GAME REVIEW: Axiom Verge

written by David Steffen

Axiom Verge is a Metroid-style exploration and action side-scroller shooter game released on Steam in 2015 by Thomas Happ Games LLC.

The game starts after Trace is the victim of a lab accident, and wakes up in a mysterious alien world with no memory of how he got there.  He begins exploring, with the guidance of a mysterious voice in his head that knows more about his situation than he does.  As he goes he finds an arsenal of new weapons and items that both help in combat and help unlock new areas of the map that weren’t reachable before.  As he explores wider and wider he finds out more about why he is here and what he is meant to do.

Visuals
16-bit style graphics, nice enough for what they are.  Amusing to have glitchy visuals as an intentional visual effect.

Audio
I didn’t use the audio too much (you can play the game without it which I often will), but the soundtrack is decent, again seems to be inspired by Metroid with its moody soundtrack.  The weapon and monster sound effects I thought were kindof annoying, just as well that I usually play muted.

Challenge
Decent platformer shooter challenge.  If you’re into exploration you can use that to reduce the challenge, because you will find new and interesting weapons and health upgrades and power upgrades and so on.  I didn’t get anywhere near finding every item, so if you were very thorough that would your ability to survive and win the game better. (Conversely if you wanted to increase the challenge, could intentionally avoid grabbing unnecessary items)

One of my favorite aspects of these games is that you will reach a place in the map where you are obstructed because you don’t have the appropriate item to pass an obstacle yet.  So you are rewarded if you kindof keep track of what kind of obstacle you saw where because then once you find the item you can head back and find whatever your reward is for passing the obstacle.

If you end up dying somewhere, you are reincarnated without losing any progress–any map you explored, any items you collected are retained.  I found that reduced the possible frustration, but I suppose it reduced the challenge to some extent as well since there is little penalty for dying.

Story
Certainly some story which unrolls bit by bit as you defeat bosses and find some sympathetic entities that need your assistance.  It’s fairly light on story, you don’t have to really pay attention to the story to move forward, you just have to keep on exploring and fighting bosses and etc.  The story there is is fine, I didn’t find it hugely compelling but I was entertained enough by the game I didn’t care.  There was one segment of the game where the story really took the forefront, transforming a level into a hallucinogenic nightmare–which both cranked the challenge way up and it was interesting to see what they did with it.

Session Time
Very quick game bootup.  You can quit the game at any time and it will save your progress, your map exploration and item acquisition and bosses you’ve defeated and etc, so it’s pretty easy to put down.  But the next time you start the game you will still start at the last save point you visited, so it may take you some time to get back to the point on the map you were at.  So it’s easy to put down, but you may have to retreat to get exactly back where you were.

Playability
Pretty standard controls for this kind of game, easy to get used to.

Replayability
You could keep playing to try to find all of the map and all of the items if you’re into that sort of thing.

Originality
The game is clearly heavily inspired by Metroid, so much of its format it owes to that.  I did appreciate that the game designers didn’t just copy everything from Metroid–the weapons are newly designed, the items to get through obstacles and that sort of thing are all original and it’s interesting to see where they’re going.

So, very familiar format based on a very well known game, but enough original pieces to make it worth playing.

Playtime
I expect this varies wildly based on how completionist you are about map exploration, how efficient you are at remembering what parts of the map have what kind of obstacle, and how good you are at the action sequences (to require more exploration to beef up your stats).

Usually I grab my Steam time on the game for this value, but it is telling me only 3 hours and I know that’s not right–the in-game is telling me more like 12 hours which is probably closer.  (But I didn’t try for completionist, I did explore the map as widely as I could as I went but didn’t worry about trying to get every single thing).

Overall
If you dig Metroid style platformer-shooters you should enjoy this game (and if you don’t know what a Metroid style platformer-shooter, it’s not a bad choice to be the first of its type you’ve played).  Action, gradual map exploration as you find items that unlock new areas, fun stuff.  $20 on Steam.

 

GAME REVIEW: Life Goes On: Done to Death

written by David Steffen

Life Goes On: Done to death is a platformer puzzle game with a dark sense of humor, published on Steam in April 2014 by Infinite Monkeys Entertainment Ltd.

A king with an obsession with immortality sends the brave knights of his kingdom on a quest to find the Cup of Life.  There… is clearly a reason why this immortality-obsessed king didn’t go on the quest himself, since the path to the cup is so dangerous that it leaves a steady trail of dead knights, and each knight only makes their way through the obstacles by using the corpses of the knights that came before them as puzzle-solving tools.  At the end of each level is a cup, but it never seems to the Cup..

