The trailer shows some of Axiom Verge 2‘s unique pixel-art aesthetics, as well as its side-scrolling action gameplay that has you exploring two alien setting simultaneously to get new abilities that will help further your exploration.

A sequel to 2015’s Axiom Verge, Axiom Verge 2 revolves around the quest to discover the origins of the Axiom Verge universe. It stars a different protagonist from the original, Indra, who goes to Antarctica to look for her daughter.

Axiom Verge 2 was originally released on PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch back in 2021. In terms of story, Axiom Verge 2 essentially acts as a prequel to its predecessor, albeit with new mechanics to play around with.

For more details about Axiom Verge 2, check out our review.

The addition of Jedi: Fallen Order to the service for PS4 and PS5 makes sense, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launching in March for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The former follows the story of Cal Kestis, one of the few remaining Jedi after Order 66 who struggles to survive against the Empire’s forces. He embarks on a journey to hopefully revive the Order, battling the Inquisitorius along the way.

Also playable on PS4 and PS5 is Thomas Happ’s Axiom Verge 2, a sequel to his acclaimed Metroid-style title. It follows Indra, the leader of Globe 3 conglomerate, as she travels to a strange world filled with bizarre machines and must also use hacking to survive.

Finally, there’s Fallout 76, a live-service, online survival title based on Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi RPG series. Despite a disastrous launch in 2018, it’s seen several updates and recently hit 13.5 million players. There’s no current-gen version, but PS5 players can still experience it via backward compatibility.

To that end, developer Thomas Happ Games has announced that Axiom Verge 2 will be coming to Steam soon- precisely, on August 11, exactly a year on from the game’s original launch in August 2021. Its Steam page has now gone live as well, though pre-orders aren’t yet live.

In our review of Axiom Verge 2, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Axiom Verge 2 delivers a sequel that successfully diverges from the original, and the genre in general, in several ways, giving us a confident look at other directions for Metroidvania games to evolve in.” You can read our full review through here.

Axiom Verge 2 is available on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. A PS5 version is also in the works, but a release date for the same hasn’t yet been confirmed.

NEO: THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU

The tragedy of this series is that it has never done as well as it deserves to. After a nearly decade and a half long wait, fans of The World Ends With You finally got the sequel they deserved, and it was amazing across the board – excellent battle system, great characters, fantastic soundtrack, an overwhelming amount of content, and a great flair for style. Unfortunately, the game underperformed pretty severely, which is a huge bummer, because it is one of the highlights of the year. If you have a Switch, PS4, or an EGS account on PC, definitely look into playing this one.

The differences between Axiom Verge 2 and its predecessor, and indeed, between it and many other games of this format, are apparently almost right away. You’re playing in organic outdoor environments a lot of the time, rather than the claustrophobic indoors that so many games of this genre make their haunts. It also ends up de-emphasizing combat drastically. Your weapons now are a melee pickaxe and a boomerang you can use at range, and while you get both of these pretty early, you also end up realizing equally early that combat is really not the point of this game. Exploration and traversal are. In fact, Axiom Verge 2 is so committed to deemphasizing combat that even the bosses are entirely optional. They’re there, and beating them nets you some cool upgrades you can then choose to grow Indira – but they can be entirely avoided should you be so inclined.

"Axiom Verge 2 manages to ultimately be a worthy follow up to the first game by not really concerning itself as much with what that title did, and instead by squarely emphasizing its own identity, doing its own thing, and delivering a distinct but accomplished take on the Metroidvania conceit in the process."

Making bosses optional is just one part of the concessions to accessibility and accommodating players of all persuasions that Axiom Verge 2 makes. There are also extremely granular settings to control the game’s difficulty, from being able to control exactly how much damage your hits do to enemies, to how much damage enemies do to you. Axiom Verge 2 gives you the tools to define the experience and the challenge it presents to you – if you want to enemies to be able to knock you out in one hit, then Axiom Verge 2 lets you do that. If you would rather be able to export the world without having to worry about dying and backtracking to lose progress, Axiom Verge 2 does that too. It’s a remarkably well balanced and well-tuned game across all the various permutations and combinations for difficulty and challenge that it provides, which means no matter how you play, you’re never getting a neutered experience.

Axiom Verge 2 makes other concessions to modern game design too. On paper, you would assume these concessions could threaten to dilute the entire appeal of a Metroidvania game. For example, you always have a marker on your map showing you where to go, you always have a compass pointing you in the general right direction. You even end up unlocking a fast travel system that almost entirely takes the tedium out of backtracking. And it is true that on a macro scale, these kinds of systems and mechanics do take away from the world seeming as sprawling or unknowable as something like Ori or Hollow Knight might. But Axiom Verge 2 is a very smartly designed game, and within each area, it maintains multiple micro loops of Metroidvania style progression and traversal, with each area essentially being a self-contained Metroidvania world, full of shortcuts and barriers that are only unlocked to give you access to newer areas and such once you gain the powers hidden in that area.

