Axiom Verge Review: A Love Letter to Classic 2D Metroid Design, For Better and For Worse
When we begin a game, whether we’ve been gaming for over twenty years or we’ve been given our first game ever, we ask ourselves the same question: what will make this game valuable to me? Especially as a kid, when your options of what media you can engage with feels significantly limited, you learn to take the positives of any experience you have and begin development an awareness of the kinds of traits and qualities that you look for in other pieces of media.
At least, that’s how it was for me. Whenever I picked up a controller and stared perhaps too closely to a television as I got lost in virtual worlds while growing up, I took notice of the definitive traits that I liked about the games I played: exploration, story, and immersive worldbuilding. The time in which I first truly noticed my admiration for these traits was with Metroid Prime with its masterful scan visor, which made exploring the world a fun gameplay experience and something that taught the player more about game’s world if they so desired. The addition of a scan visor made the very act of exploration a reward in and of itself. Not only did Retro Studios create a world that felt rich, but it was one that begged to be conquered and understood by the player. Other games like the Xenoblade Chronicles games deepened my love for games that took the time to build detailed, vast worlds that encouraged player intrigue and exploration.
But no genre nails this idea as thoroughly and consistently as the community-dubbed “Metroidvania” genre - and for good reason. Landmark titles such as Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the NIght, and Cave Story pushed what 2D worlds could be. These titles defined how to intrinsically tie player progression with exploration, making for the ever-satisfying experience of being able to explore more of the world upon acquiring new abilities and/or equipment. Super Metroid, in particular, is one of my favorite games of all time. That game paints a beautiful, yet desolate remnant of a bygone civilization as its setting - one that immediately captures the player’s wonder. Players then get to see more of this awe-inspiring world through gaining access to new abilities that let them reach new areas or navigate through previously explored areas more quickly and conveniently.
What I’m trying to get across with this long-winded intro is that this subgenre is responsible for creating games with worlds, stories, and gameplay loops that resonate with so many people. Indie developers, in particular, have really welcomed this genre with open arms, and have been diligently exploring what this genre is capable of. The aforementioned Cave Story is a particularly noteworthy example of the Metroidvania subgenre, as it was quite famously developed by one person, doubtlessly inspiring hundreds, if not thousands of fledgling game developers, convincing them that anyone is capable of making a great game no matter the size of the team that made it.
This subgenre and the games within it have inspired so many people throughout the years. This inspiration brings new titles that hope to be the next landmark Metroidvania title to to awe players and motivate aspiring developers alike. One indie Metroidvania title that has been the center of many conversations between those familiar with the genre is Axiom Verge, an otherworldly exploration-focused Metroidvania that, like Cave Story before it, was entirely developed by one man by the name of Tom Happ. Expansive and ambitious games that are developed by single developers instantly garner attention and with Axiom Verge, this was for good reason. The world that Happ created seemed so bizarre and erudite, yet at the same time, the game’s aesthetics and visual design were familiar, reminding many people of the original Metroid.
Upon hearing countless recommendations for this title, in addition to its sci-fi, Alien-esque atmosphere and vibe that it gave me, I was exciting to jump into the world of Axiom Verge. After taking an hour-long walk to ponder the game’s ending and reflecting on the story and world that I had just ventured through, one thing was clear to me: although certainly flawed and showing some symptoms of archaic design, Axiom Verge nevertheless creates a setting that is as mysterious and haunting as it is fun. Let’s discuss what makes Axiom Verge one of the most interesting and noteworthy titles that this subgenre has to offer.
Axiom Verge brings with it a unique visual aesthetic that, while somewhat reminiscent of the original Metroid, carries a dark, mysterious atmosphere that makes the game immediately identifiable.
Axiom Verge begins its tale with a man named Trace as he is working in his laboratory as a frozen pressure valve explodes, knocking him unconscious. While put into a coma, Trace awakens in the primordial, mystifying world of Sudra, an alien world that connects other worlds to each other - one of which being Earth. While navigating in this strange new setting, Trace gets contacted by Elsenova, a war machine and a remnant of the now-deceased civilization that once stood on Sudra. As Trace makes his way to Elsenova, we get introduced to the game’s primary mechanic: the Axiom Disruptor, which is the main weapon that we’ll be using and upgrading throughout the game.
We walk through a few different rooms and areas, which shows us both the scale of the world of Sudra in addition to its variation. In the vein of Metroid and Super Metroid, two games that Happ clearly drew inspiration from, Axiom Verge features various different sections or zones of the map that separate different regions that have different aesthetics, music, and overall atmosphere. The most important difference between regions, though, is that Trace will encounter different wildlife in the different regions of Sudra, all of which will serve as challenges for the player. While many enemies that the player has to spar with appear as natural, otherworldly creatures native to this region, there are also the inclusion of zombie-esque creatures and other enemies that don’t quite seem to be natural. It’s up to the player’s discretion to interpret what’s natural to this region and what isn’t. Most crucially, Axiom Verge doesn’t clearly indicate everything about its lore and setting, leaving a lot of things open to interpretation.