Using bodies as stepping stones to cross spike pits, to weight down switches, or to scale spike walls, new puzzle components are added every few levels to keep things fresh, though the game felt too drawn out at times so that the level felt somewhat repetitive.

The final boss fight of the game is probably one of the favorite I’ve played in a while, several stages in itself all using the puzzle components you’ve learned throughout the game and using them in a boss fight scenario.  Especially fun.

 

Visuals
Fun and fine for what they are, perfect for a comedy puzzle platformer like this.

Audio
Played it muted most of the time–sound is at least not necessary to play.

Challenge
Decent puzzle challenge.  I finished the game without having to look up any of the solutions–a few of the puzzles took me quite a few tries, many of them I got the gist of how to work through them in the first few minutes on the level.  Not epicly challenging by any means, but also not trivial.  The puzzles add new components as the game goes on which helps keep things fresh, though sometimes I felt like there were too many levels before adding new components, some of the levels started feeling a little repetitive.

Story
Very minor level of story, though it works for what it is–between the levels the level map there are little bits of extra text talking about the story, mostly for some extra pieces of comedy.

Session Time
Most levels, once you know how to solve them, should take only 2 or 3 minutes to finish.  Add to that a few more minutes to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle, and most puzzles you can solve without too much agonizing.  If you quit in the middle of the level you have to start the level over again, but since the levels are reasonably short that’s not a huge deal.

Playability
Easy controls, just movement and jumping.  The challenge is more in figuring out the puzzles and then making sure you do all the steps in the right order and timing and etc.

Replayability
There is some replayability built in, mostly in having target stats for each level–minimizing finish time and body count, as well as whether Jeff was fed.

Originality
Felt quite original.  In a familiar genre, but the dark-funny premise of having a steady stream of knights sent to their death and then using their corpses as puzzle components.

Playtime
Steam says it took me about 16 hours of playtime–I feel like that’s longer than it took, maybe I left the game on a few times.  But the game did feel like it dragged on sometimes, more levels than were needed to get all the puzzle variants in.

Overall
This game was fun and funny with enough novel puzzle elements and interesting premise, well worth it for fans of puzzle platformers.  I thought the number of levels did go on too long so that the puzzles felt repetitive at times.  The final boss battle of the game was a major highlight, probably one of the most fun boss battles I have played. $12.99 on Steam.

 

GAME REVIEW: Minit

written by David Steffen

Minit is  a puzzle adventure game with a very short time limit published by Devolver Digital in April 2018.

The story begins as the duckbilled protagonist finds a sword lying on a beach.  But it turns out to be a cursed sword that will kill the holder one minute after finding it, only to be spawned back at his house only to repeat again and again and again!  Apparently these cursed swords are being produced at a local factory, so you need to go find the factory and complain.  Which wouldn’t be so hard, if you didn’t respawn every minute.  Minit is an incremental problem solver, where for each incarnation you have a minute to try to make some kind of progress, find a new item, find a new friend who might give you a clue, open a new shortcut to save you time next time.  Where the trend is always bigger bigger bigger, bigger world to explore, larger and larger map, it’s an interesting take to head in the other direction.  The game is fun, has a good sense of humor and the minute limit keeps everything pretty fast-paced.

Visuals
Very minimalist, down to being strictly black and white (not even gray).  Cute graphics, but not complex at all.

Audio
Likewise, extremely simple.

Challenge
Low to medium level of challenge.  Persistent players should be able to make their way through just by relentless exploring.  There are a couple parts where you have to fight against multiple enemies–you can make it easier if you can find some heart containers first, but it shouldn’t be too hard for most gamers.

Story
Quite light on story, just enough to justify the scenario (with the cursed sword) and the quest (to resolve the issue at the sword factory).

Session Time
Very short!  A maximum of a minute, in fact, as you will die at a minute anyway and restart from a house.  This does make it a very easy game to pick up even if your time is scattered.

Playability
Very simple controls, generally just arrow keys and attack, so very easy to pick up, and to understand the scenario.

Replayability
There are various collectibles, like coins and hearts and other items.  I finished the game only finding about half of them, so you could keep playing if you wanted to find them all.

Originality
The overall story and style is similar to other games, but the interesting tweak here of the 1 minute time limit is an interesting twist on the concept, and was the main thing that made me pick it up.

Playtime
I finished the main quest of the game in about three hours.  I haven’t tried to find all the collectibles, so I don’t know how long that would take.

Overall
It’s a fun and simple idea for a game that doesn’t take a lot of skill or attention, and has wonderfully short play sessions to make it easy for people who game in scattered spare time.  Worth the time to play through it, but don’t expect it to last you a long time.   $10 on Steam.

