Pre-order Code Vein

It's no real surprise that "Dark Souls clone" is a thriving genre. With plenty of games inspired by, playing like, or outright copying the surprise hit franchise, Code Vein is the first clone coming from the publishers of the franchise.  Truth be told, Code Vein resembles Dark Souls in the way that God Eater was similar to Monster Hunter. It's an attempt to jazz up the genre with an anime style.

God Eater's aesthetic is so similar to Code Vein that I wouldn't be surprised to hear that it began as a spinoff. This means stylish and elaborate weapons that are completely impractical and cool instead of sensible. The atmosphere and character designs feel a lot less grounded. It might be a turnoff for people who liked the more realistic style of the Souls titles, but it helps to give the game its own flair.

The basic gameplay flow feels very much like Souls in that  the combat is brutal and deliberate. The system allows for less plausible combat than the Souls franchise, but it's not that different. Keeping track of your health and stamina is extremely important. Playing it safe and figuring out the right moment to strike rather than button-mashing is absolutely the way to go. Your overall goal is to make it from mistle (basically a bonfire from the Souls series) to mistle while collecting power from defeated enemies to power up your character. It's the same pattern we know and love.

There are some differences, though. You have access to gifts, which are special abilities that use up mana. Gifts can be attack spells, buffs, or even healing spells. Refilling MP requires taking some risks, though. Backstabs, parries and special combo attacks can drain enemies of MP. The result is that rather than doing one thing, you should be chaining together various abilities. Use gifts and take advantage of the power of those gifts to kill enemies; lather, rinse, and repeat. The preview build also indicated there would be ways to power up gifts through usage, which allows for greater flexibility in your builds.

Blood Codes amount to various character builds, such as Assassin, Caster or Fighter. The various "codes" have their own gifts, stats and weapons. They can be swapped, and this means you can customize your character for the challenge. If you're facing a boss who is difficult to dodge, you can focus on attacking from a distance. If you know an area is full of foes who are easy to attack stealthily, you can go into full assassin mode and take advantage of the backstab bonus to MP. It remains to be seen how flexible the system is, but it has a lot of potential, especially for those who panicked over their character builds in the Souls franchise.

Code Vein feels like Dark Souls through a God Eater lens, but that is praise rather than criticism. It focuses on creating a distinct niche in the genre that emphasizes its anime-inspired origins rather than the dark fantasy stylings that are prevalent in Souls-alikes. Time will tell if that's enough to help it stand out from the crowd, but Code Vein will be a game to keep an eye on when it hits next year for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.