2 Axiom 2 Verge: The Axiom Verge 2 thread about Axiom Verge 2

[chud_666]

SO THIS IS OUT

I'm holding out on xb platform release, but may have to jump in on ps4.
Anyone playing this yet?????

 

[Octopus Prime]

Why yes!

While it’s very clearly More Axiom Verge, it’s also it’s own thing. I’m very much digging this so far

 

[chud_666]

First thing I noticed is less giger/specifically Metroid on nes aesthetic.

But Mesopotamian gods are also cool

 

[SpoonyBard]

I'm digging it, but thus far it feels.... I don't know, messier than the first game? Messier is not the right word, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. It's not even necessarily a bad thing, but something about the world so far just makes me uncertain.

But then I get the ability to turn into a little dude and go through a breach and suddenly I'm very obviously back in the same sort of realm as the first game so there's certainly something to that.

 

[q 3]

I'm digging it too. Like the protagonist being a badass older (?) scientist lady this time. So far combat reminds me of the stealth part of Zero Mission, mostly in a good way. The new dubious benefactors aren't quite as instantly iconic as Giant Mechanical Faces, but I do dig the idea of an Antarctic + Robot + Mesopotamian aesthetic.

 

[Kalir]

Mushhus is the best thing

 

[zonetrope]

I like this a lot so far. It's been a while since I've played the original, but this one feels like it gives you a lot of room to just look around at your own pace in the early going. And it's really cool how as you fill in the map, the world appears to be extremely coherent on a large scale.

This is the first game I've played that just straight up allows you to adjust damage, and I really like it. After a bit of exploring I decided to cut enemy damage in half, at least for now. The enemy AI is pretty aggressive, and this makes exploring a lot more manageable.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I already bought it, but does it connect directly to the story of the first one? I remember that one seeming like it was very much set up for sequels, though not many of the details.

 

[Octopus Prime]

From what I’ve played so far, there’s some thematic connections, and Trace gets name-dropped, but it seems to take place on a different planet entirely

 

[Zef]

I played the original to completion on Steam, but then bought it on Vita and then Switch because I thought a portable would be a better home for it... and continued playing on Steam. What's the suggested platform for the sequel, so I only buy it once?

 

[Octopus Prime]

From the evidence I would assume Steam for you

 

[Mightyblue]

AV2 is a timed exclusive with EGS, so I'll be waiting on the Steam release personally.

 

[Octopus Prime]

This is the first game I've played that just straight up allows you to adjust damage, and I really like it. After a bit of exploring I decided to cut enemy damage in half, at least for now. The enemy AI is pretty aggressive, and this makes exploring a lot more manageable.

I am glad you mentioned this, because I had no idea and it immediately addressed my only concern

 

[Kalir]

Something I've noticed lorewise:

Spoiler: On Hammond Corp

Elizabeth Hammond is the CEO of Hammond Corp, established some fifty-odd years after the events of the first game. During the first game, Trace worked with a colleague by the name of Hammond, although that Hammond was male. Elizabeth's notes in this game clearly reference working with Trace in some capacity, and Hammond in the first game wasn't near old enough to be a father or retire.

So yeah, the only reasonable read is trans femme Hammond. That's neat!

 

[Zef]

From the evidence I would assume Steam for you

I kinda walked straight into that one

 

[zonetrope]

I've put in about 3 hours, and someone stole my body! I've reached a whole section of the game where you're forced to play as the drone, which is really fun. I love the drone's unique upgrades, like the grappling arm.

I also haven't reached any boss encounters yet, just a few larger enemies that drop skill upgrades for defeating them. Not sure yet whether that's an aspect of the original game they just decided to do without.

 

[Adrenaline]

I picked a this up and I'm a gonna play it

 

[q 3]

This really does feel like the kind of experimental sequel that you once would have seen for, say, Metroid... It's definitely still Axiom Verge, but combat is very different - rarely lucrative to defeat enemies, and with several viable stealth strategies to avoid fighting sometimes I'll hack a strong enemy to make them my ally just so they stop blasting me. Then there's how Axiom Verge 1 gave you like a million different unique weapons, but here it seems like it's pretty much just the starting ones.

