Not the greatest forever.
I had never heard of Soul Axiom prior to playing it. After doing a bit of research, I found that it was on the PC a while before finally coming over to the consoles. Originally, I was intrigued. The opening and beginning parts of the game really had me interested in what this world and story was going to show, but after putting a few hours into it, I found it to be less about the story and more about the puzzles. Problem is, the puzzles go from far too easy to far too tedious at the drop of a dime.
Souls Axiom takes place in Elysia, a surreal world built around memories and consciousness. Basically, people can upload their minds to this digital world to relive their memories and basically earn immortality. At least, that’s what is originally shown. After digging a bit deeper, things are not the paradise once thought, and there can be some major consequences to this immortality.
Platforms: XB1, PS4, PC
MSRP: $19.99
Price I’d pay: $10
Playing out in a first person exploration style, Soul Axiom relies on traversal and puzzles for the main game play. The puzzles usually require the special powers the player will acquire throughout the game. These can be the ability to phase certain objects in and out of reality, reversing or forwarding time on an object, and more. To begin with, the puzzles I ran into were simple. Overly simple. I knew I wasn’t that much of a genius, but I kept going.
After making it to the main hub world, I could then choose which memories I could go into to unlock the truth of the story. Strangely enough, the first memory I went into (which was the first one I saw in the line) I couldn’t do because I hadn’t acquired the power to solve the first puzzle yet. That’s exactly what sums up this game for me. Being shown something and know what I should do, but not having the means or the game having the right sense to let me know I couldn’t do it yet.
Each memory has a theme. Of course, they all pertain to the settings of said memory, and the style is where the game really shines. I enjoyed the look of it all, and the art style is really the best part of the game. When first seeing the broken down bar/gas station in the desert at the beginning parts of the game, I was really enthralled with the world itself. It was a great moment. The story, or what is shown to the player, is interesting, but in order to get the most out of it, players will have to go out of their way to find all the collectibles in the game since they reveal more on the story and the world of Elysia itself, and finding all these toy monkeys (the collectibles) can become more of a chore after a while. I found myself wandering far too much and not getting anything done.
While I wasn’t totally sold on the game, I didn’t hate it either. The beginning parts were really some great looks and moments in the game that were surreal and very interesting, but getting into the main crux of the game, the puzzles, was where it started to falter. I wanted more of the story, but wasn’t willing to scour the world to find all the collectibles which seemed to be the best way to figure out what was really happening. Soul Axiom has some really interesting parts, but its whole is still something left to be desired.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
