1/24/2024 0 Comments Axiom verge 2 xbox![]() ![]() With responsive controls and a jump that neither feels too floaty nor too laboured, playing as Indra feels fluid and, initially, taking control of the drone feels sluggish in comparison. ![]() Without delving into narrative spoilers, you actually end up embodying the drone for significant portions of the game. The novelty of the upgrades is at its most evident with a controllable drone companion you unlock early on into the game. Instead, the upgrades to your character’s arsenal and manoeuvrability are novel and each new one surprised and delighted me. Where it differs is in the type of upgrades you get they’re not as trite and predictable as a double jump and dash. The gameplay of Axiom Verge 2 follows the typical structure of most Metroidvanias explore an uninhabitable world and gradually accrue upgrades that allow you to traverse to new, previously gated areas. It’s a world away from the chiptune-inspired beats of the first game and gels excellently with this fresher and brighter setting bringing the world alive and making your journey through the ten-or-so-hour campaign that more enjoyable. The use of instrumentation that my untrained and uninformed ear can only describe as sitars and lyres coupled with otherworldly chanting layered on a nostalgic bed of 80s synthpop is an absurd amalgam that results in a tremendous soundtrack. And the game is better for it since these influences are at their most stark in the soundtrack, which is utterly fantastic. Despite a heartfelt endeavour to understand the connected Axiom Verge universe this time round, towards the end of the game I ended up skipping over a lot of the written dialogue as I was lost from the beginning.įrom what I could gauge from the plot, other than the presence of a Matrix-esque Breach World you can access from different parts of the map, is that the alternate-Earth setting takes some inspiration from Sumerian/Mesopotamian history and culture. ![]() To be honest, most of the story told via small character interactions and collectible journals dispersed throughout the world didn’t keep me engaged because, much like the first game, it was asphyxiated by convoluted lore, an overuse of proper nouns and technobabble that I’m not sure anyone outside of brilliant sole creator Thomas Happ’s cerebral cortex could properly understand or articulate. In this sense Axiom Verge 2 reminded me of Flashback not just in its liberal use of colour but also in the fact that the game is about your player character, Indra Chaudhari, stumbling upon what at first appears to be an ancient civilisation but soon finding that they are an inexplicably advanced culture using children as bioweapons. The game begins in Antarctica with piercing white snow-caps of the icy tundra and expands to other colourful biomes such as deserts and forests as you delve deeper into the game. Instead of the dark, brooding, claustrophobic settings often associated with the genre (and the first Axiom Verge for that matter), Axiom Verge 2 takes place in an open-air alternate Earth. What is immediately noticeable about Axiom Verge 2 is that it breaks from the traditional Metroidvania mould by…actually having colour.
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