GAMES & STUFF

CODE VEIN II

Dungeons that drag on

★★☆☆☆

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW!

▶ Reviewed on PS5

▶ Also available on Xbox Series, PC

▶ Publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment

VIDEOGAME It’s borderline impressive to take a concept like time-travelling vampires and make it boring. Code Vein II pulls off this feat by stretching itself thinner than a sheet of A4 on Ozempic. Its predecessor was essentially an anime spin on Dark Souls. It boasted a lovely art style, but also starred female characters seemingly designed by only the horniest of teenage boys.

Code Vein II keeps the embarrassingly proportioned ladies (lord knows how poor Holly even breathes, let alone fights) but has taken a major graphical hit. This clearly aspires to be a huge open-world adventure, like Elden Ring, and has compromised itself horribly in the process. It’s a bland, lifeless world with major pop-in issues on PS5. Hope you like riding the world’s slowest motorcycle through it.

Dungeons are, frankly, appalling. When someone suggests “How about a level in a water treatment plant?” you’re meant to politely ask them to get out. Stunningly, that’s not even the most boring locale. This would be fine if there were smart twists, supernatural elements, or anything to stop these places feeling like their tedious real-world inspirations. Code Vein II has more dungeons than its predecessor, but who cares when so many of them are this crap?