These micro loops of Metroidvania progression end up doing a wonderful job of recreating the highs of exploring and uncovering a world, while also never getting so daunting that they threaten to make a player lose their bearings entirely. You always know what direction to head in. You know that your exact location can be called up at any time. You even have the assurance of knowing that nothing in the world can hurt you more than you want to be hurt – this ends up freeing you up from the stresses that a Metroidvania game can otherwise typically bring, and allows you to truly immerse yourself in the world and explore it bit by bit.

"These micro loops of Metroidvania progression end up doing a wonderful job of recreating the highs of exploring and uncovering a world, while also never getting so daunting that they threaten to make a player lose their bearings entirely. You always know what direction to head in."

And it is a world worth exploring. I mentioned those organic outdoor environments before, but even within the context of that aesthetic, it’s remarkable how varied Axiom Verge 2 gets with its world, from glaciers to deserts, forests to caves, mountains to waterfalls, and beyond. The world itself is inextricably tied to the story and lore, and the more you play, the more you learn, whether via the chatter from the occasional NPC you stumble upon, or the various notes and journal entries that are scattered around the world, and which slowly reveal exactly what is going on around you, raising a whole lot of narrative and philosophical questions that can and should give any player pause.

This emphasis on narrative is another way that Axiom Verge 2 stands apart from most other games of its ilk. Metroidvania games, are topically fairly light on storytelling. Oh sure, there’s loads of lore and backstory and even environmental and atmospheric storytelling going on in each of those, to be clear – but direct storytelling is not something they do often. Which makes sense, the more story you have, the less freedom, by definition, a player ends up having, and a Metroidvania game that doesn’t give its players freedom is no Metroidvania at all.

Axiom Verge 2, as mentioned, smartly sidesteps this issue with the whole micro Metroidvania loops. While it is true that your general direction and next objective is always known to you, the game also doesn’t really mind letting you go off on your own and get lost, and it also rewards the enterprising player who does decide to explore the world on their own time.

But a narrative focus isn’t the only way Axiom Verge 2 sets itself apart from other games in the genre – one of the coolest things in the game is the ability that the protagonist Indira ends up getting, the ability to hack into enemies and machines around her, which, again, can provide a bevy of ways for players to deal with hostile characters without engaging in direct combat. You can disable enemies, or simply move them out of the way, or of course, you can hack them to turn them into allies, and let them do your dirty work for you (or assist you in yours).

"A narrative focus isn’t the only way Axiom Verge 2 sets itself apart from other games in the genre – one of the coolest things in the game is the ability that the protagonist Indira ends up getting, the ability to hack into enemies and machines around her, which, again, can provide a bevy of ways for players to deal with hostile characters without engaging in direct combat."

Indira also gains the ability to spawn remote controlled drones, who can go into areas she can’t go into, navigating and nullifying obstacles that would otherwise keep you from progressing. This includes the drone’s ability to enter an alternate dimension known as the breach, which can allow your drone to get to places it is otherwise physically impossible to get to in the real world, and therefore end up creating a path for you to follow. The breach, combined with the game’s non-linearity as mentioned before, ends up basically blowing the map wide open, and loads to Axiom Verge 2’s world feeling like one gigantic traversal puzzle – something the best Metroidvania games achieve, though of course, they end up going about it in very different ways.

All of this leads to a smartly designed and incredibly satisfying game, and one that’s entirely different from most other games of this genre. Axiom Verge 2 does stumble, to be clear – the bosses, deemphasized as they are, are rather straightforward encounters, lacking the panache and thrill that they might have in other similar games, for example, the combat feels less satisfying than in other games of the genre, and the broader world design does lack that sense of labyrinthine progression that marks the best Metroidvania games. If you come into this looking for the sort of dizzying heights of world design that you can find in Hollow Knight, you’re not going to find them here. Depending on exactly what you look for from your Metroidvania games, you might even be outright disappointed in fact. This is a very different kind of Metroidvania title – the bulk of its Metroidvania progression is maintained in smaller doses, and the broader game is defined by a surprising narrative focus.

But Axiom Verge 2 is trying to do its own thing. It’s expanding the definition of a Metroidvania game, honestly, and the fact that we have a game that’s as non-linear and expansive as this, while still being as narrative driven as this, while still delivering the Metroidvania progression so many players love, makes it truly a great accomplishment in game design. The various things it tries – the story focus, the non-linear exploration, bringing in the breach, the deemphasizing of the combat, the new setting, the accessibility considerations, all of it – they end up delivering a very unique experience that is still, at its heart, a Metroidvania game, and equally important, an Axiom Verge sequel, through and through. If you’re looking for something different from the usual Metroidvania game? Axiom Verge 2 is the best place to start.

