The face on the cover always caught my attention and I finally tried playing it. It starts very solid and the game surely is super impressive seeing it's made by only 1 person. Sadly it has flaws, which didn't hold up the game as much as I hoped it would.

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
+ Gameplay;
The upgrades are very unique and work pretty well. There are a lot of different weapon upgrades, but some don't really feel useful and others are just way stronger than the rest. The layout is good, in a way that you never get really lost and always find a way to progress. Sadly the last part to the final boss is a pain in the ass. For me it felt like the difficulty suddenly spiked in an unfair way. The boss fights all felt the same with minor changes.

+ Music;
Memorable and unique. All music really fit the atmosphere of the game.

++ Graphics;
Visually extremely impressive. The pixelart is beautiful and unique.

+- Story/Characters;
The story is fine and to the point. If you want to dive deeper you can read the documents you collect.

Recommend?
Not if it's your first Metroidvania. If not, try it for sure! Took me 9h+ to complete the main story and collected everything I could find on my own.

Wife’s Reaction:
“Items collected at 69%? Nice.”

Guns. Lots of Guns:
My first feelings with Axiom Verge were very positive. An old-school game that evokes the feelings of classic Metroid? Exactly what I wanted. But it never felt like the adventure evolved. There are way too many guns and some of the traversal abilities are odd. In the end, I felt like it was just fine.

Un metroidvania de cuando querían parecerse a Metroid, y no ser una copia más sin alma de Hollow Knight (porque no había salido aún, tho).
Tiene un pico de dificultad en la última zona bastante absurdo y hay muchos caminos que están bloqueados por un upgrade (lo típico, vaya), pero cuando pasas esa barrera, hay otra más en la que necesitas otro objeto más. Normalmente eso lleva a mejoras opcionales, pero frustra un poco ver que has desbloqueado un camino nuevo para encontrarte con otro callejón sin salida.
Por el resto, el pixelart es muy bueno, la música y el argumento muy ochentero, etc. Muy guapo.

Axiom Verge is an experience that defines the normally nebulous "braindance." Where you will be swallowed by a world of monstrous eldritch flesh, rending it apart with alien weaponry, mending it with that same gun. All the while you will feel the delight of a Hippocampus getting rewarded for exploring such a nebulous place. The Occipital Lobe will familiarize itself with the soundscape of the game, between smooth ceilings, sharp edges, unfamiliar chants, and a booming drum. Though, the navigation particularly towards the end of the experience will make you feel like your Amygdala is being prodded by demands of dodging the undodgable, shooting the unhittable, and navigating the wild wrinkles of the brain. If you can overcome that pain point at the end, this is a masterclass successor to Metroid.

A nice Metroidvania game. Unfortunately, I am too stupid to understand the plot xD

The world design is alright, but I would have appreciated more moments, where the map cleverly loops around itself, like Super Metroid. What this game also lacks (at least until the end) is movement. There is just one basic running speed and it works, but it's just kinda boring to control, not very exciting. Some bosses towards the end are also just annoying without any recognisable patterns, the same goes for some of the game's enemies.

But damn it, I still enjoyed it overall. Everything here screams Metroid and it was incredibly refreshing to not know which upgrade would come next for a change, since there are some really creative abilities here!

While I felt that the ending to the story left more to be desired, I still think this game is one of the best Metroidvania games out there. While not super dense, the story was intriguing and had me invested the whole time, and the world design was well thought out and made for good gameplay, and the controls were tight.

Movement felt great, especially when I unlocked more of the options available, and the weapon types were also great to utilize. By the end, I felt all-powerful with nothing that could stop me. That said, Some of the puzzles were quite difficult, to the point of frustration. I also didn't like the backtracking due to no fast travel in the game. Finally, some of the weapons felt very niche and rarely got any use from me.

This game is still a great time and I think that any fan of 2D Metroidvania games will have a great time with this.

Waiter! One Metroidvania, hold the "-vania" please!

