Axiom Verge 2
Developer/publisher Thomas Happ Games
Format PC, PS4, PS5, Switch (tested)
Release Out now
Worldbuilding is surprisingly involved, dressing up sci-fi concerns in imagery lifted from Mesopotamian mythology. What looks like a djinn is actually a consciousness uploaded to a cloud of nanites
W hy do something yourself, when you can get a machine to do it for you? That seems to have been the founding principle of Axiom Verge 2, a sequel determined to find more distance from the Metroid-like design its predecessor held close. The very first tool it hands you is an ice pick, letting you give enemies the Trotsky treatment with a few swipes – but this direct approach quickly proves unsatisfying in comparison to what else the game has to offer.