A Metroid By Any Other Name – Axiom Verge Review

<p><em>Axiom Verge<&sol;em> is one man’s love letter to Metroidvania games&comma; and it really shows&period; This is a wonderful reminder of the <em>Metroid<&sol;em> and <em>Castlevania<&sol;em> games of old&comma; and why we need more like it &lpar;Nintendo&comma; new <em>Metroid<&sol;em> game please&quest;&rpar;&period; Exploring the world and learning about the setting and its inhabitants are all part of the adventure&comma; while exploring and unlocking new power ups to progress just adds more interesting things you can do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The setting itself follows a scientist named Trace who works at a laser lab&comma; which ends up exploding in a freak accident and in some way or another&comma; he ends up on an alien world with his only way out being to help a mysterious female voice named Elsenova&period; The plot&&num;8217&semi;s pretty fantastic in this game&comma; and it has a rich world and interestingly designed locales and characters&period; While some of the world is explained to the player&comma; a lot isn&&num;8217&semi;t explained in a whole lot of detail&comma; and while some might think that’s a fault&comma; I thought it really made the world seem mysterious as it left the imagination to player to determine certain things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212311&sol;IntroShotAnimated&period;gif"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-86089" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212311&sol;IntroShotAnimated&period;gif" alt&equals;"IntroShotAnimated" width&equals;"576" height&equals;"346" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics are classic pixels in the style of SNES era&comma; although they&&num;8217&semi;re a little more detailed&comma; which really shows as the locations and enemies are interesting and varied&comma; making each new area fun to explore&period; Some of the best design I found were in Elsenova and the characters you meet like her while exploring the world&period; You never get to know the real mystery behind this world&comma; only a peek behind the curtain&comma; but the areas really give you a lot to imagine and think about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay is fantastic as well&comma; with classic side-scrolling shooting action&period; The enemies and bosses are varied too&comma; with enemies changing regularly between areas and while bosses are challenging&comma; they all have patterns or weaknesses that you can exploit in order to achieve victory&period; I found all of the bosses challenging but fair&comma; with it only usually taking 1-2 attempts to beat them&period; I did get stuck on a Giant Hornet boss&comma; but that’s because I couldn’t figure out the strategy to beat it&comma; rather than the boss being too unforgiving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;wakeup&period;gif"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-86090" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;wakeup&period;gif" alt&equals;"wakeup" width&equals;"364" height&equals;"364" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All the power-ups are unique and interesting as well&comma; with many different types of guns and gadgets to acquire through the course of the game&comma; making discovering secrets backtracking easier&period; All of the weapons are really fun to use&comma; and useful against certain enemies and bosses&comma; so you&&num;8217&semi;ll find yourself switching weapons often&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even the non-weapon power-ups are cool&comma; allowing you to control a drone&comma; go through walls&comma; teleport&comma; hack enemies and platforms&comma; and even the ability to use passwords&period; All of these power-ups added to the gameplay and make the it more complicated as you move on &&num;8212&semi; It opens up the world to you&comma; as a lot of obstacles suddenly become traversable&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212302&sol;LightningGun&period;gif"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-86091" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212302&sol;LightningGun&period;gif" alt&equals;"LightningGun" width&equals;"484" height&equals;"364" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game is pretty long&comma; with my initial run taking a little more than 9 hours to complete&comma; and that wasn&&num;8217&semi;t even with collecting all of the items I possibly could have&comma; or even completing the map&comma; so this game has a lot value for the price&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There is even a Speed Run mode for people that like to try and run through the game as fast as they can and complete the bosses as quickly as possible&period; The mode was created for especially for speed runners that stream and it eliminates all cutscenes&comma; randomized items&comma; dialogue&comma; and even adds an in-game timer&period; I like that they added this feature&comma; as a lot of games wouldn’t have it&comma; and <em>Axiom Verge<&sol;em> is the perfect speed running game as well&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212253&sol;FatBeamAnimated&period;gif"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-86092" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;06&sol;04212253&sol;FatBeamAnimated&period;gif" alt&equals;"FatBeamAnimated" width&equals;"724" height&equals;"244" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I also want to mention the fact that this game was developed by two guys by names of Tom Happ and Dan Adelman&comma; so I think it is absolutely amazing that they made such a high quality and polished game by themselves&comma; and even added such things as speed running modes and passwords&period; It’s an amazing effort for only two developers&comma; and I thought they deserved some praise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Axiom Verge<&sol;em> is an amazing indie game and deserves all the praise it gets&period; Between the amazing world building&comma; neat plot&comma; power-ups&comma; unique bosses&comma; and great gameplay&comma; this is a game that is up there with the other greats in its genre&comma; like <em>Super Metroid<&sol;em> and <em>Castlevania&colon; Symphony of the Night<&sol;em>&period; If you’re at all a fan of either <em>Metroid<&sol;em> or the 2d <em>Castlevania<&sol;em> games&comma; I would encourage you to pick this game up&comma; as it&&num;8217&semi;s just as good as everyone is saying it is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A code was provided by Tom Happ Games for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;