Axiom Verge

This recommendation is fairly tepid, but it does enough things right in the end. Main complaints: - Usual metroidvania backtracking / getting lost (I probably had to google where to go about a dozen times). - Several boss fights are unfair; they're just a check of "did you find this 'optional' weapon that makes the fight doable". - Combat overall gets worse towards the end of the game. Enemies are irritating and you'll probably end up avoiding them or using the old "shoot through the wall" strat to get by. - Default controller settings are attrocious. You'll find yourself accidentally switching weapons and dashing when you don't mean to (once you unlock the dash). - Graphic choppiness/framerate was quite bad for me. And the game uses a blinking "flinch" whenever you get hit that makes you lose track of your character. - One zone has this ♥♥♥♥♥♥ wailing soundtrack and you somehow spend half the game in this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ zone. Good things: - Interesting story, when it decides to show up. - Decent enough metroidvania mechanics. - Some cool graphics and setpieces. - Gameplay is better until you're about 75% of the way through.

This game was amazing! One of my very few favorite games of all time! The story and plot was truly unique. The game play is just as good; being able to collect numerous different weapons and tools while also collecting secret notes. There's also SO MANY secrets! Make sure to use all your tools. The enemies are also very cool. There definitely are a few which I DESPISE, purely because they're annoying, but that's what makes it fun. The soundtrack is also AMAZING! Whenever I get to a new area, I pause for a moment to just enjoy the music. I would honestly listen to this soundtrack in my free time. I also enjoy how it's not totally impossible. Like some boss fights are definitely difficult but they're not something that I would spend hours on. Each boss has there own kind of way to attack and I really enjoy that. It's also very nice how beating the game doesn't take 50+ hours(which doesn't automatically make a game bad, it's just nice to not spend forever playing the same game). I would definitely recommend this game to anyone, especially if you're into 2D games, which I 100% am. I know some people can't stand 2D games and tend to lean more towards 3D ones, but I'd still recommend this game. I had a lot of fun playing this and it will definitely be inbeded in my brain forever.

Axiom Verge, from what I've gathered, is a homage to the genre of metroidvania. At first I was very intrigued by the specific art style and felt like this could be an incredible adventure. However, I've tried getting into the game and its narrative on 3 separate occasions and can tell you that I don't want to see any more. I've had the feeling while playing that something was off and checked the other reviews, especially the ones that had constructive positive and negative criticism and found myself resonancing with others on a couple of issues the game has displayed to me so far. Firstly, I think that the game fails on the gameplay aspect a lot. The movement and general 8 directional shooting style feels very clunky. I think that has to do with the overall level design though because the game keeps trying to overwhelm you with enemies all over the place where it becomes irritating not being able to control your shooting more freely. Even though as I've said it tries to pay a homage to those old school games that used to have that kind of gameplay mechanics, it fails on delivering it in a modern compact form. Secondly, the overall level design feels boring. I've played this game for 2 hours and I can't tell you anything about even one area that stuck with me. Most of the time I was just walking through big spacious rooms with no meaning, a bunch of enemies and only one goal of getting ASAP to the next room. I'm not even sure how maintainable backtracking is if the game will go on for another 6-10 hours like this. Also, the rooms do have hidden interactions built into them, but because of the poor communication towards the player I've ended up missing most of them and was surprised when something randomly happened and I was like oh that's possible? Lastly, I've had a lack of interest for the protagonist and the setting. This is the last point because I feel like that with more time this would be less of a complaint but I feel like the delivery of the story failed on me. Not being able to characterize or give background for our main character and therefore giving a lack of motivation means there is no reason to connect at least on that front to see what will happen to him. If the core gameplay loop would've been different, I could ignore the other problems the game has in my opinion but combining all three of those leads me to the conclusion of not wanting to see more of this. In conclusion, I don't recommend playing this. I do appreciate the art style though.

