Game Review: Rememoried (Xbox Series X)

A surreal and artistic game that will have you baffled about what you just played, Rememoried is a first-person adventure/puzzle/mind-trip game by Hangonit.

These sorts of games aren’t as rare as they once were and Rememoried ticks a lot of the boxes for surreal experiences that involve you holding a controller. That being said, there aren’t as many that look this lovely. You’ll be wowed by some of these level designs as it nails the ‘dream’ aspect it is going for.

That being said, it’s also got pretty basic gameplay, is very short and can be infuriatingly confusing a lot of the time.

Each level is a dream, you play from the first-person perspective and the controls are limited to movement, camera work and jumping. The major gameplay mechanic being the concept of ‘rememoried’, where if you look away, the landscape changes behind you. Things pop into existence, boulders suddenly create a path, a building that wasn’t there before is now. It’s a unique idea that feels dream like but doesn’t have the staying power it needs.

You see, how you complete a level is a mystery as the game offers no guide. You’ll aimlessly wander around, wondering what on earth you have to do until you accidently touch something and the level ends. Repeat and rememorise until something changes, revealing a direction to go in. Once you realise that the rememoried concept is the only way to complete a level, such as the ones that involve platforming, it quickly becomes tried. Tired because you’ll spin around on the spot, waiting for things to shift until you are able to move on. One level that involves you making your way over spinning gears is easily the worst culprit for this.

The frustration doesn’t just come from that though. It comes from the fact that the game tells you absolutely nothing. You might notice the landscape changing at first but what it means and how you use it is a mystery. The same goes for what you need to do to complete the level. After playing through all 20, you’ll likely still not understand why touching a couch on one level was what was needed but on another, you needed to chase a ball of light while music played. Surreal? Yes. Fun? No.

Then you have the aforementioned platforming elements, something this game does not do well. Platforming sections that just go and on as you rememorise your path. Miss a jump and fall? Restart the level.

Infuriating.

To cap all of that off, there’s no story. It’s about dreams and every so often you’ll get narration that delivers a mix of cryptic and cringy dialogue.

So, Rememoried is short, has frustrating gameplay and might be too surreal for its own good. Why then is it still a recommended play? Simply because of two things. The first is the visuals. A lot of these level designs are a spectacle and should be experienced. The other is the best thing about the game full stop and it is the music. A mix of well-known classical works and an incredible ambient electronica score. Both fit the theme of the game well but the latter is the sort of thing you’d want on soundtrack.