At first glance, Axiom Verge does not tread a whole lot of new ground. It’s a retro-indie platformer that subverts expectations with modernized visual elements and an augmented narrative, and it exists in a sea of other retro-indie platformers with essentially the same gimmick. However, Axiom Verge manages to execute on its Metroid-vania concept so exceedingly well that it establishes an identity all its own. My high praise for this fun, diverse sci-fi adventure isn’t just out of sympathy for the literally independent development behind it (seriously, one guy made this game); This is genuinely one of the most compelling games I’ve played in a long while.
Axiom Verge puts players in the role of Trace, a regular scientist working on strange and perilous experiments in a lab in New Mexico. Following a near-fatal lab explosion, Trace wakes up in a strange world full of alien machinery and hostile creatures. The rest of the sparse but intriguing narrative takes the form of a labyrinthine expedition that closely resembles Super Metroid. You'll explore various interconnected levels in a nonlinear fashion while jumping over/phasing through obstacles and shooting at a host of ground and airborne enemies. Along the way you'll pick up a wide array of weapons and upgrades to your arsenal that make dispatching enemies easier and grant access to previously gated areas of the world. It's a familiar formula, and while it has some flaws compared to the Metroid series (more on that in a moment), it definitely scratches that Metroid-vania itch. Finding new gear always makes you feel like a well-equipped badass and allows you to dissect areas with a new perspective.
While most of these upgrades are analogous to those found in Metroid (Trace's jackets are like Samus' suits, for instance) they are all made unique to better fit the Axiom Verge fiction. One example that immediately comes to mind is the launchable drone, this game's take on the Morph Ball. The drone does the obvious job of crawling through tight spaces, but with later upgrades it can also be launched at great distances and used as a teleportation point for Trace, thus making it a quasi-Space Jump ability. Fully utilizing the drone isn’t initially as intuitive as, say, a Space Jump or Wall Jump à la Super Metroid, but it does add an interesting dynamic to Axiom Verge’s already fantastic control and mobility. I’m particularly interested to see how this thing gets used by speed runners.
Axiom Verge also features a couple noteworthy items that truly separate it from the Metroid mold. One of these is the Address Disruptor, often simply referred to as the glitch gun. This comes in handy when you encounter flickering and flashing tiles throughout the world that make the game look as though it's being cartridge-tilted; shoot a wave of corruption at these tiles to create platforms or destroy barriers. Better yet, the glitch gun can also be used to corrupt enemies, which can modify their behavior and give you the upper hand in combat. Not only does the glitch gun offer real gameplay advantages, it's also one of the game's many sources of visual splendor that go beyond the 8 and 16-bit aesthetic. Watching the gradient waves of the gun manipulate the surrounding retro glitchyness creates a graphical dissonance that makes the world of Axiom Verge feel even more strange and foreign.
Another interesting piece of equipment is the Passcode Tool, which is really just a password entry menu in your inventory that looks a lot like the password screen from the original Metroid (Before you ask: yes, entering JUSTIN-BAILEY does yield a special effect, but I’ll let you discover it for yourself). You can find codes to enter here in notes scattered throughout the game world, and these codes can be used to translate other notes written in alien languages and open up secret rooms. The often cryptic nature of the codes is what really makes this tool interesting. Without going into specifics, most of the codes are deeply hidden and some require quite a bit of puzzle-solving to figure out. I’ve even seen these passcode puzzles draw comparisons to Fez with how ARG-like they can be. I don’t think the codes are quite so arcane, but discovering them definitely requires an eye for minor details. It’s another great tool that helps build the Axiom Verge universe and allows it to be more than just a Metroid-vania platformer.
Unfortunately, finding all these items and their various upgrades can be tedious and exhausting at times, which can be a fatal flaw for players that aren’t driven by the Metroid-vania structure. Don’t get me wrong: finding these upgrades is incredibly satisfying, but the process of finding them sometimes feels like a chore, especially when backtracking to old areas. Long distances, annoying platforming sections, and enemies that are a nuisance to fight all hinder the backtracking process. And since your next main objective is often not explicitly pointed out to you, you’ll inevitably be required to backtrack and repeatedly go through the routine of saying “Can I get through this area yet? Nope, I'll come back later and try again with another upgrade." For the most part, I guess I had the patience to endure these annoyances, but after playing through Super Metroid again recently, and I have to admit that the 1994 SNES classic handles backtracking and navigation a fair bit better. It seems Super Metroid and its GBA successors avoided the backtracking problem by structuring their level design more naturally around each new upgrade and better explaining which areas are unexplored on the map.
This problem is made worse by the fact that some of these upgrades, particularly the weapons, aren’t really “upgrades.” The notion of having 15 or so weapons in your arsenal is certainly enticing, but it seems like none of them provide a significant improvement in firepower, nor do they offer any unique advantages in specific scenarios. This is unfortunate because, while many of the weapons have some exciting gameplay potential, that potential is very rarely utilized. There is one boss fight, for example, with a giant robot-lobster thing whose weak spot is on his lower backside. To hit that weak spot, you have to use a specific weapon to fire under his body and between his legs, then detonate the projectile near his back to cause a short area-of-effect explosion. I feel like there could have been some other interesting boss fight patterns with the reflector gun or the Quake-inspired lightning gun, for instance. Sadly, most of the other bosses devolve into a simply strategy of “pump this thing with lasers until it’s dead.”
Don’t let these issues be a deterrent, however. Axiom Verge is still worth experiencing for its neo-retro visual style, moody music and sound design, and perhaps most notably, numerous difficulty options for all experience levels. It seems like a lot of retro-inspired games stick to a brutal old school difficulty, but Axiom Verge strikes a great balance between challenge and accessibility. Some enemy and boss encounters are pretty tough, but the tight controls and arsenal of weapons at your disposal ensure that each encounter is fair. Plus, the game uses a pretty lenient save system to help avoid frustrating deaths. I’ve stuck with Normal mode in my two playthroughs so far, but the game does offer a Hard mode and a dedicated Speedrun mode for those who want to put their skills to the test.
Final Verdict
When I wasn’t playing Axiom Verge, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. When I was playing Axiom Verge, the “time flies when you’re having fun” phenomenon took hold of me and I became a less productive member of society. It’s really that awesome. I fully recognize that this game has its faults and that my affection for this game is largely born out of my affection for Metroid, but it really has been a long time since I’ve been so compelled to finish (and subsequently write about) a video game. Even if you’re feeling retro fatigue, I highly encourage checking out Axiom Verge and experiencing this breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale gimmick.