Axiom Verge: Multiverse Edition is a retail release of Thomas Happ’s 2015 side-scrolling Metroidvania. The new edition includes a boxed copy with double-sided poster, artbook and making of documentary produced by expert development filmographers 2 Player Productions. But beyond all that, the Multiverse Edition is out on Switch, the perfect place for a game like this, so if you were waiting for Nintendo to dig an old-school Metroid out for the system, this might be the game for you. Here’s what the deal is with Axiom Verge.
Axiom Verge story
The story of Axiom Verge is light touch enough to let you get on with the real joy of a Metroidvania: fighting for upgrades. You play as Trace, a scientist who either died or got really terribly hurt in a lab explosion, then woke up in a different world. Things don’t seem to act the way they do on Earth in the new world, and your sole directive is to explore and survive. There is plenty to explore as the game carries on traditions of Castlevania and Metroid with hidden secrets and areas inaccessible until finding specific powerups or abilities.
Axiom Verge upgrades and powerups
The lifeblood of any exploration game is gaining new powers that help you reach increasingly obscure areas of the map. There are about 15 to find in Axiom Verge, and they range from the simple Field Disruptor, which alters the physics of the local area to allow you to jump higher, to various coats you can wear each with a different teleport ability. On top of these items that are usually found at the end of routes through new areas, there are powerups to find hidden throughout the levels.
There are four main powerups: Health, Power, Size and Range. Health Nodes increase your maximum health, and finding five Health Node Fragments will combine to a single Node to increase Trace’s maximum health by 100. Power Nodes increase weapon and item damage, with six Power Node Fragments combining into a single node. Size Nodes increase the size of weapon projectiles, and Range Nodes increase the effective distance of every non-projectile weapon, such as the flamethrower or lightning gun.
Axiom Verge weapons
There are 20 weapons in Axiom Verge, with three more weapons that can be found in the Secret World. You can only find one Secret World weapon per save file, but the other 20 weapons can always be obtained. Weapons largely split into projectile or beam weapons and come with different damage and range stats. Most weapons differ in the behavior of their firing modes, such as ricocheting bullets, splitting lasers or projectile patterns. Some weapons, such as the Nova, have interactions with their projectiles so firing once launches a large, slow-moving projectile and firing again causes that projectile to explode causing damage to things behind cover. In this way, certain weapons can be used to unlock new areas in the same way as abilities, so be sure to look for solutions to dead ends when you get a new toy.
