While many are still waiting for the January 30 release date of Code Vein 2, those who picked up its Deluxe or Ultimate editions have now gained advanced access to the action RPG. As it turns out, these players haven’t exactly been happy with the release, leading to the average of its Steam reviews to sit at “Mixed” at the time of publishing.
While there are quite a few positive reviews, with some praising the in-depth character creator, improvements made to the gameplay over the original Code Vein, and nicer visuals, others have slammed it for not being optimized well enough.
For instance, one reviewer with 2 hours at the time of writing their review noted that “the game simply does not run well.” While the player has a decent PC, they have said that Code Vein 2 has “tons of pop in, choppy cutscene transitions, low frame rate in several areas and situations,” among other problems.
While Bandai Namco is yet to make any statements about this, some reviewers have started blaming the game’s use of Unreal Engine 5 for its poor optimization. “UE5 strikes again,” wrote one player. “No reason I should have to limit my frame rate to 30 FPS to have a playable experience.”
Being a high-profile release for Bandai Namco, Code Vein 2 has managed to garner an impressive player count during its advanced access alone. At the time of publishing, the title sits at an all-time peak of 9,211 concurrent players, with 8,235 players in the game right now (via SteamDB). Unless the technical issues are particularly bad, this number will likely rise over the coming days.
Leading up to Code Vein 2‘s release, Bandai Namco had released character creator demo just last week. The demo is said to access “thousands” of styles that players can make use of in crafting their character. Along with this, the demo also allows players to explore Magmell’s Institute and hang out with the characters there. For those impressed with the character creator, the demo also allows them to import up to 64 of them to the full game when it comes out.
Speaking of characters, Code Vein 2 is going to have its own cast of them, both good and evil. One of these—Zenon Gryfgote—was showcased with his own trailer earlier this month. What set this character apart from others was the fact that his trailer featured a full-fledged musical number where Zenon sang about his motivation to work towards tomorrow “in a world covered by darkness” where “joy is slipping away.”
Zenon has been designed to look like a playful spin on the “dark armored knight” character archetype that we’ve often seen in fantasy games. His ostentatious armor decorations, along with the varying facial expressions he can use thanks to the digital screen on his helmet further cements as a character that players should watch out for.
Code Vein 2 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, here is why it isn’t simply “more Code Vein“.