I should really like this game. I think I just had the misfortune of playing the worst possible version of it.

First, the good: the visuals and spritework are amazing overall, and the soundtrack is absolutely killer. If you weren't looking that closely, you could easily mistake this for a Metroid game on GBA, which is pretty cool! And the fact that most collectibles are completely unique weapon types or in-game lore drops is a great change - no more "bomb inventory +5" bullshit here, instead you get rewards like LIGHTNING GUN. And with the password system and secret areas, there seems to be a lot here for people who connect with this game. Cool ideas in a cool world with some cool atmosphere.

Second, the bad: a modern Metroidvania without any kind of fast travel is just poor design, sorry. I never had fun while backtracking to try and find the next objective since that often required me to trek back across the entire map. Combat is also hampered by the lock button not allowing you to move while aiming, making shooting diagonally while evading nigh impossible. And just like in Metroid, vertical platforming through combat areas just sucks, as does pixel hunting for destroyable blocks that have no visual indication that they should be investigated. I know it wouldn't really be a Metroid successor without that, but that's the kind of thing that kills the completionist in me.

And third, the PS Vita: four gameplay actions (two of them major functions) are relegated to pseudo-buttons on the touch screen that require you to take your fingers off of the movement or combat controls in order to use them. I should not have to tell you that this is awful, but the fake buttons are also visible on screen at all times - and yet, the area of input for each is so small and precise that you will never press that bomb button under duress without stopping to focus on doing so. In addition, for some reason, the game would just completely freeze up for almost a whole second fairly frequently, with the most freezes happening in Edin. This game will also lag and drop frames on Vita, if you can believe it. Several times, I thought the game was about to crash on me, especially when a freeze happened after a lag spike when the music stopped looping but failed to start back up again. And for whatever reason, the PS Vita's thumb stick liked to accidentally activate the "double tap a direction to evade" ability, which is truly a heinous input mapping for a game like this.

I dunno fam, I really wanted to like this one. Kind of bummed out that I didn't care much for it by the end.

rly cool stuff ! definitely better at channeling the Unknowable Alien Semi-Lovecraftian vibes in the actual play then in the writing...i didnt have much patience for the way the protagonist's Normal Dude-ness was expressed thru early 2010s type quips tho at least those phase out. and rly the whole thing is carried v well by not only the atmosphere and map design, but also the fact that this is one of the only indie metroidvanias ive played where i had Genuinely No Idea what kind of abilities i was gonna unlock...rly rly admirable for that alone, the sense of discovery thats so important to this genre is harder to achieve when yr following super metroid So Closely as a template. bangin tunes, and rly awesome boss fights too, even with an unaccommodating difficulty spike in the ending stretch. i genuinely treasure every moment i can in these games where i have no idea where to go, thats what video games are all about

Sights & Sounds
- Excellent pixel art all around. Gave me warm fuzzy memories of playing Super Metroid as a kid and Zero Mission on GBA in high school
- Similar to those games, you'll be fighting weird biomechanical monsters and giant bosses (most of which look pretty cool)
- The music runs the gamut from good to stellar. The music from Kur is going to be stuck in my head for a while
- Even the menus are nice. All in all, the presentation feels well-crafted and faithful to its inspirations

Story & Vibes
- The music and visual style do great job setting the tone of the game, which is largely mysterious and a little ominous
- To give anything away about the story would do a disservice to the game. Let's just say that it's heavily sci-fi with some parallel universe/time travel elements, and is decent enough on its own
- What really makes the world feel more interesting is the environmental storytelling. You'll find yourself clamboring over and shooting bad guys on a bunch of weird scenery. Stuff like piles of skeletons, corridors of cages, and weird incubation tube looking things. If you take the time to explore for notes and pay attention to the dialogue, you'll figure out why most of it is there

