May the creator of The Axis Unseen saying a few days ago that his video game is five times bigger than Skyrim was enough incentive to open Steam and install the game demo. More after the comment: “See that mountain? You can go there”, making a reference to the presentation of Betheasda’s epic game.
The game’s premise is very juicy: “The Axis Unseen is a heavy metal horror game created by one of the developers of Skyrim and Fallout,” says the official Steam description. “Hunt nightmarish monsters from ancient folklore in a mysterious open world, gain the power of your heightened senses, and discover elemental arrows.”
I have tried the demo The Axis Unseen hoping to find a hybrid experience between Far Cry Primal and Monster Hunter… but perhaps my expectations were too high. There are two aspects that I loved, but I admit that overall I was a little disappointed with the demo.
The Axis Unseen: Hunting, Survival, and Wild Beasts
I like to think that I am a fairly permissive person when it comes to video games. It is not something that prevents me from seeing shortcomings and errors, but let’s say that I am not as demanding as other people. However, I am adamant about tutorials. They are a letter of introduction and the lessons that will cement the entire experience. It has to be good and well made, even if that means doing things I don’t like like freezing the screen.
The tutorial shown in the demo The Axis Unseen It is very improvable. It feels rushed and confusing. They are gameplay scenes interspersed by quick fades to black. You are not in control of learning. You can’t take your time to see if you have learned what you are being taught. I admit that it has been a rather negative first contact. As I say, I’m very inflexible when it comes to tutorials. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is perfect in this regard, for example.
The first thing I thought when closing the demo was that this experience is not for me and that maybe someone else would like it, but I have fooled myself a little. These types of experiences are for me, but it’s not true: I love hunting and exploring in video games. I did it for hundreds of hours in Red Dead Redemption 2 and I love it Far Cry Primal y Monster HunterFor example.
So I think that The Axis Unseen It’s not for me, even though it has two ideas that I really liked. The first is to dispense with the HUD and place all the information in the same arc. Everything from skills to the stealth system, including the noise you make, is represented as icons that update in real time. It’s not the first time I’ve seen something like this, but specifically in an arch. I fell in love with it and it is a concept that would fit perfectly with Aloy.
The other aspect that I really liked are the hunting mechanics. In the demo I have seen several options, each with its pros and cons. You make less noise when walking on land, making it easier to prey on creatures and stealth. You make more noise walking over the stones, but you don’t leave any traces… unless you have dirt on your boots.
And it turns out that the creatures can not only see you, they also use the rest of their senses to chase you. The Axis Unseen points out that they can even follow you through your footsteps. Therefore, it is important to take the surroundings into account when traveling. This is something great. I’ve only seen things like this in hunting games like theHunter: Call of the Wild
Another salvageable aspect is its setting and style: wild, fantasy and shamanic, like the druids of Diablo IV. Beyond this, I think the demo must be a very early version. I put special emphasis on the enemies, from their behavior to the animations. The game still has a lot of work left in terms of physics, artificial intelligence, optimization and especially when it comes to communicating with the player. And I didn’t like the gunplay with the bow very much.
The roll of The Axis Unseen It’s great, because it is a hybrid between Far Cry Primal y Monster Hunterbut certainly its execution in the demo has not left me wanting more. Maybe it’s five times bigger than Skyrim and offers more freedom when exploring, but it’s useless if the rest doesn’t work. The problem is that there are very good alternatives for those looking to hunt and explore in video games. I won’t lose track of him in case I’m wrong.
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