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.
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.