The boss battles of Axiom Verge are massive encounters, often feeling a bit samey in scale, where even one particular boss battle forces the camera to zoom out to capture the entire boss on screen, making you microscopic by comparison. This leads into further strange worlds to explore in new areas of the map, disconnected from the rest. But then you acquire the Address Disruptor, which allows to break through the glitch spots. When traversing the world, you’ll see “glitchy” areas that are seemingly inaccessible due to “bad code” or something. The Address Disuptor is the hook to the game.
It’s just things like this that show how developer Tom Happ went out of his way to make Axiom Verge not be a clone of game’s past. You often see a space too small to walk through, and you assume you’ll acquire a morph ball of sorts. There is a grappling hook that does the job. So I thought, “okay, there’s a double jump out there for me to get” – there’s no double-jump. There were times I had received the long jump, but I still came short to reaching a platform. The Nova allows you to shoot a projectile and detonate it much like the Shock Rifle in Unreal Tournament 2004. The weapons of Axiom Verge are aplenty, and while I often returned to the trusty Axiom Disruptor, the first weapon, it is not alone. Axiom Verge is not what I would call an easy game, but it scales appropriately as you navigate through the labyrinthine map. You’ll resurrect at the last save station, and you’re off to try to get back to where you were. The only progress you actually lose, your place on the map. And often you’ll be returning to areas to reach previously inaccessible sections to get a new powerup or ability, only available now because of recently acquired ability or powerup. Traversal holds secrets, such as hidden pathways only opened by your curiosity and willingness.ĭeath is pretty forgiving in Axiom Verge, so much that even items and map exploration is saved. And I suppose that’s the right way to approach it, so that I just explore to uncover that next bit of the map to continually increase the map percentage on the stats screen.Īs you do in a “Metroidvania”, you explore this vast world in nonlinear fashion, only limited by your abilities at the time. Without a way for me to go back and review dialogue, it was a struggle to remember what I was supposed to do until I stumbled upon it. Along the way you’ll begin helping AI who aren’t perfect in communicating in our language, but do so that Trace understands them.īeyond the opening cutscene, the story beats were too far and few between to keep my interest, and I constantly forgot what new information I was given, such as what I was tasked with to help the AI. Trace has been transported to an alien world, trying to make sense of everything’s that happened, and this place must be explored for Trace to survive and make it home. And he is at the center of it as things go awry. You play as Trace, and he is on a journey not unlike Gordon Freeman’s, where a simple laboratory experiment has gone wrong. With a plethora of weapons, tons of exploration, massive boss battles, and a deep progression system makes Axiom Verge the result of a successful take on the “Metroidvania” style that succeeds in being more than just a clone of Nintendo’s popular franchise.Įditor’s Note: This review has been updated on May 13th, 2015 to reflect the impressions of playing the Steam version of the game, which releases on May 14th, 2015. Axiom Verge then runs away with the idea to become something better. Developed solely by Tom Happ, Axiom Verge is a gentle nod to the inspirations of Metroid and many others that came after it, but only that.
0 kommentar(er)
