences. This game is available on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox and the gameplay can take around 20-60 hours to complete so there is plenty to keep you busy! You will need at least a good 30 minutes each play though to progress through the areas as once you leave an area of load back in after exiting the whole area’s monsters return even if you have already defeated them all which can be quite frustrating! Code Vein is not shy about jumping surprise enemies or blood and gore, this game requires significant game knowledge otherwise you will not make it very far in the game.
Gameplay
Code Vein is like playing and watching an anime at the same time. It is such a fun and immersive experience and a strong storyline to match. Code Vein is set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian world after the event "The Great Collapse" happened causing many humans to turn into monsters. You play as a human who has been brought back to life to defeat the Queen who controls these monsters. This requires you to make your way through multiple dungeons killing monsters and the bosses to collect blood codes and currency known as ‘Haze’ to level and progress through the game.
The main thing with this game is the sheer difficulty of the gameplay. THIS IS NO EASY GAME! It took me a long time to figure out the mechanics and the timing of not only my character and their abilities but also the monsters and the bosses. The key to the boss fight is learning their patterns and utilizing this to defeat them. The mechanics are extremely difficult and I was at times fighting a boss about 20 times before I finally beat them!! It's an extremely challenging game but also very rewarding.
One of the best parts about this game is the customization of your character. At the very beginning of the game, you can fully customize what your character looks like and what they are wearing and even update it throughout the game. I think I spent a good hour on this alone! What is even better is the game contains amazing cut scenes which also include your customized character. It was so cool seeing my character in action just like a movie! Overall, this game remains one of my favorites today because of its anime-like nature and the challenging gameplay, but its style and the difficulty level may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Education
Code Vein requires a lot of knowledge to get anywhere in the game. Your character can have multiple different builds and talents to choose from and if you get the combination right, this will make things a lot easier for you! This means that a lot of time is spent reading, researching, and understanding the different types of weapons, abilities, and talents that work together and what doesn’t. There are over 200 talents you can learn so understanding all of these is a must! You can change builds throughout the game and this is very important to understand as one build might work better against a specific boss than the one you’re currently using. The understanding this game requires is immense and is a great way to teach and practice research and comprehensive understanding.
Now you are not going to get through this game on the first try without dying. Not a chance! This game requires careful strategy and tactics to get anywhere. This game fully relies on you carefully assessing the situation and reacting. For example, sometimes the best strategy I found was to take a step back from the boss and watch their movements until I died to understand their pattern of attacks. Then next fight I would understand the best time to strike! This required careful analysis of the situation, patience, and reacting appropriately no matter how frustrating the situation was. Learning to overcome struggle is an essential life skill to develop for anyone at any age and this game definitely gives you an opportunity to practice this!
Violence/ Adult Themes
The main aim of the game is to go through different areas and fight off monsters and bosses. So naturally there are weapons such as swords, axes, guns, and magic in order to kill off the enemies. With this, there is also a lot of blood throughout the game. Blood appears on your weapons and when you or an enemy gets injured. But when you or a monster dies, there is no gore the character will just disperse into bright flakes.
Blood is an essential element to the story as there is a focus on ‘Blood Codes’ and 'Blood Beads'. When a character absorbs a vestige to get a blood code, your character will hold the vestige which will then grow spikes through the character's hand as they absorb it. This may be distressing for younger players to see.
There is a bar in the home base area, and the characters have a drink at times, but this is not often and there are no depictions of any character being drunk. Simply the drink may be in front of them, or they may have a drink but there are no effects seen of alcohol. There are also a few moderate swear words across the game but nothing too vulgar.
The other thing to be aware of is that the female characters throughout the game can have a revealing nature. While everything remains covered, they are certainly not shy about the big-bosomed characters or even the female monsters. Some monsters have very little clothing but have that monstrous appearance that masks any suggestiveness of it.
Monetization
Code Vein has an initial cost of around $80 to purchase the game and this will provide you with access to the full game. There are additional DLC’s (downloaded content) to purchase which are around $20 and this will give you access to additional dungeons. However, the DLC’s did not add much overall to the game and were just additional mini dungeons providing you with a few extra hours of gameplay. So, if your kid enjoyed the game and wanted to spend a bit more time then this could be a great addition.
The game does feature an in-game currency known as ‘Haze’. This is earned either through killing monsters or finding across the various dungeons. This can only be earned throughout the game and you cannot buy this using real-life money. Haze is used to buy new talents, weapons, and equipment and even level up your character.
Safety
Code Vein can be played offline and you will gain an AI companion which you can swap out for different characters as your story progresses and more characters are unlocked. However, if you want to try the game online, (or your AI companion is not being very helpful), you can play online and gain an online companion. This can either be with a friend or a random online player. While the game notes that there is coop mode, it is not exactly as it seems. The coop mode only allows your friend to join in at the beginning of each area. They do not run through the story with you rather jump in and out same as your online companions. In online mode, there are no options for text or voice chat making it very safe for players to play the game online. However, there is very little in the way of an online community.
Tips and Tricks
Code Vein does not have an autosave feature meaning that if you tell your kid to stop playing right that second, this could mean they lose hours of gameplay that they will have to do all over again! There are only specific places where you can save your progress otherwise all your work will be lost! Make sure that your child has enough time to play (we would suggest 30 minutes at least) and if you need them to jump off, they need to make it to the nearest mistle to save their progress.
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