Info about The Axis Unseen:

Official game description:
The Axis Unseen® is a **heavy metal horror** game created by one of the developers of **Skyrim** and **Fallout**.
Hunt monsters from folklore in a mysterious open world. Discover enhanced sense powers, elemental arrows, magical abilities and journals from people who came to this world before you. Almost all of the UI exists in the world itself.
Beware, **the hunter is also the hunted**.
Your entire village of Hunters has been slaughtered by the creatures, can you stop them from being unleashed on our world?
_There is a demo for The Axis Unseen and all progress from the demo carries forward seamlessly to the main game._
**Reviews/Accolades**
---------------------
**“A knockout indie entry in gaming.”** - TechRaptor  
**“Just Purkey Games has made something special… You’re off the edge of the map. Here be dragons. But if you play it right, the scariest thing in this world might just be you.”** -Shacknews  
**“The Axis Unseen is the most Skyrim-like game I’ve played since Skyrim… stripped back and filtered through the likes of Elden Ring and Praey for the Gods.”** - The Escapist
The Axis Unseen is a game with deep combat and hunting mechanics. Follow the tracks and blood trails of the creatures. Pay attention to the wind direction so they can't smell you approaching.
The Axis Unseen can be played both as a stealth game or as an intense action game, depending on your personal style and preference.
For people who want a less hardcore experience, the difficulty can be changed at any time and there is even a pacifist mode where you can take pictures of the creatures to unlock things instead. For an extra challenge, there is a permadeath mode.
The Axis Unseen is a game all about immersion and discovery. Your bow shows important UI elements such as how much noise you are making, how much magic you have left and how visible you are. Creatures will track you with sight, sound and smell and and have specific weaknesses.
You have to check your quiver to see how many arrows you have. Tattoos on your hand light up to show your health and active powers.
Can you uncover the mysteries of this world and how to defeat the creatures?
The Axis Unseen features original music by Clifford Meyer, previously of the legendary post-metal bands ISIS and Red Sparowes. It is a unique blend of heavy metal and primitive instruments. The music dynamically adjusts to what is going on in the game. Sometimes it is atmospheric, other times it is intense metal.
Upgrade your senses with the powers of the creatures. See scent particles. Feel the warmth left behind on their tracks. See colors that no human has ever seen.
Your bow and arrow keeps you alive. Upgrade your bow or even find different arrow types such as fire, wind controlling or time distorting arrows. Experiment to see all the different ways the arrows can interact with each other, such as wind arrows making the fire spread faster.
You have a safe area where all of the monsters, powers, magic, equipment and map sections that you find unlock sculptures and a 3d version of the map to look at to help you navigate the world. You can also use this space to seamlessly fast travel around the world without ever needing to open a menu.
Find out what happened to the Hunters and other visitors to this place who came before you and what secrets they uncovered by finding their journals. Where did this world come from? How do you stop the creatures from escaping into your world? As you explore this world you will also make your own journal entries and drawings about the monsters, powers and equipment that you find.
You are the only one who has a chance to stop these creatures from continuing to escape into our world.
The Axis Unseen® is developed by Nate Purkeypile. Nate Purkeypile has been making games for 20+ years and worked on titles such as Skyrim, Fallout 3/4/76, Starfield, Metroid Prime 3 and BloodRayne 2. He was the Lead Artist on Fallout 76 and the Co-Lead/Lead Artist on the Fallout 3 DLC, Point Lookout.

Release date: Oct 22, 2024

Categories: Open-World Exploration, Stealth Gameplay, Survival Horror, Action RPG, Hunting, Bow Combat, Supernatural Abilities, Dynamic Diary System

