The Axis Unseen

I don't mind picking this up, it's cool that Steam allows us to buy and try these one man band titles. Ultimately, I don't recommend it, but I respect it and hope the devs keeps creating. While I enjoy the creature design and sound, what really let me down was the level/world design. I felt like I was playing in a procedurally generated land mass where the biomes all felt the same. Also, because there aren't survival mechanics, I felt like I was riding an escalator, sniping enemies with my arrows. During the opening hours, I was hoping/expecting to find enemy nests, caves, etc, but it just felt AND looked like enemies would spawn out of thin air sometimes. Again, some good ideas, but I don't think there were enough mechanics to keep me engaged, instead I simply rushed through most of the game.

For a single developer, this game is an incredible achievement. Yet another sign that passion and personality leads to a far more enjoyable experience than simply business-made games. But it's definitely got some shining issues that detract its value. [h3]The Positives[/h3] The game is absolutely beautiful. Every part of the environment, the towering statues and structures, the vast landscape full of detail, is all incredible to observe and be a part of. I'm a big sucker for functional HUD elements aswell, and that adds a lot to said immersion. Though the sound meter and vision meter feel a bit unneccessary. I would hope for some settings to change that. The general controls and player animations, aswell as movement, all feel nice. Sound design of all the little clicks and clacks are satisfying. I REALLY love the amount of attention to detail put into creature designs and the journal logs, giving a good sense of accomplishment and achievement with every new page and statue. All of the positives lead to a very atmospheric and immersive game whenever you AREN'T hunting something. Which feels very odd for a hunting game. And this is because of- [h3]The Negatives[/h3] "Sprinting constantly will get you killed" No, it won't The enemies are simply not intimidating due to their poor AI and silly animations. If an enemy charges at you, you can effortlessly dodge to the side and they will begin slowly spinning in circles around you in an attempt to hit you. Their animations don't tie to their speed very well either, so it tends to look as though they are just sliding around without friction. This is assuming they even have the space to spin around at all, and don't just get stuck in a tree or rock that they spend a whole minute running into. All of that beautiful immersion that captures you when you explore the world is snatched away whenever the AI acts up. It's fortunate this doesn't happen ALL the time, but its enough to hesitate recommending the game to most audiences. This game also suffers from the classic open world syndrome of having such a giant world, but with not much filling it. At the very least, I don't mind it as much since the giant empty world is extremely pretty and gives time to take in the sights between exploring points of interest. The game is still fun, but largely for its adventuring. Just consider so, incase you buy this game primarily for its hunting factor. I will likely edit my review the more I play, as my playtime is not enough to fully grasp all that the game offers

The Axis Unseen is a bold and distinctive open-world action game that leans heavily into atmosphere, immersion, and player intuition rather than conventional hand-holding or familiar genre structures. Developed and published by Just Purkey Games, the project is the work of a solo developer with deep industry experience, and that pedigree shows in both its ambition and its willingness to take risks. Rather than presenting a traditional power fantasy, the game casts you as a lone hunter in a hostile, myth-infused wilderness where survival depends on awareness, patience, and a deep understanding of the creatures you pursue. The setting is a fractured world where ancient beings drawn from global folklore have crossed into reality, leaving destruction in their wake. Your home and fellow hunters have been wiped out, and what remains is a vast, untamed landscape filled with ruins, forgotten lore, and roaming monstrosities. The story is delivered subtly through environmental details, written fragments, and visual cues rather than direct exposition. This restrained narrative approach reinforces the feeling of isolation and discovery, encouraging players to piece together the history of the world at their own pace rather than being led by scripted events. Exploration is central to the experience, and The Axis Unseen places heavy emphasis on immersion by stripping away many modern interface conventions. There is no traditional minimap or intrusive HUD. Instead, information is conveyed through diegetic elements such as markings on your body, visual effects tied to abilities, and environmental feedback. Navigation relies on landmarks, memory, and occasional supernatural guidance rather than clear objective markers. This design choice deepens immersion and makes the world feel dangerous and unknown, though it can also be disorienting for players accustomed to clearer guidance. Combat is deliberate and often unforgiving, blending stealth, hunting mechanics, and bursts of intense action. Your primary tools include a bow, elemental arrows, and supernatural abilities that enhance your senses or manipulate the environment. Enemies are not simple targets; many creatures track you using sight, sound, scent, or even mystical perception. This forces careful planning before engagements, as reckless movement or noise can quickly lead to deadly consequences. Early encounters can feel brutal, but as you learn enemy behaviors and master positioning, combat becomes more strategic and rewarding. Progression in The Axis Unseen is tied closely to exploration and experimentation rather than traditional leveling systems. As you explore deeper into the world and defeat powerful foes, you unlock new abilities and enhancements that expand how you interact with the environment. These upgrades often feel like natural extensions of survival instincts rather than arbitrary stat boosts, reinforcing the theme of becoming a more capable hunter through experience. However, the learning curve is steep, and the game expects players to experiment and fail before systems fully click into place. Visually, the game favors mood over spectacle. Its environments are expansive and often stark, with lighting, weather, and terrain combining to create a sense of constant unease. Creature designs are one of its strongest elements, drawing from diverse mythological sources to create enemies that feel unfamiliar and unsettling. The art direction emphasizes scale and menace, making encounters feel significant even when they occur far from any narrative milestone. Sound design plays a crucial role in shaping the experience. The dynamic soundtrack blends heavy metal with ambient and tribal elements, shifting in intensity depending on exploration or combat. Rather than acting as background noise, the music actively reinforces tension and momentum, making battles feel primal and dangerous while exploration carries a haunting, meditative quality. Environmental sounds further heighten awareness, as distant roars, rustling foliage, or sudden silence often signal unseen threats nearby. Despite its strengths, The Axis Unseen is not without rough edges. Technical issues such as performance drops, occasional bugs, and inconsistent physics interactions can disrupt immersion. The minimalist interface and lack of clear direction, while intentional, may frustrate players who prefer structured progression or clearer objectives. Reading lore fragments during exploration can also feel risky in a world where danger is always present, occasionally breaking pacing or flow. Overall, The Axis Unseen is a demanding but deeply atmospheric experience that rewards patience, curiosity, and a willingness to engage with its systems on their own terms. It is not designed to appeal to everyone, nor does it try to smooth over its complexity or roughness. For players drawn to slow-burn exploration, hunting mechanics, mythological horror, and immersive world design, it offers something rare and memorable. Its ambition and distinctive identity make it stand out in the open-world genre, delivering an experience that feels raw, intense, and uniquely personal despite its imperfections. Rating: 7/10

