There is something wrong with the world of Axiom Verge 2.

I'm not referring to any malevolent force within the game. In fact, there really isn't one. Sure, about halfway through a villain will start interfering, but this game is surprisingly... relaxed compared to a lot of Metroidvanias.

No, what's wrong is just that everything feels a bit... off. The first Axiom Verge is a phenomenal example of plunging you into an alien world, utterly unrecognizable from our own world. Nothing about the environment, the native species, the characters, or anything feels like Earth. The protagonist, Trace, a scientist from Earth, is the only grounding element to be able to follow along with what's happening at all.

In this second game, despite not taking place on Earth, all the environments are distinctly Earth-like. There are other human characters this time around, there are structures clearly built by the human researchers who inhabit this place, and there are even familiar vehicles like trucks and helicopters. At certain moments, you'll forget you're supposed to be in some bizarre alternate dimension.

Though you play as a human in this game, a CEO named Indra, it is you who will feel like the alien in this world. Because the world doesn't feel like it was designed for you. This is going to be complicated to explain, because I mean that last statement in both good in bad ways.

Unlike the first game, which revolved around shooter combat, this one is mainly interested in melee combat. And yet, the game weirdly doesn't seem suited to it. The most common enemy, the tiny drone, runs completely underneath your basic swing, requiring a crouch attack. Swing speed is so slow they can usually get a cheap hit or two in as well.

Tougher enemies aren't much better in this regard, as they aren't knocked back very easily and sport attacks that are almost impossible to dodge within the typical combat range. While you do have an additional ranged option in form of the boomerang, it's pretty slow and still doesn't have particularly impressive reach, especially when it comes to flying enemies.

The choice to revolve this game around close range combat isn't inherently bad, but the execution is bizarre. I wasn't necessarily dying constantly, but I was still taking damage a lot in ways that felt beyond my control. I couldn't help but feel like every single enemy I faced would be a much more manageable and fair challenge if instead of the melee weapons or the boomerang, I had Trace's gun and its staggering multitude of attack modes. Instead, I often resorted to cheesing combat by sending out my drone to deal with foes. But more on that later.

I'm not here to claim that the clunky combat of this game is somehow good, but it's strange how aware the game felt about how little Indra's combat fit into the world. Indeed, Indra feels strangely... out of place in Axiom Verge 2. Early obstacles like grates appear, surely teasing the fairly early teleport powerup from the first game. Certain spaces begin glitching in ways that could surely only be resolved by the signature Address Disruptor... right?

You do not get the ability to teleport in this game. In fact, the grates are the last possible obstacle to bypass through an ability that lets you turn into a cloud of nanomachines. The Address Disruptor also does not make an appearance, and the glitches in the environment are there moreso as a hint system for a completely different powerup to begin with.

Similarly, on a narrative level, Indra could not be any more different from Trace. Trace was a pretty typical everyman, and was written to ask pretty much all the questions you, the player, might have about the world you've been thrown into. It was pretty clear what was going through his head at every moment.

Indra, on the other hand, isn't as curious about the world. Though she's not devoid of questions about the world, almost all of her conversations are based on things the characters know, but you don't. And no one will stop to explain. Indra has a backstory, and to an extent a knowledge about what's going on in the world that you are not immediately keyed in to. And she has a motivation not immediately revealed to the player. Indra is as much a puzzle to you as the world and all of its strange history and secrets.

So much of this game exists in contrast to the original in a way that is fascinating. Where Axiom Verge 1 zigs, this game zags. That is, with one notable exception. Fairly early into the game, you'll find the one returning powerup from the first game: the Remote Drone. One of the first things you'll do with it is send it through a strange interdimensional portal. And once you cross this threshold, the wrongness begins to take hold.

Across the portal is an entire second world to explore, only accessible as the drone. This alternate dimension looks nothing like Earth. The visuals, the music, the enemies are all completely unlike the ones you've just been exploring. In a way that feels familiar. Though the drone still uses melee combat, this side of the game feels much closer to the experience of playing Axiom Verge 1, and yet it can never be explored as Indra. Only as the drone. Indra doesn't feel right... but the drone does.

And it's not just within this alternate dimension, known as the breach, that you'll be using the drone. You'll be using it to solve puzzles constantly in the main world as well. Not to mention, its faster movement and attack, along with its smaller hitbox makes combat much more manageable than as Indra. Indra begins to feel like the burden. The character you slug around so you can keep playing as the drone. So why is she even there?

This might seem like a criticism, but this feels... intentional, because of the way the game unfolds once this feeling begins creeping in. About midway through, the game's main ally tricks Indra and steals her body, trapping you within the Drone. You'll have recently unlocked the grappling hook powerup (something Indra could never access, even before this moment) so this hardly even feels like a downgrade. The drone has already become more capable of navigating the world than Indra.

And yet Indra, the character, doesn't want to be inside of this drone. Her goal from here on out is to get back to her original body. But you, as the player, are going to be having a lot of fun playing as the drone. You'll unlock tons of powerups during this phase of the game, such as a slingshot attack with the aforementioned grappling hook, hovering, and tons of powerups that improve navigating between the overworld and the Breach. The drone becomes more fun and versatile than Indra could ever hope to be.

