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  1. One-man developer Tom Happ has followed up his critically-acclaimed 2015 indie Metroidvania with a brand new side-scrolling adventure, Axiom Verge 2. But despite the name, this isn't quite a direct sequel to the first game. New characters, new settings, and new gameplay mechanics provide a fresh pixel-art experience that emphasizes exploration in a sprawling, labyrinthine environment. It's a thoughtful, rich world to explore, even if your initial introduction to it all starts off a bit slow. You play as Indra, a billionaire CEO who visits an Antarctic research station after receiving a mysterious message that her estranged daughter might be there. The base seems to be completely empty though, and after a bit of exploring Indra is pulled into a cryptic parallel dimension filled with dangerous robots. There's clearly a lot of rich backstory lore sprinkled throughout the game—some of which may connect to the first game, but you'll have to do a good bit of exploring and dot connecting to find them—and the concept is ripe for sci-fi storytelling. It's a bit disappointing, then, that the story is so hard to follow. The basic plot is simple enough, but the lore, told through scattered logs and notes that Indra can find, throws so much jargon and anchorless terminology at you that you probably won't understand most of it your first time through the game, or at least not until you're near the end and can reread everything to understand it. A little mystery is fun but when you can't even decipher the clues it gets a bit tedious. The gameplay has the same slow-start issue as the story. The beginning of the game is pretty standard side-scrolling Metroidvania stuff, bordering on stiff and repetitive. Initially, Indra's only weapon is a melee-range ice axe, which feels pretty inefficient to use against fast-moving robots or enemies with ranged attacks (it's also a little annoying to constantly have to crouch to hit small enemies). In fact, combat never feels particularly satisfying in Axiom Verge 2, though the silver lining here is that you never really need to fight. There are no required boss fights (there are large enemies but you can just avoid them. You will be rewarded for defeating them though) and more often than not just dodging little enemies is more efficient. It's a bit weird to de-emphasize combat so much in a game like this, but since hitting enemies is a little clunky to begin with maybe that's not such a bad thing. Gradually you'll unlock more abilities and find new items that expand the scope of the gameplay significantly, particularly the exploration side of the game, and that's when Axiom Verge 2 starts to shine. You'll gain the ability to pilot a little drone and send it into the Breach, an alternate map with its own enemies and hazards, and by navigating the Breach you can open up new paths in the main map as well. It's a clever way of significantly expanding an already elaborate map filled with little nooks and crannies to explore, and it comes across fairly naturally. The game provides very little direction while you're exploring, but that opportunity to wander is one of Axiom Verge 2's greatest strengths. You'll definitely get lost at times, and it's a little too easy to overlook little spots on the map that end up being the key to progressing, but once you have multiple traversal abilities there's a lot of fun in just running around and seeing where you can end up. That said, Axiom Verge 2 maybe throws too many abilities at the player that end up only being useful in narrow scenarios. The de-emphasis on combat means a lot of the weapons you find don't feel all that useful overall, and some features, like hacking enemies and objects, are easy to overlook when just running away is far more effective. Balancing the selection of items and abilities might have helped make some of them feel less superfluous. Even if you end up getting lost for a while, Axiom Verge 2 isn't too long. You can finish the adventure in under 10 hours, though if you're going for 100% completion you'll really need to spend time checking every corner of the map. There's also an entire speedrun mode available so naturally speedrun fans should enjoy finding the most efficient routes through this maze of a map. The game's presentation is stunning, not surprising after the rich pixel art design of the first game. That old school vibe is back in Axiom Verge 2, complete with stylish backgrounds and impressive mechanical enemies (particularly all those monstrous bosses that are actually optional). The art design does a great job of balancing the mystery of a parallel world with understandable and navigable environments. The soundtrack is also wonderful. It's otherworldly and a little haunting but encourages you to dive into this adventure and explore. Axiom Verge 2's Metroidvania formula puts the emphasis on exploration rather than combat, and by doing so delivers a rich world to explore. Most importantly, balancing on-foot exploration with drone exploration expands the possibilities of wandering and rewarding the player with little secrets. The combat is lackluster and almost feels included merely out of obligation, but the sense of adventure—including those moments when you're lost and are just poking around the corners of the map—will still easily pull you into Axiom Verge 2. Rating: 7 out of 10 Axioms
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