Axiom Verge was a respectable attempt at making a Metroid game. Axiom Verge 2 was an okay attempt at making a Castlevania game. The most important part of good Castlevania games is that they ooze style, and AV2 just doesn't have a strong one, especially when held up to its predecessor. AV1 revolves pretty heavily around its hacking mechanic, but that mechanic is watered down in the sequel before being dropped almost entirely after the early game. Indra's movement feels good enough, and it's pretty fun to play a game where the Morph Ball stand-in actually increases your mobility.

My initial complaints about imprecise enemy interactions and general polish are still there, but if this isn't a masterclass metroidvania in LITERALLY every other way, then I don't know what is. Axiom Verge 2 has everything I desperately wish every other metroidvania did and more: Open-ended progression, a wealth of truly unique power-ups, interesting ways of altering enemies and the environment, a second world, and above all else, truly diabolical exploration that genuinely makes me think. This genre desperately needs more Axiom Verge 2s.

I enjoyed, but wasn't entirely sold on Axiom Verge 1, and for very different reasons, that's where I land on 2 as well. The art was a constant treat, and the exploration was largely satisfying and interesting, with only one point where I felt truly stuck as to where to head next. In addition, I felt so much less of a need to run my weapons over every wall in order to discover hidden blocks, which was a huge frustration I had with 1. However, the story is chopped off frustratingly suddenly, and the weapons, and therefore combat as a whole, are far less interesting and varied here.

I honestly don't remember the first game very well, so I can't directly compare the sequel to the first game too much. I'm pretty sure the first game felt more like a Metroid game with the main weapon being a projectile, while the second game has more of a focus on melee combat. In Axiom Verge 2, I liked the story and the fast travel system. I wish the map (the menu, not the level design) was better. There's only one color for manual map marking and the zoom levels aren't great. I think having more save points would have been made it more convenient to get around. I kind of wish items were marked on the map automatically like in Metroid, but this game makes the player mark all items by themselves manually. If you happen to walk by an item and not notice it initially, it's a pain in the butt when you're trying to backtrack to get all of the items. All in all, this was a fun game.

It's been a few years since I played through the first Axiom Verge, but what stuck with me the most was the creepy yet beautiful "H. R. Giger"-esque art style and an incredible variety of weapons. I also remember being lost by the story, but felt that the gameplay was definitely fun enough to just treat the narrative as a side aspect of the experience.

Aside from also being a metroidvania, Axiom Verge 2 changes up nearly every key element from the original game, for better or for worse. Instead of a biomechanical aesthetic, the visuals follow the typical environments you'd see on most planets (rainy jungle, snowy mountain, etc.), but there's still some cool sci-fi tech popping up. There's also only about a quarter of the number of unique weapons that the original had. The trade-off here is that this game features many more upgrades to your character abilities, primarily to improve movement options with climbing and grappling. 

One new aspect in Axiom Verge 2 that I found to be a straight-up improvement is the design of the map(s). This game's world actually has a parallel universe that matches up to the general layout of the main map, but with the individual locations themselves being completely different. It might sound a bit overwhelming, but it makes sense pretty quickly when going between them. Some of my favorite puzzles were all about this mechanic and involved identifying holes in one map, then finding the right spot to traverse from one map to the other.

Like with the original Axiom Verge, this entry can get hard to follow when it comes to the story. This one splits up the narrative between short cutscenes and lore-filled notes scattered around the game. The heavier emphasis on story also brings many more character names and sci-fi terms with it, and I'll admit I was button mashing through the plot for the second half of the game. Luckily, exploring the map and discovering secrets was enough of a motivation for me to keep on playing. I usually find environmental storytelling to be at its most effective in the metroidvania genre, so I hope any future Axiom Verge games use their fantastic worlds more to tell their tales.

This game was good but no where near as good as the first one. So that's kind of a bummer. It took a long time before it felt like I was making any real progress. It had a few things you had to unlock with ability points but that wasn't made clear and a few of the abilities you gain are only used like once or twice so they felt meaningless... might has well have been collecting colored keys. It had a lot of secrets to uncover and that was fun and the art was nice. The sound was weird though. The sound effects were way to loud. Had to adjust them down to the lowest setting just so my speakers would bust.

god damn it, dude. i'm a little upset. i think tom happ is an insanely talented developer - the art design, music, and pixel art is all top notch here, and are even bigger improvements over the original axiom verge (which is one of my favorite metroidvanias period). i was hyped for this game for months but it ended up staying on my backlog for two years since its so wildly different from AV - and not in a good way.