Playability & Replayability
- The game's Metroid inspiration obviously bleeds into the gameplay
- Exploration is the centerpiece here. Drill everything, jump everywhere, and use the glitch mechanic on anything that looks slightly out of place. If you can't access a location yet, note the room. You'll be rewarded with some cool stuff
- That "cool stuff" is indeed really fun to use. The drone teleport and labcoats were notable highlights that really open up movement throughout the environment. Some of the weapons are also very fun to use, even if some are only situational or gimmicky.
- The equipment and upgrades are almost enough to balance out all the backtracking they require to obtain, but not quite. Enemies respawn if you move more than two rooms over, and there is no teleport option to speed up traversal in the huge world. This is really my only gripe about the game, though
- Don't think I'll be back for a replay, but I will certainly be tucking into the sequel at some point

Overall Impressions & Performance
- I played the game on the Steam Deck to up the GBA Metroid nostalgia factor. Also, it's way easier to play with the d-pad on the Steam Deck, which is great for 2D games
- Ran very well the whole way through

Final Verdict
- 9/10. I know "metroidvanias" have saturated the indie game scene for several years, but this is definitely one worth playing though (especially if you lean more towards the Metroid side of that portmanteau)

Axiom Verge is a rare game that really made me feel like I was exploring a strange alien planet instead of just playing a video game. I really enjoyed the peudo hacking mechanics that added a surreal touch to the world and the many of the guns you get are a lot of fun to play around with. One of the most standout features though is the vagueness in a lot of the characters actions and motivations, which really makes you question who are the good guys and the bad guys, especially with the end credits scene.

This is a game I really wanted to like, but for some reason it never clicked with me.

Axiom Verge's best is in its graphics and NES inspired atmosphere. There is some really great pixel art here, expecially in the bigger beings, so the bosses and the big machine lady thing (she kinda bad tho ngl): I really liked the cutscens too. Not all the areas had the same quality in the design and atmosphere department, with certain much more inspired than others. The music can go from generic to wack, but the general quality is at the very least decent.
It's a solid metroidvania, with some interesting ideas for power ups and weapons, but a lot of them are very situational, so I generally used the same two or three, even though I unlocked most of them. I'm not the biggest fan of the level design, and the enemy placement often feels very annoying, but I don't know how much this was influenced by the fact that i was playing on hard. I'm not a fan of the enemy design either and a lot of them felt like they were there just to annoy moreso than giving you a challenge. Before beating the last boss I wanted to renavigate the whole map to see what i had missed, but traversal is a slog even though there is some kind of fast travel ( a better one would have been very much appreciated), so I just gave up. As far as difficulty goes, it isn't easy, but most of the challenges I had were with normal enemies and my lack of patience (the last boss is tough too).
The core gameplay isn't bad at all, and I also liked the little story beats, but too often going forward it felt more like work than pleasure, expecially in the first and last part of the game. It's a shame I didn't really enjoyed it but I'm sure Axiom Verge has an heart, and will be appreciated by a lot if people.

The Metroidvania genre is not defined by Metroid’s thematic elements. It exists because Metroid’s unique and unmistakable design philosophy for a 2D platformer game resonated with a bounty of prospective video game IPs. Castlevania, a peer of Metroid’s on the NES, decided to channel Metroid’s idiosyncrasies with Symphony of the Night all while maintaining its core identity as a lavish, gothic experience. Symphony’s boldness and astute understanding of Metroid’s intricate interpretation of the 2D platformer opened the floodgates for several new IPs to follow in its example, and most of the notable ones understood the homework assignment like Symphony. However, perhaps many developers attribute Metroid’s impact to its science-fiction latent alien environment and its cold, hostile atmosphere. They’re not entirely wrong, but honing in on Metroid’s thematic elements and crafting a new IP using them as a muse may result in something a bit misguided. Axiom Verge, a prominent title in the new wave of indie Metroidvania games, is a game that presents an vital understanding of the Metroidvania genre’s design philosophy. However, I’ve never seen one of Metroid’s many children share such a strong genetic resemblance with one of its parents.