Feature scans:
- Steam Deck: score 40; verdict: Good with Minor Issues; summary: The analysis of user feedback for the Steam Deck experience reveals several key points. Notably, there are significant concerns about battery drain, with users reporting the need to recharge after just an hour of gameplay. However, the game's performance on the Steam Deck is generally praised, with users experiencing good frame rates and overall positive performance. Control issues were also noted, with some users finding the controls to be imprecise and better suited for a controller rather than mouse and keyboard.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $5.00 - $10.00
  - Reasoning: The evidence suggests that users find the game overpriced at its current base price of $24.99. Many users recommend waiting for significant discounts of 60% or more, indicating that they believe the fair price is much lower. One user explicitly mentions that even at a 60% discount, the game was not worth it, implying that the fair price should be below $9.99 (60% off $24.99). Another user mentions getting the game on sale for $22.49 and still finding it not worth the price, further supporting the idea that the fair price should be lower.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 33.0h
  - Story completion: 8.0h
  - Session length: 2.0h
  - Endgame: 7.0h
  - Reasoning: The evidence provides several data points about playtime. One user mentions potentially 20-30 hours of gameplay for completionists, while another user reports 33 hours for near-full completion. Another user played for 46 hours, indicating a high level of engagement and potentially extensive exploration or repeated sessions. Finally, another user finished the game after 26 hours but still had more to uncover, suggesting additional endgame content.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game starts fun with an engaging tutorial but has early friction due to missing mechanics. Fun increases significantly after gaining abilities and upgrades, enhancing exploration and progression.
  - Stance: Fun then drops
  - Anchor: Gaining abilities and upgrades
  - Time to anchor: 1h 0m
  - Friction: lack of clear direction; steep learning curve; early game mechanics feel unsatisfying
  - Unlock drivers: gaining new abilities; receiving upgrades
  - Conditions: exploration; character power growth
- Player Archetypes:
  - Old-School Hunter (buy)
    - Motivation: Mastery of hunting mechanics and immersion in the game world.
    - Playstyle: Focused on stealth, archery, and understanding prey behavior.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: old-school player; hunting enthusiast
    - Reference games: Skyrim; Firewatch
  - Indie Supporter (buy)
    - Motivation: Supporting indie developers and appreciating their unique visions.
    - Playstyle: Varied, but generally supportive and forgiving of minor flaws.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: indie fan; supporter of solo devs
    - Reference games: Skyrim; Fallout
  - Lore Explorer (sale)
    - Motivation: Exploration and immersion in the game's lore and world.
    - Playstyle: Focused on exploration, discovery, and engaging with the game's narrative.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: lore enthusiast; explorer
    - Reference games: Oblivion; Skyrim


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Excellent atmosphere and music (weight 0.63): The game's atmosphere is highly praised, with players enjoying the excellent musical and sound accompaniment. The visual style and atmosphere are considered superb.
- Fun and engaging gameplay (weight 0.56): The gameplay is frequently described as fun, immersive, and addictive. Players appreciate the detailed gameplay tips and the overall focus on engaging mechanics.
- Unique creature and enemy designs (weight 0.49): The game features unique and creative creature and enemy designs. Players appreciate the variety in monster designs and mechanics, which require different tactics to beat.
- Reward exploration and discovery (weight 0.46): The game encourages exploration, which is found to be remarkably rewarding. Players enjoy discovering new spells, special arrows, and other collectibles.
- Beautiful and varied environments (weight 0.32): The game is praised for its beautiful and diverse environments. Players enjoy the stunning landscapes and scenery.
- Effective progression system (weight 0.31): The game has a good progression system that keeps players motivated. Upgrades and power-ups have a significant impact on gameplay.
- Impressive solo development (weight 0.25): Players are impressed by the fact that the game is developed by a single person. The passion and effort put into the game by the solo developer are highly appreciated.
- Deeply immersive experience (weight 0.24): The game offers a deeply immersive atmosphere and gameplay. Players find themselves deeply immersed in the vast and evocative world.
- Adjustable difficulty settings (weight 0.16): The game offers a range of difficulty settings, including a pacifist mode. This allows players to tailor the gameplay experience to their preferences.
- Unique and spooky setting (weight 0.16): The game features a unique and spooky setting with elements of magic and beautiful vistas. This setting is highly praised by players.
- Interesting lore and journals (weight 0.16): Players find the NPC journals and lore entries interesting. These elements add depth to the game's world and story.
- Responsive developer (weight 0.16): The developer is noted for being responsive and involved with the community. This responsiveness is appreciated by the players.

