This vampire-themed Elden Ring-inspired game casts a captivating spell, but its Soulslike world falls short.

Code Vein 2 is the most uninspired game about time-traveling vampires I’ve encountered. What could have been a solid Soulslike experience feels stretched too thin, resulting in a repetitive and lackluster open-world adventure that fails to capture the charm of its stylish predecessor.

For those unfamiliar, the original Code Vein offered an anime-inspired twist on Dark Souls, complete with its dramatic flair. The sequel retains the core mechanics: dodge-rolling, precise strikes, and the punishing loss of leveling currency upon death, with the added challenge of formidable bosses that will test your patience. If you’ve tackled a Soulslike before, you know what to expect here.

The protagonists are ‘revenants,’ immortal beings who embody the essence of vampires without the title. Their agelessness makes them an odd fit for a time travel narrative. The plot revolves around an impending apocalypse, and the only way to avert it is to defeat five legendary heroes trapped in spherical tombs. To do this, you must first connect with these heroes a century in the past before returning to the present to finish the job.

While the premise is intriguing, the execution falls flat. The opportunity to explore two distinct time periods is squandered, as the environments are nearly identical, making it difficult to discern which era you’re in. The scenery is largely unchanged, and even the enemies often occupy the same spots. A few locations shift for story purposes, but overall, it feels like a significant missed chance for variety.

Visually, the game is a step down from its predecessor, presenting a generic, desolate cityscape that lacks the artistic flair of the first Code Vein. The world feels lifeless, with the most notable visual issue being the frequent pop-in on the PS5 version.

The dungeons are another major drawback. Code Vein 2 has you navigating mundane locations like water treatment plants and substations, which blend together so much that I often lost my way. Where’s the supernatural twist? The first game had dungeons that were visually and mechanically engaging, while the majority of what you encounter in this sequel feels tedious.

Exploration can feel like a chore, especially with the long commutes between locations. However, the rewards for exploring are crucial, as you’ll need health upgrades to tackle the tougher bosses. The map can be a puzzle in itself, but it’s disheartening to enjoy finding a dungeon only to dread the monotony of exploring it.

Repetition is a significant issue, with the same enemies appearing far too often. Bosses, which should be the highlights of a Soulslike, also suffer from this. Imagine the excitement of stepping through a fog gate in Dark Souls, only to face an enemy you’ve already battled multiple times, just with a larger health pool. The novelty of fighting a golden mech with a cat figurine inside it wears off quickly after the tenth encounter.

What keeps the game from being a total flop is the combat. You always have an NPC companion by your side, which is helpful for taking down foes and can be used as bait for sneaky backstabs. Unlike the first game, where companions could die, Code Vein 2 makes them invincible, though they won’t do all the heavy lifting for you.

The resurrection system has also seen improvements. If you die, your companion can revive you but will temporarily vanish. If you die again before they return, it’s game over. Each death reduces your health upon resurrection and increases the wait time for your companion to come back, encouraging risk-taking and making desperate attempts against bosses feel thrilling.

Weapons can be customized with special attacks that can significantly change the flow of combat. For instance, you can throw your weapon to create a spinning vortex of destruction or summon swords that orbit your enemy, occasionally striking them.

However, these powerful moves come at a cost. To regenerate the currency needed for them, you must drain blood from enemies using a secondary attack called ‘jail.’ The more wounds you inflict, the more blood you can extract with a successful strike.

This system creates a fast-paced combat experience that rewards aggression. While you can hang back and use ranged attacks, you’ll eventually need to engage up close to gather blood.

Against quicker enemies, this can be a challenge, but it’s not a complaint. I enjoyed experimenting with different jails between boss attempts, weighing the benefits of various abilities.

There’s a decent variety of jails and special attacks to discover if you commit to exploring. The downside is that you’ll likely grow weary of the repetitive enemy roster. For fresh challenges, you’ll need to stray from the main path.

There’s plenty of side content and alternate missions to uncover different endings. After fifty hours, I still haven’t seen it all. However, the rewarding elements, like new bosses and story developments, are often buried under excessive padding. One side quest had a fun payoff, but it didn’t justify the grind of fighting the same boss multiple times in a row. Code Vein 2 serves as a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of open-world design and losing the essence of what made the original enjoyable.