With several interesting indie releases under their belt, Wales Interactive have established themselves as one of the weird and wonderful devs worth keeping an eye on. Master Reboot was an odd-ball psychedelic romp, and now it’s spiritual successor, Soul Axiom, is available on early access.

In case you missed it, Master Reboot told the story of a sinister social network in which the memories of the deceased can be uploaded to the ‘soul cloud’. The surviving families can then relive the memories whenever they please.

Soul Axiom tells the same story, more or less. Once again, a blank-slate protagonist finds himself stumbling around an incomprehensible sci-fi world haunted by an apparently malfunctioning security system and a songbird-esque spectre.

Soul Axiom begins with the main character appearing on a ship in the midst of an electronic storm, and I was immediately stunned by just how pretty the game is. Master Reboot might not have had the best graphics, but its outstanding visual design did more for it than fancy engines ever could. With Soul Axiom, Wales Interactive have simply polished its distinctive aesthetic style, and the result is a joy to behold.

Again like Master Reboot, the game features a hub-based system in which ‘memories’ are accessed. With the segmented level design, Wales Interactive gave themselves a license to create whatever kind of environment they wanted. As a result, the levels vary wildly and add colour and vitality to the game’s bleak, futuristic backdrop.

With no real combat, Soul Axiom has to rely on its puzzles to fill the meat of its runtime. It uses some interesting mechanics to keep things intriguing, such as several plasmid-style powers, including the ability make certain specific objects lose their solidity.

But despite the unbridled imagination clearly fuelling Soul Axiom’s level design, the gameplay feels disappointedly formulaic. Each level has a queue of puzzles, and although there’s a few nice ideas on show, many feel like they’ve been done before. After all, we’ve all manipulated water pipes in video games before. The gameplay is perfectly enjoyable and well-executed, it just doesn’t live up to the surreality of the game.

Whilst the environments are a joy to behold, they are detrimental to the gameplay. The game demands exploration, as the levels are often vast and sparse, and it can be frustrating having to comb through a level for the fourth time because you didn’t notice the one object you can use your powers to interact with because it was lost behind all the extraneous detail.

Fortunately, the frustration is abated by the fact that the levels in Soul Axiom are varied enough that most players won’t mind putting in a little extra legwork. The puzzles, when they are finally found, provide enough of a challenge to make it all worth while.

The key difference between this game and Master Reboot is that Soul Axiom isn’t a horror game. Rather than attempting to unsettle, it creates a muted tone with its soft, subtle soundtrack that actually makes the game rather relaxing to play.

However, Soul Axiom misses its predecessor’s tension and drive. The horror was an essential aspect, and Wales Interactive took it away but didn’t replace it with anything. Subsequently, at times it feels lacking in direction, but that could be because I spent my entire time playing the game waiting for a scare that never came.

The game is still in early access, so it’s possible that all manner of tweaks and additions are being made, but for what it’s worth, aside from the odd frame-rate drop the game was bug-free. It’s a refreshing example of an early access game that justifies its price-tag.

I realise I’ve probably mentioned Master Reboot too much, but it’s difficult not to when Soul Axiom is so similar. Wales Interactive clearly have a blueprint, and it’s produced another interesting indie game. While it might not live up to its predecessor (despite its flaws, it surprisingly remains one of my favourite indie games of all time), Soul Axiom is still a good game. It’s still imaginative and offers something unique, and it’s weird enough that it’s still worth celebrating.

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