This game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch.

Described as a sequel and prequel to the original, Axiom Verge 2 offers the same side-scrolling action platforming and exploration. However, it adds lots of new mechanics into the mix, especially when it comes to the breach map. This is an alternate dimension that can be switched to and has its own unique enemies, abilities and aesthetic while being intimately connected to the original dimension.

This is on top of new abilities and upgrade, new boss fights and tons of different secrets to discover. A release date hasn’t yet been confirmed for the PS5 version (though Happ previously stated it would launch on the same day) so stay tuned for any details and updates in the coming days.

Surprise! Axiom Verge 2 drops later TODAY on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Epic Games Store!

— Tom Happ (@AxiomVerge) August 11, 2021

Axiom Verge 2 will also have an alternate dimensional breach map (fans of the first game will be familiar with the concept on at least a narrative level), and players will be able to switch between dimensions. According to Happ, this interconnected nature of the two worlds adds a whole new dimension to exploration. The breach world and the overworld will have their own unique art styles, different kinds of enemies, unique abilities, and more.

The breach world is shown off quite a bit in the game’s newest gameplay trailer, which you can view below. Additionally, the trailer also shows plenty of new upgrades and abilities, the most significant of which seems to be a drone that you can control. Check it out below.

Axiom Verge 2 is due out for the PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC some time in Q3 of this year. An exact release date is currently unknown, but update data for the game recently spotted on the Switch servers might suggest it’s not that far away.

Nintendo Everything reports that update data for Axiom Verge 2 has popped up on the Nintendo servers. Why exactly is that significant? Well, because a few times in the past, update data for games has gone live shortly before their releases, spilling the beans on surprise launches. It’s possible, then, that something might be in store for Axiom Verge 2 as well. Perhaps an Indie World presentation is on the horizon?

We are almost at the halfway point of Q3, so it would make sense for not only the game’s release date to be announced soon, but also for it to be released soon (unless, of course, it suffers another delay). One way or another, we should know soon enough (hopefully).

Whenever it launches, Axiom Verge 2 will be available on Nintendo Switch, PC (via the Epic Games Store), PS5, and PS4.

“As I was working on Axiom Verge 2, I felt I owed it both to Sony and all of the earliest fans of Axiom Verge to bring it to PS4 and PS5,” Happ wrote. “I can’t imagine launching any other way. I am excited to confirm here and now that the PS4 version will be available on day one. I am going to try my best to get the PS5 version ready for launch, but that might take a bit longer since I really want to take advantage of that in-game hints system!”

In the same update, Happ also provided new details on the game- more specifically, it’s difficulty, and how he has attempted to address some issues with the upcoming sequel. “Although I try to put on my blinders with respect to other people’s opinions about my games and stay true to my original vision, one common theme came up when I watched people play,” Happ wrote. “here were some people who wished the game were a lot harder, and there were those who wanted it to be easier. Some loved the exploration but just got to a boss they couldn’t get past. That’s happened to me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stop playing a game because of a choke point.”

For starters, Axiom Verge 2 is going to have customizable difficulty options. Rather than choosing specific difficulty options, players will instead be able to decide how much damage they will do, and how much damage they will incur. Interestingly enough, Happ also confirms that all bosses are going to be optional in the game- though players will be rewarded for beating bosses, that will no longer be required to progress the story. It’s an interesting choice, and I’m curious to see how it will work out in a Metroidvania game, which is a genre that traditionally places so much emphasis on boss fights as progression gates.

Finally, Happ also gave brief details on weapons, and how protagonist Indra’s weaponry is going to differ from what fans of the first game will remember, owing to its more close-range nature. “She starts off with a pickaxe and does a lot of her fighting up close and personal,” Happ explained. “Fortunately for her, it’s a question of brains over brawn, and she can use her technical skills as a tech genius to hack her enemies.”

Axiom Verge 2, which was recently delayed, is due out this Summer for PS5, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. On PC, it will launch as an Epic Games Store exclusive.

Originally slated to release this Spring, Thomas Happ Games’ Axiom Verge 2 has been delayed again. It’s now set to release in Q3 2021. Speaking to IGN, Happ said that the game “will be better for the additional time” and that the delay can help in avoiding burnout and crunch.

The story centers on Indra, the head of Worldwide Globe 3 Conglomerate and her adventure to Antarctica where she finds another Earth. While there are various ruins, mountains and other environments to explore, there are also plenty of secrets and hidden areas to uncover. Much of the story takes place before the first game but is meant to serve as a “complimentary piece” to the series as a whole.

Axiom Verge 2 is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC via the Epic Games Store as an exclusive. Along with the standard story mode, there’s also a Speedrun Mode that provides a streamlined interface for those keen on speedrunning the game. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming months.