Axiom Verge 2

 Switch
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. Edge Magazine
    Sep 10, 2021
    70
    The game occasionally gets lost in the cleverness of its own layouts. [Issue#363, p.120]
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  2. Screen Rant
    Aug 24, 2021
    70
    Axiom Verge 2 adds some interesting twists to the Metroidvania format and it does get good once the player unlocks the drone, fast travel, and some of the special abilities. If the player is willing to sit through a slow start and some dicey combat encounters, then Axiom Verge 2 becomes a lot of fun to play, with a world that's fascinating to explore and treasures that are waiting to be found in its beautiful and scary alien world.
  3. GameSpot
    Aug 16, 2021
    70
    Simple combat, forgettable boss fights, and a reticent narrative--not to mention an overly vague map--are the only dampeners on what is an impressive sequel, despite never quite feeling like one. The unsuspected changes and additions are bold and mostly pay off, with consistently engaging and rewarding exploration that's propelled forward by an ambitious central mechanic. Axiom Verge 2 is a game that constantly evolves and delights, but just lacks the same bite as some of its contemporaries.
  5. Jeuxvideo.com
    Aug 11, 2021
    70
    Axiom Verge 2 impresses with its level design. Its complex structure supported by two parallel worlds accessible at all times will offer a major challenge to aficionados of metroidvania. Too bad that gameplay inaccuracies spoil the party and cause frustrating situations. Without this, this second episode could easily have risen to the level of its predecessor.
  6. Metro GameCentral
    Aug 13, 2021
    60
    A curious sequel whose simplified combat and lack of challenge undermines some of the best level design and puzzles in any recent Metroidvania.

Awards & Rankings

35
#35 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2021

User Reviews

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User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 58 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 58
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 58
  3. Negative: 9 out of 58
  1. Snusfika
    Aug 12, 2021
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Wow.. What a disappointing sequel. Almost every aspect of this game pales in comparison to the first game. I'll start off with the good things before i move on to bash this game for the piece of mediocre trash it is. The hacking gimmick is very cool and... yeah that's it. Some of the music is nice I guess..

    The game started out very interesting. Enemies were dangerous and rewarded you for using skill points to fit your preffered way of tackling them wether that is hacking or slashing. Then..

    The breach.

    What the **** made Happ think this was a good idea? Half of the game you play as the stupid drone because you'll have to traverse this uninspired retro **** called "the breach". It's the first games' secret world but mandatory. You go back and forth through the overworld and the breach so many times it honestly felt like I was going absolutely insane. Nothing interesting happens either. The game never pushes the mechanic further than bare minimum. How about gaining an ability to teleport to the breach whenever you want in addition to leaving it whenever you want? "No". Or traverse it in human form? "No".
    I don't know.. It cannot be saved. It's a boring as heck concept to begin with. Atleast the game makes up for this with the cool bossfights, you know? like in the first game? WRONG! There's only 2 f*cking bosses in this game! Are you kidding me? They aren't challenging either, so there's no discussion to be had here. The game tried to remedy this by having optional mini-bosses scattered around here and there. But these do NOT cut it. It never goes past a skill point as a reward for beating them. You fight them while the overworld theme is still playing. Is this a joke or something?

    All in all; The puzzles weren't clever or intresting. The upgrades are boring as f*ck. The weapons are so boring I almost quit playing when I realised I had seen every type. Melee and boomerangs? Seriously? This IS a joke isn't it? What happened to the cool weapons from last game? There isn't anything in this game as cool as they were. I also stumbled upon so many glitches and typos I went and checked if i was playing the early-access but no. The double axe was unusable because of some basic oversight that could've been found with five minutes of playtesting. The ending was so anticlimactic it's embarassing. My jaw dropped at how absolutely bad Tom Happ decided to end this long awaited sequel. There's no conclusion. The game should NOT have ended like it did. If you end up finishing the game you'll understand what I mean. 4/10 Because it is slow, boring, uneventful, uninspired and just all round unpolished. Possibly the most boring Metroidvania in a long time. I will never play it again.    … Full Review »
  2. BigDaddyHondo
    Aug 13, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Really disappointing, especially when compared to the first game. This time around the game is trying to be more vania than metroid and falls flat on it's face pretty much out of the gate.