Words Warning: I wind up writing an enormous ramble about this game. It has inserted itself into my personal pantheon of greats, so when I clicked the "reccommend" button, I broke my mouse I hit the button so hard. It's a bit rough in places and it's not the prettiest to look at. It's also a very slooooooow-paced game, because it's really centered around stealth in big, open spaces with relatively little cover. Performance in a few places isn't ideal, and the game does not really hold your hand either. You're really, really on your own, with literally not even a map to guide you. Are you up for a challenge? Ramble begins! You're in a strange, desperately otherworldly place. It's alien and weird, the lighting is really bizarre, it provokes a sense of wonder when I look around. What's with all these giant bones? Weird landscapes? Statues to a deer god or whatever? Seriously, what is up with this place? The game has answers, but doesn't give them to you. You have to go find them. But as you do, you can experience the extremely moody atmosphere. It's often quiet, just the sound of your own footfalls, the wind, some wildlife, which means when you hear something else's footfalls it's time to pay attention. That thing is likely quite interested in having you for a late lunch. The game does a lot with audio. When a monster has caught scent of you, you can hear it snuffling as it tracks. You can hear them shuffling across loose rocks, or making cries, and it encourages you to be quiet, to listen closely, get whatever audio cues you can to make the most of it. It's not just you being hunted. You're also a hunter. You've got a knife, a shortbow, a very small number of arrows. You can defend yourself, most of the time. You just can't afford to miss. That's easier said than done. Arrows are much slower than bullets. There's visible gravity. Hitting even a walking target is a challenge, let alone hitting it well. Hitting some werewolf in the face at 200m? That's trivial in most games, and a legendary shot in this one. Did I write werewolf? Yeah. The monsters in this game, they're all supernatural. This is, apparently, the dimension from which all supernatural creatures come. Some, as you can imagine, are much gnarlier to fight than others, and won't go down with one or two arrows. Which does mean you'll get something really nasty and ill-tempered, now bleeding and furious, barrelling down on you and looking to have words with you about your manners. When the electric guitar soundtrack kicks in, you know you're in trouble. Well, it's not all bad. If you explore, you'll find little shrines to give you more arrows, and you can spend accumulated XP to improve your skills, and you'll find equipment upgrades and powers as you go along. They still have the advantage, but the odds tip a bit more in your favour. And stealth is still the biggest weapon in your arsenal. Way more effort was put into this than your usual game. Monsters can see you, of course, so careful use of cover, keeping a low profile, avoiding walking where they're looking are helpful. Or illuminating yourself with mundane light. Monsters can hear you, so walking in softer earth, not sprinting, or barging into things or otherwise making noise. Monsters can smell you, so you need to be mindful of which way the wind is blowing. Is that upwind or downwind? Either way, try to avoid getting the wind to waft your stank to the monsters. They can also track you. You leave footprints as you go, especially in soft earth. Walk across scree or hard surfaces, and you'll be harder to track. But you'll be noisier. So there's variables you need to be mindful of as you go. And, over time, you start to develop your own senses. It lets you smell and "feel" what the monsters are up to as well, though for obvious reasons this is difficult to render in a video game. So you can see the stank particles coming off monsters, depending on wind direction. You get a tattoo that glows when a monster is trompling about nearby enough, instead of just feeling their heavy footfalls through your feet. Now, most of these powers only work if you stay calm and composed, keep your character's heartrate down. And how do you do that? Skulking, of course! It reinforces your need for stealth. Flailing about makes you half-blind and all the boys in the yard get very interested in your milkshake. I mean things going loud isn't just you fighting the one thing, but also everything else within earshot. The monsters really don't like you! This is really about the immersion. There's no HUD. Tattoos on your hand suggest things that are senses: direction, how hurt you are, vibrations in the ground. Runes on your bow suggest other things. Most of them are not super-urgent, like how noisy you are (useful if you, the player, are hearing-impaired) or how much souljuice you've picked up along the way. I can't really intuitively grasp their numerical runic system so, right, not that useful. Also it sometimes gets blown out with bloom when it's really misty out, but other than knowing what spell you have active (and they all have colours) it's no big deal. Let me try to reign this in and give you some summary here: This is a stealth game about hunting supernatural monsters. Your weaponry is difficult to use well and really limited, so sneaking up close makes the shots easier to make. And this can be vital as some critters have limited areas to hurt. Monsters will also hunt you, so picking and choosing your battles is critical. Being aware of your surroundings, being willing to explore, and being willing to take your time and just pay attention are all key to success. The setting is otherworldly, a weird place full of mysteries that are answered only with exploration. I find it extremely tense, because I love a horror game that lets me fight the horrors, even at great odds. This game is exactly that. It gets me hyper-focussed and even a minor win, like landing a headshot at 150 meters, feels like an accomplishment. I'm still streaming this as I go along, and in a zesty first, I've also been uploading them to your tubes. My schedule is posted in my profile, and if you found yourself down here and still reading, I'd actually love it if you showed up some time. I'm a non-screaming, responsible adult, and you are my kind of person. http://www.twitch.tv/fdejeuner And if you want a creepy-ass horror game that doesn't make you a completely helpless victim, this is kind of how I imagine it might go. Just you, a bow, and really long odds. But you have two things they don't: wits and guile.

