Axiom Verge, released in 2015, is a 2D Metroidvania centered around the protagonist Trace, a scientist who finds himself on the world of Sudra after an experiment gone wrong, separated from Earth by a deadly void called the Breach. When Trace arrives on Sudra he finds its civilization collapsed due to the release of a deadly pathogen in the act of biological warfare. With the help of the Rusalki — giant war machines that guard this world — Trace has to uncover the truth behind the fall of Sudra, confront the perpetrator behind it, and return back to his home world across the Breach.
Axiom Verge takes heavy inspiration from early Metroid games and some other platformers of the era and employs a number of unconventional storytelling and gameplay design decisions, and is all-around well-polished. If you enjoy action platformers or exploration-driven games with a solid sci-fi plot, playing through the game before watching the TAS is highly recommended so that the latter 1/4 of it (and especially the 4th boss, Vision) become easier to comprehend.
keylie improves the previous TAS by almost 3 minutes thanks to getting the grappling hook, better optimisation, and skipping one of the bosses. He completes the game's speedrun mode (which shows an in-game timer and disables all cutscenes) in 25:09.24 by the in-game timer, picking up 15% of items.
Boss times: 02:26.52 (Xedur), 05:39.08 (Telal), 11:02.19 (Uruku), 18:20.54 (Vision), 20:23.42 (Ukhu).
Boss times: 02:26.52 (Xedur), 05:39.08 (Telal), 11:02.19 (Uruku), 18:20.54 (Vision), 20:23.42 (Ukhu).