 

GAME REVIEW: Papers, Please

written by David Steffen

2014-09-26_00001Congratulations. The October labor lottery is complete. Your name was pulled. For immediate placement, report to the The Ministry of Admission at Grestin Border Checkpoint. An apartment will be provided for you and your family in East Grestin. Expect a Class-8 dwelling.

Papers, Please was released by Lucas Pope in August 2013, a first person multiple ending pattern-matching ethical conundrum game. This is just another one of those games about immigration documentation processing. Exciting, right? Actually, hear me out. I was skeptical, too, but the game came highly recommended. The game is billed as a “dystopian document thriller”.

2014-10-03_00002You work for the government of Aristotska (a country reminiscient of Cold-War era soviet administration), screening people entering the country. Day one is straightforward, because you’ve been told to turn away anyone without an Aristotskan passport. But the government responds to public pressure by starting to allow others through. People start slipping through who don’t belong and the government responds by adding new kinds of documents that you have to check–often checking one document against another for consistent information, checking the sex of the person against the ID (with body scan as a secondary check), scanning for contraband, arresting wanted criminals, etc. You have to pay for food and heat for your family, medicine if your son gets sick, other expenses that you can’t always predict. You get paid for each person you process, but your pay gets docked for making mistakes. The rules change every day, and to support your family you have to be both fast and accurate.

That’s what you might call the main focus of the gameplay, but there are quite a few other elements. A revolutionary group is just starting to get their foundations, and because you hold a position of relative importance they want to pay you to make selective mistakes that favor their group. But the Aristotskan government inspector is watching your every move, so you’d better consider very carefully what kinds of requests you want to take. Meanwhile, there are violent attacks on the border which close the office early for the day and which you can help stop. People coming through the gate may make requests of you–helping a recruiter find workers, offering to buy or sell items. The most poignant are ethical choices where a man’s documentation is all valid, but before he leaves the booth he asks you to let his wife through–you soon find her passport has expired. Will you let her through to meet her husband or will you follow orders and turn her away?

2014-10-03_00003There are some moments of levity in the game–mostly around one guy who is gleefully criminal. After a body scan turns up something suspicious, you ask him what it is, and his response is “Is drugs!” But much of the game is quite dark, thinking about what it must be like for all these people trying to cross from one country to another, and weighing the ethical decisions when you’re torn between doing what’s right and what’s legal according to the laws.

There are twenty different endings, depending on the choices you make. The easiest to reach happens when you run out of money–you are thrown in jail for the crime of debt. You can reach other endings depending on whether you support or reject the revolutionaries (and whether you get caught supporting the revolutionaries), and other choices.

There is so much going on in this game, plenty to keep you entertained. Just the core challenge of checking documents is hard enough with all the changing rules and time limit and penalty for mistakes, and then all the ethical choices and storyline branching makes it all the better.

Visuals
Simple 80’s era visuals, but adequate.

Audio
Music/audio that fits the visuals. I like the inarticulate garble the loudspeaker makes when you call the next person in line.

Challenge
This game is moderately challenging with a reasonable learning curve. The first day is easy–just need to check the country name. As the game goes on there are more things to check and more documents which can reveal discrepancy. I got significantly better with practice, but in the later levels it was still a challenge.

Story
Good story. The main objective of the game is to make sure that you and your family survive by processing enough immigrants and making few enough errors that you don’t get penalized. But there are other branches along the way that can lead to different endings. You can choose to support or resist revolutionaries at several points in the story, you can choose to let people through who engage your sympathies or if you will always stick to the policies.

Session Time
Pretty fast. The game auto-saves after each day. The clock is ticking on each day so if you’re not paused the time is slipping away every moment. Some of the days are cut especially short if there’s an attack on the border. You can get a day in with just a few minutes.

Playability
Easy to learn, hard to keep track of all the little details that change from day to day. If you make a little excess cash you can make your life easier by purchasing some booth upgrades that will give you shortcut keys to cut down on mouse interactions.

Replayability
Quite a bit of replay potential here. There are many different endings which you can reach by making particular choices. Each country in the region also has a special token that can be obtained by helping a person from that country, but the path to those are not always obvious either. Your save file lets you reload from any previous day and it keeps track of multiple different branches, so you can go back to day five and make different choices in that day and try to process more people and after you finish that day you can load from either branch.

Originality
Very, very original. I never would have thought that a game about processing immigration paperwork could be anything but extremely dull, but the game both provides challenge in the manner of attention to detail, but also various ethical conundrums.

Playtime
I’ve spent about 8 hours playing this game, I think I finished a full run through in 5-6 hours, then went back to replay some different paths.

Overall
The list price on Steam is $10. Very reasonable price. Great game. Easy buy.