Evidently, Axiom Verge is an extravaganza of science fiction-oriented video game thematic properties as the game’s introduction where a fatal experimental accident occurs in a laboratory and blows the place to Kingdom Come is fairly reminiscent of Half-Life. The setting of this scene is even in New Mexico, for fucks sake. Actually, where the explosion blows our brainy protagonist, Trace, is to the odd, extraterrestrial world of Sudra where he now must contend with its abstract environment and the hostile creatures that inhabit it. Sound familiar already? Actually, besides the eerily similar setting to Metroid catalyzed by something that recalls Half-Life, the comparisons between Axiom Verge and Nintendo’s sci-fi series become alarmingly apparent through its aesthetics and general layout. If Lovecraftian is a legitimate term used to describe something akin to cosmic horror, then I propose categorizing something that resembles the artistic works of H.R. Giger as “Gigerian.” The Swiss artist who brought the Xenomorph to life for the first Alien film was a prominent artistic influence on Metroid’s fear factor and intergalactic coldness, but what happens when Axiom Verge follows up the chain of inspiration stemming from Metroid? Gigerian maximalism at its finest, even if I’m dubious if Axiom Verge is familiar with where Metroid’s iconography is rooted. Each area of Sudra is distinct from one another, but they all exhibit that sublime, industrially interstellar aesthetic. Eribu is a meaty, crimson red whose prominent foreground characteristic is these clumps of blood bubbles that regenerate when they’re popped. Zi exhibits a bevy of industrial activity juxtaposed with possibly the most vacant, dark backgrounds. Kur is an earthier realm on the eastern side of the map whose higher elevation will lead to a consistent snowstorm as the player climbs upward past all of the cryptic, primordial caves in between. The unnatural moody blue aura permeating through the night sky of Edin and Ukkin-Na is quite pleasant to the visual senses. Still, I emphasize the word unnatural to hone in on the extent of how alien everything is to a fault. Yes, I realize that an alien planet possibly existing in another dimension should look bizarre and otherworldly, but take a gander at the Elsenova machination that beckons the player toward her at the beginning of the game. If Gigerian was in the dictionary, a picture of Elsenova or her fellow Rusalki sisters would be displayed parallel to it on the page. Also, there are far too many narrow vertical sections where the formation of ascending platforms are literally crawling with insectoid enemies along the bars, which is Metroid level design 101.

At least Axiom Verge shows some restraint with its Metroid siphoning and doesn’t include a female protagonist at the helm of the adventurer role through Sudra’s alien planes. The man in question, however, doesn’t exactly exude the demeanor of an intrepid warrior like Samus Aran. I hate to be presumptuous, but Trace here gives me the impression that he’s a self-inserted character by the developers. I’d wonder which of them drew straws to implement themselves into the game, except that I can safely place the blame on Thomas Happ as Axiom Verge’s single developer a la Cave Story. Does Mr. Happ think that Trace is a badass, or is he an example of a character forced to grapple with a situation way out of his element? The latter of possibilities is plausible considering he’s an ineffectual, scientific type, but Trace consistently combats all of the crazy creatures on this planet with Joe-Schmoe stoicism as if he isn’t really affected. I think the real answer boils down to the fact that Trace has no charisma or personability. His character icon that pops up in dialogue boxes has a terrible resting bitch face and if Mario grew out sideburns like Trace has, it would be a PR disaster. Then again, progressing through Axiom Verge’s convoluted story reveals that Trace is the younger clone of the oppressive lord Athetos who rendered Sudra’s inhabitants as the malformed monsters that roam around the vicinity via the expulsion of a noxious pathogen. If Trace has the potency of a supreme dictator as another form of himself(?), then certainly the developer intended to create a badass rogue capable of grand destruction. Still, there are so many reasons why I’m not following Trace as this cool bad boy as intended. He’s perhaps one of the most indigestible gaming protagonists I’ve seen in a while.