Common complaints:
- Performance and optimization issues (weight 0.65): The game suffers from significant performance problems, including bad frame rates, poor optimization, and frequent FPS drops. These issues are prevalent across various clusters, indicating a widespread concern among players.
- Lack of enemy variety and intelligence (weight 0.61): Enemies in the game lack variety in behavior and intelligence, making combat repetitive and unengaging. Players note that enemies often behave similarly and do not react consistently to in-game events.
- Inadequate navigation and guidance (weight 0.49): The game lacks proper navigation tools such as a usable map or compass, leading to confusion and frustration among players. The poor in-game guidance and unclear tutorials exacerbate this issue.
- Graphical and visual issues (weight 0.38): The game has various graphical issues, including rough visuals, janky animations, and inconsistent lighting. These problems detract from the overall visual experience.
- Repetitive gameplay and combat (weight 0.32): Gameplay and combat mechanics are repetitive, leading to a lack of engagement and boredom. This repetitiveness extends to the music and overall gameplay experience.
- Slow pace and frustrating mechanics (weight 0.29): The game is criticized for its slow pace and frustrating mechanics, including monster spawn mechanics and overly aggressive monsters.
- Empty and unengaging world (weight 0.24): The game world is described as empty and vast, with large areas lacking content or interaction. This emptiness makes the gameplay experience feel tedious and unengaging.
- Lack of environmental interaction (weight 0.2): Creatures in the game lack interaction with their environment, making the world feel disconnected and unrealistic. This issue contributes to the overall lack of immersion.
- Unclear game mechanics (weight 0.11): The game mechanics are unclear and inadequately explained, leading to confusion among players. This lack of clarity affects the overall gameplay experience.
- Misleading genre representation (weight 0.11): The game is criticized for not living up to its claimed genre of being a heavy metal horror game, leading to disappointment among players expecting a different experience.

Gameplay feedback:
- Inconsistent enemy behavior (weight 0.61): Enemies exhibit inconsistent behaviors, such as running away when injured or not reacting to attacks. Some enemies lack death animations and health bars, making combat feel unpredictable and sometimes frustrating.
- Stealth and immersive gameplay (weight 0.35): The game features stealth-based mechanics and an immersive atmosphere, providing a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
- Variety of enemy types (weight 0.35): The game includes a variety of enemy types, each requiring different strategies to defeat, adding depth and challenge to the combat mechanics.
- Hunting and survival mechanics (weight 0.35): The game satisfies the hunting game loop of a survival game, with mechanics focused on hunting and survival, providing a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
- Bow-centered combat (weight 0.34): Combat in the game primarily revolves around using a bow, with additional mechanics for knife combat, making it a first-person shooter with a focus on archery.
- Unique HUD design (weight 0.33): The game features a unique, minimalistic HUD system that integrates with in-world objects, such as the player character's tattoos and notches on the bow, rather than using a traditional HUD or mini-map.
- Open-world exploration (weight 0.3): The game offers an open-world environment with a large map, allowing players to explore and go wherever they want, emphasizing open-world gameplay and fantasy elements.
- Audio and environmental cues (weight 0.27): Players use audio and environmental cues for tracking creatures and navigating the world, adding a layer of realism and immersion to the gameplay.
- Hunting supernatural creatures (weight 0.24): Players hunt supernatural and folklore-based monsters, adding a unique theme and challenge to the gameplay.
- Variety of arrow types (weight 0.2): The game includes different types of arrows, each with unique attributes, allowing for varied combat strategies and gameplay experiences.
- Supernatural abilities (weight 0.16): The game features supernatural abilities and magic powers, providing players with unique powers and enhancing the gameplay experience.
- Abstract world-building (weight 0.16): The game features abstract world-building and world design, creating a unique and immersive environment for players to explore.
- Metal and folklore themes (weight 0.15): The game combines metal, folklore, and alternative themes, creating a unique atmosphere and setting for players to enjoy.
- Slow start and lack of direction (weight 0.11): The game has a slow start and lacks clear indications of where players are supposed to go or what they are supposed to do, leading to a sense of aimlessness and frustration for some players.
- No hand-holding (weight 0.11): The game features no hand-holding, requiring players to navigate and explore without explicit guidance, which can be challenging but also rewarding.
- Dynamic diary system (weight 0.1): The game features a dynamic diary system that fills with new information as players progress, although some records may remain incomplete.
- Interactive tutorial and tooltips (weight 0.1): The game includes an interactive tutorial and tooltips to help players understand the mechanics and navigate the world, providing guidance and support.

