Axiom Verge 2 Review (Vitlöksbjörn)
Real quick: this is not a continuation of Trace's story. Trace himself appears in logs, and the more attention you pay the more connections you'll see. But if anything, this game's a prequel rather than a sequel - although that depends on where you're looking... it's complicated.
It also seems like the game's very hit-or-miss. "It's nothing like AV1" is a common complaint, but I'm not sure if I agree; it depends on what sort of comparison you're making. However, the achievement stats paint a completely different picture: 42% of players have beaten the final boss, which is a very high number - even higher than AV1's 30%.
In a sense, it's one of the best Metroidvanias I've ever played. It just grabs you and keeps you in. To me, the main sensation of a Metroidvania is discovery, and I think there's a lot to discover here. Just like in AV1, many hard to reach places contain lore pieces instead of powerups, and almost every single one adds something to the ever-growing picture.
The way your arsenal of traversal abilities grows is also fantastic. Can you believe that this game doesn't have a double jump? If you're a Metroidvania veteran you're probably used to "predicting" what sort of powerups you'll be getting based on the level design; Well, here the game caught me completely off guard. Excellent game design.
Because of this, the game has some very good pacing. Admittedly, I got lost twice (as in, didn't know where to go), but the map is always there for you, it even has an outline of the level so you can see walls and such. And even if you -do- get lost, you'll surely end up finding a lot of powerups/lore pieces you couldn't reach before, so even that is satisfying.
An arguably controversial element of the game is combat. See, even though most enemies are robots with laser guns, you're mostly stuck with... a melee weapon. In other words, the world is more "metroid" but you are "vania". Peronally, I didn't have much of a problem with it, though - for one, the enemies go down in just a few hits, but also the game feels like you're not supposed to engage in combat needlessly.
Almost every single enemy has a visible field of view, and they will only start chasing you once they take a good look at you. So it's entirely possible to just sneak/run past many of them, espcially considered that you actually can sneak by walking while crouching. The game's hacking system also allows you to simply take over one of the enemies and have others focus on this one while you make yourself scarce. I mean, you're not a warrior, you're a CEO! It just makes sense.
Oh, right. The protagonist. How many games have you played that star a 40+ woman of indian descent, who's also an evil CEO of a mega-corp? That's so incredibly refreshing, especially since, well, things change over the course of the game. Indra doesn't manage to be as interesting as Trace (or rather... you know), but let's just say that she's not just some random woman. That's all I'm going to say.
Finally, I think the game's aesthetic is a huge improvement over the first one. The pixel art is incredibly varied and beautiful, the music is wonderful and hauting. Combined with the excellent writing and rich lore, this game's a feast in more ways than just something fun to play. But of course that's a subjective thing.
I've praised the game a lot, but I have to say: all those excellent elements kind of fail to come together. The game is very fun to play, but I don't think it will remain in my mind as a timeless masterpiece, and I can't say why. Still: I think it's very fun, to me, it's a great follow-up to the awesome weirdness that AV1 was.
(oh, and if, for some reason, you read the whole thing but haven't played Axiom Verge 1, get the bundle of both games together and play them back-to-back. It will make much more sense that way)
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