'Code Vein II' Review: An Approachable but Uneven Soulslike

When the original Code Vein came out back in 2019, the Soulslike genre was still somewhat in its infancy. FromSoftware, the creator of the genre, via their Dark Souls series, had successfully made its own spinoffs, such as Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, but beyond that the imitators were few and far between. It was into that landscape that Bandai Namco released Code Vein to mixed reviews.

With it being a capable Soulslike at a time when there weren’t a ton of options—even standouts like Nioh and Lords of the Fallen had come out years earlier—it sold well enough to get a sequel greenlit. Fast-forward to now, and Code Vein II has launched with an expanded open world for gamers to explore. It faces much stiffer competition, though, as the genre has exploded with the likes of Lies of P, Nioh 2 and Nioh 3 and Black Myth: Wukong having released during that time, not to mention the arrival of FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.

Code Vein II drops you into a post-apocalyptic world where an event known as the Resurgence mutated the population, both humans and Revenants, into monsters. While the Resurgence was eventually sealed at great cost, the seal weakened, creating the Upheaval, necessitating another group of heroes to make a new seal. As before, those seals are weakening, and now 100 years later the world finds itself on the brink of collapse.

To prevent this, your unnamed character must team up with a Revenant named Lou, who possesses the unique ability to travel through time. The purpose of this is to meet the heroes that created the seals, fight alongside them, and gain an item that then allows your character to return to the present. Once there, they can undo the seals the heroes created, freeing them so they can be laid to rest, and allowing a new seal to be formed.

Although it sounds convoluted, in practice it creates a pretty straightforward gameplay loop of heading to the past, teaming with a hero, accomplishing specific goals, returning to the present, and defeating the hero. It’s fine, though the way the story is told is clunky. Much of the exposition is relegated to dreamlike sequences where you stand and watch static images with voiceovers, waiting for it to finish before moving forward to the next one. It undermines the potential emotional impact.

Of course, as a genre, Soulslikes aren’t built on storytelling. They’re built on combat, specifically the tough-but-fair moniker. Nail that, and everything else can be forgiven. Unfortunately, while there are times where Code Vein II delivers, there are too many instances where it misses the mark on both sides of the spectrum, serving up lots of fodder enemies that you can kill without them mustering an attack, and others that feel cheap—to that end, the game loves to hide foes around corners or in other hard-to-see areas, allowing for frustrating hits.

If you’re going to demand precision from the player, you need to deliver precision on the enemy design and combat sides as well. Too often that’s lacking, whether due to an unsteady frame rate, hitboxes that feel slightly off, or something like enemies landing an extra hit because your invulnerability from being knocked down is a fraction too brief.

The switch to an open world is a good idea in theory but doesn’t fare as well in practice. The world itself is disappointingly bland, and despite its considerable scope it’s not that enjoyable (or rewarding) to explore. A lot of key items will be marked on your map, which is convenient, but outside of those marked locations there isn’t much going on. The game gives you a motorcycle in lieu of a mount, but it’s no fun, handling like a toy instead of a powerful vehicle.

Even with that, the game is addicting enough that failures, while frustrating, were never enough to dissuade me from soldiering on. One of Code Vein II’s best ideas is allowing you to team up with a partner, and within that you have the option for them to fight with you or be “absorbed” into you so you fight solo while receiving buffs. Not being the most skilled of soulslike players, I almost always chose to fight with a partner, who can draw aggro and provide critical moments to regroup. They’ll also resurrect you when you take fatal damage, starting a cooldown timer before they reappear, meaning if you’re downed during that time, it’s game over.

Code Vein II also does a good job of allowing you to tailor your character. That starts with the excellent customization options when creating your Revenant Hunter’s appearance, and it continues as you acquire weapons and gear. Rather than tasking you with micromanaging various attributes, the game has you equip blood codes, which provide their own set of buffs, so if you want to try a different approach, you can simply swap out your blood code.

In addition to your weapon and blood code, you’ll also have offensive and defensive special abilities called Formae. For example, one is a bow giving you the ability to hurt foes at range or draw them to you, while another is a massive axe that deals shock damage. On the defensive side, you’ll find ones for blocking, others for parrying, and some for dodging.

There are also boosters you can equip to augment your skills, such as attribute boosts or added buffs to attacks, and Jails, which are used for the draining attacks necessary to refill your Ichor—the name for what is essentially the game’s magic system that is depleted when you use your Formae or weapon abilities. While it may sound complicated and even felt that way initially, it clicks fairly early on and is straightforward relative to a lot of other games in the genre.

Final Score (7/10)

There are definitely things to like about Code Vein II. It just seems like for each positive, there’s a negative to drag things down. Boss fights can be intense, but too many defeats feel cheap. The open world is a step forward from the more linear original, but the overall design is lackluster, and exploration doesn’t reveal any exciting hidden activities. While the customization and well-designed build system make it approachable for a Soulslike, issues with uneven difficulty, frame rate problems, and more prevent it from ascending to the ranks of the genre’s true heavyweights.