Written By:
Patrick Orquia
TITLE: Axiom Verge
DEVELOPER: Thomas Happ
PUBLISHER: Thomas Happ Games
GENRE: metroidvania, action-adventure
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1
RELEASE DATE: 01 September 2016
PLATFORM: Wii U (also available on PC, PS4, Mac, Xbox
One, and Nintendo Switch)
PRICE: $19.99
At quick
glance, it will be easy to judge this game as another Metroid rip-off.
Metroidvania is a big craze nowadays, anyway, especially in the indie gaming
scene. This game is of the metroidvania variety, yes, but calling it a just
another Metroid rip-off is very unfair, since the game takes the genre to
heart, rips it wide open, turns it inside out, then re-assembles it into a game
that could even be considered more Metroid that any Metroid game there is. This
is Axiom Verge, one of the best metroidvania games ever created.
This game
is solely developed by Tom Happ. Sure, he doesn’t sound familiar and neither
his publishing company, but being the sole programmer, writer, artist, and musical
composer on a game is one monumental feat. Yep, he even did the excellent music
for this game, the entire soundtrack. You can’t be anymore indie than that. He
worked on the game for five years, mostly on weekends or time off work only as
a hobby. He then gets a funding from Sony in exchange for time exclusivity of
the game on PS4 and PS Vita. Eventually, the game found its way on other
platforms, including the Wii U, on which version this review is going to be
based.
Axiom Verge
is about a scientist, Trace, who, after waking up from an explosion in his lab
in New Mexico, finds himself in an alien world called Sudra. Trace has no
recollection on how he ended up in Sudra, but later on he meets Elsenova, a
giant war machine resembling a head (that looks like Björk from the “All is
Full of Love” video). Elsenova is one of the remaining Rusalki from the Sudran
civilization, and she asks the help of Trace to stop Athetos, a mad scientist
who destroyed the Sudrans a long time ago. Trace has to traverse and explore
Sudra, and during his travels, he gets new weapons, power-ups, and upgrades to
make him better equipped in his eventual final battle with Athetos. As he nears
his goal, new information and mysteries unravel to him, one of which will make
him question his reality and existence and he then has to choose if he really
needs to do what he was tasked to do or not.
From the
opening area of the game, it already screams of Metroid, but as the player
progresses, the game manages to have enough variation in the formula to make it
stand out on its own. Sure, Trace has to get new weapons, upgrades, and
power-ups, but Axiom Verge does more than that. There is very little hand holding
in this game, and the player, if not too attentive, will more likely than not
to be lost. The enemies can be brutally aggressive at times, especially near
the end of the game, so if you are unprepared, you will die a lot. Save points
are located at various parts of the game. There are no checkpoints, so if you
die, you get revived at the last save point where you saved. This can either
sting a lot or help you a lot, navigation-wise. Each time you die or exit the
game, the game saves, but again, you revive at the last save point. You can use
it to your advantage if you want to travel back to previously visited area to
get to previously unreachable power-ups and whatnot. When you save the game
after doing what you need to do, you return to your last save point, which can
be near to your next destination, hence, saving time on your return trip. But
of course you have to be good enough to not die along the way, otherwise, you
have to go back and do it all over again.
There are
many types of collectibles that can be acquired in the game. Some weapons are
easily encountered on your normal playthrough while most of them need to be
discovered from hidden or not-easy-to-reach areas. These weapons range from
cool-looking yet ultimately weak ones to overpowered ones that would be your
go-to weapons against enemies and bosses. The upgrades, on the other hand, are
necessary to access new areas, like the trench coat, that allows Trace to
teleport across short distances; laser drill, which allows Trace to drill
through walls; or the remote drone, which allows Trace to launch drones that
can be controlled remotely to access small gaps or tunnels (similar to the
Morph Ball in the Metroid series); and many others. You can also make the
firepower of your weapons and your health bar improve by collecting power-up
nodes throughout the game. Most of these weapons, power-ups and upgrades are
not necessary to beat the game (but they certainly help), but the more you
find, the higher your completion percentage will be. A high completion
percentage doesn’t give you any extra content (except for a bonus post-credit
scene, if it’s high enough), but it would be very satisfying for
completionists.
