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This game was reviewed using Versions 1.03. Your experience on other versions may vary.
Short Answer: I'd argue that it's more of a stealth/action game than a horror game like the marketing says, but I actually liked it more because of that. The stealth-oriented archery gameplay is a lot of fun and the game's open world has a great aesthetic to it, even if it is a pain to navigate without a map. It's being actively patched to fix the community's biggest complaints, which has already addressed most of the complaints I had during my 20-hour run, so definitely keep an eye on it even if you don't plan to pick it up right now.
NOTE: Players that are deaf or hard of hearing will need to skip this one (for now) as spatial sound is a critical component of the gameplay. Accessibility options are said to come in a future update.
Long Answer: The Axis Unseen is a "heavy metal horror game" where you play as a lone hunter in a world inhabited by monsters from all manner of ancient folklore. At first, your goal is unclear—all you know is that you need to explore and survive in order to achieve it. Everything that lives and/or breathes in this world can kill you, but with your trusty bow and and a range of powers bestowed upon you by forces unknown, you might just have what it takes to fight back. I found this game through its demo during the recent Next Fest, and I ended up liking it enough to buy the full game on launch even though I'm not a fan of horror games; but I'll get into why that is in a minute.
The core gameplay is this mix of open-world exploration, stealth mechanics, and archery-based combat. Without spoiling any story details, your general goal is to travel to points of interest that slowly lead you further and further into new, more hostile environments. The key points of interest are marked by beams of light and unlock passive abilities that aid you in travel; while straying off the beaten path lets you find stronger equipment, new arrow types for your bow, magic spells with a range of effects, and letters from other inhabitants that clue you in on the game's lore. Most upgrades you'll receive are geared towards improving your stealth capabilities, whether that means helping you bypass a potential fight or starting it yourself with a sneak attack from a distance. Being truly stealthy can be difficult as enemies can track you based on sight, sound, and even smell; but it doesn't punish you too harshly if you make a mistake, often giving you a chance to either run away or fight back if you're spotted.
Another thing that can make stealth a challenge is the amount of information you need to keep track of at any given moment, but the game handles this in an interesting way. Rather than rely on a traditional HUD, stuff like your health, stamina, noise level, and active abilities are instead displayed through symbols on your bow and the hand that's holding it. It might take a bit to get used to as it's not immediately obvious what everything represents, but it's a really cool approach to an often-overlooked part of game design that ends up lending itself to the immersion. It also helps prevent visual clutter on the screen, which is especially helpful since hunting monsters can and will demand your undivided attention.
Like I said before, the in-game world is filled with monsters rooted in folklore from all across the real world. A quick search of some of the names in my journal point me to Japanese, Chilean, South Slavic, Inuit, and Australian Aboriginal mythologies, just to name a few. Suffice to say that there's a lot of variety, and this extends to both their in-game designs and their mechanics. Each monster has strengths and weaknesses that you can exploit, and it's even possible to kill some monsters with a single shot if you have the right gear and steady aim. This brand of stealth-focused combat ended up being a ton of fun, and gaining the knowledge/ability to take down something that used to wipe the floor with me was just as satisfying in my first few hours as it was in the very last. The only complaint I have in this department is that the monster AI can be a little funky at times, a good example being how they get confused if you're standing on something above the ground like a large boulder. Admittedly, this worked in my favor more often than not, but it did take away the tension from certain encounters—though it's not the only thing to do so.
I mentioned earlier that I picked this game up despite the fact that I don't like horror games, and that's because even during my time with the demo, it never really felt like I was playing a horror game. Part of it is just that I think the design of the environments and monsters look more cool than scary, though both do manage to up the scariness over time. More importantly, though, I think what makes a game feel truly scary is its ability to instill an overwhelming sense of helplessness in the player, something that's missing from The Axis Unseen. Sure, your first encounter with a new monster is always nerve-wracking, and there's still a tension to most encounters after that; but the true fear factor wears off once you recognize that even your worst nightmares can bleed. Even though had its scary moments and it got a few good jumps out of me, overall it felt more like a stealth/action game than a horror game—but that's exactly why I liked it. I'm only framing this as a potential negative because even though it made the game more aligned to my tastes, it makes it harder to recommend to someone who's looking for a more traditional horror game—at the very least, I wouldn't go into it expecting a very scary game given that a wuss like me could handle it just fine.
As much as I enjoyed the bulk of the game, I did have my gripes as well. I won't waste time discussing all of them since most have already been addressed in post-launch updates—including an update that popped up as I was writing this, funny enough—but a consistent issue during my playthrough that is still present is the difficulty of navigation. It's easy to lose your bearings since you don't get a map to consult, especially when the environments start becoming less linear. Those beams of light help give you a general sense of where to go next, but there are a lot of upgrades in-between them that are shockingly easy to miss. That's not limited to little stuff like arrow capacity upgrades, either—I had to get a hint from the forums to find one of the unlockable arrows because it was so far out of the way of the path I'd been taking (this was one of the subjects of the latest update, thankfully), and I even managed to skip over an equipment upgrade entirely despite spending several hours in the area it was supposed to be in. This is also assuming that you even know what you're looking for, so a word of advice: look for massive pillars with a light on them, giant spindly trees with no leaves, and any spot with a flock of birds circling overhead—basically everything important is at one of those.
The Axis Unseen may have issues that led to some frustration on my end, but I wouldn't have spent nearly 20 hours on it if I didn't enjoy the experience overall. The fact that it was made pretty much entirely by a single developer is just insane—a 20-year industry veteran that worked at Bethesda, sure, but that doesn't make it any less impressive to me. It's actively being patched to resolve the more glaring problems that have come to light since release, and I've even seen mention of adding accessibility options for the deaf and hard of hearing, so I'd still keep it on your radar even if you're on the fence about picking it up right now.
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