Axiom Verge

Here's a quick review of my thoughts after beating "Axiom Verge" on the PC. + Graphics are a nice pixel art style. Environments look good and all the sprite work is well done. + Upgrades are great. A lot of the later ones you get really open up the map for you. Makes you go, “Oh, now I can finally do this and that!” They are also pretty fun to use. +- Story isn’t too bad but pretty unengaging. I was constantly forgetting character names and plot points. Literally, it would've been ten times easier to understand what was going on if they displayed the character name of who is talking in the speech bubbles. +- Progression is a mix between very smooth and painstakingly cryptic. It can be very hard to pinpoint where exactly you need to go next. I’ll admit I had to look at a walkthrough a couple times because I was completely and utterly stumped as to what to do. This game reminds me a lot of the original “Metroid” with the huge amount of “Where do I go? What do I do?” moments it gave me. +- The map is basic. Main downsides are that it’s not too detailed and you can only set 2 markers on it. Why only 2? This game doesn’t mark any points of interest itself and you can’t set a marker to look a certain way to remind yourself if you need a specific item to progress there. Dumb. +- Enemy design is pretty good. A couple later ones are insane to deal with though. I always ended up using cheap tactics to deal with them or just used the drone to avoid them entirely. +- Bosses are a pretty good fair difficulty. There was one though that straight up backed me into a corner and then flamethrowered me. That was fun… +- Controls are okay. Walking and shooting feel fine but the grapple hook you get is a pain to deal with. Plus, I wish the dash wasn’t assigned to double pressing the D-pad/Joystick. I also wish they made it clearer that you could dash both up and down. I had no idea you could do that. - Music is pretty bad. I had to actually turn it off in the last two hours of my playthrough since it was just unsufferable to listen to. Like, most 8-bit music from random NES games are better than this soundtrack - Why is there no fast travel? Getting from one area of this game to the next is a nightmare. Yes, there is a middle section of the map that does have some sort of “fast travel” system, but it is still so slow. Plus, there are so many times in this game where you get an upgrade in one area and only actually use it to progress on the complete opposite side of the map. Overall quality of experience: 7/10. I Didn’t Like this game. To me… do I end a lot of reviews with “To me”? Idaknow. Anyone, to me, this felt like if the original Metroid got ported to the Sega Genesis and they just added a map and save feature. It is that underwhelming and downright boring and annoying at times. I had to practically force myself to finish this game, it is not a good Metroidvania. It lacks all the quality of life features that freakin’ “Super Metroid” introduced back in 1994. I mean, even “Symphony of the Night” had fast travel. Overall… well, I do totally end a lot of my reviews with “Overall”. Um, anyway, yeah, don’t play this game. It is the most barebones Metroidvania I’ve ever seen from an indie developer. Literally, play anything else.

W

me lembra os metroid classicos, ganhei de presente da minha namorada e foi um otimo achado os marcadores não são muito bons, agora em busca da platina tive que apelar pra uns guias, ou é isso ou eu sou muito ruim em metroid mesmo.

Still a fantastic metroidvania. Definitely worth playing today, especially if you enjoy the more sci-fi atmosphere of the original metroid games.

Axiom Verge was surprisingly good. I picked it up on a deep discount thinking it would be a throw away game to kill a few hours on. However, it turned out to be really solid. It is a Metroid leaning Metroidvania and follows the typical formula of wander the map, get stuck, fight a boss, get a movement based upgrade to get past the obstacle, repeat. What this game does really well is atmosphere and gameplay polish. The music and graphics do well to give a gloomy otherworldly feel, while the controls feel intuitive and responsive. If you are a fan of the genre, this one is worth picking up.

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