Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Axiom Verge is a side scrolling action adventure platform game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4 with a Vita version set to be released in the not too distant future. The game is inspired by not only the 8 bit, but also the 16 bit generation that actually began production 5 years prior to release as a side hobby project which is made all the more fascinating as it was developed from the ground up in every component of the game by an individual called Thomas Happ, rather than multiple team members.

The story is set in New Mexico in 2005 in which an ambitious scientist fails in the objective of his experiment and in doing so, dies as a consequence in the aftermath of the accident. However, the scientist awakens in an alien world in which he is unclear of his exact surroundings or why he is there leading him on a mysterious adventure to find answers to all of his many questions.

The story campaign allows players to experience the progressive story in order to find the answers to the confusing start, while the speedrun mode adds a timer and removes the cutscenes to streamline the game to make it a perfect fit for a dedicated speedrun mode with perfect share feature functionality for players to openly broadcast their best efforts of completing the game as fast as possible as an audience is invited to watch the action live.

An interesting gameplay mechanic involves glitching environments by using the disruptor which is earned after defeating the second enemy boss called Absu. The disruptor allows players to glitch environments by creating invisible platforms in order to leave the boundaries of the surrounding environment which often leads to new areas and collectibles, while glitching enemies has the potential of making some of the harder enemies outside of bosses easier to kill.

The character design is excellent as the lead character is clearly confused in regards to his surroundings and what exactly has happened to him which makes the player care more for his predicament, while there are dozens of enemies to encounter and tactically outsmart, alongside enemy bosses which are certainly the largest enemies with the most attacking threat.

 

The environment design is varied as it is set within nine labyrinths full of non-linear exploration as they are quite vast with secret areas to be found and explored by glitching the surrounding environments with a new path or collectibles on offer as the reward of experimentation from the player. The puzzles mostly comprise of figuring out how to turn switches on or off when the switch is not immediately accessible in order to progress beyond the boundary of the switch, while timing some jumps to not land on a platform just as an enemy attacks from that specific platform.

The inventory includes access to weapons, upgrades and power-ups as well as a set of notes and a map of the surrounding area. There is an extensive arsenal of weaponry comprising of over 20 weapons including a high-tech biomechanoid weapon called the Axiom Disruptor, while Nova fires a large projectile. Additional firing of the weapon causes it to detonate sending the projectiles outwards in multiple directions. The Heat Seeker is a fully automatic homing weapon which seeks out enemies from afar with plenty of damage dealt upon contact and the Lightning Gun creates a lightning chain which continues to deal damage to the nearest enemy; and much more besides.

There are many upgrades available such as the laser drill which is capable of cutting through rock in order to obtain access to new areas and collectibles, while the remote drone is quite a useful tool as it can be utilised to navigate around walls to locate new paths and collectibles; the drone teleport provides teleportation to the precise location of the device; the passcode tool allows the player to unlock secret areas containing collectibles and weaponry by manipulating the reality of the surrounding environments; and much more besides.

Power-ups are also referred to as collectibles, although it must be stated that they are more than just power-ups as they include 28 notes scattered throughout Sudra which builds the back story as written by some of the in-game characters and some that do not appear. The rest of the collectibles are power-ups such as power nodes which increase the damage dealt from weapons and increase the health of the remote drone, although power node fragments can be collected individually by combining 6 pieces to create a full power node, while health nodes increases health by a single section, although health node fragments can be collected individually by combining 5 pieces to create a full health node, alongside range nodes which extend the reach of the majority of weapons and size nodes to increase the projection of the ammunition when the weapon has been fired.

Until the announced Vita version releases; Vita gamers can play Axiom Verge via remote play. The performance during remote play is excellent with the graphics, audio and general performance as it possesses the same level of quality as the PS4 version, while the control scheme has been appropriately optimised resulting in a comfortable control scheme during remote play as L3 and R3 to quick select have moved to the bottom left and right of the touch screen respectively, while tapping the touch pad to open the inventory has been mapped to the touch screen and R3 has been mapped to the rear touch pad to re-centre the camera.

The controls are well mapped to the DualShock 4 controller with the default control scheme consisting of pressing X to jump; pressing square to fire, pressing L1 to lock position, pressing R2 to drill, pressing L3 or R3 to quick select, changing the direction of the left analogue stick or alternatively pressing up, down, left or right on the d-pad to move the character with down making the character crouch and up allowing them to shoot in an upward facing direction; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to shoot a weapon in the respective direction, pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu and pressing the options button to display the pause menu; while the controls can be customised to the player’s preferences.

Tapping the touch pad produces the inventory, notes and map screens, while there is no light bar implementation, although it could have produced green for 75% to 100% health, yellow for 50% to 74% health, orange for 26% to 49% health, red for 11% to 25% health or a pulsating red for 1% to 10% health, alongside a lack of vibration which would have provided more immersion by vibrating when attacked by an enemy or a heavy landing from a platform situated quite high above the ground.

Axiom Verge possesses graphics which are clearly inspired by platformers of previous generations with a lead character, enemies, weaponry, backdrops and gameplay elements which belong in an 8 and 16 bit retro aesthetic which provides authenticity to the premise of the game looking as though it was developed for the 8 and 16 bit era which will certainly appeal to retro gamers.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, speedrun, options and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. There are elements of retro to how the game is presented such as the camera scrolling through the environments in the background.

The audio is heavily 8 and 16 bit inspired with sound effects for jumping, firing weaponry and defeating enemies, although there are no voice-overs as conversations are displayed via speech bubbles, while there is a full soundtrack of atmospheric music. If players like the retro themed soundtrack, then they will be happy to know that it is available in its entirety on Thomas Happ’s Bandcamp as an 18 track album available in high quality audio format and at a set realistic price. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation which could have produced sound effects or the atmospheric soundtrack.

The trophy list includes 30 trophies with 21 bronze, 8 gold and 1 platinum trophy. The majority of these are naturally earned for as long as players are able to continually progress through to completing the game as there are a lot of story related trophies such as defeating enemy bosses, while the hardest trophy has to be the Mostly Invincible gold trophy for completing the entire game without dying. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 15 to 20 hours to platinum the trophy list.

There are two difficulty levels including normal and hard with not too much difference between the two, despite the game initially feeling quite difficult on normal difficulty until players have gathered some upgrades and worked out the basic gameplay mechanics; it will gradually come and begin to feel less daunting, although the second area which introduces powerful zombie enemies capable of killing the character rather fast and the final enemy boss which is capable of killing them even faster are the two areas of the game to really be wary of in their difficulty curve beyond the initial phase of the game.

There is no local or online multiplayer which could have been perfect for co-operative multiplayer in the story campaign, while competitive multiplayer could have seen a player take control of the lead character and a second player as an enemy boss as they fight to destroy each other, alongside the lack of online leaderboards which would been a great addition to the story campaign and would have especially suited the speedrun mode in regards to how quickly players could complete their speedrun.

The replayability of Axiom Verge stems from two core game modes including the story campaign and speedrun mode, while the normal and hard difficulty levels provide further variation, alongside the interesting concept of glitching to explore more of the surrounding environments, plenty of enemy and weapon variety and much more besides combine to supply hours of replay value.

Overall, if you are a fan of retro games such as Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Contra, Metroid and Rygar, then Axiom Verge comes highly recommended as it is as challenging and simultaneously charming as the retro games it is inspired by from the 8 and 16 bit eras, although it is an exceptional game in its own right which everyone should play.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Axiom Verge
• Developer: Thomas Happ Games
• Publisher: Thomas Happ Games
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1
• Hard Drive Space Required: 336.8MB (Version 1.05)