Released 2015
Genre: Metroidvania, 2d,3rd person, sci-fi
Time Spent: 18 hours, completion 100% on normal, 76% of achievements
Axiom Verge is a passion project from the mind of Thomas Happ. Everything that I've heard suggests that he was the sole creator on the project, but I haven't done much digging into the matter. The result is something that looks pretty obviously like a Super Metroid knock-off, but the whole is certainly greater than its parts in this case. I should note in this case that I completed the game around a week ago but only finished the 100% collection yesterday.
Look: Axiom Verge is a gorgeous looking game! It's very impressive to me that this came from a single person, but maybe it shouldn't because the attention to detail in this game is astonishing. The game takes place on an alien planet and the areas explored certainly seem pretty alien. There are numerous environments and each seems unique with its own unique inhabitants. The NPCs in this game are all some kind of bio-robotics and they look similar enough to be easily associated, but different enough to be kept separate.
Sound: Similarly, the music in this game is pretty glorious. Each area has a unique track that loops and they are all great. The sound effects are similarly appropriate and sound great. I think the only nit that I have to pick is that the guns are often louder than I'd like them to be. They do convey an appropriate sense of weight and the sound seems to correspond with the relative strength of each weapon, but they were still loud. Particularly at the end of the game I primarily used the flamethrower weapon and it is so freaking loud. An option to tweak these sound effects separate from the others would have been great.
Feel: The controls in this game are fantastic as well. Everything feels great. Trace controls handily, and the menus are grand as well. Aiming is limited to the normal 8 directions, but that makes sense considering the SNES aesthetic the game was aiming for. The game seemed consistent to me and there wasn't overly much of the "game logic" except that you can use the healing eggs (save points) for some reason. The game even kills you at one point so that you respawn and that is incorporated in the story. My only gripe was the final boss battle. Maybe I was unclear on the objective, but it took me what seemed like 15 minutes to finish. Other boss fights took maybe 2-3. The fight wasn't hard, just tedious.
Story: To be honest, I think this was perhaps the weakest part of the game. I didn't find it bad, I just found the exposition to be lacking. The game was told in a third person, non-omniscient point of view, so the story was only shown in conversations and in optional notes littering the game. I think this would have been better if the game had more fully expressed Trace's feelings and shed more light on his experience on this alien world. The world seemed compelling and the story that was there was quite interesting, but I wanted more. Maybe if I had gotten all of the notes in order of exploring the game it would have made more sense? I'm not entirely sure. I found the ending to be very satisfying though, and that's not something that I get to say very often.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It's one that I can honestly recommend to fans of the genre and one that I certainly will recommend to anyone who enjoys sci-fi. I can see myself playing through this game again in the years to come because the game play was that good and the look and sound are amazing. 9/10
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