WHAT’S NEW PLUS-SY CAT?
Digging into the random acts of gaming a lengthy PS Plus subscription offers
January’s PS Plus games featured surviving against the odds. Leading the charge on PS5 and PS5 was a title that needs no introduction this issue, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Also on both consoles was Axiom Verge 2 and, only on PS4, Fallout 76 closed out the month. We’re spotlighting Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in this month’s Play On column on p85, so we’re going to look at the other tricky metroidvania here, Axiom Verge 2.
This followup goes big, offering two large maps that you explore more or less simultaneously. One centres crumbling ruins while the other, known as the Breach, features acid-toned science-fiction landscapes. Each plane has the typical traversal puzzles you’d expect from a metroidvania, but an interdimensional hop allows you to bypass blockades in one realm by travelling to the other. This thinking-outside-the-boxby-scrawling-along-theside-of-it navigation makes an engaging challenge.
While everything from the visuals to the music gives off throwback vibes, gameplay enjoys its share of modern touches. For instance, fast travel makes it easy to backtrack to a suspicious environmental flourish and point a new power at it. Exploration shines throughout Axiom Verge 2 – though that puts combat in its shadow.
Your arsenal is adequate, allowing you to clobber foes with melee weapons in addition to manipulating enemy behaviour through hacking. However, while interdimensional exploration evolves over the course of the game, combat is samey throughout. Why bother finessing a fight when sticking foes with the pointy end is a fine strategy from start to finish? Similarly, few boss encounters are worth writing across the interdimensional breach about either – but Axiom Verge 2’s realm hopping is definitely worth a postcard.