Soul Axiom

In a genre that can count on several excellent games, Soul Axiom finds its place with an interesting plot and an extremely well-balanced gameplay. Wales Interactive’s game has a distinctive and beautiful soul.

Wales Interactive clearly has great ideas, but Soul Axiom shows that the company needs to focus a little more on execution to make sure that they unlock their true potential for the public.

If a little more effort and refinement had gone into the game’s level design, those feelings would have been stronger.

It won't blow you away, but you should be entertained enough to appreciate the effort.

It’s simple, but simplicity can be handled in a classy way and I think that Soul Axiom does a great job with something pretty barebones.

Environmentally diverse, and largely consistent in the quality of its conundrums, Soul Axiom is an imperfect but distinct first-person puzzler.

Simplistic and often jarring its intended design may seem, Soul Axiom is a game that requires, as much cunningly desires, the player’s warranted need to look beyond the surface that’s initially presented. Whether that be in its puzzle design or the ample conflict of environments, Wales Interactive do just enough with the overarching themes of simulation and replication to make its superficial locales feel that extra bit suspicious.

With interesting ideas and settings, Soul Axiom doesn't manage to have a narrative compelling enough. The puzzles, whereas integrated with the environment, feel contrived, and parts of the universe are too disjointed to make sense. It'll make you think, though, although sometimes with pain.

Soul Axiom is a puzzle adventure set in an evocative cyberpunk universe. There are some good ideas here and there, but it also has some design flaws and storytelling problems.

Soul Axiom is an atmospheric experience that looks and sounds great. It’s a shame that the puzzles feel unoriginal and the world can feel a little sparse at times.

Despite an impressive variety in art direction and environments, Soul Axiom’s puzzle design is shallow and frustrating.

The highly erratic Soul Axiom is a love-hate kind of game – you’ll love it until you hate it, and vice versa. If only it knew when enough was enough.

Mechanically and in terms of storytelling this is an enhancement of Master Reboot – but a lot happened in the last two years. The combination of story and puzzles feels more organic in The Talos Principle while The Witness shows off the way better puzzles.

Its puzzles and story aren’t really bad, they’re just bland. There are occasional mentions of philosophical and moral debates regarding the game’s artificial afterlife, and a deeper, more thought-provoking analysis would have made for a more engaging experience. Instead, these headier subjects were kept on the back burner in favor of a less-thrilling, more pedestrian adventure, and the game suffered for it.

If you expect a funny puzzle game, you have to look elsewhere. Soul Axiom offers plenty of easily-forgettable levels and dull puzzles, that will resolve themselves. In addition, the game doesn´t excel in its presentation, whether we are talking about graphic stylization or the technical side of the game.

Without being a complete disaster, it's a game with too many shortcomings in a genre with too many masterpieces.