It's during this section that the game really begins to feel... wrong. Why have I felt more at home navigating the alien world as the robot than as the human character who most of the initial mechanics centered around? I don't think it's a coincidence that it's during this phase of the game that the connections to the first game become clear.

Indeed, as you become more comfortable with the game, the world has become more familiar as well. It's not just a few reminiscent doorways anymore, familiar enemies, sights, and sounds begin to take hold. It becomes impossible to deny at this point. Somehow, some way, the world you've been navigating is connected to Sudra, the world of the first game. This strange, alien place is more of a comfort than the world that more closely resembles our own.

I'm going to be blunt here, I don't really understand the lore of these games with any sense of authority. I can only go off of my own experiences and what my own very limited understanding of the series' lore can reveal.

That being said, one of the most blatant themes the series has explored is knowledge and power at the cost of humanity. This can be seen in the first game, whose main antagonist is an evil version of Trace who became mad with power upon learning the secrets of the universe.

This theme continues through the second game. The people of this strange alien world were turned into sentient machines to fight a pointless war. Even a young child was forced into this process, with the thought that a child's mind would be more capable of controlling this technology.

This theme also applies with the player. Encountering familiar environments from the first game runs parallel to your increasing reliance on the drone. Your early time with the drone is when you'll first encounter vaguely familiar resemblances to Sudra within the Breach. Once you become trapped inside the drone, you travel to yet another alternate dimension that looks like Sudra was ripped straight out of the first game, albeit with a slightly higher resolution.

And then, late into the game, after being stuck inside of a drone for who knows how long, you finally gain the ability to transform back into a human - sort of. Even your new "human" form is now robotic, entirely composed of machinery. Now, rather than deploying the drone, you simply transform between Indra and the drone back and forth. The dynamic has flipped. Now you'll primarily be playing as the drone, only switching to Indra on the occasions when you need her abilities that the drone cannot access.

And it's during this portion of the game that you'll enter an area that will instantly throw you back to Axiom Verge 1. No longer are the familiar sights and sounds relegated to alternate dimensions. Now, even in the more familiar, Earth-like world, the alien architecture and devices of the first game have made their presence. And it's only now, even after several other visual callbacks to Axiom Verge 1, that you'll finally hear the familiar music of the first game.

This area is filled with a sense of unease. The world of the first game almost feels like it's infecting this one. Despite being a prequel to it, explaining how the technology and architecture of that game came to be, it feels wrong. Invasive. Like it's not supposed to be there. And yet, as you progress through this area, you'll learn about how all of this familiar technology from the first game came to be and what its original purpose was. The strangeness becomes natural, understandable. It's no longer alien.

But at the same time, another realization becomes clear. You've gotten so used to playing as the drone that you have to remind yourself you even still have a human form to change back into. Playing as this machine has become natural. It's a subtle sense of dread that I didn't even consciously realize it at first, but in hindsight, it became clear: I was no longer comfortable being human.

As mentioned earlier, it feels as though this world wasn't designed for you. In truth, it never was. The reason Trace, a human, was able to so easily navigate it, is because he was unique. Some entity known as a PatternMind, capable of manipulating the world to his will. He was special, he controlled the world, not the other way around.

Who is Indra, in comparison? She was one of the most powerful people on Earth, and yet here, wealth and status mean nothing. She was trying to swing an ice pick against alien robots beyond her understanding. It's only once she becomes irreversibly integrated with the technology of this world that she has any hope of truly navigating it.

Plenty of Metroidvanias give you tools that make you better capable of interacting with the world as you progress, but I've never seen a game start you at such a low point only to drastically increase your capabilities so much by the end. You're literally at your most capable of progressing through this world when you're not even the same character as the one you started as.

I'm not trying to defend the poor design of Indra. She is undeniably clunky to play as, even at the height of her abilities. Nor am I trying to treat that poor design as a work of genius. I can't exactly give this game a higher rating than I have precisely because there are several parts of this game I can't describe as "fun" in the traditional sense. That being said, I do still believe this contrast between Indra and the drone means something more than just the gameplay aspect of it.

The first trailer for this game begins with "You are not in control. You are not yourself. You belong to us now." It truly is the most accurate description of Indra's progression through this game. Indra, and indeed all the other humans in this game, are hopeless in trying to understand the full scope of what they're dealing with. Both the technology, and the alternate dimensions this series revolves around.

You, as a human, are insignificant to the scope of Axiom Verge. It is only as you slowly integrate yourself with technology you don't understand that you begin to see the wider truth. It is only as you become more machine than human that you begin to see into more and more of these other worlds.

The game ends with Indra accepting that she'll never truly be Indra again. She can never be with her daughter again. Not just because they are forever trapped in separate realities, but because Indra is no longer herself. That part of her died with her human body. She's someone else now. No longer is she an alien to this world, now she is part of it.