You are
encouraged to navigate and explore every nook and cranny of the world for
secret passages, hidden treasures, or even glitched off-map areas (they are
randomly located in the game). Like in Metroid or any other game of the
metroidvania genre, some areas are closed off initially to the player until
they get the necessary weapon or power-up, like an area may need a specific
type of weapon to be unlocked or is located behind a high ledge or platform
that needs the grapple ability, etc. Typical metroidvania stuff, but again,
Axiom Verge has more than the typical stuff in it, like how intentionally uses
glitches to improve the gameplay.
Speaking of
glitches, while most other games dread glitches and if a glitch gets
discovered, the developer may patch it right away in order to not ruin the
experience of playing the game, Axiom Verge embraces them. There is an
equipment in the game, called the Address Disruptor, that intentionally makes
stuff “glitch”. A glitched enemy may become slower and easier to kill or even
help Trace in destroying walls or kill other enemies, or even become platforms
for Trace to step on and help him in reaching new areas. The Address Disruptor
may even un-glitch a glitched area or wall, making it possible for Trace to reach
or pass through it to access new part of the map.
The map of
this game is vast, and with the lack of a typical fast travel option, traveling
back to previously-visited areas can be quite a chore. A mini-map is constantly
shown on screen and a bigger map can always be pulled up with a single press of
a button. Up to two markers can be used in each area, to help the player
remember points of interest, like a dead end that needs new weapons to unlock
or currently unreachable power-ups. The game doesn’t provide any clues on where
you should go next, so it’s up to you and your memory to know your next
destination.
While the typical
option to view the map, along with the quick-swapping between weapons, can be
easily done while playing, this requires the player having to pause the game.
This is where the Wii U version of the game becomes a better one. The gamepad
of the Wii U, like with many other games, can show the map and all available
weapons readily available every time (plus the ability to play the game off-TV),
and thus the player can have a quick glance at the map and very easily switch
between weapons without having to pause the game. Pausing the game can break
momentum, especially during tense moments, like during a boss fights. While
some players may opine that this is better, for me, pausing can make me lose
focus and mess with my timing. The switching between weapons with a quick press
of the icon on the gamepad is awesome, especially during tricky late-game boss
fights that require real-time tactics along with accurate hand-and-eye
coordination. Maybe the Nintendo Switch is now the best version of the game,
because you can now play the game on the go, for me, the Wii U version is at
least as good as that one, because of the console-specific features that I
mentioned that makes the game a little bit easier to play and enjoy.
Once you
have finished the game, you may opt to try the speedrun mode. It is essentially
the entire main game, minus the dialogues, cut scenes, and other stuff that you
can skip within the game. A time is displayed throughout your playthrough, and
it is up to you to either beat your personal best or beat the world record. The
current speedrun world record is less than 35 minutes. Can you beat it?
Overall,
Axiom Verge is a big achievement in indie gaming. It shows that being indie
doesn’t mean lack of quality or polish. This game shows what an indie game can
possibly achieve, if the developer really puts the time and effort. Tom Happ
did it, and he did it alone, and he did it fantastically well. Who knows what
he can come up with next, especially with the backing of a big publisher? Let’s
hope to find out soon. But even if it takes another 5 years, if that game would
be at least as good as Axiom Verge, it would be very much worth the wait.
REPLAY VALUE: very high
PROS:
- Excellent visuals, gameplay, soundtrack, sound design, character design, and level design
- It’s hard to imagine that only one person worked on this game, with the level of quality that it has
- Takes most of the usual metroidvania tropes, remixed them, and adds a few of its own to make it really stand out
- Has a huge assortment of weapons, upgrades, and power-ups that may suit any type of play style
- Lots of hidden areas and random glitched off-map areas to discover
- Glitches are embraced and add more juice to the gameplay
- The game can be beaten in 10-15 hours on regular playthroughs, but a built-in speedrun feature makes it ideal for speedrunners to play
- The Wii U version makes good use of the gamepad, allowing the map and weapons to be easily accessed at any time without having to pause the game
CONS:
- The game doesn’t off much clues on where to go next
- Lack of typical fast travel features, making backtracking a chore at times
RATING: 5/5 bifurcating energy bolts
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