Axiom Verge PS4 review

[jim g]

So, as a lover of Super Metroid and Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. I was looking forward to playing this, and so far it is ....great.

Superb retro feel, classic platforming action, unlocking items to open new areas. Great music as well, and all the response the joypad are bank on. Graphically it is a Metroidish and all the better for it. It is not a copy, but inspired by the great games and for me it has it own identity. There is a % counter for Map and Items, so completists will love this (I still remember the feeling of satisfaction when I get 200.6% on Symphony of Night).

So for me I looking forward to getting more and more into it over the weekend. A must buy if you are fan of this type of game.

[BaronSqwelch]

Good to hear its as good as I'd hoped.
Am waiting for the Vita version myself.

[PaTaito]

Yeah seen this recently and LOVE the style of it. Its like Metroid featuring a belmont!

[Golgo]

Had a quick go of this last night just to get a feel for it, and it seemed very promising indeed. Was intended as a short break from Bloodborne but it was so enjoyable it distracted me away for rest of the evening. Atmosphere and controls are spot on. Artwork, 'cutscenes' and chiptune music also top notch. Dev guy's clearly very talented. Can't wait to play more.

[Golgo]

Got back into this after the slight distraction of Bloodborne, and it's proving to be superb. Absolutely nails the 2D Metroid dripfeed mechanic and ominous, isolated atmosphere and adds some neat new gameplay ideas to refresh the formula,

->Open Spoiler<-

such as the remote bot and 'glitch' idea

. Very clever how the latter allows you to glitch enemy behaviour in interesting ways, make them work for you, etc. Graphics and evironment appear rather bland for first hour but it soon diversifies to become pretty wild and colourful, the 8 bit style graphics nicely blended with much more advanced/fancy effects. Played 6 hours only uncovered 35% of map. It's big, and hellishly confusing, just as it should be. No idea where the plot's going either. Bosses are great, well animated, but quite easy, therefore also true to 2D Metroid tradition Great variety of ordinary enemies. If you've been hanging out for a new 2D 'Metroid' with a few fresh ideas, basically this is it.

Edit: also out on PC later this week.

['Press Start']

This will be my first PS4 indie title for sure.

[Golgo]

Finished this. All in all it does an excellent Metroid impression, probably closest to Fusion in the wide variety of environments. Traversal abilities don't scale as nicely as Metroid, where speed and spin jumps make moving around the huge endgame maps enjoyable. Here it becomes quite a trudge (a fairly crummy Bionic Commando grapple thing doesn't help much) and by the end I felt I'd laboriously walked miles. Plot is fussy and over-complex and delivered in the 'obfuscatory fragments' style that modern games seem to go in for. Some might enjoy poring over the clues and seeking out more but I lost interest. In pure gameplay and exploration terms, though, this is well worth any Metroid fanatic's time, adds some cool new mechanics like the awesome 'glitching', and in its best moments is as creepily atmospheric and disorienting as the best of 'em. Incredible achievement for a solo developer, although not quite on a par with the likes of Cave Story. Music is just stunning, bought the soundtrack

[BIG EDD]

Finished this. All in all it does an excellent Metroid impression, probably closest to Fusion in the wide variety of environments. Traversal abilities don't scale as nicely as Metroid, where speed and spin jumps make moving around the huge endgame maps enjoyable. Here it becomes quite a trudge (a fairly crummy Bionic Commando grapple thing doesn't help much) and by the end I felt I'd laboriously walked miles. Plot is fussy and over-complex and delivered in the 'obfuscatory fragments' style that modern games seem to go in for. Some might enjoy poring over the clues and seeking out more but I lost interest. In pure gameplay and exploration terms, though, this is well worth any Metroid fanatic's time, adds some cool new mechanics like the awesome 'glitching', and in its best moments is as creepily atmospheric and disorienting as the best of 'em. Incredible achievement for a solo developer, although not quite on a par with the likes of Cave Story. Music is just stunning, bought the soundtrack

Been tempted by this for a while but ?14.99 to buy,will it end up on PS+ soon?

[Golgo]

15 notes felt fair to me (plus I chucked him an extra 8 quid for the soundtrack - lol!) but I love 2D Metroid so feel I definitely got my money's worth. Took me 16 hrs to finish (ridiculously, but I enjoyed exploring), only 88% of map found, only 65% of items. Much of these unfound bits will be niggardly power-ups but still, there's plenty of game there to justify price. No doubt it'll be on PS+ at some point, then I'll be all self-righteous about shelling out up front and supporting indies, etc.

[Family Fry]

Been tempted by this for a while but ?14.99 to buy,will it end up on PS+ soon?

The dev said there will be no discount for the game for 6 months minimum, except launch discount.
So September onward for any kind of discount let alone PS+

[BIG EDD]

15 notes felt fair to me (plus I chucked him an extra 8 quid for the soundtrack - lol!) but I love 2D Metroid so feel I definitely got my money's worth. Took me 16 hrs to finish (ridiculously, but I enjoyed exploring), only 88% of map found, only 65% of items. Much of these unfound bits will be niggardly power-ups but still, there's plenty of game there to justify price. No doubt it'll be on PS+ at some point, then I'll be all self-righteous about shelling out up front and supporting indies, etc.

You've convinced me both

[hudson]

£7.49 on the PS store at the minute and already it has paid for itself. I've spent the last 10 minutes

->Open Spoiler<-

Drilling away bloody bubbles with my drill

[gunrock]

I'm on holiday and just opened up my physical PS Vita version and have been playing this. What a great little game.

I'm about three bosses in and and 20-something percent of the map found. Quite enjoying it. I've left my Switch aside and been enjoying the feel of the Vita and it's OLED take me away to a time when it wasn't a dead duck.