An admirable emulation of Metroid’s formula that Axiom Verge exhibits is its sense of progression. One of the most effective aspects of Metroid was the lack of illumination of where Samus’s objectives were located, and I’m not only referring to the pitch-black hole of space displayed in every background. The first Metroid game on the NES was so cryptic that not having the Nintendo Power issue with the walkthrough at every player’s side was comparable to going spelunking without a flashlight. Axiom Verge does not mimic Metroid quite to that extent, but I appreciate the fact that Axiom Verge respects the intelligence of its players. Admittedly, too many modern Metroidvania games rely on icons to signify where the main objective is located, similar to an open-world game. These titles tend to forget that the modus operandi of the Metroidvania genre is exploration, which can only be facilitated through a vague sense of direction. Axiom Verge trusts that the player should think to check every unexplored spot on the map after they acquire a new power-up, which is a core strength of the design philosophy that attracts me to the Metroidvania genre. I especially enjoy accidentally stumbling upon the spots in Axiom Verge where Trace finds himself in a “secret area” where all of the topography is twisted into what can be described as a malfunctioning simulation, and I likely wouldn’t have known these existed if my main objective was concise. One modern aspect of Axiom Verge not present in Metroid or most Metroidvania titles is that upon dying, any new upgrades and uncovered land on the map will still be retained once the Nanogates flying inside of Trace send him back to the previous save station to preserve his mortality. An argument can be made that this is an example of the modern perks of gaming making Axiom Verge too accessible, but believe that this application mitigates some punitive tedium. Axiom Verge is plenty difficult as a test of endurance between the save stations, which are located with an appropriate amount of space between them.

I’m glad that Axiom Verge incentivizes blind exploration throughout because taking any of the various paths on a whim will almost always lead to a new secret. What lies behind the obscured crevices of Sudra could be a smattering of goodies. The gadgets needed to venture further through the game are usually rewarded on the beaten path after a turning point of progression, such as the drill that cracks the grainy rock formations and the remote drone that can dig through the tightest of corridors. I’ve been told that the grapple gadget used to swing from the roof is taken from Bionic Commando instead of Metroid’s grapple beam, but I’m not that gullible. The most interesting gadget found in Axiom Verge is the “address disruptor” that subverts the matter of enemies and certain obstacles into a pixelated frenzy. On top of the eclectic mix of gadgets, the range of offensive weapons in Axiom Verge is bound to make every gun nut salivate. With diligent searching, the player can collect a whopping total of twenty different weapons that all have unique attributes. My selection that got me through most of Axiom Verge’s obstacles were a roulette of the electric shotgun Kilver, the elongated Ion Beam, and a Lightning Gun that locks onto enemies from above for a connected stream of shocking energy. One also has to appreciate using the classic flamethrower to turn the field into a burning holocaust. The impressive arsenal in Axiom Verge is a blast to experiment with, even more so than in any Metroid game.

Because Axiom Verge offers a treasure trove of unique weapons, using the most suitable one to conquer the game’s bosses is like a glorified puzzle. All of Axiom Verge’s enemies are relatively equal to Trace’s human size, but every boss is appropriately the size of a behemoth to signify its greater significance. Their general intimidation is also intensified when they scream DEMON at Trace upon mistaking him for Athetos) when he enters their domain. Because their misplaced grudge against Trace fuels their fury, none of these boss fights are sitting down to die. From the scorpion Gir-Tab, and the stinging wasp Ukhu, to the sentinel first boss Xedur, all of Axiom Verge’s bosses are not to be taken lightly. Uruku is so astronomically massive that Trace is but a bouncing flea in his arena, which makes fighting him difficult on account of the player not being able to see Trace at all times. However, the one boss in the game that is unfortunately underwhelming is the main man Athetos. All that Trace has to do to defeat the vile version of himself is fire upward to destroy a vulnerable tab in the ceiling around four times, and the constantly spawning droids that shoot lasers are the more formidable foes. I expected this wizened ghoul to burst from his cryogenic fluid chamber into something awesomely beastly for a second phase and was disappointed that the game’s final boss simply amounted to the extent of the first one and nothing more.

