It leans too heavily on nostalgia for the original Metroid, which has aged much more poorly than its successors. The map is too big and the enemies aren't interesting or rewarding to fight. To put it simply, it is usually a dull game on a moment to moment basis. Axiom Verge checks all the boxes of a Metroid homage and has so much potential but it lacks those games' nuances. The bosses are visually impressive but they lose their bite as soon as you realize how simple their patterns are. All this means that the combat starts out dull and never really improves. There's no leveling system, so there's not much reason to fight enemies, and the power scaling isn't very significant so the tedious enemies never get easier to deal with. When they are challenging, it generally feels unfair and frustrating. The standard enemies are rarely interesting to fight as you can just stand back from a distance and snipe them. Unfortunately, the enemies don't deliver. There are dozens of optional weapons you can find which is easily the highlight. It's a competent 2D shooter, heavily echoing games like Contra, but this too is ultimately a bit dull. The other half of the game is its combat. It doesn't just have the usual double-jump, slide, missile, etc that most MetroidVanias do, the abilities are almost all very unique. While the exploration is mostly a bust for me, I must admit that the exploration upgrades are very cool. It doesn't help that this game's areas are quite ugly and are as visually repetitive as they are repetitive to play. It is a very linear game except for a couple parts where many are sure to get lost for an hour. For the most part, this is a level-by-level game where you rarely need to backtrack to old areas. At the macro level, this isn't a great MetroidVania either. Most of the game is made up of long, repetitive corridors, where you fight the same dull enemies over and over and over. It emulates the original NES Metroid, rather than the fan-favorite Super Metroid, in all the worst ways. Whether you're looking at the macro or the micro, it's just not great. The big problem with the exploration is the level design. The exploration and the combat both fail to offer something special. It's very polished, has a lot of great ideas, and should theoretically appeal to any Metroid fan (FYI my favorite series) but I always find it to be quite dull. It's one of those things that make you have faith in humanity so I gladly supported them.ħ0% PlayStation 4Axiom Verge is a mediocre game and one of the more overrated MetroidVanias out there IMHO. There is a lot of high quality bonus material (the box itself is not the best but it's ok) plus it's a good deed as the publisher will donate 75% of the profits to healthcare for the developer's son that has a serious medical condition. As a side node, I got the Multiverse Edition which I highly recommend. Overall, this is a very good Metroidvania, if you don't get turned off from the retro graphics. but more than bosses they are story set-pieces with little gameplay). Bosses could have been a bit more interesting (well. there a bit too many weapons and you probably end up just using 3 or 4. Also you don't need ammo that you have to store in case you need it later (a la Metroid missiles). I appreciate the design that there usually isn't a right weapon for a boss, you are free to use the one you like the most. Yeah I get that it's there as a sort of prize for people paying care to the lore, but having to input passwords in random places really doesn't seem a good design to me. This means you can safely choose to not carefully look for every secret and still not lose much. Speaking of hard to reach places, I appreciate that most of the secrets you can find won't give you big advantages (pieces of lore, or fragments of power ups). at some point you have a lot of abilities and to reach certain spots have to chain quite a few of them so you might hate the controller a bit, but fortunately it's not so often. Maybe the weapon wheel scrolls a bit too fast, but it's ok since it pauses the game. The controls are tight and make a good use of (almost) the whole gamepad. Jury is still out if the lack of fast travel is a good thing or not, however. Meaningful exploration and an interesting map (not huge, not small, just the right size). Story is nothing to write home about, but it's certainly a decent story, with interesting characters. well certainly is not the best, but overall it's not bad, especially the cutscenes are very good. Audio is quite nice, with tracks that sit very well with the ambiance. The setting really really remembers Metroid. 80% Nintendo SwitchFirst thing I have to say, is that it's amazing that this whole game has been developed by a single person.
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