There was a time when ‘Metroidvania’ titles were flooding
the market. Recent trends have a seen a move towards the super hard
‘Rogue-like’ game and with no new Castlevania or classic Metroid on the horizon
gamers have been at a loss as to how to scratch their map filling itch. But
fear not because Axiom Verge has made it Switch and it’s a little bit special.
The brain child of one man studio Tom Happ, the game follows
the long twisting story of a scientist who awakens in a strange world after he
dies in an accident. It’s certainly closer to Metroid than Castlevania but
there’s also enough of a difference to not make it seem like one of those
carbon copy knock offs you used to get called things like Poc-Man or Space
Invaded. Considering the lack of this type of game around at the minute and the
fact the last proper 2D Metroid was back on the 3DS there’s certainly a gap in
the market.
If you’re not familiar with this type of game then let us
explain. In Axiom Verge you explore and leap around the various landscapes
shooting monsters and looking for useful objects. Upgrades normally give you a
new move of some kind. In this case the first few you find add a drill for
destroying certain types of wall, a high jump and shift scrambler thing. These
objects then allow bypassing of certain obstacles and exploring further. You
basically keep going until you meet a boss or hit an area where you clearly
need something to progress and it’s wonderfully addictive as your little map
constantly updates and fills out the layout of the areas.
Of course, you have to want to explore and Axiom Verge does
a good job of keeping you locked into it. The environments are beautifully
realised in their old school pixel style and each area has a unique look and
characteristic. Enemy types also vary widely from area to area and the
accompanying musical score sets the scene perfectly. The game also does a good
job of keeping interesting looking things just about out of sight so you are
always intrigued to go back later and see what they are.
The bosses you come up against start off large and proceed
to get bigger and badder as the game progresses. They all require decent
dexterity and brain power to overcome and this is a throwback to the shoot the
'glowing weak spot’ of old days. We didn’t come across anything crushingly
difficult but you do need to be your toes. The difficulty level in general is
set just about right. There is the odd spike here and there but our exploration
was never stopped for too long. It can be annoying to be sent back a long way
to the last save point but you do keep your exploration progress.
The save points are spread around each area and see our hero
entering a pod which regenerates their health. These aren’t exactly everywhere
so you do have been careful when exploring as there can be a bit of distance
between them. We did find this a little frustrating to begin with but once we
found a few upgrades it became much less of an issue. The one thing we really
would have liked to have seen is the ability to teleport between save points.
It was the developer’s choice not to integrate this but it would have solved
the frustration of realising you need to be all the way over on the other side
of the map.
There isn’t much hand holding here either. Don’t expect map
markers of flashing squares to guide you to where you need to go. We didn’t
really have much issue with this as you nearly always have to go to the bit you
haven’t been able to explore yet so it wasn’t exactly rocket science to work
out what to do next most of the time. If you do find something that looks
interesting the Switch version allows you to drop a little reminder marker
there for you to come back to later.
Level design is strong throughout, which is good as there’s
a serious chunk of game to get through here. It’s massively impressive to think
this has been created by a one-person team as it has the production values and
feel of something made by a much bigger collection of people. It’s filled with
moments that you’ll remember and it seems to have been so carefully created
that you can’t help but marvel at what has been achieved at times.
Overall, Axiom Verge is a highly impressive game. It remains
original enough while playing off core values of classic games to keep away
feelings that you’ve seen it all before. It offers up surprises and fun new
things to play with at regular intervals and gives players some big beasties to
test themselves against. It’s a well thought-out game that has moments of
genuine brilliance among a core of all round good design. It’s very easy to
recommend this to fans of the genre as there hasn’t been a Metroidvania this good
since Zero Mission.
Overall 9/10