While we’re given an immediate conflict concerning Elsenova and the other war machines, the destruction that occurred long ago on Sudra, and the threat of a scientist known as Athetos, we’re not given all the details about this world and the conflict outside of Trace’s immediate endeavors. A lot of the events that occur before when we take control of Trace aren’t always given pin-pointed clarification, creating a great sense of mystery in the game’s narrative. Perhaps more crucially, the game’s ambiguity with its plot communicates to the player that what we’re experiencing is only a small story in the middle of a larger world and conflict - something I find to be an admirable trait in storytelling.
The bizarre nature of the world of Sudra ignited a nostalgic experience within me - an experience that I seldom experience in any media as an adult. Axiom Verge offered numerous instances where it would show a setting that appeared both familiar yet otherworldly, and I would find myself asking questions about the world. Were these sections or zones of the world naturally separated as such? What exactly causes the world to appear so differently? Are these aesthetic differences results from the technology of the civilization that populated this world, or is the look of this world merely nature reclaiming the planet after the destruction of said civilization? In other games, I would merely brush off multiple zones as just being a result of, well, being a video game. And maybe Happ’s reason for including zones of the map was because of the fact that this is a video game and zones are just a stereotypically video game thing. But what Axiom Verge was able to do was immerse me - it was able to convince me that there was a purpose to the world’s structure. The game convinced me that there was an in-universe reason that the world was constructed in the way that it was - maybe not a reason that the game will tell me or a reason that I’ll even understand, but a reason, nonetheless.
Throughout the game’s story, the player is given just enough information to understand the situation that involves Trace and what he needs to accomplish. However, even upon completing the game’s story, there are sizable gaps in information that leave room for wondering about details for parts of the story and world that aren’t intrinsic to Trace completing his quest in Sudra. Axiom Verge makes its world all the more intriguing to explore thanks to its varied environments, which use beautifully-realized pixel art. With a notably dark color palette, the world of Sudra is one that’s visually distinct from other games, giving the game an easily recognizable identity. Moreover, the game’s excellent soundtrack makes the atmosphere of Sudra very palpable. If I were to define Axiom Verge’s music, it would be dark, mysterious ambiance, with some synthwave and ‘80s inspiration thrown in. Tracks such as Vital Tide inspired my curiosity, and motivated me to continue investigating the game’s world. Overall, the game’s presentation does a phenomenal job of painting an atmosphere that begets exploration, which in turn reinforces the core gameplay of Axiom Verge.
The color palette, the locales that the player visits, and the music that accompanies the different regions of Sudra make for a world that any curious player will want to explore. Thankfully, Axiom Verge delivers a vast world that will satiate players seeking to find hidden secrets, locations, and, of course, upgrades.
Of course, what you’ll actually be doing within the world of Axiom Verge results in typical fare for the genre - you’ll be acquiring new upgrades that let you walk through thin walls, control remote drones, drill through breakable terrain, and much more. The actual utility of a lot of the upgrades throughout Axiom Verge varies, as a fair number of the upgrades suffer from "Zelda Dungeon Syndrome” - a phenomenon where a newly acquired item is primarily only used in the area immediately surrounding where the upgrade is acquired, followed by said upgrade rarely being used beyond that given area. An example of this is the drill, an upgrade acquired fairly early in the game. In the early sections of Sudra, it allows Trace to access otherwise non-navigable terrain and defeat a select number of enemies. Unfortunately, outside of early areas of the game, the drill isn’t used in many creative ways, making it an item that, while being the dedicated functionality of a button, went unused throughout most of my playthrough.
Another aspect of the upgrades to be found in Axiom Verge is the sheer quantity of upgrades available for the Axiom Disruptor, Trace’s super -sci-fi-looking gun. While the weapon’s default ammo type is more than usable on its own throughout the game’s entirety, there are multiple optional upgrades for the gun that give different firing properties. Some upgrades for the Axiom Disruptor turn the weapon in a short range burst shot, a projectile that can be remotely detonated into smaller projectiles, and a lightning gun that increases in range depending on how wide the environment is. Each weapon brings a unique flow to combat and can significantly alter how one approaches the game’s various boss fights. However, a lot of the available upgrades for the Disruptor are unfortunately better than others, meaning that players will quit using certain weapons in the late game due to having objectively stronger and/or more reliable weapon choices.
