This isn’t the anime Souls game you are looking for
Code Vein 2 dropped into my lap with a lot of expectations already baked in by some of my friends, and I’ll be upfront right away: I never played the original. No nostalgia goggles here, no attachment to systems or characters from the first game. What I got instead was a stylish, anime-soaked action RPG that wants to be welcoming, but often feels like it’s daring you to keep up rather than inviting you in.
At a glance, Code Vein 2 looks fantastic. The art direction is still doing most of the heavy lifting, with moody environments, striking character designs, and that signature blend of gothic ruin and post-apocalyptic flair. On Xbox Series X, performance is mostly solid, with smooth combat animations and crisp visuals that sell the world’s bleak beauty. It’s a game that looks like it has lore spilling out of every cracked wall and blood-red sky. The problem is that once the game starts explaining that lore, things get messy fast.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $49.99
The story is dense, confusing, and delivered in a way that assumes you already know how this universe works. As someone coming in fresh, I constantly felt like I was missing chapters from a book I was expected to have read beforehand. Characters speak in dramatic, half-explained terms, major plot points are introduced with very little grounding, and emotional beats often fall flat simply because I didn’t have the context needed to care. I don’t mind complex stories, but Code Vein 2 often crosses the line from “mysterious” into “needlessly opaque.” I was intrigued, sure, but also frequently lost.
Combat, meanwhile, is where Code Vein 2 shows both its strength and its teeth. This is a hard game, and it’s unapologetic about it. Enemies hit hard, mistakes are punished immediately, and boss fights demand patience, pattern recognition, and a willingness to die repeatedly. For fans of punishing action RPGs, this will feel familiar and probably comforting. For folks like me who don’t really like the Soulslike genre, well this isn’t going to make you a believer. There’s satisfaction to be found once things click sure but with a story I didn’t care about there just wasn’t much drive to push myself to overcome these crazy bosses.
One of the biggest disappointments for me, and something I really struggled to get past, is the removal of co-op. Learning after the fact that the first game allowed players to team up made this sequel feel oddly isolating by comparison. Given how punishing the difficulty can be, having the option to tackle areas or bosses with a friend feels like a huge missed opportunity. The AI companions do their best, but they’re no substitute for real co-op, especially in a game that already leans heavily into shared struggle and survival. For a series that looks tailor-made for cooperative play, this omission stings.
That sense of isolation feeds back into the difficulty as well. When you hit a wall, and you will, the only option is to bash your head against it until something gives. Sometimes that’s rewarding. Other times it’s just exhausting. Ultimately, I had to put the controller down and walk away, I am not built for these games but good bless those of you that are.
Despite all of this, I don’t know if I can say Code Vein 2 is a bad game. Its certainly not a game for me, at least not at this stage in my gaming hobby. There’s a strong identity here, a clear vision, and a combat system that has depth if you’re willing to invest the time. As a newcomer to the series though, I was constantly bombarded with terms, weird items and new systems that felt overwhelming, especially since there is no pause in the game. And then there is the story; if I was asked to explain this game I would have nothing other than “it’s hard, and has anime vampire girl” Code Vein 2 is stylish, punishing, and unapologetically dense. It just might also be a little too closed-off for its own good, and I think a lot of returning fans will be upset with some of the changes, especially the removal of co-op.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