A great game all things considered, and though there are some gripes here and there, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Metroidvanias. It's stunning it was created by one person alone, more than a decade ago at this point The art really is beautiful, capturing the aesthetic and atmosphere of old NES / SNES games really well while putting it's own touch on it. Few modern games with a pixel art style take inspiration from this era so this is really refreshing to see. The limited colour pallets with with high contrasts, lots of darker areas and careful use of saturation are combined with really well refined technique make for art at the ceiling of this medium. The music is solid all the way through with some bangers sprinkled throughout The gameplay is also great and really enjoyable for the most part. A majority of the tools for progression you find throughout the game are unique to this game and were fun to use and experiment with. As someone with a lot of experience in games, it still took me some time to figure out some applications of all the tools and how to solve some of the puzzles which has become mostly trivial for me nowadays. Combat and exploration was also great with all the typical elements you expect from Metroidvanias, like being able to revisit previous areas and finding lots of new things. Though the bossfights definitely weren't this games strong suit with a lot of them being either frustrating, not challenging at all or both at once. There were also some quite annoying rooms, mostly in the early game but the game is pretty generous with checkpoints so they weren't that big of an issue all things considered. Some of the abilities cannot be controlled all that well which is probably one of the greater flaws of this game. Lastly in regards to the story, I didn't have any expectations but was more than pleasantly surprised. The story is pretty neat having great twists and elements you don't really find anywhere else. It does also fit well with and enhance the overall atmosphere quite a bit Though there some points at which you can lose your way throughout, it still is a great game. Maybe it's not the best for people who are entirely new to the genre or this type of atmosphere but if you found some the points mentioned intriguing, you should definitely give the game a try

世界観やダニのようなドローンに操作を切り替えて自身では侵入不可能な場所を探索したり一部の空間や敵の性質を変化させる等のギミックが面白かったです ただ武器の種類がたくさんあるのに基本的に地形が複雑なためにあまり意味がないものが多いのが不満でした （敵を貫通して背後の敵にも攻撃できる物があるが間に障害物がなく敵が直線状にたくさん並んでるような状況がほぼない等）

Определенно один из лучших, если не лучший, представитель жанра метроидвания в которые мне удалось поиграть, Однозначно рекомендую всем кто любит метроидвинии и ретростиль!

- Хэй Метроид! Можно я скопирую твою игру? - Можно. Только не копируй точь в точь.

Lo mas parecido a "Metroid" que he jugado: + Muy buena musíca. + Muy buen control. + Muy buena jugabilidad. -+ La historia, no es tipo "Hideo" que te vuela la cabeza, pero esta muy bien. Realmente lo recomiendo. A ver que tal el 2do que aun no lo jugué.

Overall a pretty solid Metroid clone. It's a chill experience to go around seeking powerups and exercising your navigational skills, blasting biotechnological monsters on the way. It wasn't engrossing but it was fun enough to complete while listening to podcasts over the course of a few days. Doesn't feel like a titan of the genre as it may have once been. The general exploration is probably the highlight. It's densely filled with powerups, and the winding path I took to collect all the upgrades flows pretty well. It's got a typical amount of backtracking, but the game world isn't too big, and it's pretty common that you run across something of interest while doing it. Also, if something is hidden really well, it's usually optional, so I rarely got stuck looking for the next thing to do. As far as the movement itself goes, I'm slightly mixed. At the start I found it perfectly smooth, and there's one upgrade at the end that I really like. However, the double-tap dash is difficult and taxing to use a lot (plus you generally can't hold the attack button to fire, you have to mash it), and near the end you're expected to sequence it with other abilities in ways that felt unpleasant and awkward to do. I found the grapple a bit awkward too. Pretty standard Metroid fare. The combat was not fun. Most enemies would do the same attack over and over, and with plentiful cover, I found the best strategy was usually to stand in one place and jump and shoot periodically. This was especially true of bosses; I would find cover and rinse-repeat them until I won. When there was no cover, or I couldn't be bothered to be careful, I found I could often just ignore the bullets and go all-out on aggression until an enemy or boss died and live to tell the tale. Not awful gameplay, but not appealing either. The story and atmosphere was okay. I liked what the plot was going for overall. It's got horror elements, but the pace of the gameplay and plot is so quick that the tone didn't really sink in for me, leaving the aesthetic feeling a little hollow. Also, although the art did a good job, info on the zones and their histories and purposes was a bit too scarce for me to care much about the setting. For some, though, I'm sure the game's specific horror-tinged biotech aesthetic is so appealing that they'll feel differently.