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One is a drone you transplant your consciousness into with its own set of upgrades that help you traverse Kiengir. Some of these upgrades are fun to experiment with, too. It also helps that the map features in-game coordinates, which makes tracking down specific upgrades easier. It’s an obvious trick, dangling progress in front of players like this, but the speed with which I evolved made it hard to care. I waded through an early underwater section for 10 or 15 minutes before I got an ability that made moving underwater a breeze. What’s more, the game is quick to dole out upgrades early on. Image: Thomas Happ GamesĮvery new area is appropriately tough to navigate at first, but that only makes finding new upgrades and collectibles all the more captivating. Trekking back and forth across this world always felt some degree of oppressive, because even when I returned to previous areas as a more powerful threat, enemies could still quickly cut me down if I wasn’t alert. Sure, by the end of the game I had upgraded my health plenty, but enemies scaled to match.
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This makes the world of Axiom Verge 2 one you explore, but don’t necessarily conquer. In other words, enemies aren’t resources to mine - they’re obstacles in the purest sense, and if you can avoid fighting them altogether, even better. In Axiom Verge 2, enemies don’t drop currency for you to spend on upgrades. Most of what we call Metroidvania games tend to borrow more from Castlevania’s RPG grind and economy-based progression than Metroid’s simpler approach to power-ups. So you grab a pickax and start exploring a new alien landscape with the help of the Arms, a group of superpowered entities that imbue their wielders with powerful abilities. You don’t know what’s going on or what anyone else is doing here, but you’re bent on going back to Earth.
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AXIOM VERGE 2 WALKTHROUGH UPGRADE
More importantly, while its meticulously paced exploration and upgrade loops are a little too close to its inspiration at times, it’s the way Axiom Verge 2 digs into the isolation at the heart of the Metroid series that makes it stand out.Īxiom Verge 2 strands you on the cold, mysterious world of Kiengir and cuts right to the chase. Axiom Verge 2 is a Metroidvania game for people who hate the term “Metroidvania.” Thomas Happ Games’ second outing has a purist’s view of the genre built by Metroid that feels like a refreshing change of pace in a sea of imitators.
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