Axiom Verge

It's been many years and this game and its soundtrack still live rent free in my head. I'll hear a song or random electronic noise that reminds me of the game and instantly feel nostalgic. It's a really fun game that keeps you questioning everything you know about the in-game world. It also has a lot of extremely difficult optional puzzles / hidden areas which add to the game's aura of mystery. 10/10!

Good game held back by a few nitpicks that could have made it excellent. The good… the game itself is fun. Nice nostalgic look with a hint if new age tech. Great exploration/rank system to upgrade self and weapons. Bosses can be a challenge but nothing too bad that takes only a few tries. The bad… played on the steam deck and the pesky phase through mechanic later in game was constantly triggered via joystick. And probably the worst aspect of game that really made it a chore the last 1/4 of the game for me was the map and having zero idea where to go next. The amount of time back tracking and wondering what the heck do I do next was a total drag. Very little to no direction. If that one aspect of the game was changed I would give this an A tier rating. But because of it I would lean closer to B.

a metroidvania that came out 10 years ago before the genre blew up in indie game sphere feels more unique and fresh than most of the similar games that since been coming out, crazy.

Very solid game. I can see this being a divisive Metroidvania, because it's designed to be much, much more of a Metroid game than the standard more mixed, balanced formula. I enjoyed this, but I grew up on Matroid, spending hundreds and hundreds of hours in Metroid 2 alone, so it may not be to everyone's taste.
There's a wide variety of different weapons here, consistent upgrades, some very well-hidden secrets--many of which I actually felt really joyed to find, I felt accomplished actually having the intuition to seek some of these out... but it can be tough. I've beaten the game with a near 90% completion for map and items, and I'm missing several of the main health and weapon upgrades and at least one weapon... this last I found, but it seems to be sealed away beyond my ability to get to, and seeing as how I have all of the traversal abilities unlocked I can only assume it's either accessed from somewhere else on the map I haven't discovered yet or through some other means.
That aside, the difficulty can be pretty tough from time to time, but as you get upgrades and find a weapon you can get used to, it starts to click. Some of the enemies can be assholes, some of the weapons are more fun than they are useful, and the lack of a late game quick travel is more slightly annoying than actually troublesome; most of what I wanted it for was late-stage item hunting, but it is what it is.
That said, the game has a wealth of interesting lore, a very odd high-concept world with strange entities and narrative twists and turns really related to the environment and your existence in it. There's also a whole hoard of interesting ideas implemented in the game, as well; odd 'glitches' as part of your movement and exploration, as well as your combat, diegetic death and rebirth, and a note and password system you should NOT ignore to get the most out of the game.
I can recommend this easily, and I'm extremely excited to play 2 when I can, but don't take the association with Metroid lightly. This is a very distinct Metroidvania with much, much more of the Metroid in the mix and if you aren't a fan of those core concepts, you might struggle to find value here for yourself.

Axiom Verge was an enjoyable game! As far as 2D side scrolling metroidvania types of games go, this one definitely hit on all the retro nostalgia that I was looking for, and it had a cool little story to boot! My only gripe with the game was the necessity of double tapping the joystick and/or D-pad later on in the game in order to use the pretty necessary dash mechanic. It felt terrible. It was wonky, unresponsive, and you'd end up using it many times by mistake. Overall it broke the gameflow, broke immersion, and put a slight damper on the overall experience. With that being said though, despite the controls driving me crazy at times, the positives FAR outweigh the negatives. I'd recommend this game to anyone looking to scratch that 2D side-scroller itch. Overall it was still a very enjoyable experience and worth the buy!

I've heard people tell me this is basically Metroid, but made today, and they were right. For better or for worse, hunting for secrets feels very retro; very limited map management, no fast travel, and visuals to match. The more modern touches were nice to have, though. There were a LOT of different types of weapons you can use. I almost want to say there were too many. But having such a variety was neat. I think the game started out a bit on the tough side, but after collecting everything, the final stretch of the game was a piece of cake on Normal difficulty.

I didn't really connect with the story in this one. I get it, but it just didn't fit my personal tastes, I suppose. I don't think it was bad, however. By the end, everything made sense. I had fun with this! It was a good, solid game that doesn't really win any awards from me. Perfectly adequate. I liked it!

Yeah this game is great so far. (I don't actually have 30 hrs played, Steam Deck bug. It's more like 4.5 hrs)
Will update upon completion.
Edit:
Just rolled credits at around 19 hrs. Overall I enjoyed Axiom Verge. Exploration is probably its biggest strength. Except for the fact that all the game's collectibles are not hinted at. I don't enjoy feeling like I need to refer to a guide to 100% a game.
This game has so many different weapons and I think that's awesome. However, half of them are pretty useless because they're designed with a specific gimmick that just don't compete with some of the better, straight-forward weapons. But when you have to switch to certain weapons to eliminate a specific enemy, I think that's a really fun design. It makes games feel less one-dimensional.
Speaking of combat, some of it can feel clunky. Though that may be because this is a "retro" game and you shouldn't expect it to feel as smooth as Metroid Dread. But overall it's pretty fun, when you're not fighting one of the game's more annoying enemies. Like the final boss. Oh my god what a terrible boss design. You know it's not good when every strategy discussed over this boss is some weird way to cheese the win. There's no fun or fair designed way to beat it and that brought down the score of the game for me. It was bitter sweet to have enjoyed the game most of the way through just for the final area/boss to sour the experience. It made completing the game feel a lot less satisfying. It was more like, I'm glad this is over.
I still recommend this game though. It has some really unique designs that left me impressed. I enjoyed getting each traversal ability. My only complaint about them would be the grapple hook. I wish it was utilized more and didn't feel so janky to use. But teleporting, different jackets with different abilities, drones, hacking? So many cool designs here. And the music was pretty great too. As for story, this game goes pretty deep sci-fi and I basically skipped through most of it because it did nothing for me. But that's okay, I'm never really expecting stellar writing with this genre. All about the gameplay.
7/10