combat feels pretty terrible - or at the very least, a MASSIVE step down from AV. going from dozens of wacky weapons to really weak ones that incentivize hacking or just running past enemies means that all your interactions play out mostly the same way. this is made even worse with the breach/drone sections, where you don't have the option to hack so i ended up just damage boosting through as much as i could. also, there are only two required "bosses" that you can't even die to - the rest are just optional. i don't really get these choices, as i thought the boss design from AV was really damn good.

this might be a me thing, but constantly being thrown around the map with "go to x,y coordinates i'll mark it on your map" felt really terrible - especially when you had to bound back and forth between areas searching for the specific upgrade you needed to get there. of course, i wasn't expecting a linear experience at all, there were just a ton of points where i just felt completely lost.

it's a shame too, since outside of combat and shit the game's often MUCH better than AV in several aspects. just like the first game, traversal is awesome - zipping across the map in bug mode, going back and forth between the breach and the overworld, getting new upgrades like the breach attractor that makes shit even easier to navigate... not to mention that the story's not too bad either, even if it ends on a weird note (AV was the same way though so im not gonna fault it). plus i really like the aesthetic it went for - definitely sets it apart from most games i've played.

i ended up enjoying it, but not as much as i would have hoped. it's worth the money, just don't expect it to be a massive step up from AV.

I really love this game. It came out during one of the hardest moments in my life. It was my distraction. I dived into this game. I loved the first one so much. And I looked forward to it a lot. It released at the perfect tme for me. I will always look fondly on it for that reason. Just know while reading this review, I can't separate my bias for this game. It literally kept me sane during the worst month of my life. I am still going to try and criticize it though.

I want to first say, the whole point of this game was to take influence from the other inspiration of the MetroidVania genre. The Vania...aka Castlevania side. If you are expecting Metroid from this game, you are not getting it. Play the first game if that's what you want. This game was always advertised as more Castlevania melee combat than Metroid ranged combat. So all the reviews angry at that fact seem disingenuous by acting as if it was a betrayal or some kind of surprise. It was not. Kind of like when you read Amazon reviews and you see a one star because there was a problem with shipping but no problem with the product itself. The first game is a love letter to Metroid. This game is a love letter to Castlevania.

This is a prequel to the original game. You don't need to play the first game though to understand it. Story yet again has some twists and turns yet still takes a backseat to the world building and exploration. Yet again, has some great interactions and characters.

The world is yet again super vibrant. Really varied. Traversal is much better this time. The game has much less jank.

A few complaints, it takes a bit for the game to get going. A little slowing in letting you traverse the world. Keeps you in a box for a bit too long. The drone areas are not as fun as the main areas. They don't look as good and the 8-bit music isn't as good as their normal renditions.

Combat is more like Castlevania this time. Melee combat instead of ranged. This is what got me to try the Castlevania series. At time of writing I only have 2 more MetroidVania style Castlevanias left. That's how much this game influenced me. Yet again, once I found a weapon to my liking, I rarely changed.

As I said in the the Axiom Verge review. The music is amazing again. I know I said something about the 8-bit versions of the music being not as good. But even so, they are still soooooo good.

If you love MetroidVanias or Castlevania play this game. This game leans more on the Castlevania side of things. I feel like this game was kinda slept on. Please play it. I highly recommend it.

I didn't like this nearly as much as the first game. I felt the atmosphere was no longer creepy, it no longer felt like it was mimicking a specific retro era but instead just doing the "big dots" thing for its own sake (though I realize this game was made entirely by one person, so I'll forgive the pixel art graphics, but the previous game felt like it had more of a purpose for them). Story and gameplay less interesting to me, but I loved when I got to visit an era that heavily resembled the first game. And the "crossing over" between two worlds was a nice idea.

This is a weird sequel:

the first game was a very actiony metroidvania, with the map being generally small and linear. this time, the map is much bigger, having 2 different worlds to traverse through, and traversal is the main gameplay loop here. they made the main gameplay loop a puzzle of traversal, figuring out where to go, moving around both dimensions to find new stuff. that also allowed them to build the story a lot more than the first game, this is a major step in presentation......

and then they forgot to add bosses, or make the combat engaging like in the first game. seriously, this game is very much like ori 1, combat is incidental and inconsequential and there are no bosses beyond exactly 2 scripted story events that can barely be qualified as bosses.