Due to the open-ended and optional nature of acquiring these weapons, it’s unclear to me if the variety of these weapons was intended to be something that was meant to provide more options to the player, or simply to provide another layer of player progression, with more difficult-to-acquire weapons being more powerful than ones previously discovered. Since weapons are selected separately a la Metroid Prime, I’m inclined to think that the different weapon types were designed to be complements to one another. However, I wound up ignoring a lot of weapon types that either felt redundant or not as reliable as other weapons. In this instance, I feel like there being less weapons, but each having more utility would have been a better alternative, as it would have made each of the available weapons feel more appealing to the user instead of having a lot of weapons, only some of which feel appealing to use.
Aside from some weapons not seeming very exciting to apply in combat, Axiom Verge’s available upgrades and collectibles brilliantly reward player curiosity and exploration with strong tools. Indeed, collecting upgrades to Trace’s overall health and firing rate serve as some of the most satisfying moments that Axiom Verge has to offer. In fact, Axiom Verge is at its best when its focused on inspiring erudition and wonder into the player. When trying to shift the game’s concentration to a more combat-centric experience, the game begins to falter.
As stated earlier, it’s clear to see that Axiom Verge takes heavy inspiration from the original Metroid, which, while mostly a good thing as Axiom Verge draws from Metroid’s brilliant aesthetic and atmosphere, ends up partially hindering the game. Most crucially, Axiom Verge only allows the user to aim diagonally either while standing still or in mid-air, which serves as an unnecessary limitation to the controls. Sudra is a world with far more verticality than, say, Zebes in the original Metroid, making diagonal shooting a more attractive option. Unfortunately, aiming diagonally never feels as intuitive to me as it has in other titles (Super Metroid comes to mind as being one of the best examples of diagonal aiming in a 2D game with a similar control style as Axiom Verge). Case in point, the Laser Urchins in the Kur region of Sudra are more annoying than difficult to defeat. They shoot lasers periodically while crawling along the surface of a platform. Having limited access to diagonal aiming results in more reliance on vertically and horizontal aiming, which, in the instance of the lasers from the Laser Urchins. This typically means having to risk jumping in the trajectory of their laser in order to deal any kind of damage, resulting in having to take a lot of potshots from these lasers. This isn’t something that make the game more difficult - it simply makes the game more frustrating to play via player limitation.
Additionally, Axiom Verge’s combat falters with its boss encounters. During Trace’s journey through Sudra, the player will have to overcome various challenges (with an excellently adrenaline-pumping musical accompaniment to boot). While these bosses initially present challenge due to simply discovering how to defeat them, these bosses unfortunately overstay their welcome, often feeling like bullet sponges. This makes most fights drag, making them something I never ended up looking forward to in my adventure.
With something as crucial as the combat being relatively flawed, one would think that the experience of Axiom Verge is severely hampered. And while, yes, the combat is definitely a lowlight of the game, there are so many other aspects of the game that are implemented so well that Axiom Verge still manages to be an overall insightful, brilliant time. The world, exploration, and overall wonder that the game has to offer made for an experience that I found myself thinking about long after I put the controller down.
Part of this was admittedly due to the game’s intriguing ending. I was left thinking about Trace, his abandonment by fellow scientists after going into a coma, and the cyclical nature of wrath and the inevitable punishment that results from it. While I won’t get into vivid detail on the game’s ending here, I do plan on returning to Axiom Verge to discuss and analyze its story. In short, Axiom Verge’s story was one of the few times where I immediately wanted to read other theories and interpretations of the story to gain further perspective on what certain plot elements meant to different people - something that I’ve only done with few pieces of media such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and NieR: Automata. I feel that Tom Happ deserves some serious credit for being able to singlehandedly craft a story as profound as the one to be uncovered in Axiom Verge.
Axiom Verge brings some of the best of what the Metroidvania genre has to offer: satisfying exploration, tons of collectibles, and an immersive world dripping with atmosphere. Unfortunately, Axiom Verge also brings with it some clunky combat mechanics and an inability to implement all of its tools as effectively as other standouts in this genre. But its weaknesses shouldn’t take away from what Axiom Verge is - a satisfying, intriguing adventure that is enhanced by its excellently realized world and intelligent story. This is a game that’s often thrown around as one of the best independent Metroidvania games ever made - and for good reason.
Axiom Verge is one of the rare instances where you can feel the amount of care and passion that went into it. That care for capturing what the original Metroid was able to capture for players around the world over 25 years before is palpable throughout Axiom Verge. It’s a love letter to fans of the genre for better and for worse. Thankfully, what it does well on makes it worth forgiving the game’s axiomatic faults.
Final Grade: B
What do you think of Axiom Verge? As always, feel free to join the conversation and let me know what you think either in the comments or on Twitter @DerekExMachina. Thanks for reading!