Axiom Verge, or “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Metroid!” excels in understanding why Metroid’s gameplay and mechanics are effective. As far as a Metroidvania experience is concerned, Axiom Verge is a well-oiled machine. The extensive array of gameplay pertaining to its level design, fair difficulty, gadgets and weapons, and challenging bosses are more than enough to entice anyone who is a fan of the genre. However, all of the meritorious aspects of Axiom Verge are packaged in what appears to be a clear Metroid homage, judging from its uncanny artistic and thematic choices alone. Axiom Verge’s lack of discernible identity, unfortunately, leaves the whole experience as coming into one ear and immediately out of the other. All of its thematic and narrative elements amount to making the entire experience somewhat forgettable. It’s a shame considering the labor of love that was put into its gameplay attributes. A clearer vision would’ve drastically aided Axiom Verge.

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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com

A stylish Metroidvania, Axiom Verge owes a lot to, well, Metroid. The story follows a scientist, Trace, who after an accident finds himself in an abandoned biomechanical world with no choice but to take up arms and fight his way out. Lots of the narrative is told through the beautifully expressive environments, which you get a lot of upgrades in order to explore. Axiom Verge is unashamedly old-school in its design; if you liked Metroid, or Metroid 2, or Super Metroid and you want another Metroid game that just isn't branded as such, you can't go wrong with this one.

A pretty good Metroid inspired game, but sometimes it became really annoying to play

The exploration is great... sometimes. Although it has some really good shortcuts, the exploration in this game is pretty lacking in comparison to other games. I'm an exploration type of guy, I always check every single corner when I'm playing a game, but with this game, I just wasn't that invested on it. Most secrets are really easy to find, but I never found them all because I simply did not care about finding them.

The movement abilities are mostly good, but some of them just feel like glorified keys, and I personally think that abilities in metroidvanias should work not just to unlock new areas, but also to improve the overall gameplay by changing how you approach new situations, that's the reason why wall jump, double jump, and dash are so common in these types of games, Because they are useful at all times, not just when you need to unlock a new path. The only movement ability in Axiom Verge that made me feel that way was the late game dash, but it is a nightmare to use because you need to press the directional button twice to use it; this generates two issues: 1- You need to stop your movement before dashing, which is annoying and leave you open to attacks; and 2- You can easily use it by mistake when you're just trying to walk, and be prepared, because you are going to do it A LOT.

The combat is also pretty problematic. Most weapons you acquire are either useless or really situational, and I used only 4 or 5 of them to beat the entire game. Every time I got a new weapon I was like "Pretty cool, now back to my green zipitty zap". I doesn't help that some enemies are a chore to deal with, and that last area was really annoying. Also, do not forget that by the end of the game, you are going to use the dash ability in battle a lot, so prepare to deal with misinputs.

The story is... actually, I didn't pay attention to the story, like at all. Most of it is told in some pretty boring cutscenes that are hard to pay attention to when they interrupt gameplay so abruptly. I still have no idea of what the Breach is supposed to be. Maybe if it was told with enviromental storytelling instead of cutscenes and some journals I could be more invested, but we will never know. But some story moments are pretty good, specially THAT moment.

Even so, I honestly still had a good time playing it, it still is a good game that deserves to be played by more metroidvania fans, and I hope the sequel improves on it. I will play it eventually.

Dear God, this game is so. fucking mid
And the enemies are bullshit
And I don't care about the story
Do you know how much of a slumber a story has to be for me to not give a shit about it?? A LOT MAN, A WHOLE LOT

I'm tilted, I'll get back to it en algún momento
Rn I'm kinda fighting the urge to uninstall it
P.D I did lol