Remember Me was supposed to be Capcom’s truly unique action game that featured a female protagonist that unfortunately was more forgettable than memorable by most critics and gamers. I admit I was greatly intrigued by the game from what I played at PAX East, but it didn’t take long to regret my purchase when I sat down with the full game. Fortunately, the Remember Me strategy guide by BradyGames was not as disappointing.

Remember Me featured a fighting-game-style form of combat, where learning combinations of button presses is crucial to surviving. It seems like it could be a button masher at first, akin to a game like DmC: Devil May Cry or even Bayonetta, but the timing of each button press is so important that simply learning the combo itself is not enough. In addition, players can create their own combos with Pressens, meaning that while you can’t change what button you press in the combo, you can change the effect a particular button press will have. For example, a simple 3-button combo is X-X-X, but you can change the effect the X button presses have with the Pressens. You can make one X heal Nilin and another X cause damage. Without these Pressens, Nilin will just punch and kick with zero effects, so they are important.

The Remember Me strategy guide does a fantastic job in coaching players through building proper Pressen combos for each situation. Before each boss fight and before each massive encounter, the guide advises players what types of Pressens they need to have in their combos for that particular time. There were a few ambushes I would not have survived without these tips, especially when the Leapers who could vanish in the dark showed up. Not only that, but the guide served as a good reminder of all of the Pressen options I had so I wouldn’t rely on a set of Pressens. Doing so only means bad things for Nilin’s survival rate.

While learning all of your combos and different powers Nilin picks up from fighting bosses, players are also subjected to an obscene number of collectibles: health boosts, Focus boosts, Mnesist Memories, and Scaramechs. Since most of the world of Remember Me is rather gray and bleak (with a splash of orange here and there), it’s incredibly easy to overlook most of these collectibles. Collectible hunting is where the strategy guide shines the brightest (and it shines orange, trust me). All collectibles are marked in individual maps of each scene Nilin traverses, and then most of the collectibles have their own call-out box with screenshot in the written walkthrough. All collectibles are mentioned and highlighted in bold in the written walkthrough, but not all have helpful screenshots showing where they are. I understand why they don’t, because it could get quite cluttered on the pages, but I would have liked it nonetheless.

In addition, one of the appendices in the strategy guide shows exactly where all the Mnesist Memories are located in each chapter and even writes each of the memories out in case you just want to read up on the memories without collecting all of them (for those who aren’t Achievement-whores).

The Remember Me strategy guide is a well-rounded book for every type of gamer needing something from a strategy guide, from combat advice to collectibles to solving the memory puzzles on the first try. Completionists and collectible hunters will be especially pleased with the information provided.

SGR Rating: 4/5

Author: Doug Walsh
Publisher: BradyGames
Editions available: Paperback
Acquired via Publisher