Performance notes:
- Performance and optimization issues (weight 0.97): Many players report poor optimization, performance issues, and frame rate drops. These issues are prevalent across various hardware, including high-end systems and Steam Deck.
- Graphics and visual quality (weight 0.35): Players mention graphics issues, poor visual quality on certain systems, and the need to lower graphics settings to improve performance. Some players appreciate the graphics but have to disable them for better FPS.
- Game crashes and stability (weight 0.33): Several players experience game crashes and stability issues. These crashes occur in various scenarios, including during gameplay and loading screens.
- Inconsistent frame rates (weight 0.24): Players experience inconsistent frame rates, with some areas running better or worse than others. This includes low FPS in certain areas and occasional freezing.
- Animation and movement issues (weight 0.2): There are reports of janky animations and movements, including enemy creatures running upside down on walls and glitching through each other.
- Positive performance feedback (weight 0.19): Some players report excellent performance and stability on certain platforms like Steam Deck and Linux PC.
- Specific bugs and glitches (weight 0.15): There are mentions of specific bugs such as random teleportation, rough transitions, and trees disappearing in the distance.

Recommendations:
- Highly recommended game (weight 0.08): Many players highly recommend the game, indicating a strong positive reception and satisfaction with the overall experience.
- Improve gameplay mechanics (weight 0.07): Players are requesting enhancements to the physics and movement systems to make the game feel more responsive and realistic.
- Enhance monster variety (weight 0.07): There is a desire for more unique behaviors in monsters to increase the challenge and unpredictability of encounters.
- Simplify UI design (weight 0.07): Feedback indicates a preference for a more conventional and intuitive user interface to improve user experience.
- Quick-select for arrows (weight 0.07): A quick-select wheel for different types of arrows is requested to streamline combat and make it more efficient.
- Art direction feedback (weight 0.06): Some players are suggesting that the art direction should be even more unusual or distinctive to stand out.
- Support for sequels (weight 0.06): There is interest in the game supporting a sequel or a spiritual successor to continue the story or gameplay experience.

Other player notes:
No miscpoints

Emotions:
- Excitement (weight 0.16): Players are thrilled by the game's unique atmosphere, challenging gameplay, and the enjoyment of exploring a richly designed world. The combination of immersive scenery, engaging mechanics like hunting and stealth, and the active development by the creators contribute to this excitement.
- Frustration (weight 0.14): Players are frustrated primarily due to technical issues, poor optimization, and a steep learning curve. Additional causes include unclear game mechanics, lack of direction, and developer behavior, which collectively hinder the gaming experience.
- Disappointment (weight 0.13): Players feel disappointed because the game fails to meet their expectations due to technical issues, poor optimization, and unfulfilled potential. The execution of the game's concept is often seen as lacking, leading to an unsatisfactory experience.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.09): Players enjoy the game's fun gameplay, world-building, and the unique atmosphere created by the landscapes, music, and combat. The exploration and discovery of new zones, along with the game's design, contribute to a positive experience.
- Frustrated (weight 0.07): Players are frustrated by the game's repetitive and tedious mechanics, broken mechanics, and severe bugs. Issues such as lack of tutorials, optimization problems, and combat limitations add to the frustration.
- Satisfied (weight 0.05): Players are satisfied with the game's unique and captivating atmosphere, as well as the blend of tranquil and terrifying elements. The satisfying combat and overall positive experience contribute to their satisfaction.
- Admiration (weight 0.04): Players admire the game's unique atmosphere, detailed features, and the effort put in by the solo developer. The game's graphics, sound, world design, and combat system are particularly praised.
- Excited (weight 0.04): Players are excited about the game's features and the developer's involvement. The game's vast world and the unique identity created by the solo developer's work generate a sense of anticipation and enthusiasm.
- Disappointed (weight 0.03): Players are disappointed due to the game's unfinished state, poor quality, and lack of variety. Poor creature animations and shallow gameplay despite charming art contribute to this sentiment.
- Impressed (weight 0.03): Players are impressed by the work of the solo developer and the amount of content created. The game's atmosphere, tension, attention to detail, and passion are particularly noteworthy.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.03): Players feel satisfied with the enjoyable and unique experience offered by the game. Exploring the world, minimalistic HUD, music, and spirit arrows mechanic contribute to this satisfaction.
- Fear (weight 0.03): Players experience fear due to the game's terrifying monsters and eerie environments. Dark areas with unseen creatures add to the sense of dread and anxiety.
- Immersed (weight 0.02): Players feel immersed in the game's atmosphere and unique in-game elements. The sound design and overall ambiance contribute to a deeply engaging experience.
- Love (weight 0.01): Players love the game's environment, gameplay, and monsters. The combination of these elements creates a compelling and enjoyable experience.}