If you want to know what games were like in 1987 without actually playing a 28-year-old game, Tom Happ’s Axiom Verge is the way to go.
Five years in the making, this one-man project is an ode to retro games like Metroid and Castlevania. From graphics and music to design and mechanics, it channels a late 80s gaming vibe in a way few other modern takes on classic genres do.
It took me back more than a quarter century to sunny weekend afternoons spent in a dark room in front of a glowing tube, controller in hand. At one point I strongly lamented that I didn’t have a Wagon Wheel and a bottle of Crush Cream Soda beside me to complete my travel through time.
Tom Happ Games
Let me rewind a bit for readers who were born into a world of three-dimensional gaming.
Metroid and Castlevania popularized a new kind of genre when they first landed on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. They provided players a maze-like two-dimensional world divided into discrete cells. Your objective was to make your way through the labyrinth, but you’d frequently run into obstacles between areas that you couldn’t get past until you found a special item. Once you found said object, the world would open up in fun new ways – until you ran into another barrier.
Axiom Verge follows this formula to the letter, all the way down to its decidedly old-school audio and visual presentation.
It tells the story of Trace, a scientist – who looks suspiciously like a lot of game designers I’ve encountered, complete with tousled hair and too-long sideburns – caught in a terrible accident who wakes up within a strange world brimming with bizarre biomechanical technology.
A strange voice instructs him to arm himself with a gun and start exploring, which he gamely does despite his confusion. This begins a long process of finding weapons, gadgets, and upgrades to unlock new areas that lasts the entire game as we gradually learn the history of this strange world, who Trace’s computer-like companion is, and the role he’s been unwittingly forced to assume.
Tom Happ Games
I settled into Axiom Verge‘s familiar rhythm with ease.
Oop, there’s a glowing wall blocking my way with an energy-activated switch behind it. Can’t shoot through. Guess I’m going to go explore a bit and return later. Why here’s a new weapon that spurts a bit of green energy. Maybe it can penetrate that glowing wall I saw a few rooms back. Ha! It does. Switch flicked, wall eliminated. Now let’s see where this path goes…
There’s lots and lots of that.
The innovation Tomm Happ brings to this well-worn bit of game design is the sheer number and diversity of gizmos you collect
There aren’t six or eight or 10 weapons to collect, but dozens, each with its own unique properties, some of which are helpful against certain enemies and others of which can be useful in removing barriers. You’ll likely settle on a handful of favourites (you can handily quick-draw your two most used weapons by setting them to the R3 and L3 buttons – one of the few concessions to modern design made by Mr. Happ), but there are appropriate places in which each one will make your life easier if you take the time to equip it.
Even more interesting are the gadgets. They start off pretty basic – an electric drill that can bust up certain bricks in the environment – but soon become much more imaginative.
For example, you’ll don a lab coat that lets you displace your body through thin walls – which, among other things, unlocks access to hidden passages along the sides of some areas so you can quickly navigate around enemies you’ve already fought but which have respawned.
You’ll also find a disrupter that can turn glitchy-looking parts of the screen into platforms, and which also affects certain weaker enemies, sometimes making them disappear, sometimes rendering their attacks ineffective.
When you eventually find a remote drone – a many-legged little thing vaguely reminiscent of Halo’s Flood Infection Forms – capable of being tossed to out-of-reach areas, scooting through narrow spots, and exploring entire areas on its own, the world really starts to open up.
Tom Happ Games
But for all the nostalgic fun I’ve had with Axiom Verge, it’s also served as a reminder that the medium of games evolved for some good reasons.
The thrill of finding hidden paths and upgrades is tempered by how you do it: by drilling or zapping or running up against just about every new surface you see in an attempt to reveal any potential secrets. It’s like setting up a mine in a place where you haven’t used any modern technological marvels to determine what might lie beneath the earth and just hoping for the best. You get lucky occasionally, but spend a lot of time coming up empty handed. More visual clues about what you can and can’t interact with in the environment would have been nice.
And combat is pretty simplistic, despite all the different weapons. You can only shoot in eight directions, which means you’ll be doing a lot of old-fashioned jump-and-fire moves to properly aim your blasts. It looks and feels a bit goofy.
Plus, most bosses follow very predictable patterns that can be easily exploited. In one case I just jumped behind a chubby guy that could only shoot forwards and kept hitting it from behind until it died. These big foes are generally loaded with a heaping amount of health that takes time to whittle down, but that’s really the only way in which many pose much challenge.
The real kicker for players without patience, however, could be the lack of fast travel points.
Axiom Verge‘s world is mighty big, and choosing to go back to previous areas where you think you might remember a barrier you now have the power to overcome can be a serious commitment requiring a lot of time, especially once you reach the halfway point and there are multiple areas each with many enemy-infested rooms between you and your goal.
It feels like needless punishment that could have been avoided with the ability to teleport between each area’s save point.
Tom Happ Games
Axiom Verge is clearly not Ori and the Blind Forest, another great – and I would argue slightly better – Metroid-style game released earlier this year that fuses classic exploration and action with cutting edge graphics and a few more modern concepts. (Read our review).
In contrast, Mr. Happ’s game is laser-focused on recreating the glory of games past for an audience that still remembers them.
Having said that, my concern that the retro look and feel would appeal only to nostalgic players was lessened when my daughter, nearing 10 years old, walked into the room while I was playing and was amazed by what she saw. “This is like Minecraft, but, like, 2D,” she said, eyes transfixed on the screen. “It’s beautiful. When can I play?”
So I suppose there’s something here for a younger generation that sees simplistic graphics as a kind of style rather than an indication of age. Still, my hunch is that the bulk of people who play and stick with Axiom Verge will be older players sucked in by the prospect of summoning up fond memories.
If that’s you, I suggest picking up your favourite childhood snack in advance.
