QS stands for “Quickshot”, a series of short form review/preview/opinion articles.
So…Code Vein. Ever heard of it? Chances aren’t particularly good, though the game was certainly well-received and fairly popular when it came out back in 2019. The truth remains, though, that Code Vein is a tough-as-nails action RPG, with an overwhelmingly heaping helping of anime tropes and edgy clichés. It was going to be pretty audience-alienating whether it ended up as a beloved game or not. For those that DID give it a pass, I recommend buying it and trying it out. It’s a lot of fun!
However, this is not an article about Code Vein. At least, not in the traditional sense.
To be sure, I’ve got a lot of opinions about Code Vein, and certainly enough to constitute its own article reviewing the game, sometime in the future. It’s one of the most silly and enjoyable Soulslike games around, as long as you can look past the shoddy story and occasionally frustrating difficulty curve. It’s got a pretty stellar soundtrack too!
But that is not what this article is about. This article is about all of the myriad addicting ways you can have an absolute blast playing the game, by doing everything BUT playing the game the way you are intended to!
For starters, Code Vein has the greatest character creator menu of any video game…ever.
It’s an overwhelming sight, when you first get started with the character creator. There’s about one million different options, and it can be hard to know where to start without a solid initial idea. Trust me when I say this…if your little mind can come up with an idea for a character, Code Vein can bring that character to life. The breadth of options is staggering, but the way they all gel together into one complete whole is nothing short of a creative masterpiece. You’ll probably be blown away by your own character by the time you’re done.
You can select from a wide range of hair styles, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and change their primary and highlight colors, as well as color depth and shine. You can change the size, pupil shape, iris and pupil coloration, angle, and light shine of your character’s eyes. You can add makeup, tattoos, scars, face paint, and more, with each of those options being extremely customizable in terms of color, size, and position. The range of colors is also huge, covering the entire rainbow and all variations, plus special textures and patterns (like metallic sheens and glowing hues).
You can alter your character’s build, including stature and musculature, pick from a variety of face shapes and sizes, select from a comprehensive list of voices for your character to have (ranging from meek, to cocky, to courageous, to jokester), and you also have free reign to tailor the outfit your character wears. Though Code Vein provides a default set of costumes to choose from, elements of those costumes can be toggled on or off to your liking, and each piece of armor can have its primary and secondary colors altered.
(By the way, no character creator tools are gender-exclusive, which is great for freeing up options to really let loose with creativity)
Last, but CERTAINLY not least, is the Accessory menu. In this menu, you can equip accessories from a list of over two hundred choices, ranging from backpacks, to earrings and necklaces, to gloves and wristbands, to hair extensions, and more. Not only that, but these accessories can also be altered in size and color. Not only THAT, but the accessories can be moved to any position on your character you want, not just what is set as default/makes traditional sense. A hat on each of your shoulders? Go for it! A backpack on your head? Why not! A wing-shaped earring moved to your back and blown up to massive size, giving your character the appearance of possessing huge angel wings? Absolutely!
Code Vein‘s character creator is a constant joy to experience, and you can spend hours upon hours just making characters with blissful freedom of creativity (and believe me, I HAVE spent hours). The more you allow yourself to experiment, the more you’ll realize that Code Vein can truly allow you to create anything your heart imagines.
Below, I’ll include some screenshots of various characters I have made, just as a small sampling of the magic you can work with this system. Enjoy!
But, Code Vein isn’t just an unbelievably amazing character creator. No, Code Vein went ahead and ALSO included the single best photo mode ever added to a video game.
A growing trend in recent years, photo mode is usually included in very graphically impressive games to allow their players to capture images and share them with friends and on social media. In Code Vein, with the touch of a button, all of the action in the game freezes, and you are given full control over the camera. The game turns from an action RPG to a flight simulator, as you pilot the camera around with complete freedom, trying to find the perfect angle.
Once you have your angle, the list of options for taking your photo is extensive. You can zoom in or out, alter the exposure, sharpen the focus, add or minimize a blurring effect, apply a vignette or prismatic lens, or use one of over thirty different filters and over forty different borders. These options, of course, have their own sub options, like strengthening or weakening the effect of a filter, or changing whether or not your character’s mask (usually always on your face when outside of your little home base) is visible or not.
The fun still doesn’t stop there, however. The final menu of options allows you to edit poses of both you and your character. What you can do is select a pose, unfreeze the game, then pause at just the right moment to capture a beautiful one-of-a-kind shot. You and your partner posing for a selfie? Check. You and a friend playing a game of rock-paper-scissors? Check. Your character busting a sick dance move like nobody’s business, while your partner watches on in the background annoyed? Check!
It’s crazy, and yet again I will stress just how many hours can be spent simply exploring the options of photo mode and taking pictures (and yet again I confess to how many hours I have spent doing just that). Like the above section, I’ll now provide a handful of screenshots illustrating just a small sampling of the scenes I’ve managed to create with Code Vein‘s unmatched photo mode.
Have I sold you on Code Vein yet? Probably, not, seeing as how I’ve not even touched on…you know…the actual game itself! Regardless, this just goes to show how much love was put into crafting Code Vein, and how that hard work manifests in the most consistently enjoyable and addicting expressions of creative freedom that I have ever experienced in a video game. For years to come, I see myself booting up Code Vein to keep on making characters and taking photos. It just never gets old!
Here, have one more screenshot for the road! Thanks for reading!
The Contrarian Corner 