I'm still early into my playthrough of the game, but for what I have seen this is a very interesting game. he's got a story to tell, and you can tell this was the guy who secretly made stealth archer the best class in Skyrim. I'm not going to say this is a masterpiece. Other people have made clear the issues with this game, but believe it or not, its a kinda cool experience. I think the tutorial does a good job at the start but falls off and fails to explain the leveling system to the player, and that shows when a fourth of your audience seems to leave before even making it out of the intro corridor. Which is a shame because any of the issues someone might have from that slice of the game are resolved by the leveling system. As a tip, level up Air to begin with. It will give you more freedom to move around and choose your targets instead of fighting for your life at every moment. I am enjoying this as a way to witness the intent of archery combat in Skyrim and am looking forward to where it ends up.

Umm not my favorite. The gameplay could be a lot better. Clunky, slow awkward combat. Games where you have to go retrieve your stuff stink. Some people like that. I get it. But eh.

A music album with free game. Jokes aside, the immersion in this game is nice with really fitting music. It'll have you running like a madman or sneaking away. However, if learning everything via by trial and error isnt your thing, look elsewhere. This game doesnt hold your hand. Estimated playtime to game completion: 15~20 hours Pros: +Immersive open world gameplay. +Nice soundtrack. +has you running like a madman or sneaking away. Cons: -Tutorial could be better. -Would be nice if there was a better way to identify which powers you have equipped instead of memorising powers 1-5 in sequence. -Ending is rather anti-climatic.

There's nothing to do

La'Quisha's government assisted, rent controlled, two bedroom apartment on the corner of MLK and Quaker Street has less bugs in it than this game.

The Axis Unseen is one of the more unique games I've played. The fact that it's mostly created by just one guy is very impressive. The graphics are nice and crisp, the music is amazing, and the controls are tight. Things like sound and silence and light and darkness, are used in very clever ways to create immersion and heaps of tension. It's a slow paced game. It requires you to explore and pay close attention to your environment, not just in order to hunt or avoid monsters, but to navigate. You don't really have a map while you're out hunting, but there are a few tools help you get your bearings. It took me a while to learn how to utilize these features, and it made me realize how powerful a simple map can be. Not having it gives this really exciting feeling of wandering into the unknown and makes exploration quite frightening at times, especially in the early stages. You are quite weak in the beginning, but by the end you'll be jumping around, flinging arrows at giant monsters and using magic powers to do all sorts of silly stuff. Even though you become very powerful at the end, the game never stops being challenging. There is a crushing loneliness in The Axis Unseen. You will not encounter any humans, only their remains. There are no NPC's to give you quests or even talk to, just you and the journals of lives lost long ago. In the first handful of hours, I found myself asking what my purpose in the game was, but soon I embraced the hunt, which carried me towards an understanding of my goal in this strange world. Everything feels cohesive in the game, and I think that might be the result of just one dev making most of the game: It has a clear vision and doesn't compromise one bit. I would recommend this game to most people, especially those who want a different experience. If you like mystery, exploration and games that require you to be mindful of your surroundings, this might scratch an itch you never knew you had.