Also the otherworld/hack/bug elements are still there, but they feel more naturalistic or integrated into the game's world than they did in the first game where they felt more gimmicky or blatantly videogamey. All in all I'd describe it as among the most exploration and aesthetic focused of recent Metroidemups, which is fine by me.

I was getting kind of annoyed at the lack of fast travel given how sprawling the map is but my complaint was resolved just as it was about to get real bad.

 

[Lokii]

This is such a strange game. Compelling, but very weird. I think I'm up to four alternate dimensions now.

 

[Adrenaline]

I like a this game

 

[zonetrope]

I'm kind of stuck and could use a little nudge from anyone who's farther into the game or has beaten it. I just got the ability to exit the Breach at any point, which seems extremely useful. But I've explored the lake and the other available parts of the Breach map and can't seem to find a place where exiting will help me advance. Which area should I be looking in?

EDIT: n/m, figured it out. I keep forgetting how useful the hover ability is, and missed an exit.

I looooove this game so far. I really enjoyed the original AV, but in a more typical "find the abilities and kill the bosses" Metroidvania way, just executed at an extremely high level. But this raises it to a whole new tier. It's mysterious and inscrutable in all the right ways.

 

[SpoonyBard]

I've put in about 3 hours, and someone stole my body! I've reached a whole section of the game where you're forced to play as the drone, which is really fun. I love the drone's unique upgrades, like the grappling arm.

I've reached this point, in fact I'm just a little beyond it where I have a new human-ish body and thus access to my entire kit but has anyone else who reached this point seen a graphical glitch where your new human body lands from a jump and the frame changes to your normal human body kneeling? Knowing this game it is entirely possible this is intentional for some reason.

EDIT: Ok, reloading my save fixed that bug, but now I've discovered a whole new one, and I've been able to easily replicate it: after getting my new human-ish body I find myself getting stuck in a weird state after using the Double Axe (usually in air) where I can't move or attack or use any special abilities, but I can jump while Indra's animation frame remains unchanged. Warping to a save point clears it up.

 

[Kalir]

I've encountered both bugs, yeah.

I also marathoned the entire game in one day, no regrets.

 

[zonetrope]

I just beat it too. A really great time all around. The only bummer is that the enemies and combat don't really register at all. You can tweak the damage sliders if you want a challenge, but even then, the "bosses" feel more like giant enemies that are just sort of hanging around. But this game is going for a different vibe than the first, and I think it was largely very successful at it.

 

[q 3]

Some of the exploration puzzles made me feel super clever for solving them, like climbing a god's face or fast travel to a save point you found but couldn't reach. And combining the exit the breach anywhere with the pull a portal to you abilities felt almost like cheating at times, I was only really bummed the few places it didn't work. Plus even the more generic upgrades have some uniqueness to them, like a more generic Metroidvania would have had double jump instead of wall climb but the latter both makes more sense and is useful without being the game's defining (hackneyed) mechanic.

I'm reminded that the original Metroid only had three bosses, and two of them weren't any bigger than many regular enemies. Imagine a Metroidvania without bosses (or XP or money), that's what I'm talking about. And the game still has some cool setpieces, even ones that are probably just there for flavor like the giant bug or the helicopter.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I feel like I'm bad at this game. I'm a little under 5 hours in, and my percentages around 32% and 24%? Forget which is which. I've spent so much time going back and forth and back and forth looking for ways to progress, and only ever seem to find more locked gates and a small flask or two. I'm really enjoying it so far, but it's definitely being tempered by the endlessly repeated frustration of going over the same place with a fine toothed comb again for something I've obviously missed.

I'm looking for a way to the ansible below the lake on the map, fwiw. Blrgh

 

[Sarcasmorator]

I haven't bought a game right at release in a while (Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury I think) but I bought this one. Only 20 minutes in though.

 

[q 3]

I'm looking for a way to the ansible below the lake on the map, fwiw. Blrgh

What movement abilities do you have? I'm having trouble picturing where you are in the game. One general piece of advice is that the destination markers on your map aren't as helpful as they seem; they're where the next story development will occur, but often the abilities you need to get there are somewhere else. In general you'll need to explore the western regions of the map much more than the game tells you to.

 

[Paul le Fou]

I have: ledge climb, water agility, wall climb, super bomb and just got the drone's ledge grapple

 

[q 3]

I would suggest heading to the very bottom of the map and then going left as far as you can possibly go.