It won’t be nearly as much of an issue today given the prevalence of walkthrough guides that players can check their progress against to get an idea of what to do next, but pre-release and with no guide to fall back on, there were at least two occasions when we nearly resorted to contacting Happ himself for assistance before finally figuring it out on our own. It’s a little baffling given how well it respects the conventions of the genre otherwise, but Axiom Verge doesn’t offer any map rooms to fill in unexplored sections of your map, nor does it mark up the map at all several times this design decision left us without a clue where to go next and wandering around for long stretches exploring every corner of the world in search of a new objective to complete. It’s pretty standard for the genre to mark up the map in this way for the player’s benefit, and when games don’t do it - like Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora, a game that didn’t even have a map at all - it can be hugely frustrating. Usually, dots will mark optional upgrades or collectables and specific icons will refer to specific items or weapons doors will be colored differently to signify what weapon you’ll need to use to blast it open and occasionally walls will be left blank to illustrate that a room extends beyond where you’ve already been. You can find a map room to download a complete version of the map to fill in all the gaps in areas you haven’t been to, or you can just check the map and its legend for any leftover secrets you haven’t collected or areas you haven’t explored. In a game like Super Metroid, it’s easy to get lost and not know exactly where to go next or how to get there, but it’s usually not too difficult to use the tools available to you to figure it out. That’s where the map screen comes in, and that’s where Axiom Verge drops the ball. So it’s up to you to find that next weapon or power-up that will let you progress, or just go out and collect upgrades for your character. The game is rarely explicit in its directions, preferring instead to let you figure out the particulars in how to get past that locked door or kill that new type of enemy. You can go where you want, do what you want, and in some cases, tackle areas in the order you want. You’re dropped into an alien world without much of a hint of where to go or what to do usually beyond a general goal. As for how it actually compares in quality to those games, Axiom Verge undeniably holds its own, even if it does suffer a few frustrating flaws that keep it from surpassing them.įirst up is exploration, arguably the most important and defining feature of this style of game. Axiom Verge proudly adheres to this “Metroidvania” formula until the end though of course anyone could play and enjoy it, longtime fans of the genre will get the most out of it. Boss fights punctuate the experience every couple of hours and challenge you to use your accumulated skills to survive. You can explore the world however you like, but certain areas will be gated off until you get new weapons or abilities, at which point you can backtrack and push farther into previously unexplored areas. It’s a 2D side-scrolling game with a vast, open world divided into distinct rooms, an array of weapons and power-ups and a map screen laid out in a grid for easy tracking of where you’ve been and where you might need to go next. While the story of Axiom Verge‘s Trace, a scientist killed in a lab explosion who wakes up in a strange world and must piece together what happened, is nothing like the tale of Super Metroid‘s intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran, its gameplay is near identical. Unless you’ve never played the latter game, it’s impossible to talk about Axiom Verge without consistent comparisons to Super Metroid, and it’s a comparison Axiom Verge invites with open arms. For better and for worse, Axiom Verge diverges from its roots when it makes sense (and sometimes when it doesn’t) to create something a little unique, a little darker and a lot harder, making it all the more impressive that it was designed solely by one man, Tom Happ. Axiom Verge wears its inspirations as a badge of honor, but while it is absolutely slavish in paying homage to its inspirations, it’s also not a slave to them, either. This is a game of obsession, built by a Super Metroid fan for Super Metroid fans. It makes no effort to hide its aliasing, with chunky pixels cutting across every curve and diagonal line, and the low frame rate animation on the menu select icon dares you to scoff at it. It immediately starts scrolling down a vertical corridor that looks ripped straight from Super Metroid and kicks in with a mix of retro chiptune wails and crushing bass. Right from its title screen, Axiom Verge makes it clear that it means business.
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