Axiom Verge

1

E10+

7.9

2015-05-31

2018-07-03 14:29:01

Axiom Verge is a Metroidvania video game by American indie developer Thomas Happ. The game was originally released in March 2015 in North America and April 2015 in Europe and Australia for PlayStation 4. It was released in May 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. A PlayStation Vita version was released in April 2016. The Wii U and Xbox One versions were released in North America and Europe in September 2016. A Nintendo Switch version was released in October 2017.

Gameplay:

Axiom Verge is a side-scroller action-adventure game where the player controls Trace, a scientist who, after suffering a crippling injury, wakes up in an ancient and high-tech world. The game focuses on action and exploration, and features over 60 items and power-ups. The gameplay borrows elements from classic games such as Metroid, Contra, Blaster Master, and Bionic Commando, among others.

Plot:

Trace, a scientist is running a lab experiment in New Mexico, U.S. when an explosion knocks him out. He awakens inside an egg-shaped machine on the alien world of Sudra. A disembodied voice leads Trace to The Axiom Disruptor, a powerful gun. Trace explores Sudra, using the gun to protect himself from massive monsters that attack him in the name of ”Athetos”. Trace reawakens inside similar egg-shaped machines each time he dies, and defeats each beast one by one.

Trace eventually reaches the source of the voice: a massive and broken mechanical head named Elsenova. Elsenova tells Trace he must reactivate a piece of Sudran machinery called a ”Power Filter” or she will die. Trace agrees to help. After Trace finds and repairs the Power Filter, Elsenova explains that the universe is divided in two: the Worldstream and the Breach. The Breach is a massive storm between worlds. Sudra exists to keep the Breach in check. But long ago, a man named Athetos emerged from the Breach and eradicated the Sudrans by releasing a pathogen. The only survivors were mechanical giants like Elsenova, known as the Rusalki. Unable to defeat them, Athetos used a Breach Attractor machine to envelop Sudra in the Breach and trap the Rusalki on the planet. Elsenova says that another Rusalka, Ophelia, entered the Breach and found Trace inside. Trace agrees to reactivate the Rusalki’s repair drones and revive Ophelia, so that he can retrieve more answers from her.

On the way, Trace discovers two more Rusalki. Elsenova explains that the first, Veruska, is a dangerous ally who has power over dreams. The second, Katrahashka, was killed by the other Rusalki after siding with Athetos. Elsenova also reveals that the monsters Trace encounters are Athetos’s former followers, warped by the pathogen they once spread.

Trace successfully reactivates the repair drones needed to fix Ophelia, but soon begins hallucinating. Elsenova realizes that Trace has contracted the pathogen, and explains he must get to Ophelia to stop the infection. Trace struggles to Ophelia, but the infection progresses until he becomes delirious and collapses.

While unconscious, Trace begins to remember life on Earth after the explosion in New Mexico. The explosion was an accident caused by a frozen valve. Trace lost his ability to walk and became partially blind, but the incident gave him a new perspective and allowed him to formulate a new, revolutionary theory of physics. Trace’s published ideas were ridiculed by the scientific community, who shunned him, leading them to start calling him ”Athetos” (meaning ”without place” in Greek).

Trace awakens in front of Ophelia. Ophelia explains she retrieved him using drones and she treated the pathogen. Ophelia also explains that Earth is one of many worlds in the Breach, as well as the homeworld of Athetos. Ophelia claims she was damaged when she entered the Breach to find a ”PatternMind” from Earth – someone who can manipulate reality at will – and extracted Trace. Ophelia says only PatternMinds can survive the pathogen or use the Axiom Disruptor, although she does not know what exactly makes Trace a PatternMind. Elsenova reveals that Athetos is above them in a space elevator containing the Breach Attractor machine. If Trace can destroy it, she promises the Rusalki will send him home. Trace suspects the Rusalki know that he and Athetos are somehow the same person, but keeps silent.

Trace proceeds through Sudra, finding a disfigured clone of Athetos. The player can choose to watch the clone die, or kill it. Trace realizes the massive monsters are actually mutated clones of Athetos, and demands answers from the Rusalki. Ophelia reveals that Athetos first came to Sudra as a young man and recorded his biological data using the strange egg-shaped machine inside which Trace awoke. The original Athetos then re-entered the Breach, emerging after a long time to begin his genocide. The Rusalka hoped that a clone of the young Athetos would help them against his older self, and used Athetos’ recorded data to create Trace. Trace expresses distrust of the Rusalka and insists on talking to Athetos personally. Elsenova responds by remotely killing Trace.

Trace reawakens inside another egg-shaped machine. Ophelia contacts him and explains she revived him. Ophelia proposes that she will allow Trace to speak with Athetos so long as he shuts down the Breach Attractor. In the meantime, she will persuade Elsenova. Trace agrees. Ophelia then shows Trace to the hangar where the Rusalki’s bodies are kept, revealing that they are in fact massive war machines that could obliterate Athetos if only Trace disables the Breach Attractor.

As Trace approaches the elevator where Athetos waits, Elsenova appears with her fully repaired body. She tells Trace that although she cannot survive in the Breach, she will help Trace fight Athetos if he disables the Breach Attractor. She also apologizes for killing Trace, and promises that in exchange for Trace’s cooperation she will not kill Athetos.

Trace reaches Athetos’s elevator. He finds Athetos suspended in a massive tank of liquid designed to protect him from the pathogen. Trace demands answers, but Athetos claims the Rusalki would kill Trace if he learned the whole truth. However, Athetos does explain that there is a world beyond Sudra with even more advanced technology. Sudra used to be a port to that advanced world, but over time the Sudrans forgot their technological expertise and saw the outside universe as religiously taboo. To reach the advanced world and bring its technology back to Earth, Athetos exterminated the Sudran people. However, the Rusalki’s survival halted Athetos’ plan. Rather than let such powerful enemies roam free in the universe, Athetos decided to trap them. He attracted the Breach to Sudra and shut down the Rusalki’s maintenance technology, but not before they destroyed a portable device that protected Athetos against the pathogen and forced him into the tank.

Trace decides to fight Athetos alongside Elsenova, and they destroy the Breach Attractor machine. However, Elsenova claims Athetos is too dangerous and breaks her promise, killing Athetos. Elsenova tells Trace that the Rusalki will now return him home. Trace is mysteriously overtaken by exhaustion and falls asleep.

Trace awakens back to Earth after the lab accident, finding history has been altered so that the explosion did not injure him. However, Trace develops an obsession with returning to Sudra and quits his job to research it, following Athetos’ path. If the player ends the game with a high completion rate, just as Trace is about to succeed on his research, Athetos himself appears and tells Trace he cannot outrun himself. After telling Trace that it is ”time to wake up”, Athetos shoots Trace.

Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4)

Thomas Happ Games

853191007095

1

United States

512-bit

Blu-Ray Disc

1

Colored Snap Case

~$19.98

2025-08-21

2018-07-03 14:29:01