    The biggest and most unforgiveable issue is the combat. Unlike the first game where you had a wide variety of weapons you're limited to two weapons here with three upgrades in total (two for the axe, 1 for the boomerang). These weapons never feel satisfying to use which results in a lot of time spent running away from fights. The developer seems to understand how broken the combat is since they removed collision damage for almost all enemies and made all boss battles optional. I honestly thought that something was broken with the game when I was able to just run from one side of the first boss room to the other to get past it. This is intentional and is the best strategy for all but two bosses. For the two bosses that you're required to fight a respawn point is placed in the boss room so you just have to keep hacking and dying until you "beat" them. No skill, no sense of accomplishment, just mash the buttons until it's over. The worst part is when you get to what looks like an awesome giant bug boss and it just sits there. I guess the dev just wanted to you to look at it which is a huge shame since it looks like it could have been the coolest boss in the game.

    That lack of accomplishment feeling spreads throughout the entire game. The majority of upgrades that you run into just upgrade a very basic skill tree that is pretty much pointless unless you're trying to sequence break. The weapons never feel any stronger even with all the upgrades, and health upgrades don't seem to matter since the character can't take many hits until the end of the game when they get damage reduction upgrades. The only upgrade that matters is hacking and really it only matters if you're trying to sequence break doors early.

    There are some upgrades that are fun like hacking but they're only fun for the first half of the game. Eventually you realize that almost all of the upgrades are meaningless beyond a handful that are required to get you to the end of the game. It becomes very obvious very early that the gameplay loop is simply run to the next dot. The path is almost always pretty linear and all of the upgrades you need to make it through are plainly presented. If you're expecting to have to work towards the goal like every other metroidvania this game will let you down. The amount of useless upgrades is better than the first game but it's still an issue and almost all of the extras aren't worth finding.

    The worst "upgrade" of all is the drone. When you get the drone upgrade you're introduced to the breach. This is a secondary map that is used as a warp map to get to points that you can't access on the main map. The problem with this is the breach itself looks like a cartoony mess and the drone is horrible to play as. It gets even worse when the character has their body taken away and you now have to play as the drone for a good 3rd of the game. The drone has no health and a weak attack so expect a lot of frustrations as you work through this section. Thing is this whole drone section is really just a very drawn out tutorial on how to use the drone and by the time you get your body back you'll wish you didn't have to play as the drone again. Unfortunately the drone becomes a critical piece and you're stuck dealing with it for the rest of the game.

    Even the art is a complete letdown compared to the first game. Did you like all the creepy stuff? The weird heads? The surreal colorful graphics that looked like they would be right at home on an NES? Well guess what? All of that is gone. Now the game is bright in a realistic world setting that often looks disjointed and washed out. I feel like the art just doesn't know what it wants to be and the mix of Greek, tech, middle eastern, and sci-fi is a huge mess that never really satisfies. The game looks like every other pixel art indie game now and it's a huge disappointment. Even when the art is cool (the underwater levels) they manage to screw that up by making these levels pitch black until the very end of the game. Hard to apricate the art when all I see is a circle 1/6 the size of my screen.

    Plot is also a complete disaster and the main character makes you want to hate them the more you play. The story reads like it was written by someone in junior high and the main character is a rich jerk who things juvenile quips and comebacks are cool. I really just wanted the main to shut up so I could get on with it. The ending is particularly horrible since the main character learns nothing and just becomes more of a greedy jerk.

    Music is also pretty bad and vocals shouldn't be used in music this short that loops. I felt like I had the Survivor intro on loop and had to turn the music off to finish. Levels really need to be adjusted on sound effects as well.    … Full Review »
  3. MJ3000
    Aug 17, 2021
    4
    Nowhere near as good as the first game. The combat is terrible, enemies can be avoided. For what do I need to play this game when there is noNowhere near as good as the first game. The combat is terrible, enemies can be avoided. For what do I need to play this game when there is no real challenge? Axiom Verge 2 is the biggest disappointment of 2021. Avoid it when you loved the 1st game as the sequel is not good.… Full Review »
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