The Axis Unseen Review (Ralph Pootawn)
This games world is huge. It is a Hunting game with RPG mechanics. You start out really weak with very little arrows and healing. But as you progress, you gain more arrows, bigger quivers (if you look hard enough), healing crosses and more tools to help you take on this worlds inhabitants.
The world is immersive due to its size and not having a map means you can get lost rather easily if you don't take in the sights/landmarks.
I first had a complaint about optimization but after this recent update something changed and it runs much better for me.
Okay on to the gameplay.
At first I wasn't impressed. The UI was strange and something to get used to. I was too scared about my movement making noise and attracting more monsters. I felt extremely weak and at the mercy of mechanics i had to get used to. But eventually I was getting more and more impressed.
I leveled up a bit and was able to carry more arrows/healing crosses after a bit of exploring. Found a passive skill for alerting me of enemy presence. Started to get immersed in the game.
I started utilizing the tools given to me by the game. Like the wind mechanic. Some enemies can smell you and will sniff around to find you. If the wind is blowing from your direction to the enemy, they will start to beeline for you. You can leave tracks and enemies will actually follow you (apparently you can mislead enemies). The Tree Golems are nasty for this.
I had a moment where i shot one of the Deer enemies and it did some loony toons ass shit with a tree, i lost sight of it and when i got to where i seen it last, i found a trail of blood and followed it to a bled out deer and retrieved my arrows.
The games level up system is much like a Dark Souls exp system. But in this one you can lock in your EXP and not be afraid of dying and losing it all. However you still can lose it all if its not locked in. an example being: You have 1200 EXP locked in, you leave and kill some enemies, now you have 2000 EXP, 800 of which is not locked in until you get to safety.
Enemies have weak spots and journal entries can be found to give more info. The journals also have some lore that I have yet to actually read. Im waiting til i find all the Forest entries.
I think the game has 6 big regions with portals and stuff to find. They must be huge because i've been in the first region for a long time and its pretty big. Its got a nice number of enemies in it too. 3 "Werefolves" (Spiky Hounds), 3 Horned Deer, 2 Tree Golems, 2 Bigfoot (maybe i haven't seen the second one but the Hub area of the game has Statue locations for each enemy in the Forest region) and I think there's a boss enemy for the region but I got a few locations to find in this Forest still.
I found a way to skip to one of the other regions of the game. This place is going to be horrifying to play in. I was climbing a mountain to get here and from above it looks like a normal area but with some special looking stones floating around. I could go no further on the mountain, so i dropped down. My screen goes almost entirely black and my Spirit Arrows are not producing any light. The only light is very faintly coming off the floating rocks. I hear creatures moving around me. Fear and Panic sets in and im sprinting in the direction of something I had seen while up on the mountain. I come across a new spell. A spell i should not have this early. It gives Movement speed and has an alternate cast that buffs my current knocked arrow with extra bleeding. Im basically running aimlessly at this point with the growls and movement of whatever the fuck it is im hearing around me and eventually I get stuck on something and can't see shit so it feels like im not moving and then i am moving idk, its hard to tell what im even doing its so damned dark. I die from something and get sent back to the Main Hub.
Overall, its a strangely good game that needs some kinda optimization miracle.
It's made by a single dev who has been very active on the steam discussion forums here.