is an 2019 action role-playing game by Bandai Namco Entertainment for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. Code Vein sold over three million copies but received mixed reviews from critics.
Gameplay
Code Vein is an open world action role-playing game set in a post-apocalyptic environment and played from a third-person perspective. Its gameplay was inspired by the Dark Souls series of games with animation inspired by God Eater 3, both Bandai Namco properties with Code Vein sharing the staff of the latter.
Plot
Setting
Set in the near future, the world has fallen to a mysterious calamity known as the Great Collapse. In order to fight the monsters that began emerging around the world humanity created the Revenants: human corpses brought back to life by implanting a Biological Organ Regenerative (BOR) parasite within the heart, acting as vampiric fighters with unique abilities. Revenants can only die if their heart is destroyed, and require human blood as nourishment to keep themselves from entering a frenzy and mutating into the Lost - cannibalistic beings devoid of reason and control.
Over time the number of Lost increases to the point where they begin to collectively emit a deadly Miasma, that hastens a Revenant’s blood-thirst and chances of frenzy. Participating in an experiment to stabilize the Revenant population and stave off the Lost, a young girl named Cruz Silva volunteers to become the "Queen of the Revenants", though she later frenzies herself and goes on a murderous rampage. More Revenants are created to defeat the Queen in a mission dubbed Operation Queenslayer, led by Cruz's father Gregorio Silva.
Though they succeeded in killing Cruz, the Lost and the miasma remain, requiring Revenants to wear filtration masks to avoid turning Lost, and the Bloodsprings (plants that produce Blood Beads, which serve as an alternative to human blood) begin to dry up.
Story
The player awakens in the ruins of a city known only as Vein sealed within a red ring of mist, the land inside known as the Gaol of the Mists. Guided by a girl in white named Io to a Bloodspring plant, the player learns that society is falling apart due to the scarcity of Blood Beads caused by a levy and distribution system and the strict protection of the very few humans remaining in the city, both enforced by Silva's provisional government, established shortly after Operation Queenslayer, leaving bloodthirsty Revenants to frenzy and turn into the Lost.
The player and Io meet Louis Amamiya, who sees the player successfully make contact with the vestige of a Lost without becoming frenzied, acquiring that Lost's memories and their Blood Code (a unique property to every Revenant that grants them their personal powers.) The player also demonstrates the ability to clear away the miasma, allowing for safer travel throughout Vein and exploration of the Bloodsprings. Louis introduces the pair to his comrade Yakumo Shinonome as their group is seeking to remedy the Blood Bead scarcity. Louis tests the player's blood and reveals that they are a 'Void-type', as their Blood Code has been damaged in some manner, allowing them to use the Blood Code of whoever shares their blood with them. The group decides to hunt down the dried up Bloodsprings and follow the flow of the veins connecting them all together in an attempt to find the source of the Blood Beads.
They meet Mia Karnstein and her perpetually near-frenzy brother Nicola, who is later seemingly killed by a mysterious hunter who has been killing Revenants permanently by destroying their hearts. The group's search takes them to the Cathedral of the Sacred Blood where the player finds a vestige of their own memories, revealing their role in Operation Queenslayer alongside Silva and the hunter known as Jack Rutherford. Though the player managed to kill the Queen and destroy her heart, Jack was forced to kill them as they had been directly exposed to the Queen's blood and almost frenzying, though he failed to destroy their heart, explaining why the player survived.