Former long-time Bethesda developer Nate Purkeypile says his new “heavy metal open-world horror game” is five times the size of Skyrim and, in doing so, is based on an iconic Todd Howard moment.
The Axis Unseen first came to our attention in 2022, when Purkeypile revealed that he was leaving a caravan at the time. It's not that it's not getting attention on its own merits, but the Purkeypile name has definitely given the project quite a bit of prestige. Purkeypile was an artist at Bethesda Game Studios from 2007 to 2021, with his most recent credit being lead lighting artist on Starfield. He was also a world artist on Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, as well as a lead artist on Fallout 76.
“My solo indie game world is five times bigger than Skyrim,” Purkeypile said in a tweet. “See that mountain there? You can go there,” he added, referencing a classic Todd Howard meme that originated in a Skyrim presentation at QuakeCon 2011 in which he said “you can walk to the top of that mountain.”
Explaining the need for such a large game world, Purkeypile said that The Axis Unseen “is a hunting game with huge creatures, so it needs a lot of space. I tried something smaller and it felt horrible.”
The world of my indie solo game is about five times the size of Skyrim. Do you see that mountain over there? You can go there It's a hunting game with huge creatures, so it needs a lot of space. I tried something smaller and felt terrible Demo is now available! Wishlist The Axis Unseen on Steam pic.twitter.com/cAtTgA8aJ6October 4, 2024
While “heavy metal horror game” is undoubtedly a strong elevator pitch, it doesn't really sell the entire package in the case of The Axis Unseen. Here you have a kind of open world hunting game where you track down creatures from folklore, kill them, and absorb their elemental powers and arrows. The heavy metal part comes from a score composed by Clifford Meyer, formerly a member of the legendary post-metal bands ISIS and Red Sparowes. “The music dynamically adjusts to what's happening in the game,” the Steam description reads. “Sometimes it's atmospheric, other times it's intense metal.”
The game just received a demo on Steam and will be released for PC on October 22.
Only time will tell if he joins the ranks of the best open world games to play today.